Which guitar to down tune?

[frunobulax]

For a project being put together, I'm getting my meager guitar chops back in order.

Two or three of the songs are going to work best with a guitar dropped down half a tone, both for the singer and for me to have optimum fingering and chord shapes.

The guitars in question for the tuning -

A 335, a Les Paul, a Thinline Tele

Thoughts?

 

[Motorik]

Tele, because of the scale length. But a half step isn't much, so any of them will be fine.

 

[Aahzz]

Tele, because of the scale length. But a half step isn't much, so any of them will be fine.

This right here.

 

[jp_nyc]

Half a step is nothing. Just use whichever guitar sounds right for those songs. Or get a detuning pedal and you can do it on all three and then go rack back to normal.

 

[frunobulax]

Half a step is nothing. Just use whichever guitar sounds right for those songs. Or get a detuning pedal and you can do it on all three and then go rack back to normal.

Tell me more!

 

[Gorgon90]

Tell me more!

I was chasing a pedal to do this recently (see thread here).

I went for the Mooer pedal in the end but it didn't do that drop tune well enough in my rig. I'd look at the Digitech Drop if you can afford it.

 

[jp_nyc]

Tell me more!

Check out the Digitech Drop. It isn’t a cheap pedal, but it costs less than more instruments!

 

[BlackCat]

I thought about Hendrix and SRV on Strat so I guessed Tele because of the scale length.

But then I used to know a local 335 player that always tuned down 1/2 step. He sounded good.

So maybe it doesn't matter.

 

[Bob411]

Do it to your least favorite guitar or, whichever one fits the least for the songs that don't need you to drop down?

 

[micwalt]

Really doesn’t matter which. But I’ll cast another vote for the Digitech Drop. The other guitarist in my band uses it, and it works great.

 

[Dexter Inferno]

Fwiw, in a couple of my bands I'm often tuned a half step down - and for those guitars I typically go up a string gauge (10's vs 9 when in standard tuning). Similar tension and typically won't have to do much setup wise other than slightly tweak intonation.