All Topics  
Dropped A tuning

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Dropped A tuning
 
 
  Topics Dropped A tuning Topic Home

Drop A Tuning is an alternate tuning for an electric guitar. It is of a very low pitch and requires extra-thick strings to use. Modifications to the guitar might also be needed. It is three and a half tones (7 semitones) lower than the standard guitar tuning, so the result looks like this: A-E-A-D-F?-B'. There are also two alternate versions of Drop A: A-A-D-G-B-E and A-E-A-D-F?-A. You can tune it to drop A by tuning the E string to the A at the 11 fret and tuning off of that or repeat that step on each string.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Dropped A tuning'
Start a new discussion about 'Dropped A tuning'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Drop A Tuning is an alternate tuning for an electric guitar. It is of a very low pitch and requires extra-thick strings to use. Modifications to the guitar might also be needed. It is three and a half tones (7 semitones) lower than the standard guitar tuning, so the result looks like this: A-E-A-D-F?-B'. There are also two alternate versions of Drop A: A-A-D-G-B-E and A-E-A-D-F?-A. You can tune it to drop A by tuning the E string to the A at the 11 fret and tuning off of that or repeat that step on each string. This tuning also works on regular and heavy gauge strings not just extra heavy or jazz strings.

Bands

Here are some bands who have used this tuning:
  • Aborted
    Aborted

    Aborted, formed in 1995, is a Belgium death metal band. Founded by vocalist Sven de Caluw?, Aborted released a demo tape and eventually were signed to Uxicon Records....
  • Bloodsimple
    Bloodsimple

    Bloodsimple is an United States of America Rock music band from New York City that formed in 2002 in music. They are currently signed to Warner Bros....
  • Bring Me The Horizon
    Bring Me the Horizon

    Bring Me The Horizon are an English deathcore band from Sheffield, Yorkshire. The band formed in the year 2004 from members of other bands within their local area....
     (Used on the album Suicide Season
    Suicide Season

    Suicide Season is the second studio album by United Kingdom metalcore band Bring Me the Horizon, released on September 29, 2008 through Visible Noise in the United Kingdom and Europe....
    )
  • Buckethead
    Buckethead

    Brian Patrick Carroll, better known as Buckethead, is an American musician and songwriter. He has released 25 solo albums and performed on over 50 more....
     (on some songs of his 2005 all-star album Enter the Chicken
    Enter the Chicken

    Enter The Chicken is the fourteenth studio album by musician Buckethead. The album was released on October 25, 2005 by Serj Tankian's label Serjical Strike....
    ).
  • Bury Your Dead
    Bury Your Dead

    Bury Your Dead is a five-piece hardcore band that hails from Worcester, Massachusetts, United States....
     (on the albums Beauty and the Breakdown
    Beauty and the Breakdown

    Beauty and the Breakdown is an album by the hardcore band Bury Your Dead. The album was released on July 11, 2006 on Victory Records. The artwork is akin to a storybook and the song titles are from fairy tales....
     and Bury Your Dead
    Bury Your Dead (album)

    Bury Your Dead is the first record made since the departure of former vocalist Mat Bruso. It is also the first full length album not to have all of the song titles follow a common theme, and is the band's fourth full length CD....
    )
  • Chelsea Grin
  • Carnifex
    Carnifex

    Carnifex is a latin word meaning "executioner". It can also refer to:Biology*Marsupial Lion - The Marsupial Lion*Cardisoma carnifex - a species of terrestrial crab...
  • Danger CAT
  • Deadsy
    Deadsy

    Deadsy is an United States Rock music band from California. They have played many shows in California, but have also toured nationally multiple times as well as touring as part of the Family Values Tour....
     (used as their only tuning)
  • Drop Theory
  • Floodtide
    Floodtide

    Floodtide is a 1949 in film British romantic drama film directed by Frederick Wilson and starring Gordon Jackson , Rona Anderson, John Laurie, Jimmy Logan, Elizabeth Sellars and Arthur Lowe....
  • Foo Fighters
    Foo Fighters

    Foo Fighters is an American Rock music band formed by singer/guitarist/drummer Dave Grohl in 1995. Grohl formed the group as a one-man project after the dissolution of his previous band Nirvana in 1994....
     (A-A-D-G-B-E on the song "Stacked Actors")
  • Ghost of a Fallen Age
  • Giant Squid
    Giant Squid (band)

    Giant Squid is a post-metal band from Sacramento, California, previously signed to The End Records....
     (A-A-D-G-B-E version)
  • I Put the Laughter in Slaughter
  • Impending Doom
    Impending Doom

    Impending Doom is a five-piece Christian death metal band from the Riverside, California/Corona, California area of California....
  • ISIS
    ISIS

    ISIS is an industry standard interface for technologies, developed by Pixel Translations in 1990 .ISIS is an open standard for scanner control and a complete image-processing framework....
  • Jesu
    Jesu (band)

    Jesu is an experimental rock band formed in 2003 by Justin Broadrick following the breakup of Godflesh. Jesu was the name of the last song on the final Godflesh release, Hymns , and Broadrick decided to adopt it as the name of his new project....
  • Job for a Cowboy
    Job for a Cowboy

    Job for a Cowboy is an American death metal band, formed in Glendale, Arizona, Arizona in 2003. They released their second extended play, Doom in 2005, and later that year signed with the Metal Blade Records label....
  • Korn
    Korn

    'Korn' is an American rock music band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The band's catalogue consists of nine consecutive debuts in the top ten of the Billboard 200, including a compilation album, Greatest Hits, Vol....
     (A-D-G-C-F-A-D tuning)
  • Taproot
    Taproot (band)

    Taproot is a four-piece nu metal group from Ann Arbor, Michigan, that has toured with bands such as Korn, Deftones, Staind, P.O.D., Disturbed, Chevelle, and Linkin Park....
     (Used on the album Welcome
    Welcome (album)

    Welcome is the second major label album by the rock music group Taproot . It was released on October 15, 2002. "Poem " served as the album's the lead single and became a smash hit, propelling the group to stardom....
    , specifically heard in the songs "Poem", "Myself" and "Sumtimes")
  • Mastodon
    Mastodon (band)

    Mastodon is a Grammy-nominated heavy metal music band and are one of the most notable bands in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. Formed in 1999 in music in Atlanta, Georgia by Brann Dailor, Bill Kelliher, Troy Sanders, and Brent Hinds....
     (Used a modified version, A-G-C-F-A-D, on "March of the Fire Ants","Iron Tusk","Circle of Cysquatch","Hunters of the Sky" and "Ol'e Nessie")
  • Memento
    Memento (band)

    Memento was an Australian hard rock band based out of the USA....
     (Used on songs "Below" and "Coming" on their only album)
  • Muse
    Muse (band)

    Muse are an English rock music band that was formed in Teignmouth, Devon, England in 1994. Since their inception, the band has comprised Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard ....
     (A-A-D-D-G-B-E seven string tuning on the song "Citizen Erased")
  • Nasum
    Nasum

    Nasum was a political Swedish band that played a mixture of grindcore and death metal. The band's name, meaning 'nose', was taken from the horror film Flesh for Frankenstein....
  • Nile
    Nile (band)

    Nile is an American death metal band from Greenville, South Carolina, South Carolina, formed in 1993. Their music and lyrics are inspired by Ancient Egyptian mysticism, history, religion, art, and stories by H....
     (A-E-A-D-F?-B)
  • Rotten Sound
    Rotten Sound

    Rotten Sound is a Finland grindcore band, formed in 1993 in Vaasa.Rotten Sound plays music in the same vein as Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror, lyrically attacking social issues such as greed, conformity and racism....
  • P.O.D.
    P.O.D.

    P.O.D. , is an American Christian Rock music band from San Diego, California. Formed in 1992, the band's line-up consists of vocalist Sonny Sandoval, drummer Noah Bernardo, guitarist Marcos Curiel, and bassist Traa Daniels....
     (A-D-G-C-E-A tuning on the song "Mark My Words")
  • Radiohead
    Radiohead

    Radiohead are an English alternative rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire. The band is composed of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway ....
     (on the song "Bangers + Mash")
  • Rage Against The Machine
    Rage Against the Machine

    Rage Against the Machine is an American Rock music band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1991. The band's lineup, unchanged since formation, consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford, and drummer Brad Wilk....
     (A-A-D-G-B-E on "Calm Like A Bomb")
  • SABO
    Sabo

    Sabo can stand for several things:*Sabotage*Migrant Hausa settlements in Yorubaland*Chris Sabo, former baseball player*S.A.B.O., Subsequent And Better Offer, a phrase used when, having been invited to attend a party or some such event, the invitee declines citing a subsequent and better offer....
  • Staind
    Staind

    Staind is an United States rock music band from Springfield, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, including lead singer/guitarist Aaron Lewis, lead guitarist Mike Mushok, bassist/vocalist Johnny April and drummer Jon Wysocki....
  • Slipknot
    Slipknot (band)

    Slipknot is an American heavy metal music band from Des Moines, Iowa, formed in 1995. Slipknot consists of nine members, the current band members are Sid Wilson, Joey Jordison, Paul Gray , Chris Fehn, Jim Root, Craig Jones, Shawn Crahan, Mick Thomson, and Corey Taylor....
     use drop A tuning on some songs from the Iowa
    Iowa

    The State of Iowa is a U.S. state in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland." It is bordered by Minnesota to the north, Wisconsin and Illinois to the east, Nebraska and South Dakota to the west, and Missouri to the south....
     album. These include "My Plague", "Everything Ends", "The Heretic Anthem", and "New Abortion". Dropped A is also found on their new single, "Psychosocial"
  • Suicide Silence
    Suicide Silence

    Suicide Silence is a four-piece deathcore band from Riverside, California, California....
     (7 String)
  • Sunn O)))
    Sunn O)))

    Sunn O))) is an American drone metal band in its broadest sense; however, the band incorporates elements of the dark ambient, black metal and Noise music genres as well....
     (A-E-A-D-F?-A version)
  • The Argent Dawn
  • The Berzerker
    The Berzerker

    The Berzerker is an extreme metal band from Melbourne, Australia. The band's music, heavily influenced by older death metal and grindcore, can be characterized as a fusion of death metal, industrial metal, and speedcore with a touch of Gabber techno....
     (A-D-G-C-E-A)
  • The Melvins
    The Melvins

    The Melvins are an American sludge metal band that usually perform as a power trio. Aside from the 1984 incarnation which included Buzz, Mike Dillard on drums, and Matt Lukin, Singer/guitarist Buzz Osborne and drummer Dale Crover are constant members....
     (used A-A-D-G-B-E on the song Boris
    Boris (song)

    Boris is a song by The Melvins on their 1991 album, Bullhead . Due to its extremely slow speeds and repetitive guitars it is often regarded as a doom metal song....
     on the 1991 album Bullhead
    Bullhead (album)

    Bullhead is an album by the Melvins released in 1991 through Boner Records. This album is notable for having longer song lengths than previous Melvins albums....
     along with "Koolegged" off Ozma, "The Fool, The Meddling Idiot" off Hostile Ambient Takeover, and "Dog Island", and "Nude With Boots" off Nude With Boots)
  • Thrice
    Thrice

    Thrice is an American band from Irvine, California. The group was founded in 1998 by guitarist/vocalist Dustin Kensrue and guitarist Teppei Teranishi while they were in high school....
     uses drop A on many of their songs off Vheissu
    Vheissu

    Vheissu is the fourth studio album by Thrice. It was released on October 18 2005 by Island Records and peaked at #15 on The Billboard 200 charts....
     and the Alchemy Index
    The Alchemy Index

    The Alchemy Index may refer to:*The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II, the first half of Thrice's Alchemy Index*The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV, the second half of Thrice's Alchemy Index...
     vol. I, Fire.
  • Whitechapel
    Whitechapel

    Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Hanbury Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and Commercial Road on the south....
     (7 String)


See also

  • List of guitar tunings
    List of guitar tunings

    Here is a comprehensive list of ways to tune a guitar:...
  • Guitar tuning
    Guitar tuning

    Guitar tunings are differing pitch arrangements of open strings used for the guitar. Many arrangements are possible, some of the most popular are detailed below....