tuning down my guitar for a certain part of a song

[departed]

so.. i'm pre-producing my bands EP at the minute and before we head into the studio we want to have everything 100% sorted musically and having it sound the best it possibly can.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3113678/Sneap%20Forum/idea123.mp3


now my problem with this part is that the chord during the chorus at 0:10 is annoyingly high for me to listen to. i'd like to play that chord an octave lower but as I'm in C that's not possible. for recording (obviously i can't do this live) should I tune down for the chorus to play that power chord an octave lower? admittedly theres no bass in there at the minute which might help.. but still

there are obviously problems i can run into doing this in the studio, strings will be looser and therefore sound different, but for the sake of this would it be okay to do this?

 

[BLUElightCory]

I'd save the current part to a separate take/track and track the lower part in its place - that way if you change your mind once the bass is in there you can easily revert to the original part.

I don't see any problem with detuning just for the recording; if that's the way you think it sounds best then do it!

 

[AHChris]

Yeah why not? Try it! Experiments like that are really cool and it might give your song just what it needs.

 

[ahjteam]

I recorded one of my songs ("fire", I posted the multitracks here) that had the rhythm guitars in drop C, bass was in drop D and the clean guitars were in standard E and I think the song turned out okay. So go for it.

 

[Plankis]

Yeah go for it. Just make sure the intonation is still perfect.

 

[derfbonker]

You could play a fourth with the high note being the root and have the bass play the lower octave to imply a lower chord.

 

[guitarguru777]

+1 ... you could have the bass play the entire chord while the guitar plays 5th and the Root an octave higher. It would make it better in a live setting

 

[cent73]

Derfbonker's idea is what I'd think in the first place. Another more crazy one would be to play the chorus an octave higher, except the offending chord, and detune this part digitally or use an octaver pedal set 1 octave lower. This might yield some interesting results.

 

[amarshism]

Lost prophets have done this one a few of their songs that I know of. Just punch in the chord tuned down or tune down for the whole part and move everything around accordingly to accommodate the tuning. I'm assuming the chord you're going for is an A# or B. When playing live I would play an inverted power chord to imply the lower chord. Example, you're playing an A# at the 10th fret or 3rd fret with a 5th string root, play the chord at the 3rd fret 5th string root, and then sound the 5th fret on the low c (the fifth of the chord). This will imply the chord A#.

 

[Rhys Llewellyn]

I once recorded a guitar solo on a fixed bridge that was just screaming out for a 4th fret G string harmonic dive bomb...

The recording engineer had his hand on my tuning peg in a very awkward twisted position in order to get the most amount of rotation in one smooth move when it called for it.

It came out excellently. Of course it didn't sound like an average dive bomb, it had it's own unique charm. The string stuck on the nut a beat before the next riff and made this bizarre twanging but musical sound... Something you probably could never achieve again kinda thing... We were very proud of it.

Shame it was a shit song in retrospect lol.

 

[kernelxsanders]

i tried to transcribe it with my guitar thats in dropped D, and if i did so correctly, the chords you are playing goes OPEN > 3 > 10 > 5 (being power chords on the top strings). if thats the correct progression, here is how you can make that 10th fret chord sound like its an octave lower without having to detune your guitar. take the 5th of that chord (which would be the note on the 5th string, 10th fret) and play the same note, but an octave lower (top string, 5rd fret) and you basically just add that note in the chord, but of course, youll have to play said chord in another position closer to the 5rd fret, so the chord would end up being: top string-5rd fret, 5th string-3rd fret, 4th string-5th fret. same concept applies to any power chords, because of that method i taught myself, i can play Acacia Strain's F#-tuned songs on a guitar tuned to dropped B

hope this helps you!