Dropped A tuning
Dropped A tuning is an alternate tuning for a 7 string guitar where the lowest string is tuned down ("dropped") from the standard B by one whole step to A as follows A1-E2-A2-D3-G3-B3-E4. Also, for a 6 string guitar, dropped A tuning is achieved by tuning all strings down a 4th with the lowest string tuned 1 additional step down as follows A1-E2-A2-D3-F#3-B3. This is a "drop 1" tuning in the key of B (i.e. tune the whole guitar down a perfect fourth from standard tuning, then tune the 6th string a whole step down). As a result, it uses the same fingering as drop D tuning and drop C tuning.
An alternate dropped A tuning utilizes a guitar tuned to E Standard with the 6th string dropped to a low A, resulting in AADGBE with the 6th and 5th strings an octave apart.
Another variation of this tuning is AEADGB, which imitates a 7 on a six-string, excluding the high E.
Another dropped A tuning is AGCFAD ("drop perfect fourth in the key of the D", i.e. whole guitar is tuned down one step, then the lowest string is dropped to A).
AEADGBE / AEADF#B
- Amaranthe (on some songs in later albums)
- Amon Amarth (on some songs in later albums)
- A.N.I.M.A.L. - from "Poder Latino" to "Combativo" albums
- Asking Alexandria (on some songs in later albums)
- Bleeding Through (on some songs in later albums)
- Betraying the Martyrs (on most songs)
- Bloodbath
- Blotted Science
- Bury Your Dead (on the album Beauty and the Breakdown, and everything after)
- Carnifex
- Chelsea Grin
- Chimaira (on their first album, and some songs on their later albums)
- Coheed and Cambria (on the song "Gravity's Union")
- Conquering Dystopia
- Crowbar
- C.J. Pierce of Drowning Pool (on the song "Turn So Cold")
- A Day to Remember (on the songs "Same Book But Never The Same Page" and "Resentment")
- Delain
- Gabe Mangold of Enterprise Earth and Delusions of Grandeur (on Delusions of Grandeur's first two albums Omnipotence and Efficacy before adding a low E seventh string for later Delusions of Grandeur releases and Enterprise Earth releases)
- Desolated
- Distoriam
- DragonForce (on the song "Three Hammers")[1]
- Emmure
- Earth
- The Faceless (on some songs from the album In Becoming a Ghost)
- Fei Comodo
- Filter (in the songs "Columind" and "The Missing" from The Amalgamut)
- Zoltan Bathory and Jason Hook of Five Finger Death Punch (on the songs "Remember Everything", "Dot Your Eyes" and "Stuck in My Ways")
- Haken (7-string guitars)
- Lzzy Hale of Halestorm (on the song "I Am the Fire")[2]
- Peter Tagtgren of Hypocrisy
- Ice Nine Kills (on their recent material)
- Ill Niño (on their album Dead New World)
- Impending Doom
- In Extremo ("Nymphenzeit", "Sagrada Trobar" (AEADGB), "In diesem Licht", "Unsichtbar")
- In This Moment
- Infant Annihilator (on their album The Elysian Grandeval Galèriarch)
- Jinjer (on their album King of Everything)[3]
- King 810
- Ty Tabor of King's X[4] (on the albums Please Come Home... Mr. Bulbous and Ogre Tones)
- KYPCK (on many songs)
- Lacuna Coil
- Light the Torch
- Like Moths to Flames
- Make Them Suffer (on many songs)
- Buzz Osborne of The Melvins
- Motionless in White
- Muse (on the songs "Liquid State," "Citizen Erased", and "Supremacy".)
- New Years Day
- Nile[5]
- Oceano
- Of Mice & Men (on all bonus tracks on their album The Flood, and some tracks on their albums Restoring Force, Cold World, and Defy)
- Pain
- Pallbearer
- Parkway Drive (on a few songs from Deep Blue)
- Periphery (on their cover of Slipknot's "The Heretic Anthem")
- Pop Evil (on the song "Waking Lions")
- RED[6]
- Salduie
- Slipknot[7]
- Sleeping With Sirens (on select songs from How It Feels To Be Lost)
- Suicide Silence
- Sunn O)))
- Thy Art Is Murder
- Times of Grace (on a few songs)
- Upon a Burning Body
- Volumes
- Whitechapel
- Winterfylleth (on some songs)
- Within Temptation (on some songs)
- Wovenwar (on their album Honor Is Dead)
AADGBE
- Every Time I Die (on "Moor" from From Parts Unknown, "Indian Giver" on Ex Lives and "Fear and Trembling" on Low Teens)
- Filter (on "Welcome to the Fold")
- Foo Fighters (on "Stacked Actors")
- Helmet (on "Biscuits for Smut")
- Weasel Walter of Lake of Dracula
- Melvins (on "Boris")
- Neurosis (on all albums since Through Silver in Blood, along with drop D tuning and standard E tuning)
- Oxygen Thief (on "Self-Righting Mechanism" from album The Half-Life of Facts and EP One Day This Will All Be Fields)
- Radiohead (on "Bangers + Mash")
- Rage Against the Machine (on "Calm Like a Bomb")
- Them Crooked Vultures (on "No One Loves Me & Neither Do I", "Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up" and "Caligulove")
- Dez Nagle and Jo Ardiles of The Safety Fire[8]
- Thrice (on "The Earth Will Shake" from Vheissu)
- Torche
- Muse (on "Citizen Erased" and "Supremacy")
- Opeth (on "Sorceress")
AEADGB
- Coal Chamber (on some songs)
- Mike Mushok of Staind (usually tuned 1/2 down, but uses standard drop A on songs such as "King of All Excuses")
ADADGB/ADADGBE
- Dir En Grey (7 string guitars)
- Stam1na (nearly all 7 string songs)
- Mokoma (7 string guitars)
References
- "Three Hammers".
- "Rig Rundown - Halestorm's Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger". Premier Guitar. Premier Guitar. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
- Napalm Records (2016-05-30), JINJER - "King of Everything" Studio Diary #2 | Napalm Records, retrieved 2017-11-24
- "Ty Tabor of Kings X – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2008". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
- "Karl Sanders Talks About Nile's Tunings". FRET12. FRET12. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
- Armstrong, Anthony. "RED: Anthony Armstrong Guitar Lesson - Feed The Machine". RED. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
- "Rig Rundown - Slipknot's Mick Thomson and Jim Root". Premier Guitar. Premier Guitar. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
- "RIGGED: THE SAFETY FIRE GUITARIST DERYA "DEZ" NAGLE".