I get asked about open tunings more than almost anything else at the shop table, usually by someone who heard a slide part on a record and wants that sound now. Fair enough. Open tunings are one of the fastest ways to make a guitar sound like a different instrument without spending a dime. But there’s a right way to ease into it, and a way that leaves your neck bowed and your strings buzzing by Tuesday. Here’s what I actually tell people.
1. Start with open G, and learn it the way the pros who made it famous play it. The classic voicing is D-G-D-G-B-D low to high, which spells out a G major chord straight across the open strings. In open G, the strings would normally be tuned to D-G-D-G-B-D, the three notes in a G chord. Keith Richards is the reason half the players I know even tried this tuning, and he famously stripped it down further by pulling the low sixth string off entirely on the five-string Telecaster he calls Micawber. You don’t need to go that far on day one. Just get the six strings into DGDGBD, strum it open, and listen to how much rings out compared to standard tuning.
2. Check your string tension before you commit, not after something snaps. Dropping the low E down to D and the A down to G slackens those strings noticeably, and a slack string buzzes against the frets and feels mushy under a slide. D’Addario has a free online tool for exactly this problem. Start by selecting your instrument, then enter key details like scale length, tuning, and string gauges, and the calculator instantly shows the tension of each string, so you can compare what standard tuning versus open G actually does to each string before you touch a tuning peg.
3. Bump your gauge up one step if you’re tuning down. If you normally run a .010-.046 set like an Ernie Ball Regular Slinky, move to an .011-.052 set such as the Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky or D’Addario EXP11 for open G or open D. That extra thickness makes up for the tension you lose from detuning, keeps the strings from flopping around under slide pressure, and cuts down on the fret buzz that makes new players think something is wrong with the guitar. If you’re using a plain third string in standard tuning, consider switching to a wound third once you drop to open D, since a plain string tuned down that far tends to sound dead and thuddy under a slide compared to its wound counterpart.
4. Expect the neck relief to shift, even a little, and recheck it. Changing the pitch of all six strings changes the net pull on the neck. On a bolt-on with a two-way truss rod, this is usually a quarter turn at most, not a full overhaul. I check relief with a capo at the first fret and a feeler gauge at the eighth, same as I would after any string change, and adjust from there rather than guessing.
5. Keep a cheap second guitar dedicated to open tunings instead of retuning your main one back and forth. Constant tension swings are what age a guitar’s neck and hardware fastest. A used Squier or Epiphone in the $150-$250 range does the job fine here, since you’re not chasing tone so much as freedom to leave it in DGDGBD for weeks while you learn the shapes. One thing worth flagging: skip anything with a locking tremolo, like a Floyd Rose-equipped guitar, for this role. Those systems balance string tension against spring tension under the bridge, so detuning even one string throws the whole thing out of level and turns a simple retune into a spring and intonation project. A hardtail or a guitar with a basic vintage-style trem avoids that headache entirely.
6. Once the tuning feels natural, try a capo instead of a fifth or sixth guitar. Capo the second fret over open G and you’ve got open A without touching a single tuning peg, which is the trick a lot of slide players lean on to match a singer’s key without retuning mid-set. Just know that a capo higher up the neck can pull the strings sharp if it’s clamped too hard, so check your intonation at the twelfth fret after you put it on, especially with a capo that has a lot of squeeze to it.
Once you’ve got open G under your fingers, open D (D-A-D-F#-A-D) is worth trying next, since it’s the tuning behind a lot of Delta blues slide playing and shares a similar logic. Take your time with one tuning before adding a second. The point isn’t collecting tunings, it’s learning what your hands do differently when the open strings already form a chord.
