ZZ Top · Tres Hombres · song 8
La Grange tuning.
La Grange (ZZ Top, 1973) is in E Standard at concert pitch (A 440), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Measured by TuneLit
At concert pitch
The album's value, measured on the CD.
ZZ Top · Tres Hombres · 1973
About La Grange
La Grange, from Tres Hombres (1973), is ZZ Top's signature boogie: a riff in A that starts quietly and muted, then explodes when the band comes in at full volume. It is plain E Standard (E A D G B E), with the open A string doing much of the work. Gibbons recalled playing it on a 1955 Stratocaster fitted with a stop tailpiece, straight into a Marshall Super Lead, and said the fuzz came from the amp alone, with the opening played on an in-between setting of the pickup switch.
TuneLit measured La Grange about 4 ¢ sharp on the 1987 CD remix and about 3 ¢ sharp on the 2006 remaster of the original mix, the same as the album as a whole (+3.5 ¢, A ≈ 440.9). That rounds to concert pitch, so the Tune button sets E Standard at A 440 and a guitar tuned on any ordinary tuner sits right with the record.
Nothing in the tuning trips players up here; the challenge is the feel. The riff is built around an A chord, so check your open A string before anything else. The remix and the original mix run at the same speed, so whichever version you play along with, the tuning holds.
Tip: Tune to plain E Standard at A 440 and check your open A string against the quiet opening riff.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, the notes La Grange was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. La Grange sits at concert pitch on the record, so the tuner stays at A 440.
- Then play La Grange 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 La Grange 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 La Grange moves down 3 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 La Grange in?
E Standard: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.