Picking your guitar tuning?

[Esp Griffyn]

B standard on a 7 string for me. When I got my K-7 it was in A standard from the factory, but I tuned it up to B for the Steve Vaiz etc. I liked the way B sounded and felt so I stuck with that. If I have 6 strings they are usually tuned to C standard as I like that tuning for death metal, though I left my Yngwie strat in E as I liked the snap it had in E standard.

 

[Muzakman]

It depends on how it sounds, If I have a riff in guitar pro I usually experiment with the tuning somewhat. Sometimes I just think "This song would be much more accesible with a dropped tuning" If I have a slower riff that needs that real heavy low punch I usually go for the lower tunings since it gives the song more meat. Imagine Meshuggah in E Standard!

I think all of these things are up to preference and that the more you write the more you get to know what directions you usually go.

 

[Chuck]

I use All-Fourths tunings religiously these days, so EADGCF, DGCFA#D#, C#F#BEAD, BEADGCF and so on

 

[wrongnote85]

Same answer here actually. Standard Ab/Eb is just right...it sings from one minute and the next it smashes faces with hammers.

Bb

 

[GatherTheArsenal]

Always play in standard tunings - i alternate depending on how many strings i've got and range, usually the less strings i have, the lower I go in tuning. And usually switch up genres with each guitar in favor of the tuning I'm in and how notes/chords sound, so:

6-string: standard C or Csharp (death and groove metal all day)

7-string: standard D with a low A (melo-death, thrash, lots of groove) I love the extra low octaves in this tuning, and in general it works well and feels comfortable to play in, given the right gauge of strings/tension/proper setup/etc.)

8-string extended range: FAEADGBE (I'd be lying if I didn't mention Djent, lots of clean playing though, playing becomes more leads-inspired because the extra range is comfortable to play leads in, and generally tend to play... errrm "happier"... metal)

Maybe once every 6 months I'll drop the lowest string and play in a dropped tuning like drop G or drop B for oh... maybe 5 minutes tops I just can't get into it! I don't like how chords sound at all, and it feels like with the lack of tension (in comparison) i lose so much articulation on the low string... and I'm all bout gettin' mah articulati-ON!

Makes it hard to join a metal band koz the fair majority drop their low strings.

 

[Señor Voorhees]

Whatever feels good is what I tend to use. I use both standard and drop tunings. For six strings I use E standard, Drop D and D standard. For Sevens, it's usually either B or A standard, but sometimes drop A. 8 string is almost exclusively drop E, with me slowly leaning towards EAEADGBE for the simple fact that I think it sounds really cool if you mimic the rhythm an octave lower, and on top of getting that lower range, you keep the higher range for leads. On sixes, I've actually written riffs in D standard just to find out later that they're just simpler to play in drop D so even though the song was written/recorded in D standard, I perform it in drop D.

For what it's worth, the majority of the stuff I play/write is on a seven string in A standard, and a lot of it could be played on a six in D standard. I find that D is my comfort zone. It sounds nice and heavy without going too nuts. The A is there in case I need the range, which I do use fairly frequently.

 

[TheWarAgainstTime]

I use drop A and Ab on 7's and drop C and B on 6's because a lot of my playing is learning/playing other band's songs it's fun haha

I like writing in drop B the most lately for 6 string stuff, and drop A for 7

 

[JustMac]

D standard yo.

 

[nostealbucket]

6 strings: C# standard because of btbam and intronaut.

7 strings: Drop A for one and C# standard (low G#) for the other.

 

[Basti]

Bb

Yeah, edited.

 

[ncfiala]

All fourths a half-step down is all I use right now.

 

[sawtoothscream]

I like drop c.

 

[ThePhilosopher]

Open Tunings (C, Bb, and G-this one is GDGDGB for my baritone) and All 5ths.

 

[Osorio]

Even though I never ever sing "for realz", my guitar is tuned in D Standard because it suits my voice and I find it easy to harmonize over anything I'm playing...

I also like the convenience of the tuning. Capo on the 2nd fret is an E Standard guitar, capo on the 1st is for all those god forsaken people that choose to playing on Eb. And doing any drop versions of any of those is easy as well... So, yeah, 6 fairly easy to achieve tunings with one setting; which conveniently cover about 97% of all metal music that I'm interested in playing. Cool stuff. I really wish I had thought of this earlier.

I've also been pretty big on retarded open tunings. I had a 6 string that was tuned to B7sus2 for the LONGEST while (about 4 years if I'm not mistaken. Maybe more).

 

[danger5oh]

I try to keep several guitars in several different tunings so that I can play whatever I feel like at the moment. If I had to pick one, I mainly do vocals, and have mostly done so playing stuff in D#/Drop C#, but I don't really have a preference. In the past, I've tuned my guitars to whatever tuning each guitar reminded me of, for example, Drop G# for my Regius 7 a la Periphery, etc.

Now, I keep a 6 tuned to D/Drop C, a 7 tuned to A#/Drop G#, an 8 tuned to good ol' F#, and my acoustic is in D#. This pretty much covers all of my bases, as I can play the 8 as a 6 in Drop D or a 7 in B Standard, and the 7 as a 6 in Drop C# if I feel the need to.

 

[UV7BK4LIFE]

I hear music in my head first, then try to get it out of the guitar. Sometimes, the lowest notes just isn't there. So I may need another tuning then.

It is the most inspiring way of working for me but the drawback is 10 axes in 6 tunings...

 

[coffinwisdom]

Everything just sounds good in Drop C. That's the lowest I like to go on a 6 string.

7 strings Bb standard, Drop Ab, Drop G.

Drop G is real moody and dark sounding

 

[sniperfreak223]

It is the most inspiring way of working for me but the drawback is 10 axes in 6 tunings...

nothing to be ashamed of there...I have 38 guitars in 24 tunings.

 

[maxturbator]

My band plays in drop A#, which I've been protesting for a while now. I guess we originally liked the sound of it the best, but with my guitarist's pickups (I'm on bass) it's totally mud. No one seems to be bothered by it but me.

At home I play mostly in drop C (a la Periphery, and this local band Mouth of the Serpent) and drop B (a la Wretched, ISIS).

 

[larry]

I guess I could cite necessity as the main reason for selecting my tunings.

started out on standard, like most people.. then bought a 7 string and wanted to learn a lot of the nu-metal I was listening to back then (mostly korn). didn't really put a lot of effort into finding out what tunings were being used, just listened for the lowest note and went from there. coincidentally I heard 'A' as the lowest root and dropped my 7th string to that giving me aeadgbe.. this worked out really well, I was able to play a lot of different songs. then I jumped into a band and the other guitarist messed around in d standard, so I tuned my 2nd rg to gdgcfad. wrote material in both tunings for a long while.

now I don't have a band and have switched to 8 strings. I still wanted to be able to play music written in both tunings but without the need for another guitar, so I settled on ebeadgbe. I like having an open low b and the dropped E has an unforgiving quality to it, which forces me to write differently.