guitar scale
G♭ Locrian
The only mode of the major scale whose fifth is diminished, which is why its tonic chord cannot rest.
The same sounds spelled from the other side are F♯ Locrian.
Written out
Every accidental is written in, rather than left to a key signature, so the letters can be read one at a time.
The step pattern
What is true of it
G♭ Locrian is G♭, A♭♭, B♭♭, C♭, D♭♭, E♭♭ and F♭, and back to G♭.
Its steps are H – W – W – H – W – W – W, where W is a whole step and H a half.
Written correctly it needs 11 alterations, A♭♭, B♭♭, D♭♭ and E♭♭ among them. That is what the letters force, and it is also why nobody writes music in this key: the same notes spelled from the other side are easier to read.
On the same tonic, G♭ Phrygian differs from it by exactly one note.
Across the first twelve frets of the guitar its notes fall in 48 places, which is what makes a scale a shape rather than a list.
Chords made only of these notes
Found by testing every chord in the catalogue against these 7 sounds, not chosen.