John Martyn - Small Hours

I was trying to work out how to play Small Hours by John Martyn. Firstly I had to find out what tuning John used, this turned out to be CFCCGD. I also wasn't sure whether the two middle C's should be the same or an octave apart, I went for the octave option as it sounded better.

I have an old Bespeco Volume Pedal so put this in front of an Akai Headrush, using the tape echo setting to simulate an Echoplex.

The results were very pleasing, and after working out the Small Hours chords, I carried on using this tuning and echo repeats to come up with something of my own. I have found that if I get stuck for ideas using standard tunings, alternatives can often help.

I do need to experiment with the string gauges on the guitar to get this to work just right though.