Queen · Jazz · song 2
Fat Bottomed Girls tuning.
Fat Bottomed Girls (Queen, 1978) is in Drop D, about 24 cents sharp (A ≈ 446), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Measured by TuneLit
24 ¢ sharp
Measured on this song itself: Tune moves every string +24 ¢.
Queen · Jazz · 1978
About Fat Bottomed Girls
Brian May's swampy rocker from Jazz (1978) and the one Queen song whose tuning he has described himself: Drop D, with String 6 lowered a whole step to D. In his lesson for Total Guitar he explained that he wrote it that way, around open-position chords on the dropped string. The bass is in Drop D too, and on stage May uses a separate copy of his guitar kept in Drop D for this song.
TuneLit measured EMI's 1994 CD about 24 ¢ sharp (A ≈ 446.2), even higher than the album's already sharp 16 ¢. Read in 30-second windows the song stays between 20 and 27 ¢ sharp, and the Japanese remaster gives the same value, so the song has its own button: Drop D 24 ¢ up. A Drop D guitar at A 440 is a quarter of a semitone flat against it.
The audio check hears D as the lowest open string, which confirms the tuning from the record. Drop String 6 first and check the other five afterwards, since changing one string's tension can nudge the rest.
Tip: Tune all six strings to the button, then let the open D ring against the opening chorus and fine-tune String 6 last.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to Drop D, every string +24 ¢, the notes Fat Bottomed Girls was recorded in.
- From the album's E Standard: String 6 down a whole step (E → D); the other strings stay.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Fat Bottomed Girls sits 24 cents sharp on the record: at A 440 your guitar would sound that much flat against it, which Tune already corrects.
- Then play Fat Bottomed Girls 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 Fat Bottomed Girls instead. Add your own copy, for example from your CD (it never leaves your device); the link already says the song is in Drop D +24 ¢. Choose Drop D at A 440 and Fat Bottomed Girls moves down 24 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 Fat Bottomed Girls in?
Drop D +24 ¢: D A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.