Juaquin Murphey's Tunings?

Dave Mayes · Post by **Dave Mayes** » 10 Feb 2000 11:48 am

I was sorry to hear of Juaquin's passing last October and have wondered for quite a while what tunning(s) he used in his non-pedal days with Cooley, Plainsmen, and Williams. Scotty lists a Murph tuning as does Brad. These are C6 variations. Does anyone know of any others? Hope this topic hasn't been run into the ground already. Many thanks.

Ricky Davis · Post by **Ricky Davis** » 10 Feb 2000 2:54 pm

Hey Dave Yell louder so Herb can hear you. You know he's gettin' old. Herb Steiner will know; just hang out here long enough and he will get to ya.

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 10 Feb 2000 3:12 pm

Speak up Rick, dammit! You know I cain't hear sh*t! I'm too friggin' OLD!!!

Mike Johnstone can probably tell ya more about JM than I can, incidentally.

I can tell you that Joaquin never played a Push-pull Emmons, though he was photographed with a Sho-Bud once. And all of his guitars were natural finished wood, not mica. And he never used a Pro-Fex or took lessons from Jeff Newman. He liked Jimmy Day a lot, but told me he though JD smoked too much pot. He spent a lot of time detailing and polishing cars for his friends.

What was the question again?

Oh yeah, tunings.

Well, he used C6 with E on top:
F# A C E G A C E

(interesting note on this tuning: the F# in the bass gives you a D9th chord on strings 8-5. This is one of the baffling things about Joaquin's C6 style where he's obviously playing a 6th tuning, and then comes up with a Dominant 9 chord. So it leads you to think he's playing the E13 neck, when in actually he's on this tuning or on C6/A7 listed below.)

sometimes C6/A7:
F# A C# E G A C E

also the Leon McAuliffe E13:
E G# D F# G# B C# E

and A6:
F# A C# E F# A C# E

He also used the Masonic tuning. I could tell you the notes, but then I'd have to kill you.

Tom Bradshaw sent me these tunings years ago, incidentally. I mean back in the 1960's.[This message was edited by Herb Steiner on 10 February 2000 at 03:15 PM. because he's practically SENILE!][This message was edited by Herb Steiner on 10 February 2000 at 03:18 PM.][This message was edited by Herb Steiner on 11 February 2000 at 10:45 AM.]

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 12 Feb 2000 10:54 am

The tuning he put on the bottom neck of my Stringmaster(and it's still there)is high to low - G,E,C,A,G,E,C#,B. The 8th string B is a .020 plain.It's sort of like a chromatic string on the wrong side of the tuning.He told me he had been using it for many,many years.I've sat and watched him play most of the stuff he has EVER played on that tuning-no pedals.Like Herb said,you can get 9th chords,11th chords,RAISED 9 chords,flat 5 chords,maj7th chords,and a helluva lot more.So much more in fact,it just may be the most musical 8 string non-pedal be-bop tuning ever devised.He also had that same tuning on the 9 string pedal guitar that Chas Smith built for him-w/the addition of an extra C# string right next to,and an octave lower than,the 7th string.G,E,C,A,G,E,C#(hi),C#(lo),B.The pedals were pretty much standard C6 stuff including a pedal that lowered both C#s to C. The roots of that tuning BTW,go way back to Dick McIntire.In the early 30s,Dick played this still popular Hawaiian tuning:E,C,A,G,E,C#. -MJ-

Dave Mayes · Post by **Dave Mayes** » 13 Feb 2000 1:56 pm

A heartfelt thanks to Ricky, Herb and Michael for their helping a guy who can't spell Joaquin correctly !

Dana Duplan · Post by **Dana Duplan** » 21 Feb 2000 3:15 pm

Which would be the tuning that Joaquin used in the late '40's with Spade Cooley, etc.?
Thanks,
DD