Radiohead · The Bends · song 4
Fake Plastic Trees tuning.
Fake Plastic Trees (Radiohead, 1995) is in E Standard, about 16 cents sharp (A ≈ 444), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Measured by TuneLit
16 ¢ sharp
The album's value, measured on the LP: Tune moves every string +16 ¢.
Radiohead · The Bends · 1995
About Fake Plastic Trees
The slow centre of The Bends (1995). After seeing Jeff Buckley play in London, Thom Yorke recorded the acoustic part and vocal alone in a few takes, and the band then built organ, strings and electric guitars around it (Wikipedia). The acoustic is in standard tuning, and the distorted guitars arrive only late in the song.
TuneLit measured the 2016 XL LP about 16 ¢ sharp (A ≈ 444.2), and this song reads about 17 ¢, the same as its album, so Tune sets standard tuning 16 ¢ up. With the acoustic and the voice up front in the first verses, a guitar at A 440 sounds noticeably flat against the record long before the band comes in. On a CD or a stream the song sits about 8 ¢ lower than on this LP, which runs 0.45 % fast against it.
What trips players up is the tempo, not the tuning. Thom's take speeds up and slows down, and Philip Selway called following it on the drums a nightmare (Wikipedia), so play with the record rather than a click and listen for where the chord changes fall. The late entry of the loud guitars was a mixing mistake the band decided to keep; it is not a cue you have missed.
Tip: Tune 16 ¢ up for the LP (about 8 ¢ for a CD or a stream) and check against the opening acoustic chords.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, every string +16 ¢, the notes Fake Plastic Trees was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Fake Plastic Trees sits 16 cents sharp on the record: at A 440 your guitar would sound that much flat against it, which Tune already corrects.
- Then play Fake Plastic Trees 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 Fake Plastic Trees instead. Add your own copy, for example from your CD (it never leaves your device); the link already says the song is in E Standard +16 ¢. Choose E Standard at A 440 and Fake Plastic Trees moves down 16 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 Fake Plastic Trees in?
E Standard +16 ¢: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.