Keith Richards, the legendary guitarist of The Rolling Stones, is renowned not only for his gritty riffs but also for his unconventional guitar techniques—most notably his signature five-string setup using Open G tuning. This distinct approach has had a significant impact on the evolution of rock music. Known in blues circles as “Sears tuning,” Open G has long been a favorite of Richards, who’s always been deeply influenced by American roots music.
Yet, despite his fame and innovation, there was a time when Richards felt stuck. His creativity had stalled, and he hit a wall in his guitar playing. That all changed when he began experimenting with Open G tuning.
In a 1992 interview with Jas Obrecht, Richards recalled the turning point—when he discovered that one of his guitar heroes, Don Everly of The Everly Brothers, regularly used open tunings. Richards was stunned by the power of Everly’s rhythm playing and how it brought the acoustic guitar to life.
“I realized that one of the best rhythm guitar players in the world ever was Don Everly,” Richards said (as transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “He’d always use open tuning, barring, so I didn’t know that. Don is a killer rhythm, man. I mean, he was the one that turned me on to that. It’s the weirdest thing, right? Because that’s really like country shit, basically. But that was why the Everly Brothers stuff was so good because his guitar was so hard. And it’s all acoustic.”
However, translating that rich acoustic sound into the realm of electric guitar wasn’t simple. Richards faced technical challenges, needing to carefully balance tone, dryness, and distortion. Too much of anything would muddle the sound.
“So then I had to translate this five-string thing into electric, or will it just rumble and not make it?” Richards explained. “By being electrified, you can overdo it. You’ve got to get a certain dryness, tone, and distortion at the same time. So it’s like more working on the sound because you’ve got five strings, as I say — ‘five strings, three notes, two fingers in an asshole, and you’ve got it.’ That’s all it takes.”
Open G didn’t just alter the sound of Richards’ guitar—it revitalized his entire approach to the instrument. For a guitarist growing weary of the conventional limitations of standard tuning, Open G felt like a creative rebirth.
“What to do with it is another thing, and I guess I did [know]. I mean, I felt very comfortable with that,” he said. “And I guess because I was playing concert tuning for years and years and years, it suddenly broke open the guitar again to me as if it was a new instrument. I knew a few things so I could follow it through. And it was like a rebirth for me, of playing so suddenly, like enthusiastic again, instead of saying, ‘Oh shit, I can’t do this.'”
In the end, it wasn’t just the tuning itself—but the new musical lens it offered—that gave Richards a second wind. And for generations of guitarists influenced by his riffs, that open G spark continues to resonate.