Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Dropped A tuning

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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.

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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

  • 208 Talks of Angels (on the song "Spiral Of Silence")
  • Amaranthe (on some songs)
  • Amon Amarth (on some songs)
  • A.N.I.M.A.L. - from "Poder Latino" to "Combativo" albums.
  • Bloodbath
  • Blotted Science
  • Carnifex
  • Chelsea Grin
  • Chunk! No, Captain Chunk
  • Coheed and Cambria (on the song "Gravity's Union")
  • Conquering Dystopia
  • Crowbar
  • C.J. Pierce of Drowning Pool (on the song "Turn So Cold")
  • Delain
  • Desolated
  • Distoriam
  • DragonForce (on the song "Three Hammers")
  • Emmure
  • 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" and "Dot Your Eyes")
  • Lzzy Hale of Halestorm (on the song "I Am The Fire")
  • Peter Tagtgren of Hypocrisy
  • Ill NiƱo (on its Dead New World album)
  • Impending Doom
  • In Extremo ("Nymphenzeit", "Sagrada Trobar" (AEADGB), "In diesem Licht", "Unsichtbar")
  • In This Moment
  • Ty Tabor of King's X (on the albums Please Come Home... Mr. Bulbous and Ogre Tones)
  • Lacuna Coil
  • Gaped (Band)
  • Buzz Osborne of The Melvins
  • Motionless in White
  • Muse (on the songs "Citizen Erased", "Liquid State" and "Supremacy".)
  • My Victory In Sight
  • Like Moths To Flames
  • Nile
  • Oceano
  • Pain
  • Pallbearer
  • Periphery (on their cover of Slipknot's "The Heretic Anthem")
  • Pickaxe to the Forehead
  • RED
  • Slipknot
  • Suicide Silence
  • Sunn O)))
  • The Southern Oracle
  • Thy Art Is Murder
  • Volumes
  • Whitechapel
  • Winterfylleth (on some songs)
  • Within Temptation (on some songs)
  • AADGBE

  • Devin Townsend (mostly with Strapping Young Lad)
  • Every Time I Die on "Moor" from From Parts Unknown and "Indian Giver" on Ex Lives
  • 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 (the album Through Silver in Blood and on)
  • 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")
  • 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 and Jo of The Safety Fire
  • Torche
  • Muse (on "Citizen Erased")
  • 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")
  • AGCFAD

  • Apey And The Pea
  • Alter Bridge (half a step higher)
  • Architects (half a step lower)
  • Black Label Society
  • Conjurer (half a step lower)
  • Doomsday
  • Enabler
  • Krokodil
  • Kylesa (Also used 1 full step lower)
  • Mastodon
  • Nothing More
  • Periphery
  • Sevendust (1/2 and 1 full step lower)
  • References

    Dropped A tuning Wikipedia