ZZ Top · Eliminator · song 3
Sharp Dressed Man tuning.
Sharp Dressed Man (ZZ Top, 1983) is in E Standard, about 9 cents sharp (A ≈ 442), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Measured by TuneLit
9 ¢ sharp
The album's value, measured on the CD: Tune moves every string +9 ¢.
ZZ Top · Eliminator · 1983
About Sharp Dressed Man
Sharp Dressed Man was one of the singles from Eliminator (1983), the album that set ZZ Top's synth-and-sequencer sound and made the band MTV regulars. Under the machine-steady pulse, Billy Gibbons plays a chugging rhythm part and a short, biting solo, all in plain E Standard, as every tab of the song agrees.
The record is a little sharp. TuneLit measured Eliminator about 9 ¢ sharp (A ≈ 442.4) on two different club pressings that agree within a cent, and this song about 11 ¢ sharp, close enough to share the album value. The Tune button therefore sets E Standard 9 ¢ up. Against the record, a guitar tuned to a plain A 440 tuner would sound slightly flat, enough to notice on sustained notes in the solo.
TuneLit's check from the audio leans toward F for the lowest string, but that is the known blind spot of the method: the song's bass and guitar parts hardly ever touch the open low E, so the lowest note heard is a fret higher. Nothing points to anything other than E Standard. The 2019 Goin' 50 box carries a single version that runs about 3 ¢ higher still.
Tip: Set the reference 9 ¢ sharp (A ≈ 442.4) and tune against a held chord in the solo rather than the busy verse.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, every string +9 ¢, the notes Sharp Dressed Man was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Sharp Dressed Man sits 9 cents sharp on the record: at A 440 your guitar would sound that much flat against it, which Tune already corrects.
- Then play Sharp Dressed Man 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 Sharp Dressed Man 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 +9 ¢. Choose E Standard at A 440 and Sharp Dressed Man moves down 9 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 Sharp Dressed Man in?
E Standard +9 ¢: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.