Song · Open G tuning

Brown Sugar — The Rolling Stones

Keith Richards played this on a 5-string guitar, tuned to Open G with the low D string removed entirely — so the intro's G chord is just the open strings ringing, no fretting at all. From there the riff drops onto the same C-shape barre at the 5th fret used across his open-G songs, and the verse resolves through F and Bb before landing back on C.

G is the open intro chord; C, F, Bb, C is the verse's core progression ("Gold coast slave ship..."). Open it below to hear the exact fretting, including the open-string G and the Bb voicing that borrows an open D string.