Dropped A tuning

Drop A tuning.

Dropped A tuning is an alternate tuning for a 7 string guitar where the lowest string is tuned down ("dropped") from the standard B by one whole step to A as follows A1-E2-A2-D3-G3-B3-E4. Also, for a 6 string guitar, dropped A tuning is achieved by tuning all strings down a 4th with the lowest string tuned 1 additional step down as follows A1-E2-A2-D3-F#3-B3. This is a "drop 1" tuning in the key of B (i.e. tune the whole guitar down a perfect fourth from standard tuning, then tune the 6th string a whole step down). As a result, it uses the same fingering as drop D tuning and drop C tuning.

An alternate dropped A tuning utilizes a guitar tuned to E Standard with the 6th string dropped to a low A, resulting in AADGBE with the 6th and 5th strings an octave apart.

Another variation of this tuning is AEADGB, which imitates a 7 on a six-string, excluding the high E.

Another dropped A tuning is AGCFAD ("drop perfect fourth in the key of the D", i.e. whole guitar is tuned down one step, then the lowest string is dropped to A).

AEADGBE / AEADF#B

• Kevin Skaff of A Day to Remember
• Chelsea Grin
• Chris Rubey and Jeremy DePoyster of The Devil Wears Prada (band)
• Coheed and Cambria (on the song "Gravity's Union")
• C.J. Pierce of Drowning Pool (on the song "Turn So Cold")
• Desolated
• Emmure
• Fei Comodo
• Zoltan Bathory and Jason Hook of Five Finger Death Punch (on the songs "Remember Everything" and "Dot Your Eyes")
• Peter Tagtgren of Hypocrisy
• Ill Niño (on its Dead New World album)
• Impending Doom
• Ty Tabor of King's X^[1]
• Buzz Osborne of The Melvins
• UK Psych metal band Mother Corona
• Like Moths To Flames
• Nile
• Oceano
• Pain
• Periphery
• RED
• Jim Root and Mick Thomson of Slipknot
• Suicide Silence
• Whitechapel
• Matthew Bellamy of Muse (band)
• Carnifex

AADGBE

• Torche
• Filter (on "Welcome to the Fold")
• Foo Fighters (on "Stacked Actors")
• Weasel Walter of Lake of Dracula
• Muse (on "Citizen Erased", "Liquid State", "The 2nd Law: Unsustainable" and "Supremacy")
• Dez and Jo of The Safety Fire^[2]
• Them Crooked Vultures (on "No One Loves Me & Neither Do I", "Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up" and "Caligulove")
• Radiohead (on "Bangers + Mash")

AEADGB

• Coal Chamber (on some songs)
• Mike Mushok of Staind (usually tuned 1/2 down, but uses standard drop A on songs such as "King of All Excuses")

AGCFAD

• Black Label Society
• Mastodon (on "March of the Fire Ants", "Iron Tusk", and "Curl of the Burl")

References