Half a step down

[Richy11]

Has anyone else noticed that alot of the most well know riffs are written in d sharp, half a step down whatever you wanna call it. Slash, Kurt Cobain, Rivers Coumo(Weezer)......................................................
Slash writes exclusively in it, Kurt Cobain wrote the majority of Nirvana's stuff in it. Infact I've been using it a hell of alot lately.
What I'm asking is does anyone else have a prefered tuning other than standard E?

[BG]

nup, standard is fine for me. Only time I tune down is when I'm playing to other guys who tune down.

[angry_young_poet]

only use it when the vocalist in the band can't reach the high notes in normal tuning..

[BG]

just change key, much easier than retuning.

[angry_young_poet]

well it's a pain if you have to play F# rather than an open G.. besides, i have one guitar in normal and one 1/2 a step down!

[TMG 03]

Hendrix and SRV all did the HSD thing.

[MaloS]

eh...2 very popular bands ( dream theater and symphony x) use even lower sounds. 1 uses 7-strings with a low B added and the other uses a 1 step down tuning. That is when the real heavy stuff begins.

I guess tuning 1 half step down is good for playing in key of C# and F# (and their relative flats)

[ash]

A whole step on all strings is pretty popular now. My band used to do that constantly. I didn't like having to change back to E, but two guitars would have helped.

Mike Mushok of Staind has his Baritone Ibanez tuned down SIX steps to A!!

My baritone Diablo will be two steps down.

[Rog]

I'm std tuning all the way - never caused me a problem.... like BG says - just change the key if it does!

[Richy11]

I've experemented with heaps of differant tunings but half a step down just seems to thicken up the sound a bit. And makes everything smoother.

[B45-12]

Yep - two favourites

1) Spanish (Vestapol) bottom to high DGDGBD used for songs like 'No regrets'

2) Cross note (minor?? whatever!) DADGCD for Cajun/blues. i.e. One kind favour, ma petite etc.

Of course on the older accoustic 12's you usually tune down to D sharp or D to avoid stuffing the neck/pulling up the table.

[The Scarecrow]

I tend to favor ol' Standard tuning - you can pretty much playing anything in standard, or at least rework it to sound passable. I do Drop-D sometimes, in my old alt-rock bank, all our harder numbers were in Drop D, just makes it easier and faster to play those chugging chords. I'm not a fan of drop D power-chords; it's the lazy man's way to play, but a good example of Drop-D used nicely is the Foo Fighters "Everlong."

My band did experiment with tuning a half-step down for a while, but found it too hard to stay in tune, as we'd all automatically retune to standard between songs out of habit. The only other tuning I've used is Drop C i.e Drop D'ing and then going another half-step down, it's used a lot by Pacifier - the song "Run" is a great example.

Standard just works for me, but I play 4-chord blues-rock most of the time, so it's easiest not to stray.

[Rog]

Back to the original question:
> Has anyone else noticed that alot of the most well know riffs are written in d sharp, half a step down whatever you wanna call it. Slash, Kurt Cobain, Rivers Coumo(Weezer).

No, I haven't noticed that, but then, in fairness, I don't listen to the people you've named. Most of the well-known riffs in my world are from people like Clapton, BB King, Gary Moore, SRV and the like. With that in mind, I have no idea what tuning they are in.

[ash]

The MW amp tech isn't a guitar player, but he has one to test amps with. He tunes it as well as he can to drop D so he can do power chords. He is known as the one finger wonder as a result...

[Tsuken]

Standard (concert pitch) does it for me. I used to tune to Eb for a while though.

Basically tuning flat will mean less tension on your strings, whihch changes the sound a bit, and makes it easier to do some things - like wide bends. - Or use heavier strings, without significantly increasing the string tension (depending on how heavy the strings, and how far you tune down, of course).