Kyuss · Blues for the Red Sun · song 2
Green Machine tuning.
Green Machine (Kyuss, 1992) is in C Standard, about 19 cents flat (A ≈ 435), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Song tuning
C Standard −19 ¢
About 19 cents flat (A ≈ 435).
Measured by TuneLit
19 ¢ flat
The album's value, measured on the CD: Tune moves every string −19 ¢.
Kyuss · Blues for the Red Sun · 1992
About Green Machine
Green Machine is the second track on Blues for the Red Sun (1992) and the song most people know Kyuss by: a short, fast riff song written by drummer Brant Bjork, released as a single in 1993. Josh Homme plays it in C Standard, every string two whole steps down (C F B♭ E♭ G C), and Nick Oliveri's bass is tuned the same way an octave lower. The whole riff hammers the open String 6: in the Songsterr tab more than half of the guitar's lowest notes are that open C, and on the record the low C is more than half of the low notes TuneLit hears.
TuneLit measured the album about 19 ¢ flat (A ≈ 435.2), and the Tune button carries that offset. Green Machine's own reading comes out close to concert pitch, about 2 ¢ sharp, but with too little confidence to give the song a setting of its own. So start with the button; if your open C sounds a little flat against Oliveri's bass, retune to plain C Standard at A 440 and compare.
The riff is simple, the sound is not: a slack low C on a normal 10–46 set flaps and goes sharp when you dig in. Heavier strings, 12–56 or more, keep the open C steady under hard picking, and the tab's frets then line up note for note.
Tip: Tune String 6 to C against the opening riff first; it carries almost the whole song, so if that open string matches, the rest follows.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to C Standard, every string −19 ¢, the notes Green Machine was recorded in.
- From E Standard: Every string down 4 half steps. No tuner that knows C Standard? Clamp a capo across fret 4, tune to E Standard as usual, then take it off: every string drops to C Standard. Check each string again afterwards, since a capo pulls the strings a little sharp.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Green Machine sits 19 cents flat on the record: at A 440 your guitar would sound that much sharp against it, which Tune already corrects.
- Then play Green Machine along with the record: its lowest open note and your String 6 should ring together without a wobble.
Or the other way round
Move the record into your tuning
Rather keep your guitar as it is? Let Play along move Green Machine instead. Add your own copy, for example from your CD (it never leaves your device); the link already says the song is in C Standard −19 ¢. Choose E Standard at A 440 and Green Machine moves up 4 half steps and 19 cents, at its own speed. Slow it down or loop a few bars to learn it, and save the result as a WAV file.
Questions
What tuning is Green Machine in?
C Standard −19 ¢: C F B♭ E♭ G C, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.