When people discuss retuned guitars in the British folk tradition, they often begin with Davy Graham and DADGAD. That is understandable. It remains one of the most widely used alternative guitar tunings in folk music. However, It is only part of the story.
Graham's earliest documented use of DADGAD dates from the late 1950s and is clearly audible on recordings such as She Moved Through the Fair and Rif Mountain. The tuning solved practical musical problems. By removing the third, it reduced temperamental friction, supported drones, and made modal harmony physically manageable on the instrument.
A closely related approach appeared almost immediately elsewhere.
By 1968, Joni Mitchell was using DADEAD on recorded material. I Had a King, from Song to a Seagull, provides a documented example. DADEAD creates a suspended D sonority, sustains drones, omits the third, and allows melody to move independently of harmony. It is an elegant solution to the same musical questions.
Martin Carthy, of course, developed DADEAB extensively before later transposing it to CGCDGA to suit his vocal range. For me, this remains the most successful solution, for reasons I shall come to.
Both tunings share the same core: DADEA. Transposed down a tone to CGCDG, they become double C banjo tuning, the high g now played with the fingers rather than the thumb. This tuning is well documented in five-string banjo practice from the early nineteenth century and is likely older still. It serves the same musical purpose, supporting drones, facilitating modal thinking, and avoiding the instability of tempered thirds. (Graham's DADGAD similarly corresponds, by transposition, to the banjo's ‘Sawmill’ tuning.)
The guitar, in other words, inherits ideas from much older traditions.
CGCDGA is often regarded as a modern or idiosyncratic development. Stripped of octave doublings, it is simply a cello tuned in fifths: C G D A. Carthy himself has pointed this out. The tuning redistributes violin-family pitch relations across the fingerboard in a form that is both physically comfortable and musically coherent. Cellos are recorded with these pitches as early as 1532 (although the English practice was to drop it to Bb after the French manner until around 1725). Regional pitch before standardisation remains an interesting area for speculation. But the concept of tuning in fifths is actually about half a century older than the guitar itself.
These tuning systems have a clear advantage. They minimise the temperamental conflicts created when equal-tempered thirds compete with the Pythagorean natural thirds of the harmonic series.
CGCDGA offers exceptional structural clarity. Two diatonic string pairs replace one, giving greater melodic freedom across the neck without forcing the player back into functional chord shapes. Music written for diatonic instruments, particularly the Anglo concertina and melodeon, transfers naturally to the guitar. Morris tunes, in particular, seem almost to arrange themselves.
There are of course, practical considerations. The first string sits a long way below its intended E, making it comparatively slack, quieter than the rest of the set, and easy to bend unintentionally. A standard 13-56 set is workable, but once the tuning becomes a permanent musical language, a heavier first string or better still, a custom gauge set restores balance across the instrument.
While on the subject of modal tunings, it is worth mentioning Nic Jones's use of CGCGCD, most famously on Canadee-I-O. This, too, lies close to double C banjo tuning. Both establish C as the tonal centre, reinforce it through octave doubling, and avoid the third entirely. The additional low C simply deepens the resonance.
Taken together, these tunings persist because they solve recurring musical and physical problems. Their longevity reflects utility, logical structure, and ease of use rather than novelty.
The question, then, is where this logic leads.
I once spoke with Martin Carthy at a festival while showing him one of the instruments I had built. He remarked, matter-of-factly, that "the problem with CGCDGA is that the top strings sound a lot lower than EADGBE. So it pushes you up the dusty end." He was referring to range. The tuning's internal logic is exceptionally strong, but its upper register is compressed.
If the underlying principle is fifths, octaves, and the avoidance of thirds, the next step is obvious. The D on the third string already functions as an internal octave and structural pivot. Continuing the same pattern of root, octave, and ninth around the cycle of fifths, there is no compelling reason for the system to stop at six strings.
An eight-string instrument tuned CGCDGADE extends the existing logic rather than replacing it. The additional strings restore upper range while preserving the modal clarity that makes the tuning so effective. The structure remains intact. Only the compass widens.
While such instruments are unlikely to become commonplace, this is almost beside the point. These tunings continue to suggest their own evolution because they rest on principles that are stable, adaptable, and musically coherent. Tradition, in this sense, is not fixed. It expands.
And yes, there is one currently part-built on my bench.