Tuning up the same as tuning down?

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Musicman24

New Member
Hey guys, i have got a question for you? Everyone knows that you lose sound if you use the pitch block to tune your guitar down, is this also true if you tune it up? I need to tune my guitar up a half step for some songs and up a whole step for other songs, is it a dumb idea to use the pitch block for rehearsal and live performance? And do i need to use the "virtual capo" function for that?Thank you
 
Yes, you’d want use the Virtual Capo.

In regards to whether or not you should use it, if you don’t have the ability to tune up a half or full step during your performance or don’t have another guitar or guitars to set up in those particular tunings, then the Virtual Capo is likely your best option.

Personally, I’d probably throw on a physical capo and call it a day.

Give it a try!
 
Because i bought a strandberg seven string and because of the tremolo system i dont wanna retune the guitar all the time, i tuned the low B to an A and i wanna relearn the songs of my band that i previouly played on drop A# on the 7 string so i have to tune it up a half step, i dont wanna play metal riffs with a capo. Thats why i was asking the question if tuning it up is the same as tuning it down when it comes to losing tone
 
Try it out. Easy to do and then you know. I like the VC. It sounds a little processed but not in a bad way. Both up and down.
 
IMHO, the best route is to have a guitar tuned and set up for the music/band you're playing. Why would you tune/set up your guitar to something else than the music you're going to be playing?

If that's not an option then virtual capo is a good alternative. In my experience the virtual capo is slightly better when tuning down a half step than when tuning up a half step. When going up, it start to sound a bit too "chipmunky" for me. That's why I use a real capo. There are 7-string capos out there.

In my situation, I only need to tune down for 5 out of 36 songs a gig, so virtual capo does the job. I use a real capo on 1rst fret for one song.

Having said all this, if the majority of the time you need the virtual capo on, you should probably be tuning your guitar differently IMHO, unless of course you're Ok with the virtual capo sound.

Either way, it's pretty easy to just try out the virtual capo and hear for yourself.
 
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Sergius9 said:
IMHO, the best route is to have a guitar tuned and set up for the music/band you're playing. Why would you tune/set up your guitar to something else than the music you're going to be playing?

If that's not an option then virtual capo is a good alternative. In my experience the virtual capo is slightly better when tuning down a half step than when tuning up a half step. When going up, it start to sound a bit too "chipmunky" for me. That's why I use a real capo. There are 7-string capos out there.

In my situation, I only need to tune down for 5 out of 36 songs a gig, so virtual capo does the job. I use a real capo on 1rst fret for one song.

Having said all this, if the majority of the time you need the virtual capo on, you should probably be tuning your guitar differently IMHO, unless of course you're Ok with the virtual capo sound.

Either way, it's pretty easy to just try out the virtual capo and hear for yourself.
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All of this.
 
I use the virtual capo all the time, what I have done to help shape the tone is, I mess with the high cut and low cut in the block depending on the tuning I'm trying to achieve. I feel like it helps it sound less processed, and gives back some of that volume loss.
 
RDress said:
I use the virtual capo all the time, what I have done to help shape the tone is, I mess with the high cut and low cut in the block depending on the tuning I'm trying to achieve. I feel like it helps it sound less processed, and gives back some of that volume loss.
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Any good starting point suggestions?
 
bosox0912 said:
Any good starting point suggestions?
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As with almost everything in fractal land, that would depend on so many variables, such as, what amp and amp settings you are using and your guitar ect. But I can give you an example of my personal preset (no judgements 😂) but this is an extreme tune down.. I made a preset to learn a 5 finger death punch song as well as Rob zombie.. My guitar is already set half step down so I needed to go - 4 more down. My amp block is engl energyball which is pretty high gain, but I cut the low in the pitch block to 47hz and the high to around 9999..and this worked in my set up... 🤷‍♂️ Like I said though, there are so many variables you'll have to mess with yours
 
RDress said:
As with almost everything in fractal land, that would depend on so many variables, such as, what amp and amp settings you are using and your guitar ect. But I can give you an example of my personal preset (no judgements 😂) but this is an extreme tune down.. I made a preset to learn a 5 finger death punch song as well as Rob zombie.. My guitar is already set half step down so I needed to go - 4 more down. My amp block is engl energyball which is pretty high gain, but I cut the low in the pitch block to 47hz and the high to around 9999..and this worked in my set up... 🤷‍♂️ Like I said though, there are so many variables you'll have to mess with yours
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Makes sense to me. I will play around with those cuts for my tunings as well
 
A Line6 Variax works pretty well for open and de-tuned requirements. The guitar models aren't as good as the real thing, but they're serviceable in a mix.
 
It's a compromise between convenience and sound quality. Best sound would be to have a separate guitar tuned differently, but that's more gear to haul around. Capo works well for going up, but you have to change your playing position accordingly. Virtual capo is the most convenient, but you give up sound quality as a result. It works amazingly well, but it does have a noticeable "processed" quality to it and a healthy amount of added latency, affecting the feel. Nothing is free.
 
Musicman24 said:
Hey guys, i have got a question for you? Everyone knows that you lose sound if you use the pitch block to tune your guitar down, is this also true if you tune it up?
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To answer your question, re-pitching upward does indeed give better results than down. You'll get fewer artifacts in the sustain portion of the note. However, transients aren't any better up than down, so on the whole, the difference is often minimal.
 
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