tuning down to Eb

scruffydoo

scruffydoo

Inspired
I've been tuning down to Eb lately on a couple of guitars and gotta say I love the slinky feel for bends/vibrato and the new slightly deeper sound, particularly on a strat which has suddenly come alive. I'm not in a band so there's no retuning for others or singers to placate so it's no big deal for me.

I'm thinking of changing all my guitars, anyone else go all in, or note any downsides?
 
Singers invariably love it. Don't even tell them, and they will be all "Wow, I'm on fire tonight. I'm hitting all the high notes. I rock..."

Tuning down can get to be addictive. I started with a little bit of Eb so I could hang with my friends... Now I have an 8 string with a low F# :)
 
I went to Eb in 1999/2000 and never looked back. I'm very frequently in Drop D down a 1/2 step, so Drop Db. I just love the sound of a low Db.
 
My band plays in Eb (to help save the singer) so most of my guitars are setup that way. No drawbacks. I keep a few in E so I can learn songs/jam to albums. Also when I go jam with others an E guitar may be needed.
 
Eb for as long as i've played.. guitar to me sounds right in Eb, hate E. Drawbacks are some singers cant adapt, well bad singers cant adapt.
 
I fought the "Concert Pitch" all my guitar life of 30+ years and just went to Eb last year. What was I thinking??? Anyway, glad I did. I don't gig anymore so that's not an issue. There are sometimes that I like the sound of E, tho. I have s Surh basswood with 10's tuned to E and I can't explain why I like it? My other Surh is mahogany and it has 9s tuned 1/2 down and I love it too. Mostly my struggle has always been getting a good vibrato for the tonic note on the fourth string. So going down a 1/2 mostly helped that. Playing guitar is hard enough. Eb really opens things up and I can get a little more expression going. Nice thread, btw.
 
I play 7's in B standard quite a lot or 6 in C standard. Going back to E standard feels really weird these days.
 
I absolutely hate it/can't do it-
it was a real struggle when I was in a band for 3 years that only tuned down 1/2 step

Basically it screws up my ears- i play guitar with my head not my fingers so when i want to play the note thats in my head- i can't find it and it screwed everything up

I hate it
 
H3O2 said:
I fought the "Concert Pitch" all my guitar life of 30+ years and just went to Eb last year. What was I thinking??? Anyway, glad I did.
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know what you mean, somehow felt Eb was cheating so stayed in 440, for about the same time actually :D
 
I keep one guitar in Eb, the rest in concert pitch.

On the fingering is different to what I am hearing, I just adjust reasonably well between the two but I do get what Jeries is saying.
 
Jeries said:
I absolutely hate it/can't do it-

Basically it screws up my ears- i play guitar with my head not my fingers so when i want to play the note thats in my head- i can't find it and it screwed everything up

I hate it
Click to expand...
I'm the same way... plus my guitars are setup (w/ Trem) for 440Hz... tuning down makes all the strings "loose" and I keep hitting the wrong notes on leads.

In any band I've been in, we change the freakin' key of the song if the singer can't hit the intended key... we don't down-tune the guitars to compensate! There are some songs (at church) that I've played in FIVE or SIX different keys - depending on which male/female singer is up that week.

Yes, I understand that some genre's require the step downs... but.. other than playing open strings in Eb, it's not that hard to move it up the neck. I'd rather stay at 440 and change the key being played rather than change the guitar tuning. YMMV.
 
We do it. I like the feel, though it was singer driven. The other guitar player took over singing tasks since we couldnt find one, and for him to cover what we wanted to do, and for his voice to last 3 sets-we drop a half step and stick in an instrumental or two.
 
Depends on the guitar for me. I love my strat dropped to Eb, but my les paul just has to be in standard to make it sing like it should.
 
Maybe Hendrix was on to something! Makes guitars come alive for me.

When I graduated from Berklee in '84 I tuned down. Haven't been back since!
Plus I am a singer that sings high rock songs all night long. 1/2 step down on 40 songs a night for 29 years has no doubt helped the longevity of my singing career.
 
I always keeps one of my strats in Eb tuning, but the rest of them are regular concert pitch .. I guess just for convenience while playing along to music, youtube videos and such ..
Surely I could do that as well in Eb .. don't know habits are hard to break I guess

:)


my 2 cents

//Kenneth
 
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