Why you prefer lower tunings over E standard?

[STRHelvete]

I got into playing guitar during the nu-metal era so drop C was all the rage. I played around with different tunings but found myself going up more and more over the years. Drop D now works for me. It's the happy heavy medium that works best. Every now and then I'll do drop C# just for fun and for extra chug but everything goes back to drop D eventually. I pretty much just do whatever feels and sounds good and it just leads me there every time

 

[myhandhurts]

When playing in E, I play differently than I do in C, B, and A#, along with feeling like everything that I play has already been played hundreds of times by other bands. Even when it comes to a bit more fast and technical playing, I feel like I'm just recreating what bands like Sylosis have been doing for however long

Also B and A# are just a lot more fun to mess around with, since those are what some of my favorite bands (Entombed, Nevermore, In Flames, Soilwork, etc) use most of the time.

 

[lattjeful]

Unga bunga chug chug

 

[p0ke]

I'm actually into A-standard at the moment. And I'm not talking 7-string one step down, I mean 5 semitones up from standard tuning.

For me it's not about how high or low it is, different tunings just inspire different stuff.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

I pretty much always play in either E standard, D standard or BEADF#B/ AEADF#B depending on my mood/which 6 string I pick up.

ERGs are a whole other can of worms. I use a way bigger variety of tunings with my 7 and 8 strings

 

[gh0styboi]

At this point, I actively dislike standard. Most of my guitars are in either D standard or Drop C, and I play the most regularly in E1 standard, Drop C, and A standard - so standard seven string tuning down a whole step.

As for why, honestly I just prefer the overall sound. It's thicker, sounds rounder, and is more percussive to my ear. But I started out on bass before I started guitar, so that probably has a fair amount to do with it.

 

[teamSKDM]

I just prefer drop tunings in terms of playing. I like the chord shapes better. A lot of that might have to do with a lot of the bands I really got into played in Eb or Drop tunings, usually D-B growing up. Drop A when you include stuff like Korn or Slipknot. So my ear just is in tune with that more. But there's plenty of older rock n roll that I like that's in standard as well. For me personally I like 6 strings in Drop C# to Drop B the most.

i played in drop tunings for probably 10 years until i eventually came around to liking standard variations more. a big part of it for me is the tone. even if its something like G standard vs drop G , G standard will be much punchier tighter and clearer in tone. ive come to notice something about drop tuning has less definition and punch and is overall muddier even tuned to the same note. ive done countless A/B testing for friends to show this and its always funny seeing them realize drop tuning sounds worse.

 

[Captain Shoggoth]

I played 8s in drop E for years but I gave up on standard because the 8.5s I used for the high E were too fragile.

I play in drop C# with a low A# on a 7. It feels immensely satisfying for all kinds of harmonic minor/phrygian dominant metal & hardcore riffing. 6th string drop stuff feels familiar, 7th string octaves feel familiar, lots of cool interplay between them.

On sixes I prefer standard tunings for barre chord voicings, especially essential for anything with less gain IMO. D is my favourite; E through C# are all cool. C and B don't speak to me at all.

i played in drop tunings for probably 10 years until i eventually came around to liking standard variations more. a big part of it for me is the tone. even if its something like G standard vs drop G , G standard will be much punchier tighter and clearer in tone. ive come to notice something about drop tuning has less definition and punch and is overall muddier even tuned to the same note. ive done countless A/B testing for friends to show this and its always funny seeing them realize drop tuning sounds worse.

Mismatched string gauges probably have something to do with it. Low E string in drop is too loose, goes too sharp when played, whereas people are using more balanced sets in standard tunings. Broke my usual .62 for A# today and swapped it for a .68, was worried it'd sound too dull but actually fixed all my tonal problems with my 7th string.

 

[youngthrasher9]

I play exclusively by myself and without a bass backing track. I like to feel the chugs in my bowels without my ears bleeding.

 

[TheWarAgainstTime]

It's not that I think tuning down necessarily sounds heavier or better so much as that's just what I'm used to hearing and what makes me feel most inspired to play and write

I grew up mostly listening to metalcore/melodeath and have ended up using drop B as my main 6 string tuning for jamming and songwriting. I got into 7 strings because of After The Burial and Periphery, so I've pretty much always tuned down from standard on that front as well

 

[NickK-UK]

After building my own 7 string 28.625" scale guitar recently with 61-10 strings on, so far the only tuning I've experimented is drop 7th string:
BE-e tuning is simple enough and expands the vertical movement rather than resorting to horizontal movement.
AE-e tuning is fun because a power cord is simply a finger bar.
FE-e tuning seems to be playable
OEE-e drop octave E is quasi-playable but needs an increase in string gauge to 68 or 72 to get clarity through string tension

What I've found is that many music programs still seem to assume 6 string and standard tuning so careful on assumed high pass filters etc. It's getting alot better.

 

[Hoss632]

i played in drop tunings for probably 10 years until i eventually came around to liking standard variations more. a big part of it for me is the tone. even if its something like G standard vs drop G , G standard will be much punchier tighter and clearer in tone. ive come to notice something about drop tuning has less definition and punch and is overall muddier even tuned to the same note. ive done countless A/B testing for friends to show this and its always funny seeing them realize drop tuning sounds worse.

I will say when it comes to standard tunings that sound great I find that D Standard is probably my favorite, even compared to Drop D. Much for the some of the reasons you state.

 

[SalsaWood]

As others have said, it really doesn't matter. The intervallic proportions are the same for every written song, and within about two whole steps of range it's largely preference and/or equipment optimization. Once you get stupid low the frequency length changes the practicality of things, a lot, but it's the same songs even then. The distance between 1 and 8 is the same distance between 8 and 16. Lots of folks end up settling into what they prefer or find most practical to play/mix. Kind of like how you can change the color temperature for photos, warmer or cooler might be "better", but it's the same picture at the end of the day.

 

[PuckishGuitar]

Another part of this question that I haven’t seen brought up yet here, especially for folks in live bands: how does your vocalist change what tunings you use? Does the vocalist change pitch to match the music or vice versa? And live do you tend to use a different tuning to make it easier for the vocalist to play a set?

 

[TedEH]

how does your vocalist change what tunings you use?

When I told him we'd need to file his nuts to tune lower, he refused for some reason. I otherwise try to avoid tuning the singer.

 

[TheBolivianSniper]

Drop C sounds like when I first got into metal, same with drop D. Drop A 7 string just makes sense with the bands I like to jam to and it works for most bands I'd play with. Drop G# 6 string is car bomb tuning and it also sounds great.

I don't play in standard a lot for distorted stuff since it just doesn't sound like what I hear in my head. Most of my own ideas work in lower tunings or on 7 string, either for more options or just because that's the kind of music I listen to a lot.

 

[Christopher Har V]

Joe Satriani plays a half-step down, Eb Standard, on a lot of his songs. I think that's part of what gives his music such a magic sound. I personally am always in standard 7-string or drop A, it's just so much easier to think of the same frets as the same notes. Also being a floyd rose player I really hate changing tuning.
But when I play back my own recordings in my DAW, I can speed up the tempo which raises the pitch too, and if I play it back at 1.2x speed it raises the key by 3 half-steps (from G to Bb, for example). The new key sounds so good and adds a certain type of magic that is lacking from my catalog of songs... because I never write in Eb or Bb as a standard-tuning player, not for more than a brief passage anyway.

1.2X SPEED Key Change