Stevie Ray Vaughan · Couldn't Stand the Weather · song 4
Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) tuning.
Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) (Stevie Ray Vaughan, 1984) is in E♭ Standard at concert pitch (A 440), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Song tuning
E♭ Standard
At concert pitch (A 440).
Measured by TuneLit
At concert pitch
The album's value, measured on the CD.
Stevie Ray Vaughan · Couldn't Stand the Weather · 1984
About Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)
Vaughan's eight-minute cover of the Jimi Hendrix classic, from Couldn't Stand the Weather. The main riff hammers the open low string, and on his guitar, tuned a half step down like Hendrix's own, that string is E♭. The tab is in E♭ Standard with the familiar E shapes.
This song reads sharper than the album around it: about 17 ¢ sharp, in every half minute of the track, while the album sits at concert pitch. The wah and fuzz make the reading weak, so the song keeps the album's setting of A 440 rather than its own value. If the open low string sounds flat against the record, raise the reference to about A 444.
TuneLit's audio check hears E♭ as the lowest open string with near certainty: it is by far the most common low note in the recording. The trap here is the wah: it shifts the tone so much that your ear may blame the pedal for a tuning mismatch. Check the tuning with the wah off, against the riff's open-string hits, and only then add the pedal. Vaughan's heavy strings also kept the big bends stable; on lighter strings, watch for bends going sharp.
Tip: Tune with the wah off against the riff's open low string, and raise the reference to about A 444 if that string sounds flat.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E♭ Standard, the notes Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) was recorded in.
- From E Standard: Every string down a half step. No tuner that knows E♭ Standard? Clamp a capo across fret 1, tune to E Standard as usual, then take it off: every string drops to E♭ 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. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) sits at concert pitch on the record, so the tuner stays at A 440.
- Then play Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) 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 Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) 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. Choose E Standard at A 440 and Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) moves up 98 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 Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) in?
E♭ Standard: E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ B♭ E♭, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.