Guitar Tuning question

[TheLefty]

I'm sure any of you guitar player out there have had this problem. You have you guitar tuned to E, the standard tuning. Then you find a song (or 3 in my case)that is played the less common (and much cooler sounding) D tuning. I mean where every string it tuned a whole step down not where only the top string is tuned down. Anyway, my question is if I tune my guitar to D can I then put a capo on the second fret (one whole step up from the nut) and have my guitar be-technically- in E tuning. So far it sounds great but I'm not sure, if there are any professional musicians or anyone who knows more than I do about music than I do I'd love you insight.

 

[Insanum]

Sounds interesting, Instead of it being in Drop D its in full D...Although i have to ask the obvious question, Why tune the guitar down to Capo it to the standard tuning?

 

[jim_doki]

it can be done, but to be honest it's a bit of a pain. you lose two frets (making soloing difficult) and you can get thrown off by the repositioning of the guide dots on the neck. You'd be better off getting a second guitar for other tunings

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

Sounds interesting, Instead of it being in Drop D its in full D...Although i have to ask the obvious question, Why tune the guitar down to Capo it to the standard tuning?

Likely for a quick transition between songs, without having to mess with the tuning every time he/she wants to make the switch.

I'd say it sounds feasible. If it works for you, it works.

 

[Khavall]

D tuning isn't "Tune everything down a whole step" D tuning is DADF#AD

Granted, it's normally referred to as "Open D" to differentiate from "Drop D"

However, yes.

Each fret is a half step. No matter the tuning or anything, each fret on a guitar is a half step. If you tune down every string one whole step and then capo up a whole step, the strings will all be, at "open" the same as standard tuning. The problem is that obviously since frets get closer as you go up the neck, there is that variation.

If I'm playing in alternate tuning, I just retune the guitar. It's not a difficult thing to do. The only times I capo are when a capo is used in the song specifically, I need to use open strings of a capo'd position, or there's an on-the-fly, as it were, transposition. And even then sometimes I don't, depending on the transposition.

So technically... yes. But the spacing is different, and there's no reason not to re-tune. Hell, I recently played a show where almost every song I was in a different tuning, including "Tuned down one whole tone", and the way I did it wasn't by capo, partial capo, or anything, but by re-tuning the guitar, and keeping multiple guitars if it was too fast.

 

[crudus]

You can, if you don't mind losing two frets. I would say you can if you don't intend to keep the 2nd fret held down for that long. Doing so could be bad for the strings.

 

[TheLefty]

You'd be better off getting a second guitar for other tunings

I can tell you're not a 14 year old boy with no job. Having a second guitar isn't as easy as it sounds on paper.

 

[Khavall]

You can, if you don't mind losing two frets. I would say you can if you don't intend to keep the 2nd fret held down for that long. Doing so could be bad for the strings.

There's also this to consider. Sort of. The biggest thing you'll notice is that you'll fall out of tune quickly with most capos. Unless you have the really high-end capos, which, well, considering you're a 14 year old boy with no job, I imagine you don't, your strings will de-tune pretty quickly without a capo on. If you remove the capo and just use it when you're in standard tuning, you should be fine. The Capo will help make flat points in the strings, but no more than bends or most playing, and really a replacement schedule won't be changed based on Capo.

 

[SsilverR]

you'll lose play options if you do that

best to just stick to one thing until you can get a second guitar ... or

try getting a distortion pedal and setting a really low tone you're satisfied with then set your standard E sound to default .. and switch back and forth as needed

 

[SsilverR]

You'd be better off getting a second guitar for other tunings

I can tell you're not a 14 year old boy with no job. Having a second guitar isn't as easy as it sounds on paper.

then what i said in my last post is your best bet .. you can get a decent distortion pedal from 20 to 80 pounds

just do some chores around the house for a few weeks

 

[Aur0ra145]

Uhh, well. you have lots of good input here. Though whenever I play with my band, and we must for some horrible reason change tuning like you speak of, I retune everything on stage.

If you do it enough, it takes maybe 30 seconds or less to get it done efficiently and correctly. Easiest way to make the transistion is have another band member talk to the crowd a bit, or something.

Generally what we would do is have a fake phone call from the bassists g/f whenever we needed a quick break to change a set up. Works like a charm and the crowd generally finds it humurous.

 

[Berethond]

You'd be better off getting a second guitar for other tunings

I can tell you're not a 14 year old boy with no job. Having a second guitar isn't as easy as it sounds on paper.

then what i said in my last post is your best bet .. you can get a decent distortion pedal from 20 to 80 pounds

just do some chores around the house for a few weeks

If he's going to be using a Capo, then he's probably not interested in a distortion pedal.
Also, your last post didn't make any sense.
At all.

 

[fullautomatic555]

Sounds interesting, Instead of it being in Drop D its in full D...Although i have to ask the obvious question, Why tune the guitar down to Capo it to the standard tuning?

One song is a whole tone down and another is concert pitch. Take the capo off, and voila, instant detune.

If I'm playing in alternate tuning, I just retune the guitar. It's not a difficult thing to do...and there's no reason not to re-tune.

What if, for the sake of argument, there is only one guitar available, and it has a floyd rose or similar locking bridge system? You cannot reliably tune such a guitar in a short period of time (at least if you want it to stay in tune for more than a few notes ). In that case, a capo would be a solution, even if a flimsy one. As for transposition, I think that it depends on the ability of the guitar player and their knowledge of the fretboard. All you're doing when you put a capo on the second fret is moving your key up two frets. Guitar players have it lucky, they can just move everything and think it by numbers. E becomes F# or Gb, and so on.

Not a big deal.

it can be done, but to be honest it's a bit of a pain. you lose two frets (making soloing difficult) and you can get thrown off by the repositioning of the guide dots on the neck.

Or is it?

 

[BonsaiK]

"Drop everything two frets" is not the normal D tuning people use.

Heavy metal players often go for "Drop D" tuning where the thick E string is dropped two frets so you can get power chords with one finger instead of two. The "Open D" tuning someone else mentioned above is a variation on this that allows you to play entire chords with one finger (or a slide) if you want. "Open D" is therefore a tuning of choice for slide players and also guitarists wanting to experiment with resonance etc (for making Sonic Youth/My Bloody Valentine style music where creating sympathetic feedback is important), whereas a simple "Drop D" is more of a metal thing. After metal guitarists tune to drop D, then they might bring the entire guitar down a step or two just to get things even lower and heavier but they usually don't use "Open D" tuning because open chords are generally the enemy of the metal guitarist.

By tuning down two frets and then adding a second fret capo, theoretically this should make no difference but what you're actually doing besides losing two frets is (functionally) shortening the scale length, which is the distance from the nut to the bridge. This will give you a darker sound with less harmonics because the string is not resonating fully across the entire length of the instrument. If you have a Strat or Tele style guitar (or something with similar scale length like most Ibanez, Jackson etc) it will take the edge off the high end considerably but might still sound okay as those guitars are pretty bright anyway. If you have a shorter scale guitar like a Les Paul or SG it will turn your sound pretty much to mush. This is generally not desireable, there are better ways to darken up your sound. What guitar are you using?

Capos are best avoided unless you HAVE to use them, which is why the only people you usually see with them are singer/songwriters who can't play guitar that well, who just use the capo to shift the key of a song on their acoustic guitar so they can sing it more comfortably. Capos restrict your options because you get less frets, and they dampen resonance quite a bit, depending on the instrument.

 

[SsilverR]

You'd be better off getting a second guitar for other tunings

I can tell you're not a 14 year old boy with no job. Having a second guitar isn't as easy as it sounds on paper.

then what i said in my last post is your best bet .. you can get a decent distortion pedal from 20 to 80 pounds

just do some chores around the house for a few weeks

If he's going to be using a Capo, then he's probably not interested in a distortion pedal.
Also, your last post didn't make any sense.
At all.

you're a tool -_-

he wants to be able to quick switch from E to D .. using a capo for that isn't wise since you'll have to fine tune when you remove it

a distortion pedal could potentially give him the sounds he's looking for and a means to switch between them instantly

 

[CIA]

D tuning isn't "Tune everything down a whole step" D tuning is DADF#AD

Granted, it's normally referred to as "Open D" to differentiate from "Drop D"

Talking about D standard.

"Drop everything two frets" is not the normal D tuning people use.

Heavy metal players often go for "Drop D" tuning where the thick E string is dropped two frets so you can get power chords with one finger instead of two. The "Open D" tuning someone else mentioned above is a variation on this that allows you to play entire chords with one finger (or a slide) if you want. "Open D" is therefore a tuning of choice for slide players and also guitarists wanting to experiment with resonance etc (for making Sonic Youth/My Bloody Valentine style music where creating sympathetic feedback is important), whereas a simple "Drop D" is more of a metal thing. After metal guitarists tune to drop D, then they might bring the entire guitar down a step or two just to get things even lower and heavier but they usually don't use "Open D" tuning because open chords are generally the enemy of the metal guitarist.

You too.


On topic: Yes, you can do that, but it would mess me up something terrible.

 

[Berethond]

You'd be better off getting a second guitar for other tunings

I can tell you're not a 14 year old boy with no job. Having a second guitar isn't as easy as it sounds on paper.

then what i said in my last post is your best bet .. you can get a decent distortion pedal from 20 to 80 pounds

just do some chores around the house for a few weeks

If he's going to be using a Capo, then he's probably not interested in a distortion pedal.
Also, your last post didn't make any sense.
At all.

you're a tool -_-

he wants to be able to quick switch from E to D .. using a capo for that isn't wise since you'll have to fine tune when you remove it

a distortion pedal could potentially give him the sounds he's looking for and a means to switch between them instantly

What if he doesn't play with distortion?
What if he has an acoustic?

That's my whole point.

 

[SsilverR]

**CUT**

i don't see him correcting everyone that gave him heavy metal advice

 

[TheLefty]

**CUT**

i don't see him correcting everyone that gave him heavy metal advice

That's because I don't have the time to check this every time someone comments. ON a different note, yes I do have an acoustic. So everyone who's given me Metal or Electric advise is pretty much null and void. So what I'm gettign from this is yes I can do it but I lose frets which doesn't hurt me that much sense I usually only play chords with my single note being mostly restricted to intros, at least at the moment.

 

[BonsaiK]

Scale length rules still apply. Do you know the scale length of your instrument? Also, what type of acoustic is it (brand and model)?