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Author
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Topic: Sebastopol?
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Rick Schmidt
Member From: Carlsbad, CA. USA
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posted 25 August 2002 10:08 AM
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Just curious....I've seen the word "Sebastopol" many times in the past with regards to a steel guitar tuning. I was just wondering what it is & what did it's name derive from? [This message was edited by Rick Schmidt on 25 August 2002 at 10:11 AM.] |
Brad Bechtel
Moderator From: San Francisco, CA
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posted 25 August 2002 01:09 PM
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The term "Sebastopol tuning" refers to open D tuning (bass to treble D A D F# A D) and is named that after an old time popular song which can be played using that tuning.
See this web page for more information.
You can also see this referred to as "Vestapol" tuning, and even see it referring to open E tuning (E B E G# B E).------------------
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Rick Schmidt
Member From: Carlsbad, CA. USA
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posted 25 August 2002 01:27 PM
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Thanks Brad...now I feel more informed!  |
mikey
Member From: Hawaii, Big Island
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posted 25 August 2002 01:56 PM
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I know most people call open D "Sebastopol", but I was taught somewhere down the line that Sebastopol is really the Celtic tuning of DADGAD(That's what the guy in Ireland told me anyway)...so it's not a Major open tuning it's actually a modal fingerpicking tuning..like a Dsus4 or add4 or something...I think I only used it once or twice before discarding it because I can fingerpick better in Standard and I think I learned like 1 or 2 Traditional Celtic tunes that fell by the wayside in that tuning...BUT...I could be completely wrong and DADGAD is called something else entirely!
Mike |
Andy Volk
Member From: Boston, MA
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posted 25 August 2002 05:00 PM
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From all that I've read, Brad is 100% right in his explanation of Sebastapol tuning. DADGAD was an offshoot of an E-based tuning developed in the mid 1960's by the Brittish fingerpicker, Davey Grahm. Davey came up with the tuning as a result of his trying to play with Middle Eastern musicians and it later came to be adapted by people like Martin Carthy & Nick Jones, in England as well as a host of Irish pickers.[This message was edited by Andy Volk on 25 August 2002 at 05:01 PM.] |
Stephen Gambrell
Member From: Ware Shoals, South Carolina, USA
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posted 25 August 2002 05:20 PM
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DADGAD has been around for a long time, I think. I've heard Bert Jansch using it on REAL old stuff(Where is he now, anyway?)and it must be used for some Celtic tunes, for the open string drones. Remember, that stuff is more about the tune, than the chord changes. And remember Jimmy Page doing "Black Mountainside?" It's a fun, but bastardized tuning. Vastapol works real good for blues slide on 6-string, since you've got root&5 on the two low strings. Play it with your pocketknife!
Blind Doobie McClanahan lives!! |
Dan Tyack
Member From: Seattle, WA USA
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posted 25 August 2002 07:54 PM
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I use DADGAD for most of my electric lap steel playing, which is using in a funk or rock and roll environment. You don't want any of those pesky thirds in the tuning..... |
mikey
Member From: Hawaii, Big Island
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posted 25 August 2002 10:31 PM
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OK...just got an email from an old ethnomusicologist friend of mine and here's his summary....Sebastopol is a mispronunciation of Sevastopol, the Ukrainian Seaport from which the bouzouki and IT'S tuning (DAD in unison pairs)came to the British Empire via traders in the Old British Empire approximatly @1300...by the late 1600's this evolved into the English guitar or cittern and along with the Spanish guitar the tuning evolved into a 6 string version of the bouzouki tuning, DADGAD which worked quite well with the Celtic songs of the time which are commonly in the key of D or to a lesser extent G or A...and allowed for DRONE TONES...So...In summary...No matter what the exact tuning, Sebastopol is a bastardization of the word/town of Sevastopol and the basic DAD bouzouki tuning.
And DADGAD has been around since the 1700's, LONG before Davey Grahm....
Mike
Then again, I could be wrong.....
You don't invent tunings, you find them(or they find you!!!) |
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