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[Anonymous]

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[JOEY B.]

De-tuning was started (from what I remember) by vocalists not able to hit the notes. Think of early Van Halen, and then when Sammy Hagar joined the group. KISS also comes to mind when speaking of tuning down the guitar. I remember trying to find a singer that could half-*** pull off Judas Priest during the mid-1980's, Forgettaboutit !!!!!!!!

 

[ryjan]

My band plays a half step down. I am more comfortable vocal-wise and the amps we have seem to like it.

 

[JOEY B.]

Perhaps drop-D is the ideal tuning if you're playing mostly power chords and less arpeggios but still want the oomph of a de-tuned open palm-muted chord, but E standard just seems to let everything SING and work together! 8)

I just came from watching some old friends play in a small club. Too much de-tuning in a small space turns everything into a garbled mess. Sure, it is loud and powerful, but the definition is lost. :roll: There is a reason that E is the standard tuning for the 6 string electric guitar. 8)

 

[thejay]

I play in standard quite a bit, maybe drop to flats. I will drop the low E to D but leave the rest of the strings in 'standard' tuning, opens up some new stuff.

 

[jpdennis]

... I remember trying to find a singer that could half-*** pull off Judas Priest during the mid-1980's, Forgettaboutit !!!!!!!!

"Party life, I'm gonna live it up"

Brings back memories. How about Photograph by Def Leppard or singing Journey? I was hired as a lead vocalist in the early '80s and could sing all those songs in the correct key. The guitarists where very happy since they refused to use anything but standard tuning. Our manager said that I was too old for the cover band at the age of 29. So I was replaced and an 18 year old vocalist they had hired blew out his voice in 4 weeks. Just sayin'. :lol:

Dennis

 

[TTSTWO]

I had my Fender Talon setup in standard "E"440 last year. It has a Floyd Rose locking system so tuning down took way too much time. When I want to tune down I do it on my strat that has a standard bridge setup, doesn't long to get it in.

I've been learning some stuff of of Metallica Death Magnetic that is in standard "e".

 

[screamingdaisy]

I'm a Sabbath fan, so I used to always keep one guitar setup for C#. I haven't done it in a few years however... not quite sure why as I've never put any real thought into it.

Anyway, I like E because it sounds more aggressive and pissed off than drop tuning. Yes, C# has a more sludgy, evil sound... but there's a lot of validity in a bright, crisp guitar tone that can slice right through you.

 

[YellowJacket]

Eb sounds great but you need a chick vocalist (or a countertenor) to pull it off. Personally, I'm much more comfortable singing in D or lower.

 

[topcat0399]

you guys are silly.

The E tuning you all are referring to is better known as "concert A 440" me thinks. A half step drop would be A flat.

then again I could be the silly one.....

 

[TTSTWO]

you guys are silly.

The E tuning you all are referring to is better known as "concert A 440" me thinks. A half step drop would be A flat.

then again I could be the silly one.....

I think thats why I wrote "E" 440. Not to be confused with a Chrysler 440 V8.

 

[masque]

i love standard tuning.

 

[Jackie]

Our band (BattleX) proudly hold the banner of E standard metal high!

Round here C drop or Dstd is the "standard" metal tuning. Sadly? I dunno. What I know is for our stuff E cuts it.

I could be more comfortable in 1/2 step down but I don't want to detune. As long as I can sing in E with not much effort I'm good.

 

[Nitrobattery]

I've been mainly playing in standard these days. There were just done with a Line 6 POD to get ideas together for a CD I'm working on, but you get the idea.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1828188/BAM.wav

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1828188/Tune2.wav

 

[ChrisRocksUSA]

I rock out in eb

 

[r_cod_81]

I play in E, but have guitars tuned in Eb as well (Fllyods, pain-in-arse to retune as discussed above) I'd certainly never go below D.

Lots of people tune down because they think that tuning down automatically makes you heavy. What actually happens is you lose all of the dynamics in your tone (listen to any emo-death-metal-core band...) especially if you have a really high-gain saturated sound.

Sepultura recorded in E until Chaos AD and they're some of the heaviest albums around.

 

[Geiri]

I've been stuck in drop d and drop d flat depending on the strings for some time now. But I was finishing some studio work for a festival here in Iceland this summer and brought my ibanez with me. Now being me that guitar is drop d flat and has a locking thingy so when I started playing well everything got kinda weird.

It actually took less time for me to drive home and get another guitar an hardtail ibanez and bring it to the studio than opening the locks on the others and start tuning and messing with the springs and such.

And honest to God a couple of minutes before I saw this thread I was talking to a buddy of mine on the phone and telling him that from now on the guitar with the edge pro trem system would be tuned in standard E. The hardtail will be used for alternate tunings.

This will be strange tho, since I've been playing drop d for 3 years straight.

Mabe a sevenstring is the cure if one needs more bottom hmmmmmmmmmmm. A reason to buy another guitar, me likey :lol:

 

[big_red]

I don't play metal, but I would definitely say most of our songs are hard rock. We play alt-rock-ish tunes and we have a few extra heavy ones that we love to play (ESPECIALLY when the crappy local metal bands put us first because we're "not very heavy," and then we play, and they have hilarious looks on their faces).

I use only E Standard and Drop D tuning so far. I have toyed with drop A (the one where you only drop the E string down to A, leave the rest alone. Some really neat sounds in that, including power chords separated by 2 octaves and having a major fifth, or something like that....?) and C standard, especially when messing around with QOTSA style progressions or just to fuzz it up.