- With regard to Standard Tuning, it's standard for a reason. If it weren't very versatile and useful, it wouldn't be the standard. Chords are incredibly easy with Standard Tuning. Changing the high e to an F makes bar chords hella more difficult. Plain old major/minor/7th

- I've found only three alternate tunings useful so far... The first one is drop D. Most bar/upper register chords are still easy to play, but it's sometimes harder to catch the bass note with bar chords, but you have a bass player for this, so it doesn't really matter. The point is, the drop D can allow a drone for songs in D or a deep bass note for chords with a D in the bass. Too much lower than D and you hvvae to raise your action, the sound becomes muddled, or you might as well play the bass (unless, of course, you're going for the deep, dark metal sound). This tuning also makes power chords a lot easier.
- The second one is dropping the A string to a G, making the tuning, E, G, D, G, B, E. First off, this is an open Em7. Secondly, I was goofing off while wanking during a jam session and came up with a really cool little riff on one string... well, I aded a power chord to the bottom of this riff and it became a sweet rhythm. However it was really hard to play, so I dropped the A to a G and it worked perfectly. Dropping the A to a G is kind of like dropping your E to a D for ease of playing power chords, but you play the powerchords with a root on the A string with this tuning.
- The third and final tuning, perhaps my favorite after standard tuning, is DADGAD. Drop both E strings to a D, and drop the B string to an A. This is an open Dsus4 chord. I've written a couple cool rhythms with this tuning. Some neat tricks - A normal fretted D major chord in standard tuning = a Dm9 in DADGAD. You're playing x, x, 0, 2, 3, 2, which in DADGAD = x, x, D, A, C, E. Another cool thing is not only do complex chords have familiar shapes, but also you can go into some heavy riffage on the bottom three strings which are just like if you were playing in drop d.

After a lot of thought, I decided alternate tunings are cool, but I've learned so much about scale patterns and chords that I need to stay with standard tuning... if I were to switch it would take me years to undo my learning and reprogram myself... I can only solo on single strings in DADGAD :) ... another reason that I pretty much only use standard tuning and DADGAD is that who wants to tune their guitar differently for every song they play? I have three guitars, one electric and one acoustic I keep in Standard tuning, and my other electric I keep in DADGAD. Any mroe tunings and I'd have to go shopping...