A buddy of mine use to come by and when he picked up my guitar, the first thing he would do is twist my top E, turn my amp to this awful muddy crap, and play lead stuff. No clean, no rhythm, no style.

I can see tuning other than 440 if your in a band and your singer doesn't have the vocal range, but I just don't get all this drop tuning and all that noise.

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Gary

Neither do I. It more or less is indistinguishable from a buzz from UVB-76.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

i tune my one of my guitars to B with 12-56 not even slinkys andif you eq your amp and pedals right it sounds good and distinguishable i just find you got to use less bass and more mids then you'd normally use with a tiny bit more treble

i used to only play in B until i got my tele that which is in D and neither one is indistinguishable and both sound really good

i actually really perfer droped tunings

like i said it all a matter of how you eq you amp and pedals to go along with the tuning

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B.C Rich Body Art Warlock "The Fly"--Blacktop Telecaster--ESP LTD EC-100--IbanezRG420EX--into A Fender Mustang III

I agree with the OP. Standard tuning rocks. In fact it's been rocking just fine for, well .... decades. There's never been anything wrong with it before. In fact dropped tuning has also been around for, well .... decades. The Gods of rock have already been there. The kids today think they're onto something new and cool. To me it's just a case of BinDare-DunDat. Same ole, same ole. I hear these high-gain drop-tune bands and I'm like .... What's so cool about that? I heard that tons already, show me something I ain't seen a zillion times before. Tune your guitar back up there, racer-boy and show me something that ain't a gimmick.

My 2 cents.
YMMV

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

how is it a gimmick to like the sound of a down tuned guitar

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B.C Rich Body Art Warlock "The Fly"--Blacktop Telecaster--ESP LTD EC-100--IbanezRG420EX--into A Fender Mustang III

Your mileage may vary

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

what do you mean by that i dont understand

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B.C Rich Body Art Warlock "The Fly"--Blacktop Telecaster--ESP LTD EC-100--IbanezRG420EX--into A Fender Mustang III

YMMV tends to appear around here as an homage to car milage ratings but members use it to essentially express that opinions may vary.

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CREDO ELVEM IPSUM ETAIM VIVERE

I use drop D to get the job done. Plenty of songs require it--or at least benefit from it.
I use standard tuning most ot the time--to get the job done. Most songs...
They're both fun.


Drop D tuning is a poor guitarist's baritone. Didn't Fender sell a bari at one time?

I play Surf music in B to B tuning....... does that make me lame to?

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I bet some guitar players you like have 'tuned down'. Eddie Van Halen , Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page to name a few.... Maybe your friend just needs to work on dialing in a good tone in drop tuning.

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GOOD POINT! even SRV dropped a half step so I am not lame after all
and Michael Hedges used all kinds of weird dropped turnings.
maybe he is just a crappy guitarist? I am sure a good guitarist could have made the exact same setup sound fine

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Your friend wasn't/isn't a good guitar player and can't/couldn't get a good tone....simple as that.
I'm old school too,and can recognize good vs. bad....no matter how the guitar is tuned....crap is crap.

all mud, all distortion, all the time is pretty boring.

I've been playing some drop d and other alternate tunings on my acoustic, pick and finger style, and it sounds really interesting.

Keith Richards plays a lot of alternate tunings, may not be your taste but is considered by some as old school.

Not really a topic to discuss , as it all comes to taste and preferences. I regard myself 'old school' - but use the 'drop D' often , and always open G for slide. Even tuned down my strat like Hendrix for a while- but that didn't fit me very well.
And I know a lot of younger players (and some older) using very weird tunings with a top result ! And I do admire what they achieve - The dudes I know that does this are really great musicians , no doubt about that ! That goes especially for the acoustic playing guys......
But myself , I prefer standard tuning,440. And usually a quite moderate break-up in the amp

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A-man