I had some spare time and experimented with down tuning my guitar. Same idea as a Capo except in the opposite direction.
My peterson tuner can down tune by up to -6 half steps. It still displays EADGBE but its really tuning each string lower.
I tried -5 because that shifts a song in the key of G down to D.
Did you know a loose string won’t stay in tune? No matter how carefully I tuned. It went out when I tried fretting a chord and fingered that string. The intonation just went sideways. My 4th string was perfectly tuned. I make a D chord shape (an A chord at -5). I’m not even touching that open 4th string and the note is registering very sharp on my chromatic tuner. The chord sounded horrible.
The guitar was totally unplayable. It was impossible to chord without stretching the strings. It was a noble but flawed experiment that shall never be repeated.
Hendrix, Robert Johnson , and Stevie Ray Vaughan used E flat tuning. Detuning by a half step. But going much lower than that just doesn’t work. (based on my observations) Detuning a whole step would be my limit.
A shame. Because using a capo to go from the key of G to D is just too high up on the neck. Thats the 6th or 7th fret? My guitar is at home and I can’t double check.
I have 10’s on this electric. Heavier strings would help. But going do 5 half steps is just too extreme. The strings are just to loose and floppy to chord.
I can see using down tuning if a song I’m singing is a strain. Down tuning even a half step can help a lot without having to find another key. Some nights I can hit those notes. Some nights the voice just says no.
I use Drop D tuning a lot. One of my acoustics stays in Drop D. I love that fuller and richer sound. Getting a full 6 string D chord is so nice. The down side is fingering the different G chord. It throws your hand out of position for the other open chords. But its worth it.
I tuned my 12 string to D for a while. I liked the sound at first, but soon got tired of it. Didn’t Iommi down tune his guitar (perhaps I should say “doesn’t”, since he’s still with us)?
Yeah, I wouldn’t tune down more than a step. However, tuning down a half or whole step and then capoing up is an old blues/folk/country trick for warming up the timbre of a guitar, and making playing much easier. I do it all the time on acoustic.
I have to give this a try and see the difference. Thanks!
Back when I started in the late 70’s (high school) I never tuned to any standard. We just tuned the guitar to itself. If a buddy dropped by one of us would tune to the other guy’s guitar. We had a three piece band (2 guitars and bass). It never occurred to us that we weren’t tuned to a piano or pitch pipe. I’d guess we were a full step to half step above or below standard pitch. Somewhere in the ballpark.
Digital tuners have drastically altered everyone’s sound. For $15 *anyone *can be accurately tuned in standard 440 pitch.
I have 2 guitars that are not standard tuning. My red SG is in a drop-D tuning (DAEGBE) and my Warbeast is in a drop-C (CFBbEbGC) I use very heavy gauge strings (12-16-20-34-46-60., D’Addario EXL 148, if any of y’all guitar geeks want to know).
Both guitars are set up for these tunings with these strings.
I can’t recommend this enough: have your guitar set up for what you intend to play. A different tuning is going to require a different setup to stay in that tuning, just like standard tuning requires a setup to stay there.
If you want to change your tuning at home, that’s fine, but know that you are going to have to monkey with the bridge a bit to get it to stay in tune where you want it to be in tune.
I don’t know if you want to consider it at all, but I sometimes use a guitar synth, and with that I can dial in almost anything.
It’s a little disconcerting being able to hear the (unamplified) strings at normal pitch AND the re-tuned strings through the amp, but it usually works for the effect I’m after.
A used Roland VG-88 can be had for a couple hundred bucks…
I agree with Bo (and others), if you’re going to to go lower than open D, you’ll need heavier strings than .008s. The light, loose strings make it hard to stay in tune, and hard not to make tuning moot by unintentionally bending the strings. A baritone will certainly get you there. Your first tuning is how I tune my Bass VI, which is guitar-ish scale.
I’m just experimenting now. Find out what works, what doesn’t and what is useful in my style of playing. I started with an extreme case. 5 half steps down is a bit over the top. But it’s interesting to try.
I’ll try just dropping down a full step. -2 on my tuner. That can be useful going from the key of D to C. Or the Key of A down to G. It should work well. As others said, Drop D drops the bass E string a full step. Double Drop D tuning DADGBD, drops both E strings a step. These are common techniques. Dropping all the strings a step shouldn’t be any problem. This could be something I tuck away in my bag of playing tricks for acoustic guitar.
I may start keeping my Martin tuned down a full step. That would ease the tension on the neck just a bit. It’s 40 years old and I need to protect my investment.
http://texasbluesalley.com has some good Texas Blues lessons that I’ve bought. The guy just loves Stevie Ray Vaughan and keeps his guitar in E flat tuning. A PITA for me following along in his lessons. I have to retune every time I want to study one of them and then retune back to standard afterward.
I think he’s generally right about gauge not having much effect on your sound, other than light strings have more high end. Billy Gibbons plays light strings too, and he usually has very nice tone.
Still, my general sentiment holds. I don’t think you’re going to get a much success out of dropping a set that has a .010 for a high E any furhter than open D. I think that’s what my Gretsch came strung with, and it’s a little wonky even on open D. I have to have a lighter touch than usual to keep from bending notes.
But then again, I’m fundamentally a bass player. So I’m used to being able to plow away at the thing without bending notes. And I often play slide, so .012s are in order to keep the slide from deflecting the loose strings. People who primarily play guitar don’t have the problems I have with light strings, you might make open C work with .010s if you really have a light touch, especially if you want the the bends to scream. When you bend a loose, thin string, you provide a bigger change than you can when bending a thick, tight one.
Usually that is what it means, yes. Another one off the top of my head is the Smashing Pumpkins "Mellon Collie … " album. Unless I’m forgetting a song, everything is tuned down a half-step on that album. (Also, the last band I played in, we tuned down to Eb. We’d still play standard common chord shapes, but obviously they would sound a half step lower than what it appeared like we were playing.)
[QUOTE=Leo Bloom]
Are you saying that their blues in A, D whatever, sound at Aflat, etc., or they played in the common keys but with that tuning?
[/QUOTE]
Yup. Some bands play everything down a semitone (probably for the singer’s sake) Thin Lizzy did and I think U2. Johnny Marr sometimes tuned up to F#. It’s standard tuning just at a different pitch.
I had a guitar tuned to play System of a Down stuff. That’s down a tone to D and the bottom string further down to C. IIRC got 12s and an extra heavy bottom string. It meant dedicating a guitar to just that, with adjusting the bridge, locking down the whammy and tightening the truss rod. I didn’t expect to just re-tune it back and forth and have it usable.
As Bo said, if you plan on using a lot of drop tunings (more than -1) you are going to have to set the guitar up for it. Not only are you going to need thicker strings, you will also have to adjust the intonation as well because it is based on string length and tension of said strings.
Not too big a deal if it’s an electric with an adjustable bridge, a much bigger deal on an acoustic.
If you get a chance, go to your LGS and try out a baritone, I think you may be pleasantly surprised. You could also look at somewhere like Warmoth and mod a Strat or Tele with one of their baritone necks without too much ass pain.
No matter how carefully I tuned. It went out when I tried fretting a chord and fingered that string. The intonation just went sideways. My 4th string was perfectly tuned. I make a D chord shape (an A chord at -5). I’m not even touching that open 4th string and the note is registering very sharp on my chromatic tuner. The chord sounded horrible.
