Hello everyone, many years ago, John posted this message:

I found the scrap of paper I have with the tuning for Late Last Night. I got this from a guy who said he got it straight from Mike Chunn so I guess it's legit. (By the way if Eddie M from Brisbane is reading this, howdy.)

6 E
5 A
4 E
3 A flat
2 B
1 E

-----------End Message--------------

For the past few days I've been slowly working out Late Last Night in this tuning, then tonight I was listening to Mental Notes, and thought "Hey, what if Spellbound is in this same tuning"... And I truly think it is...

If in this tuning you play for the intro:

x2210x
x2200x

That's the closest I've heard to it.

Problem is I'm having problems with the Maori Strum, could somebody please explain how to do it? Do I use a plectrum?

- Thanks everyone, see how the tuning works for you? I'll get back with the verses once I've fully worked them out.

Cheery-bye!

My advice for anyone stuck with a maori strum is to learn the intro to Don't Dream It's Over (It's more for the way you bring it back up than going down), then relax your hand. Use a soft enough plectrum, think of a train, the sound of the wah wah guitar in those 70's blaxploitation films and then imagine you're a maori! (Just kidding about the last one)

It's more of a feel than anything else, and you have to use muting pretty effectively in places.

The thing is, if you try to learn enough of Phil's, Tim's and Neil's songs, it tends to creep in, and you can just do it after a while. I'm constantly finding Neilesque flourishes in my playing, Wally Wilkinson esque solos etc. etc. It just comes from spending teenage years in bedroom learning Enz and CH songs.

That's cool.

Now if someone wants to post guitar tabs to Late Last Night with the open tuning, you'd make my decade!

A message from Phil Judd re Spellbound tunings:

" Mr PJ thanks time for flinging back a golden arrow in all it's
multiferous notifications of tunings that I ... And !! ...the maori strum, as with the Finns, and probly u, is that it is subliminaly absorbed as kids in NZ. A bit like you absorbing
sub 13/9 grooves from your 'wan....' technique....NO filthy minds !!!... his wangbar technique !..
The said strum is executed with no plectrum , but by swirling the fingers and hand 'around' the strings clockwise ( as indeed a
pissed as NZ native ..ahem..Maori would. I call it the PRJ 'Give It
A Swirl' guitar strum technique. Patented 1973. Copyright ' The
Judd Guitar Styles For All Ages (excepting 35 or Germans) '

End of quote. Hope that helps.
Jaffa

I stand corrected then. No plectrum.

That tuning or at least those chords don't sit right in my ears. If anyone is interested in tablature for the solo of Spellbound in standard tuning. Let me know. I'll post it. I should mention I only ever learned to play it off the original recording, the Beginning of The Enz one. Never cared for the Mental Notes version. Phil's vocal is just too, well, scary.

i thought id move this back up on the forum so we can all see the tuning
its quite good not perfect but still good
i just need to work out the rest of the song