Moonchild,

Great thread. I am kinda loathe to change my tunings 'cause I'm lazy to the core and I hate to change strings! The back and forth of multiple changes cause severe metal fatigue in the strings--wind 'em wide! I suggest perhaps for a while, while getting used to the tuning(s) keep that new Larrivee in the altered tunings--longer scale length works better for altered tunings (just try to git that Gibson of yours to tune to the low C 'twon't work too well and sounds flabby--great for that Peter Mulvey sound but pretty limited). This way, when you're sick to the point of pulling your hair out 'cause all the notes have changed--musical chairs style :=), you'll have that Gibson to pick up and play and reassure yourself that you can still play!

One thing that made me finally explore the world of open/altered is, curiously enough, a new pursuit of fiddle tunes to flatpick. Having said that, one of the most elementary but entertaining, insightful, and informative sources for introduction to open D, C(I agree with the poster before this may have more appeal to you)and DADGAD is Homespun Tapes produced "Lesson in Open Tunings" with David Wilcox. He goes into an elementary and understandable explanation of how the tunings relate to each other and to standard, as well as what can be done with each.

Happy Playin',

John