Mike Mushok

Staind logo

Mike Mushok is the PRS baritone wielding lead guitarist for US mega-selling band Staind.

Mike Mushok

It's been awhile - Unplugged

PRS SE Mike Mushok baritone guitar

Mike Mushok (Staind) Rig Tour

Aaron Lewis - It's Been Awhile HD Live in Lake Tahoe 8/06/2011

MTV Staind Unplugged entire concert

Epiphany Staind - Unplugged

Break the Cycle tab book

PRS Mike Mushok baritone


Baritone tuned 6 string guitar - BEADF#B

Mike Mushok tunes his baritone guitar to A E B D G B for mega-hit Outside:-

GuitarPro6 Mike Mushok tuning

whereas for "the most-played rock song of the past decade", Staind's other chart topper It's been awhile, he uses A D A D G B:-

GuitarPro6 for It's been awhile

The standard method used when baritone tuning a six-string guitar involves tuning all the strings a perfect fourth lower than normal i.e. B E A D F# B.

If the C major scale is mapped over the fingerboard using this standard baritone tuning (with all of the C naturals highlighted) it produces the following:-

GuitarPro6 baritone tuned C natural

Using this baritone tuning the C naturals are no longer where they are expected to be found; however if the
G naturals are highlighted instead, the normal C natural octaves pattern appears, as shown in the image that follows:-

GuitarPro6 baritone G naturals

When this standard baritone tuning is adopted the player pretends that the G naturals are in fact sounding as C naturals; in the same manner adopted when a capo is used. The instrument has then been turned into a transposing instrument rather like a saxophone or clarinet; where the note being read (or thought about) is not the one sounding.

GuitarPro6 6-string guiatr C major scale

This is NOT the tuning being explained below; instead the information presented is offered as a gateway tuning to a 7-string guitar rather than another way to get different sounds out of the same guitar patterns.


Six-sevenths baritone guitar - BEADGB tuned 6 string guitar

So you want to learn how to play 7-string guitar but you don't have enough readies to go and buy one.

Well fear not boys and girls because Zon Brookes always has a work-around solution under these types of circumstances.

Get yourself an old 6-string electric guitar with a Strat scale length i.e. 25.5" and a new set of 13 gauge strings.

The C major scale is shown below on the GuitarPro6 fingerboard for 7-string guitar with a low B string:-

GuitarPro6 7-string guitar C major scale

A standard 6-string electric guitar represents strings 1 to 6 of the previous 7-string; as shown in the next GuitarPro6 fingerboard:-

GuitarPro6 6-string guiatr C major scale

Instead of tuning your 6-string EADGBE why not tune it BEADGB which represents strings 2 to 7 of the previous 7 string?

The C major scale is shown below on the GuitarPro6 fingerboard for a 6-string guitar tuned BEADGB:-

GuitarPro6 C major scale

Won't a 25.5" scale length be too short?.... I hear the purveyor's of all guitar wisdom cry from afar.

Well follow this link to check out the specifications of the Ibanez UV777 to quell any fears you may have on this front - scale length of 25.5" I do believe.

Again the guitar-wise are shouting the strings will be too slack.

This is where the 13 gauge strings come in useful and if you want to do a full string tension calculation check then follow this link to the D'Addario strings design chart (very useful for this precise purpose).

So to quote those of an American persuasion y'all set.

C major blues scale box shapes - BEADGB 6 string guitar

ZZZZZ octaves logo

This issue demonstrates the C major blues scale box shapes for 6-string guitar tuned to BEADGB with the all important orange letters omitted.

The CAGED octaves sequence is shown for C natural in the diagram that follows:-

ZZZZZ octaves C natural

GuitarPro6 C natural octaves

The diagrams that follow show all of the C major blues scale notes plotted over the 6-string guitar's

fretboard (tuned to BEADGB) in the CAGED octaves styles:-

ZZZZZ octaves C major blues scale notes

As always a more long term solution to fretboard navigation is to see scales/arpeggios as INTERVAL shapes rather than note names - as these are universal to all scales, arpeggios and chords rather than specific to one particular root note - with this in mind the intervals for the C major blues scale are detailed below in the CAGED octaves manner:-

ZZZZZ octaves C major blues scale intervals

The table and tabbed panel below details all five box shapes for the C major blues scale in the
CAGED octaves style.


C major blues scale box shapes - BEADGB 6 string guitar

YouTube icon

Flash iconGuitar Pro 6 icon

6Z4Z1 pdf
4Z2 pdf
5Z2 pdf
5Z3 pdf
6Z3Z1 pdf
6Z4Z1 at 12 pdf


  • 6B4B1
  • 4A2
  • 5G2
  • 5E3
  • 6D3D1
  • 6B4B1 at 12

GuitarPro6 6z4Z1 box shape

GuitarPro6 4Z2 box shape

GuitarPro6 5Z2 box shape

GuitarPro6 5Z3 box shape

GuitarPro6 6Z3Z1 box shape

GuitarPro6 6Z4Z1 box shape at 12



  • 6Z4Z1
  • 4Z2
  • 5Z2
  • 5Z3
  • 6Z3Z1
  • 6Z4Z1 at 12

6Z4Z1 box

4Z2 box

5Z2 box

5Z3 box

6Z3Z1 box

6Z4Z1 box at 12




Once the individual box shapes have been assimilated all five shapes should be linked together and played in one continuous exercise (with the first shape - 6Z4Z1 - being repeated at the 12th fret).

The video shown to the right demonstrates the CAGED octaves chain-linked sequence for the C major blues scale box shapes.


The complete TAB for the previous exercise follows:-

C major blues scale box shapes TAB


The box shapes for the previous exercise follow:-

C major blues scale box shapes

Flash iconGuitar Pro 6 icon

C major blues scale box shapes pdf

C major blues scale box shapes TABC major blues scale box shapes TAB


Mike Mushok

'cause it's always rainin' in my head ....Zon Brookes

Break the cycle


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