So, a few weeks ago, my wife in her infinite beauty and grace allowed me to buy an Ibanez 7-string guitar. That makes a total of seven guitars. My fingertips are happy.

I got the 7-string so I could have an electric exclusively dedicated to alternate tunings.  I’ve played a Fender Tex-Mex strat with a Floyd Rose Floating Tremolo for almost ten years. That makes alternate tunings on an electric pretty much impossible for me, which means my acoustics have all the fun. The Ibanez doesn’t have a Floyd Rose.

Here’s the progression of tunings I’ve played with. (the standard guitar tuning is EADGBE).

First, there was drop D: DADGBE . A good start, not enough fun.

Then I started Drop D/A: DGDGBE . That’s better.

Next, the super bassy tuning: CGDGBE. A lot of fun if you have thick strings and want a good folk sound.

Finally, a way to break strings: DBDGBE and CBDGBE. Use if you want to sound like John Mayer when playing Neon.

Then, mix and match with capos. But who says you have to use capos traditionally?  (Where I underline, those are the strings the capo covered):

• DGDGBE: 4th fret
• DGDGBE: 7th fret
• DGDGBE: 7th fret
• CGDGBD:4th fret
• CGDGBD: 5th fret

So, that leads me to the seven-string, and the video below. I went on the googles, looking for 7-string tuning, and I learned that the 7-string guitar is common in Russian folk music, and that it has a Russian tuning: DGBDGBD

Now, if you’ve been paying attention, that tuning is strikingly similar to several I’ve already been playing with. Ergo, the video below. With a little bit o’ practice, I was even able to get the hang of the blues scale in this, but you’ll never see me play the blues for YouTube…