Newbie question about tunings

[stennukas29]

Hi, right now im playing with 6-string guitar with standard tuning in my band. Lots of songs are ment to play in drop D, so its easy to tune that e string down a step. But im considering buying a 7-string guitar, is it possible to play with drop d with a 7string? what would be the tuning of the fat b string? also 1 step down?

 

[bouVIP]

When I tune to drop d on a 7 I just leave the b string as is and ignore it when I play.

 

[stennukas29]

but i would like to use it as well, is there any way to tune it 1 step down or do i have to settle with B on it?

 

[Orgalmer]

You can still use your low B string if you tuned the rest of your seven to drop D.

If you wanted to have a power chord on the B and E strings then you'd need to drop it down to G on the low B string (G D A D G B E). That's quite low so depends if you want to do that - personally it'd probably be a lot easier keeping it in B on the 7th string.

 

[Contra]

If you specifically wanted to maintain the drop D tuning on the first six strings, yeah, adding an A on the seventh like ADADGBE would be a totally viable option if you ask me.

 

[stennukas29]

tnx for answering

 

[7stg]

Drop the 6th to D2 and 7th to A1 or drop the 7th again to G1 or leave the 7th at B1 which is not as useable as the other options. Just use a bit thicker string gauge. I would recommended a 27 inch scale.

 

[Grindspine]

but i would like to use it as well, is there any way to tune it 1 step down or do i have to settle with B on it?

You could drop the 6th string from E to D, then drop the low B string to A. It would kinda screw up chord forms and scales. If you're wanting to use a drop tuning, you've already screwed up those forms/scales though. If most of the songs are written for drop-D, you might as well just tune ADADGBE, like Contra and 7stg said above.

 

[Sephael]

Or you put the 6 in drop D full time and get the 7 for drop A so you can still play stuff in standard using it.

 

[stevexc]

Be really cool and get a 27" 7-string, slap a ridiculous thick string on there, and tune to EDADGBE to get some cool Mastodon-style octave action between the low two strings (playing a power chord shape on the low E and D will give you two notes an octave apart - sounds awesome in D standard!)