Keith Richards has spent decades proving that less can be more on the guitar. The Rolling Stones guitarist is famous for playing a five-string guitar in open G, a setup he has said was inspired by banjo tuning, according to his Wikipedia biography. It sits behind some of the band's best-known records.
This piece explains what the tuning is, why he removed a string, and how that choice changed the way rhythm guitar works in a rock band. None of it requires exotic gear. Any six-string can be retuned, and the low string can simply be muted or taken off.
How Richards Arrived at Open G
The story starts with a break in touring during 1967 and 1968. With time away from the road, Richards experimented with open tunings and developed a style of syncopated, ringing chord work that turns up on songs like "Street Fighting Man" and "Start Me Up", according to his biography. He has named banjo tuning as the inspiration for his version of open G. The discovery was less about speed than about finding new ways to make chords move.
What Five-String Open G Actually Is
An open tuning spells a chord across the open strings, so a full chord sounds when you strum without fretting a note. A common six-string open G runs D-G-D-G-B-D from low to high, and it lets a player strum a G major chord with no fretting at all, according to the Wikipedia entry on open G tuning. Richards's version trims the layout to five strings, G-D-G-B-D, which mirrors the standard tuning of a five-string banjo. He often removes the lowest string entirely and lets the band's bass player cover those notes, saying the low string just gets in the way.
Why Losing a String Helps Rhythm
Open tunings make chords easy to shape. With the strings set to a G major chord, a player can bar a single finger across one fret to lift the whole chord up the neck, which the tuning's entry describes as a core benefit of the family. For a rhythm player that means big, ringing voicings that stay loose and movable under the hand.
It also changes the balance of the band. With no low string under his chords, Richards leaves the deep notes to the bass and lets his guitar sit where it can weave around other instruments. Several of his Fender Telecasters are set up this way, per his biography, and the setup has stayed with him for most of his career.
The Songs That Prove the Point
The tuning is prominent across the Rolling Stones catalog. His biography lists "Honky Tonk Women", "Brown Sugar" and "Start Me Up" as records built on this five-string open G sound. The tuning entry adds that Richards reached those five notes by truncating an overtones-based G tuning used by Joni Mitchell and others. However you describe it, the result is one of the most recognizable rhythm sounds in rock. For related coverage, see Chet Atkins: How One Thumb Built Nashville.
Weaving, Not Racing
Open G suits Richards because it matches his whole approach. He plays both lead and rhythm parts, often in the same song, and prefers to weave guitars together rather than compete as a soloist, a habit he picked up from Chicago blues records. Chris Spedding has called his playing direct, incisive and unpretentious. Richards himself has said he focuses on chords and rhythms and tries not to be the fastest gun in the west.
Trying It Yourself
You can test the idea in an afternoon. Tune your guitar to D-G-D-G-B-D, then either remove the thickest string or leave it slack and out of the way. Strum the open strings and you get a G chord. Bar one finger across a fret and slide that chord around the neck. Learn the riff to "Honky Tonk Women" and notice how the voicings ring instead of chugging. If five strings feel strange at first, remember the point: fewer options, played with conviction, can groove harder than more. This connects to our earlier piece, Nylon vs Phosphor Bronze Strings: Sound and Feel Trade-Offs.
Conclusion
Richards's open G experiment shows how a small mechanical change can reshape a band's whole sound. Dropping the low string opened space for the bass, simplified chord shapes for his fretting hand, and pushed him toward rhythm playing that rings, syncopates and weaves. Retune on a quiet afternoon and hear why five strings changed rhythm guitar.
