Nashville tuning (high strung)
Nashville or high-strung tuning refers to the practice of replacing the wound E, A, D and G strings on a six-string guitar with lighter gauge strings to allow tuning an octave higher than standard.[1] This is usually achieved by using one string from each of the six courses of a twelve-string set, using the higher string for those courses tuned in octaves.
This article is about a tuning for six-string guitar. For the steel guitar tuning, see E9 tuning.
The Pink Floyd song "Hey You" from the album The Wall and the Kansas song "Dust in the Wind"[2] from their Point of Know Return album use this form of guitar tuning. In "Hey You", David Gilmour replaced the low E string with a second high E (not a 12-string set, low E's octave string) such that it was two octaves up. The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" features a 12-string guitar played by Keith Richards and a guitar with Nashville tuning played by Mick Taylor. "Jumpin' Jack Flash" featured two acoustic guitars, one Nashville strung, overdriven through a cassette recorder.[3] James Williamson used Nashville tuning on "Gimme Danger"[4] on Raw Power by the Stooges. Elliott Smith used a variant of Nashville tuning with a twelve-string guitar on XO for the song "Tomorrow Tomorrow."[5] Pat Metheny is known for using Nashville tuning on several occasions, notably his song "Phase Dance" from his group's debut album.[6][7] Similarly, Andy Fairweather Low used a high-strung guitar on his 1975 UK hit single "Wide Eyed and Legless", taken from his La Booga Rooga album.[8][9]
Other songs featuring the tuning include: