ripley
Well-known member
... what do you tune your 7th string to?I've had compelling arguments made for (in relation to a 6 string's standard tuning...) both A and B...
which do you prefer?
which do you prefer?
- Thread starter ripley
- Start date
Colin
Well-known member
What are the arguments for and against? My understanding is it's either low B or high A. But if you had a low A that would be equivalent to a dropped tuning.ripley said:
puppyonacid
Well-known member
Yea I agree. Tuning the 7th string down to A is kind of the equivalent of tuning the 6th string down to D on a standard 6th string. But if you check out most pro's who play 7 strings alot, like John Petrucci and Steve Vai, they tune to B.
ripley
Well-known member
sorry. meant to reply sooner but I've been traveling back to japan.
I had to go back to the US to take care of some family business and my otherwise useless brother in law's girlfriend got called into work at the last minute so he gave me her front row (virtually ON the stage) ticket to see john piazzarelli (I really think I spelled that wrong). ok, ok... he's as far from a MM endorser as you can get, but I kept noticing how he used the 7th string on his archtop (that probably cost more than I earned last year...) was a bit different from what I've seen the likes of vai and petrucci do:
piazzarelli (spelling...) used his 7th as really just a way of expanding and slightly deepening the voicings of his chords. he actually didn't use it all that much either - it was mostly just an accent. talking with him after the show he said that he tunes his down to A "because if you tune it to B; you have to change all your figures" - assuming he's talking about chord figures. that lead into an interesting duscussion about chromatic relivence of the 7th string for soloing and diminished voicings and whatnot, but the bottom line was basically that the 7th string just made certian chords literally bigger and bigger sounding. hence my question.
I had to go back to the US to take care of some family business and my otherwise useless brother in law's girlfriend got called into work at the last minute so he gave me her front row (virtually ON the stage) ticket to see john piazzarelli (I really think I spelled that wrong). ok, ok... he's as far from a MM endorser as you can get, but I kept noticing how he used the 7th string on his archtop (that probably cost more than I earned last year...) was a bit different from what I've seen the likes of vai and petrucci do:
piazzarelli (spelling...) used his 7th as really just a way of expanding and slightly deepening the voicings of his chords. he actually didn't use it all that much either - it was mostly just an accent. talking with him after the show he said that he tunes his down to A "because if you tune it to B; you have to change all your figures" - assuming he's talking about chord figures. that lead into an interesting duscussion about chromatic relivence of the 7th string for soloing and diminished voicings and whatnot, but the bottom line was basically that the 7th string just made certian chords literally bigger and bigger sounding. hence my question.
