ZZ Top · Degüello · song 9
Cheap Sunglasses tuning.
Cheap Sunglasses (ZZ Top, 1979) is in E Standard, about 6 cents flat (A ≈ 438), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Measured by TuneLit
6 ¢ flat
The album's value, measured on the CD: Tune moves every string −6 ¢.
ZZ Top · Degüello · 1979
About Cheap Sunglasses
Cheap Sunglasses, from Degüello (1979), is a mid-tempo riff song whose words, Billy Gibbons said, came to him on a drive past La Grange, Texas. He recalled playing the lead on a Fender-style guitar with a vibrato arm, used for a small dive in the solo, through a 200-watt Marshall Major, with a ring modulator for the odd tag at the end of each verse. The guitars are in E Standard.
TuneLit measured the German Degüello CD about 6 ¢ flat (A ≈ 438.6) and Cheap Sunglasses about 2 ¢ flat, close enough to share the album value: the Tune button sets E Standard 6 ¢ down. But two Warner compilations put the album's songs 9 to 12 ¢ higher than this CD, and the single version of Cheap Sunglasses on the Goin' 50 box reads about 9 ¢ sharp. This CD may run a little slow.
So check against your own copy. With the old CD, the button fits; with a remaster, a compilation or a stream, the guitar may sound flat, and a reference of about +5 ¢ (A ≈ 441.3) is the better start. The check from the audio leans toward F for the lowest string, the usual sign of a song that rarely plays its open low E.
Tip: Try the button's −6 ¢ first; if the riff sounds flat against your copy, raise the reference to about A 441.3.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, every string −6 ¢, the notes Cheap Sunglasses was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Cheap Sunglasses sits 6 cents flat on the record: at A 440 your guitar would sound that much sharp against it, which Tune already corrects.
- Then play Cheap Sunglasses 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 Cheap Sunglasses 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 −6 ¢. Choose E Standard at A 440 and Cheap Sunglasses moves up 6 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 Cheap Sunglasses in?
E Standard −6 ¢: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.