Anyone tuning to E?

[SickBoy]

Geez, I was just reading Matt's thread about string gauges and it reminded me how many times I thought "I must be the only geek here tuning to E"

Seriously, you folks are always about tuning to B, drop A#, C# or whatever "almost bass" tuning. Are there any souls left here tuning to standard tuning or am I an outlaw here?

 

[Kazrog]

3 of my 7 guitars are tuned standard. I definitely like to do focused practice in standard tuning. At the same time, I don't like to write in standard, I always find myself wanting to go lower. Maybe it's because I am a baritone singer.

 

[commandante]

I tune to E and Eb.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

I was shocked when I found out Dimmu plays at E. Hell, I'm still shocked.

 

[Skaldir]

Many Black Metal bands play in standard tunings. I have a Pagan Metal band which tunes to E and a Death Metal and which tunes to C

 

[Nuk3m]

Well im in B, which is normal for a 5 string bass. Am i a geek? im thinking so.

 

[Ermz]

I tune to E. Hopefully adding the extra string when a new guitar comes in to handle all the sludge-riffing needs. Overall though I just preffer standard tuning to anything else. It just sounds the most 'right', in particular when clean or acoustic sounds are used.

 

[Torniojaws]

I use standard 7-string tuning. The only exception is my Jackson, which I keep in A-tuning for our death metal band that tunes to D.

As for black metal - almost all the bands use standard tuning, since it creates a much tighter and screechier sound. To my knowledge, Satyricon is the only better known BM band that does not use standard tuning, and at that, D#-tuning

Other than that, the only non-6-string standard is when Ihsahn used a standard tuned 7-string on Emperor's Prometheus.

 

[SteelRat]

I'm still tuned standard as well...and I've read some interviews with Opeth where they talk about standard tuning being best, as it's what the guitar was designed to be tuned to, and gives the best sound and sustain...

Besides, I've always believed that it's not the depth of the tuning that makes a riff heavy, it's the heaviness of the riff that makes the riff heavy.

But I will admit, downtuning can really give you some new riff ideas...sometimes I downtune for a couple of months to get some more ideas, and then I usually go right beck to standard...odd, that...

 

[Nitronium Blood]

I really like standard tuning

But it is fun to play in D.

 

[metalizer]

I also use standard tuning on my 7string

 

[commandante]

and gives the best sound and sustain...

Not trying to start an argument or anything. The best sound part is subjective and I can see what you mean by that, but sustain doesn't have to do with tuning at all.

 

[Fabbio]

I have a strato Squier tuned to regular E and the Ibanez 7 strings at E plus the B low string, of course.

The other two guitars at 1 step lower.

It turns out that we're not few that still like the standard tuning.
But I can say that the metal music I tend to play and record in D and the E tuning is for arpeggiatos bits, instrumental things and clean mostly.

 

[JeffTD]

Both of my guitars are tuned in E, and my band only writes in E. We're like a melodic/thrash/death/orchestral metal band.

That said, C# is one of the funnest tunings to play in, for some reason. My next guitar will be setup for that.

 

[James Murphy]

Not trying to start an argument or anything. The best sound part is subjective and I can see what you mean by that, but sustain doesn't have to do with tuning at all.

oh?.... Physics begs to differ with you on that. .. hey, i tried to talk it out of having me call you on this, but you know how those Immutable Laws of Science types can get... downright persnickity.

 

[Mendel]

my new song is just standard ( lol it became black metal )

and that band mesuggah tunes to F O:O!! ( but they have 8 string guitars so . . .)

 

[BrandonS]

All of the songs I wrote for my band's demo are in E tuning with a 6 string guitar and a 4 string bass. I have a couple clips you can listen to in my signature. On the solo improv clip, you can barely hear the acoustic rhythm because I had to play it on electric because I don't own an acoustic guitar yet. I hate the clicky sound from playing electric clean like that, so I have it turned way down.

I think we're planning on making one more song, but doing it in drop-D.... I guess you could call it the ball-busting destroyer that comes after all the other songs. I knew I wanted to make a full heavy song but I've just recently been considering doing it in drop D..

 

[gibson5413]

All three are standard tuning.

 

[AmirH]

I only play standard. The only time I downtune is when I go to jam with this group of friends once or twice a month and they all tune to Eb. Oh, and once when I was learning a bloodbath song or something but long story short- I completely screwed over my guitar by putting huge strings on it to compensate for floppiness and ended up having to get a new nut.

 

[Torniojaws]

and that band mesuggah tunes to F O:O!! ( but they have 8 string guitars so . . .)

Incidentally, they only tune half a step below standard Except for the songs where they use F-tuning. I think they do that in the drop-D way. Ie. the guitars are in standard tuning, but the low-G is dropped to F.