The open tuning I used in "Big Sur" a tribute to Crosby Stills & Nash, is derived from the one used in "Suite Judy Blue Eyes" therefore : EE, EE (an octave over), BE (like on a normal guitar).
The fact that there's no third, gives this tuning a modal impression. Crosby & Stills favored these thirdless chords. Crosby in "Music is Love" is tuned DADDAD, Stills in "4+20" & in "Bluesman" with Manassas is tuned in both situations EbEbEbEbBbEb, 1/2 tone below Judy Blue Eyes.
All the strings resonating reminds us of sympathetic chords & drones, much like certain oriental instruments like the Central Asian Tar or the Northern Indian Sitar. An historical note reminds us that the word "Tar" that one finds in guitar, sitar, setar, dotar simply means "string".
The 60's were greatly influenced by the Indian culture and it's gurus. Through these tunings CSN found a way to emulate a sound made popular by the Beatles & Ravi Shankar without the hassle of learning a new instrument and a different musical system based on microtonalities. (The sitar much like the tar, the saz and a lot of eastern instruments, has movable frets that the musician adjusts according to the indian raggas or oriental maquams he needs to play).
The octave is divided into more than the 12 half-tones we usually use in western cultures, which allows to play micro-tones that are typical of this style of music. The guitar with it's 12 fixed frets just won't allow these subtleties.
The Coral guitar-sitar of the 60's, reproduced since by Jerry Jones, is simply an electric guitar with additional sympathetic chords, enhanced with the "buzz" sound created by the flat bridge.
In France Team Laser, known for their apocolyptic electric guitar combats, takes a new approach. By modifying the neck of an acoustic guitar with it's scalloped frets, a bit like the "scallopped" frets played by Mac Laughlin during the Shatki period or more recently with Malsteem, allows impressive bends, up a 5th. The number of strings is reduced to 3, that I tune DAD.
Team Laser has refined every detail by using flat ivory bridges and fine threads like sowing threads, set where the chord comes in contact with the bridge in order to regulate the "buzz". It's "home-made" but the effect is quite authentic. Just add some light strings and be ready for a creative approach. So if you have an old guitar hanging around the house, you might want to give it a Team Laser treatment, revamping it into a brand new Guitar-Sitar !
