Death metal guys. Tuning?

[Rupe]

Well still that doesn't make A,B,C tunings stupid and relentless

Depends who you ask. I have yet to hear an articulate decent tone when tuned lower than D. The guitar is designed to sit at a certain spot in the tonal spectrum...when it is severely detuned, some people may think it sounds cool and heavy, but overall the music suffers from a lack of balance and clarity. Heaviness comes from how well a person can write and play, not from how low they can tune their guitar.

[RD]

my band uses 4 tunings

440 e 9-46

drop d 9-46

straight d 10-46

drop c 10-52

we wrote a couple songs in b (10-58) but they will probably never be played live.. we used to do all 4 tunings live but cut it down to 2, until james gets back with esp then we'll do all 5 tunings so we can play the new shit!

[roodyrocker]

Wait a moment, I'll check...

"Devastator"...

Yay, we pass!

Yes, according to Strongbad you pass.

[Inearthed]

Standard Tuning... 10-52 Light Top, Heavy Bottom.

[Robert Burns]

IMO...Eb 1/2 a step down does it for me.. great growl, and sharp tight
bass. Plus a bit looser, and easier to bend the strings..

[VIA]

D standard always works fine for me

[toejam]

Depends what guitar I'm using, but I'll tune to E, Eb and D. String gauge also varies from 10-46 GHS Boomers, 11-48 Ernie Ball Power Slinky (sometimes DR 11-50), or Boomers Low-Tunes 11-53. I don't like to tune any lower on a 6-string guitar, but I liked using the low B string (usually a 56 or 58) when I did own a couple of 7s which I no longer have.

[zeegler]

I think all those drop tunings like Drop A, B, C are rather relentless and stupid. You eventually are just creating a big pile of mud and there's not really anything interesting about it eventually all sounds the same. When I went through my death metal phase (Death, Decapitated, etc) I played in D standard, so do a lot of my friends. D Standard with 10 or 11 gauge strings.

I'm interested to know what you think the word "relentless" actually means?

[horns666]

You can play fuggin' deathmetal with whatever tuning..depends how you play in what context.

I can play death metal on a fuggin' banjo..I'm on a new Deicide song called "Pig Squeal Deliverance"...where I'm dueling Jack Owens and tearing off his tighty whiteys!!

[6077dino]

My sixes are in #C and my baritone seven is in #G.

[ken]

Not quite death metal, but there's a bit in the making of the Roadrunner United album where Dino impersonates Andreas saying "you don't have to tune low to be heavy...". Around 3 minutes in, in here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfs_4hoYJ7Y&feature=related

The whole making-of is worth watching, IMO.

[Partial @ Marshall]

I recall Nigel Tufnel saying something similar......

Followed by..."that ones called lick my love pump"

[Veqq]

I think it depends on the setup of your guitar and tone that determines out the sound of dropped tunings, If I remember rightly King Crimson hated standard tuning and decided that D standard was more conventional.

I thought he tuned to his own special tuning system...

At some point I tuned to D standard, but I didn't see anything special with it... I tuned back to E, and then F, recently I moved to F# Standard. Stuff doesn't really sound brutal or heavy like that, but it sounds really fast and clear. I also ended up going to 8 gauge strings...

Really though, I think it's what you play that makes stuff heavy and not necessarily your tuning.

[phill_up]

I thought King Crimson was a fictitious band like spinal tap but I found out I was mistaken. They wrote :
21st Century Schizoid Man

[JacksonCharvelESP]

I'd say Eb or D Standard. Good death metal involves a lot of shred stuff. I think the definition of DM is Necrophagist and I think they use Eb. Just cause your guitar is in drop A doesn't mean you can play good metal. I'd just stick to whatever suits your needs. But don't think there is a standard for it because DM is more for breaking standards. ;-)