Blind Willie McTell
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During his early recording career until his 1940 Library of Congress recordings, McTell
tuned anywhere from C sharp to A. It's impossible to know exactly what strings he might
have used, but based on his recordings, he seems to have favored a setup with a third
course tuned in octaves. Here are some recommended string guages, based on the Fraulini
Setup as a starting point:
course 1: .013/.013
The first and second courses are tuned in unison pairs, the third, fourth, fifth and sixth course pairs are one octave apart. |
From 1940 on, McTell tuned generally to A and occasionally lower. In addition, he added an
octave to the second course.
Frank Basile
suggested the following strings:
course 1: .013/.013
The first course is tuned as a unison pair, the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth course pairs are one octave apart. One of the distinctive features of McTell's guitar sound is that he tended to tune very low. If you were interested in tuning as low as A on a regular basis, you might consider the following setup:
course 1: .014/.014
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