What tunings do you use?

[Dan_Vacant]

8 string standard
Drop A, standard and full step down on my 7 strings
And standard, half step, full strep down, drop c# drop c, open d, and a step and a half down on 6 sting.

 

[Jonathan20022]

E Standard/Drop D for a majority of my guitars

Alt 6 String
DADGAD
Eb Standard
Drop C
Drop A#

7 String
B Standard Floyd
Variations of B Standard/Drop A/Double Drop etc on the hardtail 7

 

[BusinessMan]

My tunings

Washburn dd60: been in c# for around... 6 years?

Solar e2.7- drop A

 

[BMFan30]

Just standard but I will be experimenting with different tuning soon since I've never done that before.

 

[Mboogie7]

I’ve played in E standard for 99% of my guitar playing life. I thought drop D was “meh” and it kind of turned me off to drop tunings as it just wasn’t inspiring to me.

Enter Drop C tuning. Holy wow I love the sound and am SUPER inspired. I can’t believe it took me over 14 years to try it but damn. Loving it so far.

 

[nightflameauto]

Six strings:
Standard
C Tune
B Tune
Drop C

Seven strings:
Standard
Drop A

Eight strings:
Standard
Half step down
Drop E on the bottom string
All the way down to C. The one right above the B string on a five string bass. Got my Labella bridge cables for that one. .115 on the low string.

 

[akinari]

ADADADG starting on A0 for the 34" 7 and EADADGBD on the 8 now.

 

[bjgrifter]

Coming back around:

Hadean ELS8: FA#FA#D#FA#D#
Agile Septor 727: AEADGBE
Jackson JS22-7: F#BF#BEG#C#
Jackson JS32: CGCFAD
Schecter Damien: C#F#BEG#C#
Squier Bullet: BEADF#B

Schecter Stiletto 5 Extreme: AEADG
Indio Jamm 5: A#D#G#F#

 

[wheresthefbomb]

B standard/drop A

Having easy access to A tuning is really handy because I play with a wide variety of instrumentalists. A harpist for example, has to sharp or flat eat string as necessary for the entire key before playing. If I'm already in A, then both of our lives are that much easier.

It's also possible that I'm just biased because I know the note positions in these tunings far better than any other, and interpret the results of that knowledge as us magically gelling because of the tuning that I'm in.

 

[Hoss632]

Drop C# and Drop C for the most part. I have messed around with Open C which sounds amazing under high gain with EMG's.

 

[BusinessMan]

Drop A on the 7, c# on the six, and looking at either an 8 string which I would put in F or another 6 I'd put in D/drop c

 

[Lan]

Fender Stratocaster - E Standard; great for Chili Peppers, Pink Floyd, King Gizzard, anything I tend to jam live

ESP horizon 6: Drop C; I actually use this for the bulk of my metal and numetal playing; SOAD, some Mastodon, Gojira, High on Fire, some Deftones, Fu Manchu etc. I use this tuning/guitar 80% of the time

ESP Horizon 7: Drop A; lower stuff like Cannibal Corpse, some Deftones again, Bloodbath

For the Drop C and drop A tunings, I run them through a pitch block on my QC to cover more ground; since there is a lot of material that is adjacent to those specific tunings

I try not to use the tone block for anything past +- half a tone if I can help it, and admittedly, I kind of fudge some stuff to fit into whatever tuning I’m in.

 

[Repo251]

i dont play hell metal, but i do likes alt tunings.. 73 sg in C# standard with 14-60 guage strings (fattest cleanish tone ever with vintage pups). my rg is also in C# with 12-50s, gibson lp in D with 12-52s, hagstrom jazzbox in Eb with 12s (tho i am gonna stick 13s on it and go to D) and epi lp in Eb with 10s. 3 taylors in D Eb and open G and my classical guitar is the only one in standard. I would argue D standard is the best, easiest to trasnpose on the fly, the open chords still work , can use Bb real book for jazz and easiest to capo... all these sound better to my ear too, especially D and C# and as i say i play almost clean, just transparent OD xotic pedals.. i don't use wound Gs on electrics...

 

[Tegara]

F# standard

 

[Manurack]

I have six guitars in my place, all set from standard tuning, down to my 7 string which was in B standard, but I currently have it set to A standard because I've been jamming to a lot of KoRn lately.

If I feel in a mood to play older Lamb of God? I'll grab my Epiphone Strat copy that's usually in standard tuning and drop the 6th string down to D. If I want to play old school Reign in Blood era Slayer? I'll grab my Goldtop. If I want to play Far Beyond Driven era Pantera? I'll grab my Ibanez RG. And so on and so on.

Every guitar has a different mood and are set to different tunings - because what's the point of owning 6 guitars all set to E standard tuning?

 

[STRHelvete]

Drop D...that's it. It used to be drop C# but I like D more....if you know what I mean

 

[Repo251]

Open-C all my life on my 6-string, with which I write and play 90% of my stuff.

7-String B-Standard for my other band and Bb-Standard for the rare instances where I want a full step more low end on the usual C.

which strings do you use for open C? does that mean its a C chord, or standard tuning down a third?

 

[WarMachine]

I’ve never owned a 7-string guitar.

My 6-strings are respectively at:
D Standard
C# Standard
C Standard

Occasionally I’ll drop the lowest string but mostly for transcriptions rather than my own writing— I don’t really care for drop tunings that much.

C# Standard is probably my favorite. It can get very heavy but still retains some youthfulness aka thrashiness. I don’t know if that makes sense.

No 7 bangers for me either lol.

C# standard
Drop B
Drop Bb
Drop A

That 'tis all.

 

[Choop]

When first doing metal stuff I started tuning pretty low, but have been gradually bringing it back up. Now my tunings are:

Gibson V: D Standard
Gibson SG: Eb
Gibson Explorer: E Standard
Fender Jaguar: Eb

Fender P Bass: D Standard

Schecter C7: B Standard

Pretty normal I guess -- I really like the feeling of the chords that I use when playing a half step down (Eb), so the V and bass may move toward that as well. I used open C for a while after getting into Devin Townsend, and that tuning is super fun and a nice creative break from the standard stuff. Anymore I tend to avoid drop tunings because i think it makes my playing too boring haha, unless playing a cover or something.

 

[coreysMonster]

These are the tunings I've used for songs over the years:

6 string: E/Eb standard, Drop D/Db/C, Open C/B
7 string: Bb standard, Drop A
8 string: F standard, drop Eb, F standard with a dropped Ab

Weirdest tuning is probably the F standard with a dropped Ab, which I used to be able to do some droning stuff on the 7th, 6th and 5th strings, but still having the low F available.