Yeah, I hope we'll get them in the near future. Since I'm going to start learning to play guitar, I'll use this tuning from the start ...I guess that's easier than trying to "forget" all the habits that one developed while using standard EADGBE...

I really wouldn't. I've been playing for eight years, and I would advise that you learn to play in standard tuning first. Otherwise you'll end up like fuckin Sonic Youth or something, able to play in simplified tunings but not in standard, which sucks. CGCGCE is too easy if you're playing rhythm, harder for lead but not many people play lead in their first three years anyway, by which time you would have some bad habits formed.

I will nod in agreement to Billy who posted above.

What I find most difficult about the open C tuning is not the 4 note-per string scales, but instead all the rolling accross strings and frantic hopping. It really doesn't feel that graceful, or elegant to play like this. To the uninitiated, playing in open c makes you look like an inexperienced newb hopping desperately around the fretboard. I am sure guitar professors consider this bad form and would wanna whack you upside the head if you tried playing classical guitar pieces in CGCGCE.

It also seems somewhat restricted for chords. I can't seem to get as many different sounds out of open c as i can out of standard. This is due in part to the fact that there are 3 C strings and 2 G strings!

I will nod in agreement to Billy who posted above.

What I find most difficult about the open C tuning is not the 4 note-per string scales, but instead all the rolling accross strings and frantic hopping. It really doesn't feel that graceful, or elegant to play like this. To the uninitiated, playing in open c makes you look like an inexperienced newb hopping desperately around the fretboard. I am sure guitar professors consider this bad form and would wanna whack you upside the head if you tried playing classical guitar pieces in CGCGCE.

It also seems somewhat restricted for chords. I can't seem to get as many different sounds out of open c as i can out of standard. This is due in part to the fact that there are 3 C strings and 2 G strings!

Actually the 'rolling across strings' is also used in standard tuning a lot. The pentatonic scales are played in slide position all the time by a bunch of guitarists (mainly blues'ers like Clapton). The major pentatonic slide would be played like this (ex. G major pentatonic):
E 10--12(--15)
B 8--10--12
G 7--9
D 5--7--9
A 5--7
E 3--5--7
But it's still pretty unorthodox to play a lot of solo's in open C (or whatever tone) tuning. I know only a few guitarists who do it, Devin and Keith Richards and Gary Lucas..

Chords are indeed more difficult, but they also can be easier, as you have a major chord by just using your index finger, and than you can concentrate on the alterations with your other fingers. It's actually quite possible, but takes a lot of practise. My way of figuring out chords in open C tuning, is just messing about with all kinds of fingering; there's bound to come out something cool.

I think it's important for people to figure out if they want to use this tuning or not. If you want to be a shredder, I wouldn't recommend it. But if you want to be creative and write 'alternative' music, go for it.

so i always used to play with tunings and liked to get as much out of them as i could, once i used to be a soloing john petrucci maniac, then i got bored with that and i just slowed down a bit, started dealing with electronic sounds and stuff, now i am more about construction and composition, arranging for my whole band, all of the instruments, plus my own vocals
so with the new attitude, i've decided to try some devin tuning, but, hell i tuned my guitar the wrong way, at that time i only used to own my custom kamecki 7 string ( great guitar, by the way). i tuned it cgcegc instead of cgcgce, dammit! but it was very cool and fresh, very nice to experiment with, only recently did i discover my mistake, wow, quite a surprise, so feel free to try some of that instead of dev's tuning. the thiner strings are way more loose on that one: instead of ce you have a gc, dunno if you're gonna like it, just try it.
feel free to email me on any guitar stuff i could help you with.
see ya

ps. sorry, forgot the 7th string in both tunings try tuning it two half-tones higher than the other highest tuned string, which gives you:

cgcgce#f or cgcegcd, vey cool, oh, and you definately can learn to solo in that tuning, won't be the same solos anymore though. each tuning requires a different approach, what really only matters is whether you're ready for it or not...

yup, slowly getting familiar with it. It's a lot of fun to learn SYL stuff with it..or rather RE-learn it since I learned some stuff like S.Y.L. or Relentless in the wrong tuning *d'oh!*

Like a lot of the lads mentioned above, I find different chords tough on the open C. Since in metal we tend to play a lot of low notes, the lower three strings limit one to essentially fifth root combinations. For the more adventurous you can always add the major/minor third an octave higher I suppose. However, if you're into root/third diads (as I am) for that added harmonic depth, then you're at a bit of a loss. My experience in trying to lift SYL songs I found that most of the riffs can easily be played in standard C tuning (std down 2 whole steps) except for some of the ambient drony notes whihc I find really hard to figure out because of a lot of the electronic noises Dev uses in SYL.

My other beef with the tuning is the inclusion of that annotying high E note. When strumming all the strings you get a major C. Call me old fashioned, but I like my open tuning to be minor because it's more melancholy and 'metal'.

Thus said, I think it's a matter of preference. Dev blows my mind when he hammers together the songs that he does., and it still impresses me that he can play them in that tuning!

Anyway, on a slightly different 'note', did SYL use 7-strings on the last recording or just a lower tuning. I thought I read somewhere that G flat was the low note of choice.

The low note would be G, not G flat. Low to high, GCGCGCE

GCGCGCE sounds about right.

I might se what that sounds like later, currently im tuned to GDGCEA