I fucking love The La's

[papalazarou]

Cheers Tony. I finished the tuning myself too, as it happens. I agree it has that tuned down, full and rootsy La's vibe to it, where those little rockabilly-style bends and rhythmic patterns that ornament the songs sound that bit more dynamic and vivid. I just didn't understand those exact hz values listed at all. I've mostly being tuning my acoustic down a full step anyway, using a capo whenever needed. Also very useful when trying to find your suited singing key too. And doubly helpful when playing the different tuned La's songs.

[billyjoe]

Hello guys,

I tuned my guitar half step down, but listening to Son of a gun 's album version, I realised Lee's guitar seems lower .
It 's almost the same tuning as my guitar but Lee seems to be between half step down and a step down

Anyone noticed that?

By the way, There she goes is in standard tuning 440Hz, right?

Cheers

[Tony]

The single / album version of TSG is standard tuning, yeah.

The album itself is a bit odd, tuning wise. As in I think it's different from the Eden sessions (Doledrum on there is half a step down I think, but the album is raised up to standard). Most of it is standard, in fact, but Son of a Gun is a teensy bit lower. Basically, I don't think the tuning they used to play the album was kept ON the album.

I think they used to tune to eachother, not using a tuner per se, I assume much of it was by ear

[billyjoe]

Strange that most of the songs of the album are standard tuning 440Hz as he claimed 432Hz is the most natural,...
According to different studio sessions/lives, the same songs are either normal tuning or half step down

[Tony]

Well, that's what I mean. I understand why a record label would make it more uniform. But "doledrum", for example, Lillywhite inserted backing vocals from the standard-tuning Leckie session so I figure he fucked with it to make it more complete. The Eden sessions - the album sessions - were played by the band in a half a step down tuning.

Here's a link to the Eden sessions, play along in standard, Doledrum for example, it isn't right, then you stick on the album version....

Overall, I'd say a ton of both recorded AND live La's IS in standard - or so close unless you have perfect pitch it won't matter. Eg, Kitchen tape. I don't think early (86-89) La's went outside tuning toooooo much.
Then, less common you have a layer of 432hz or close - like the Terry Christian sesh
And from 90 onward, it was half a step down.
By the Crescent, I think it's a full step down AND THEN 432hz - a guess, soz, haven't done this in years, don't like it THAT slack. There's some stuff a standard step down. I assume for his voice

I generally assume the 432hz is a tuning he found later to standardise the half-step-down vaguely-loose sound he was already aware of. And what's baffling is the 2005 gigs were in STANDARD.

Honestly if you're on PC and playing along with MP3s or Flacs get Winamp and Pacemaker. You can change the pitch incrementally and you can harmonise to songs you can play. I play along to live gigs more than anything, and they're a mess in terms of uniform tuning.

https://www.surina.net/pacemaker/#



0.5 pitch higher here is half a step without affecting the tempo