Last Man Standing - guitar tuning??
 

Hi

I'm a huge jovi fan and "always" have been. Cant believe I've never stumbled on this forum before !!

Anyhoo, I'm also a guitar player/song writer. Richie is my all time guitar idol.

Down to business - I'm trying to figure out how to play the Last Man Standing intro riff.

I've got the basics figured out but am now a little stuck. I think the riff melody is played mostly on the G and B strings, alternating with bass "chug" notes on the D string. However the chug notes sound as an open E on the record. Thus I think Richie is using a different tuning. My best guess is that Richie is using standard tuning with a capo on the 2nd fret.

Any thoughts?

Apologies if I'm posting in the wrong area !!

Yep, that's the way he plays it. Just watch the live videos.

http://www.freezezone.com/msgboard/viewtopic.php?t=383

Ice

i heard he did use a capo to play it

The way I play it is in Drop D with a capo at 2nd fret and I think I read somewhere that's how Richie has it tuned too. It helps when trying to get that low E played during the solo. Otherwise, the lowest note you can get with a capo in standard tuning would be an F#.

Richie changes the guitar for the solo.

Ice

Fair enough, I can't say otherwise without looking (although from memory, I've never seen him change guitar whilst playing the song - although he never plays the album solo live) but the only way to play it the way you hear on the album with one guitar is in drop D with a capo at 2nd fret. ;)

Good question.

He plays it two steps below standard tuning, so instead of the top string being E, it would be D. He uses drop d (all strings dropped) and a cappo on the second fret, so he pretty much is still playing on standard. He only does that with "The Beater" though, I found a vid of him playing his FR using no cappo.
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STROKE ADVICE

Regular tuning, not dropped-D, you can see it in the way he plays the chords. The solo is different as well.

Ice

Okay - lots of different opinions here. However, I've tried them all out and IMHO I think RS8MB0R8 is correct; dropped D (DADGBE) with capo on 2nd.

This is very similar to Iceman's suggestion of using standard tuning but dropped D (with capo) has the advantage of the low E which you can hear sounding in the live videos.

RS8MBOR8 - thanks! Tried it and it work fine. Chording matches with the video linked by Iceman.

With regard to Sambora playing it with a Floyd guitar (see you tube - Bon Jovi Amsterdam 9/16/2005 - Last Man Standing). I just watched this video and I think the band are playing it in Dm - negating the need for a different tuning. Check you the first chorus - richie plays F - C - Gm. Camera cut to Hugh who also plays F on the next chorus line.

Anyhoo - cheers for all you help !!

RyUK.

Ps. What about the HAVE A NICE DAY tuning??? Any ideas??

To be honest, the Amsterdam performance is a terrible refrence point, it was nearly the first time they did it live and was heavily changed in time for the tour.

I gotta go with Ice on this. The guitar is standard with a capo on the 2nd fret. The only way to hit that low E note is to tune to D and then capo or just stay in Standard for the solo. There's no way he plays it in drop D, it's standard, look at his hands. He doesn't play the solo note for note and therefore really has no need to go to drop D.

I recall him just modifying that part and just playing that run an octave up, but I can't be sure.