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Comment by wishinghand | Hacker News Reader

My personal answer to "how many guitars do you need?" is basically one for each tuning that I use regularly. Unless it's simply changing one string from E to D, re-tuning a whole guitar is a pain in the ass and just being able to swap guitars is a lot nicer. I have one for standard tuning, one tuned like a cello, and one in open D-minor.

I do admit if you're playing a bass guitar this rule isn't as applicable.

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My dad loves to tell a story about a Q&A session with Norm Abram of PBS [Edit: This Old House, New Yankee Workshop] fame, which your answer reminds me of. Why does Norm own an entire drawer full of routers?

Well, he used to ask himself the same question. All these companies kept giving him free tools as a promotion. Especially routers. He had dozens of them. WTF do I need all these routers for?

It occurred to him that if at the start of a project you put a bit into a router and don't touch it until the end of the project, all of your routed edges will match exactly. Even if you screw up and have to redo a piece. So he kept enough routers to do that. He still gets teased about it by his coworkers though.

Took me a bit to figure out you weren't talking about a guy with dozens of network devices.

Heh, sorry about that. Putting bits in a router? What does it mean?!

He must have a huge shop to just have dozens of routers lying around.

Hey, I also have one of my guitars tuned in fifth ~like a cello From low to high CGDAAe, with custom gauge strings to match the neck tension. One A is wound, the other is full...

How did you tune yours exactly?

CGDAEE. I like the ringing unison of the highest E. I also have a piecemeal set of strings for tensions as well, starting with what I think is a .062 for the low C, and a .010 for the high Es.

How do you do the cello tuning? Assuming you're not using a tenor guitar, it's CGDA on the lowest four, then do you just keep going up in 5ths to EB for the last two strings or do something else?

Not GP, but I also have a guitar tuned in fifths.

A high `B` string wouldn't last 10 minutes... I've seen schemes that have a G there, I went for two CGDAAE, which is not too hard a change from the usual guitar tuning (though I ultimately dedicated a guitar to that tuning, as did the GP).

I go for double high E strings. CGDAEE. The ringing unison is pleasurable to me and my hands are large enough to finger minor and major thirds easily.

Check out Gibson Les Paul Robot :)

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