A slightly different tuning

[K-lum]

Basically tuning to 6 string B standard but with an extra high string, just wondering if anyone here uses it or knows if its a good idea... I havent had a chance to try it as my friend stopped me tuning his guitar after i put it into devins open C...

 

[Robrecht]

Yep, I play in a doom-death metal band where the other guitarist plays a six string in B standard, so I tune my 7 the same apart from the extra high E-string. I like it; it's easy to get used to, all the common chord shapes work (they just sound a 4th lower), and with some (like the A-shape) you can incorporate the high E-string.

Plus, it's super easy to go from
B-E-A-D-F#-B-E
back to standard 7
B-E-A-D-G-B-E: just one string to retune by half a step!

 

[tripforks]

I like doing this with sixers and sevens, and 8s if I had one. I like to think of it as adjusting where the "break" in standard tuning is. BEADGBE, BEADF#BE, BEADGCE, etc.

 

[Winspear]

It hugely changed my approach to the guitar. I didn't do it in B however. I was adding a high A (EADGBEA) and tried to tune it like a 7 in B tuned up instead (EADGCEA). Changing where the 'break' is like tripforks said indeed. It's weird what one string did to my mindset even when just riffing around the bottom at usual. I didn't like it personally. It made me approach it like a 7 in B with a pitch shift pedal, i.e. I was playing a lot of stuff that should've sounded heavier than it did. Whereas in EADGBEA I was treating it like a standard tuned guitar with a high A. From this experience, I'd expect, if playing in BEADF#BE, to find the inverse - that things were sounding heavier than I intended, as it's like EADGBEA tuned down so I'd likely be thinking of it as a 6 which would be neat.

 

[K-lum]

Awesome, my friend looked a bit confused when i tryed to explain lol, I will have to try this soon

 

[Robrecht]

Tell your friend not to worry: tuning one string half a step lower (G to F#) isn't that hard to undo if he doesn't like it!

 

[K-lum]

Yeah we've since all moved out of that so unless he lends me it i doubt ill get to try, i need to get my own... whats a decent starting 7-string, cost very much a factor, preferably longer scale and not bothered about pups as i can always change them later. Sorry a bit of a subject changer...