How do I tune my guitar 1/2 a step Down?

[Cybersavior]

Re: How do I tune my guitar 1/2 a step Down?

If you downtune and back frequently you can saw away at your nut with the wound strings (especially on a non-metal nut) Pretty soon your action is too low at the nut and you get buzz and worse. Just a friendly word of caution as I have no idea how to replace plastic nut.

[jazzman]

Re: How do I tune my guitar 1/2 a step Down?

Ah, like a BIG JOHNSON guitar. I had a tee shirt of that. Anyone remember the BIG JOHNSON shirts?

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: How do I tune my guitar 1/2 a step Down?

I'm always playing 1/2 down, it just sounds better to me, a lot better.

[metallicarocks]

Re: How do I tune my guitar 1/2 a step Down?

Replacing a plastic nut is a pain in the ass. (That's exactly what happened to mine, except for a piece of the nut fell entirely off leaving the low E dangling) I'm just glad it was a crap guitar that I had to deal with, so marring it didn't matter much. If you're careful, you won't marr it, but hell it was a Samick. I just chisled it out and used wood glue for the other nut. It looked like that was all that was done; also considering it is a Samick.

Yes, be careful not to saw your nuts off!

[joblo1978]

Re: How do I tune my guitar 1/2 a step Down?

Not only that, you can play in patterns and boxes that cover fifth intervals easier and play power cords with less fingering. You can also play chuggy heavier riffs faster and easeier. Also, you can play heavier and not sacrifice the tuning on the other 5 strings. I don't think it has anything to do with vocals. The really good bands that play in dropped C also play in standard D.

[Big D]

Re: How do I tune my guitar 1/2 a step Down?

I've been playing in hard rock bands for 15+ years and we've always tuned down a half step. Sounds better and easier on the vocals.

The tricky part is if you have a Floyd on your axe, you'll need to adjust the springs inside the guitar in order to get things to "balance out" so that you can get all tuned up without changing the angle of your bridge. It's not that tough, just takes experimenting.