F-C-F-A^b-C-F

• OVERVIEW •

Essentially ‘Open Dm raised by 3 semitones’ – thus matching the interval pattern of a Standard-tuned ‘0-2-2-0-0-0’ Em chord (or, more precisely, a ‘1-3-3-1-1-1’ Fm barre shape). Categorised as a ‘cross-note‘ tuning, as you can easily ‘cross’ from minor to major with the one-finger shape ‘0-0-0-1-0-0’ (whereas in Open Dmaj, the inverse maj-to-min flip is a little less straightforward).

 

Associated with Texan bluesman Albert Collins, who typically added a high capo (around 5-9fr) for his sizzling, bend-laden style. Definitely best suited to restrung electric! (n.b. Also see the super-slack form of Open Fm – C-F-C-F-Ab-C – which sets the same three tones across the strings in a manner more closely akin to the Open G family. And you can also reshuffle Collins’ version to the more restring-avoidant layout of F-Ab-C-Ab-C-F).

Pattern: 7>5>3>4>5

Harmony: Fmin | 1-5-1-b3-5-1

• TUNING TONES •

• SOUNDS •

Albert Collins (1932-1993) was always an idiosyncratic bluesman. Renowned for passionate vibrato and wailing string-bends, his jovial stage presence often saw him wander into the crowd mid-solo via the use of a special 100ft-long amp cable – one recurrent rumour has him leaving the venue to order a pizza from the restaurant next door, returning to the stage shortly before it was delivered without breaking flow (n.b. I’d wager that the tale is true: several accounts place it at his regular Austin haunt of Antone’s Club on Guadalupe Street: which, as far as I can tell, did adjoin a branch of Milto’s Pizza from 1977 onwards…)

 

His route to this odd, high-wound tuning is a real family tale. Aged 10, he received his first guitar from his elder cousin, acoustic bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Willow Young – another cousin – showed him the tuning soon after. While it’s unclear who might have recorded in this exact configuration other than Collins himself, plenty of guitarists use the lower Open Dm transposition (you can just +3 to Collins’ capo positions).

 

---

• If Trouble Was Money – Albert Collins (1990):

---

“I don’t play with a pick, man; I have to pull hard, that’s why I have to tell people to turn my amp up. All set on 10, trying to find 12! And the way I tune is different. I start out with Standard, and I change from that to try to have my own style…It’s a minor tuning: A minor, D minor, whatever you want to call it…” (Albert Collins: n.b. ‘Am-Dm’ relates to his capo positions)

---

 

Collins, nicknamed ‘Master of the Telecaster’ and ‘Iceman’, released a series of cool-themed cuts including Frosty, Defrost, Ice-Pickin’, and Sno-Cone (n.b. there’s nothing frigid about his soloing, or, indeed, lyrics – for example Trash Talkin’: “Saw two soul sisters…They were doin’ the Collins Shuffle…We were on the dance floor, And I was doin’ my thing…Out of nowhere, up walks her boyfriend!”).

 

In a MusicRadar breakdown, Richard Barrett describes how Collins preferred “using his right-hand thumb and fingers to ‘snap’ the strings towards the fretboard, rather than the fuller sound [of] the more conventional pick stroke”. The results certainly captivated those who witnessed them live (in the words of loco gringo on the TDPRI forum, “Saw him at the old Antone’s on Guadalupe in Austin back in the 80s many times…He used to destroy that place regularly!”). Watch him take a walk below, live at Montreux – he exits the stage around the 5-min mark:

 

---

• Listen Here (Montreux) – Albert Collins (1979):

---

“I learned a lot from [Lightnin’ Hopkins] growin’ up. My next one was John Lee Hooker, from acoustic guitar. Then…I had Guitar Slim, T-Bone Walker, and B.B. [King]…they were my favorites man. But I never wanted to play like them. I always wanted my own style, you know?” (Albert Collins)

---

• NUMBERS •

	6str	5str	4str	3str	2str	1str
Note	F	A	F	Ab	C	F
Alteration	+1	+3	+3	+1	+1	+1
Tension (%)	+12	+41	+41	+12	+12	+12
Freq. (Hz)	87	131	175	208	262	349
Pattern (>)	7	5	3	4	5	–
Semitones	0	7	12	15	19	24
Intervals	1	5	1	b3	5	1

• See my Tunings Megatable for further such nerdery: more numbers, intervallic relations, comparative methods, etc. And to any genuine vibratory scientists reading: please critique my DIY analysis!

• RELATED •

—Associated tunings: proximities of shape, concept, context, etc…

• Open Em (this -1): the far-more-famous transposition
• F Standard (this with 5+4str -2): staying in tenser realms
• Albert King: another bendy bluesman, who slackens instead

• MORE INFO •

—Further learnings: sources, readings, lessons, other onward links…

• Albert Collins: more in a demo by Andy Aledort, an interview with the Iceman himself, and the aforementioned lesson article by Richard Barrett (“In 1952…Albert Collins & The Rhythm Rockers cut The Freeze…Between 1958 and 1971 Albert recorded mainly instrumental Texas blues, with titles like Frosty, Sno-Cone, and Defrost. Between 1974-75 Albert quit playing the guitar completely and took a job in construction, working on Neil Diamond’s house among others! By 1978, his wife Gwen had cajoled him back into his preferred profession…”)
• Masters of the Telecasters: Collins is not the only axemaster known by this style of honorific: also check out the virtuoso Tele approaches taken by Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton – two highly imaginative blues/roots guitarists from the Washington D.C. scene of the 1970/80s, who both became known as ‘The Telemaster’, and both tragically took their own lives after long battles with depression (Louder Sound: “like someone frogmarched Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Merle Travis, and a bunch of other guitar-playing 50s heavy hitters into Seth ‘The Fly’ Brundle’s Telepod. What came out the other side was Danny Gatton, the walkin’, talkin’ encyclopaedia of classic American guitar styles. Nit Pickin’ answered the magazine’s ‘What famous guitarist could outplay him?’ conundrum with another question: ‘Who would dare try?'”)

---

Header image: Albert Collins bends and wails forth