[Dewy]

Ok, Twenty... ummm (takes off shoes, counts toes... calls daughter, counts some of her toes) six, that 26 years of playing guitar, I have disdained and cursed bands that tuned down a half step. Also, generally despised alternate tunings of all sort, but the half steppers seemed the worst of the lot... that dang Van Halen fellow, and SRV, who did they think they were making it tough on the rest of us trying to learn their tunes all so they could support weak vocalists...

Well... now I must apologize to them, and I suppose this is as good a place as any. It might even spare some of you newer guitarists the wasted time of wondering why anyone would do such a thing, because... now... I get it.

Lets look at a few clues given to us by the technical data around Stevie Ray Vaughan. The man played his guitar with .011 strings!! Bridge cables as far as a guitar is concerned. But... tuned down a half step he could easily bend it past the G string. Its also a known fact, more string= more sound. Bigger is better in some cases.

While I am still in adjustment to the off sound of everything, and my guitar is also trying to find a tension spot on the strings to stay there... I think I'm going to like the additional control over my strings that the reduced tension is giving me. Squeals and bends galore... everything seems new and different... if sounding a little flat.

I bought a pack of .011 gauge strings, going to try them out next week. These .010's feel like they're sagging off the guitar.

So... lets hear some comments from the peanut gallery. Who has done it, what did you think, and what gauge strings do you use?

[allthumbs]

I played slack tuning for many years with 13s. Got tired of it and tuned to standard. Kept 13s for a bunch more years. Now I tend to string guitars with what they want to be strung with. 11s are as low as I can go without the strings feeling like spider silk and the tone sounding like a mosquito buzzing. Rumour has it that slack tuning tends to eat amps. Something to do with the harmonics involved.
Nothing wrong with slack tuning though. Go for it if it floats your boat.

[Stratrat]

I usually keep my acoustic tuned to Eb simply because it fits my vocal range a little better. I haven't been doing much singing when playing electric, so I've left them in standard tuning - also because a lot of the BTs I jam along with are in standard.

Other than that I haven't messed with alternate tunings much other than the occasional drop D.

[737blues]

11 or 12's in standard tuning, for me. Spent some time tuning down too and using those really super light 9's 'cos I read that Jimi did it. Looking back, I don't know how I put up with the tinny tone and wonder why I ever wanted to do four fret bends anyway. I think SRV used much heavier strings than 11's at one time, but eventually ran out of Super Glue and settled on 11 or 12's. If I ever lost all vestiges of sanity and tried to inflict my singing voice on the public, (who surely deserve better) I'd probably tune down to Eb.

[si16]

I take it by Eb tuning you mean all strings down a semitone rather than open Eb?

I imagine a lot of people started doing it so that could sound a bit more like Jimi. I've heard different reasons as to why Jimi started doing it in the first place. One being to make bends easier, another is that it helped him play along better with some of the horn sections he used to play with.

The most interesting reason I heard is that when he first started playing he didn't know how to tune properly so he went to the music store and ran his fingers up and down the strings a couple of times. When he got home he remebered the correct intervals between the strings but ended up a half step down on all strings. Don't know if that's true or not but it would be remarkable if it is.

[PepticDust]

I've never really noticed my strings getting slack. At least not in Eb (I do tune down 2 whole steps on occasion). I use 10's on a 24" scale guitar and keep it in Eb. Barre chords are a lot easier on it compare to my Strat, but that's the only difference I noticed. Maybe I just haven't been playing long enough to notice.

[allthumbs]

Originally Posted by PepticDust

I've never really noticed my strings getting slack. At least not in Eb (I do tune down 2 whole steps on occasion). I use 10's on a 24" scale guitar and keep it in Eb. Barre chords are a lot easier on it compare to my Strat, but that's the only difference I noticed. Maybe I just haven't been playing long enough to notice.

Slack string is just a generic term for tuning your axe to Eb.

[Dewy]

I do mean I tuned the strings all 1/2 step down, not an open Eb chord.

Seemed to me last night the songs seemed to be "dragging", while the audience mentioned a few songs were actually a little fast. I attribute this to an adjustment of the band to the tuning.

The guitar stayed fairly well in tune all night, and I was able to "emote" a little better with squeals and quicker action on the trills and fills.

I'm looking forward to putting the .011's on the guitar, but that'll be AFTER the show tonight me thinks.

[namiguShin]

Originally Posted by PepticDust

...I do tune down 2 whole steps on occasion...

That is C. Is it really possible?

[allthumbs]

Originally Posted by namiguShin

That is C. Is it really possible?

Yup. Hendrix played I Hear My Train A Coming tuned down to C on his acoustic. John Lee Hooker played Rocking Chair that way too. Not that uncommon.

[namiguShin]

Thanks, AT...

So... How low can you go? I mean, on strings that are made for standard tuning...

All best

[allthumbs]

C is about as low as you can go as far as I know on a normal guitar.

[Dewy]

The Eb had no negative effects Saturday night. I even had to check once or twice to make sure I wasn't tuned to standard. Adjustment I suppose.

I'm using flat response amps and a V-Amp modeler, so I won't worry about the amp issue too much. Definitely looking forward to the .011's and the new tuners sometime this week.

We finally got effects for the vocalist, so the singing improved overall so much its hard to separate whats due to effect, and whats due to detuning.

[Laney1566]

I did it years ago when i was learning to play. Being a Kiss Freak as I was (Yes they are one of the cursed bands that Drop tuned..lol) In those days I used .10's
These days I use GHS boomers GBXL .09's. But I don't drop tune. So if I were to go back and do it again I would dedicate a guitar and run .10's. If I already used .10's then I would do as you have and switch to .11's. I just can't stand the low E being larger than a .46. You might make a custom set of .11's with your wrapped strings being from a .10 set, the E being a .46 or .48

[st_jo]

This thread is exactly on my radar right now. Guitar World mag with the Axis DVD with 3 hrs of Jimi instruction came out and I looked at some of it and got to wondering.
I gather from the comments thus far that there are a myriad of reasons for detuning either one or multiple strings.
Could someone kindly identify all the reasons for this- excluding the ordinary psychotic and/or masochistic reasons? Please include reasons pertaining to music notation- both tab and traditional.
Thank you all in advance and in the future.