Since you asked, here’s what the Flake music was based on. My technique was born of people always breaking the strings on the guitars that were lying around. I always struggled to play and sing standard 6-string at the same time -which kept me from fronting my own band, or performing “live”.
My good friend Jill Cunningham was instrumental in the genesis of the 4-string -I started doing it seriously when I was staying at her apartment in the spring/summer of 1992. THEN one day I tuned a busted guitar to an open tuning -and immediately wrote “Natalie”, “5th of July”, “Late May” -and dozens of other songs in VERY short order.
The guitar is missing the G-string -or the 3rd string -and the High E -or 1st string. The original tuning was D-A-D-A, an open “grunge” dropped tuning. This allowed me to hit giant chords without worrying about the “unwanted” strings or notes. Flake would sometimes drop down a half-step -to “D flat” -especially when playing lots of gigs, to preserve my voice.
Here’s a recent picture of the Les Paul I played in Flake. It still is mostly in one piece, and still functions. It is actually a wonderful songwriting tool -and always was.
