Dropped 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.

Drop A 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

• Amaranthe (on most songs from their album Helix and on their cover of Army of the Night by Powerwolf)
• Amon Amarth (on some songs in later albums)
• A.N.I.M.A.L. - from "Poder Latino" to "Combativo" albums
• Asking Alexandria (on some songs in later albums)
• Bleeding Through (on some songs in later albums)
• Betraying the Martyrs (on most songs)
• Bloodbath
• Blotted Science
• Bury Your Dead (on the album Beauty and the Breakdown, and everything after)
• Carnifex
• Chelsea Grin
• Chimaira (on their first album, and some songs on their later albums)
• Coheed and Cambria (on the song "Gravity's Union")
• Conquering Dystopia
• Converge (on their song "No Heroes")
• Crowbar
• C.J. Pierce of Drowning Pool (on the song "Turn So Cold")
• Delain
• Gabe Mangold of Enterprise Earth and Delusions of Grandeur (on Delusions of Grandeur's first two albums Omnipotence and Efficacy before adding a low E seventh string for later Delusions of Grandeur releases and Enterprise Earth releases)
• Desolated
• Distoriam
• DragonForce (on the song "Three Hammers")[1]
• Emmure
• Earth
• The Faceless (on their album In Becoming a Ghost)
• Fei Comodo
• Filter (in the songs "Columind" and "The Missing" from The Amalgamut)
• Zoltan Bathory and Jason Hook of Five Finger Death Punch (on the songs "Remember Everything", "Dot Your Eyes" and "Stuck in My Ways")
• Lzzy Hale of Halestorm (on the song "I Am the Fire")[2]
• Peter Tagtgren of Hypocrisy
• Ice Nine Kills
• Ill Niño (on their album Dead New World)
• Impending Doom
• In Extremo ("Nymphenzeit", "Sagrada Trobar" (AEADGB), "In diesem Licht", "Unsichtbar")
• In This Moment
• Infant Annihilator (on their album The Elysian Grandeval Galèriarch)
• Jinjer (on their album King of Everything)[3]
• King 810
• Ty Tabor of King's X[4] (on the albums Please Come Home... Mr. Bulbous and Ogre Tones)
• Lacuna Coil
• Light the Torch
• Like Moths to Flames
• Make Them Suffer (on most songs)
• Buzz Osborne of The Melvins
• Motionless in White
• Muse (on the songs "Liquid State," "Citizen Erased", and "Supremacy".)
• New Years Day
• Nile[5]
• Oceano
• Of Mice & Men (on all bonus tracks on their album The Flood, and some tracks on their albums Restoring Force, Cold World, and Defy)
• Pain
• Pallbearer
• Parkway Drive (on a few songs from Deep Blue)
• Periphery (on their cover of Slipknot's "The Heretic Anthem")
• Pop Evil (on the song "Waking Lions")
• RED[6]
• Salduie
• Slipknot[7]
• Sleeping With Sirens (on select songs from How It Feels To Be Lost)
• Suicide Silence
• Sunn O)))
• Thy Art Is Murder
• Times of Grace (on a few songs)
• Upon a Burning Body
• Volumes
• Whitechapel
• Winterfylleth (on some songs)
• Within Temptation (on some songs)
• Wovenwar (on their album Honor Is Dead)

AADGBE

• Every Time I Die (on "Moor" from From Parts Unknown, "Indian Giver" on Ex Lives and "Fear and Trembling" on Low Teens)
• Filter (on "Welcome to the Fold")
• Foo Fighters (on "Stacked Actors")
• Helmet (on "Biscuits for Smut")
• Weasel Walter of Lake of Dracula
• Melvins (on "Boris")
• Neurosis (on their album Through Silver in Blood, and everything after)
• Oxygen Thief (on "Self-Righting Mechanism" from album The Half-Life of Facts and EP One Day This Will All Be Fields)
• Radiohead (on "Bangers + Mash")
• Rage Against the Machine (on "Calm Like a Bomb")
• Them Crooked Vultures (on "No One Loves Me & Neither Do I", "Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up" and "Caligulove")
• Dez Nagle and Jo Ardiles of The Safety Fire[8]
• Thrice (on "The Earth Will Shake" from Vheissu)
• Torche
• Muse (on "Citizen Erased" and "Supremacy")
• Opeth (on "Sorceress")

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")

ADADGB/ADADGBE

• Dir En Grey (7 string guitars)
• Stephen Taranto (on Permanence EP)
• Stam1na (nearly all 7 string songs)
• Mokoma (7 string guitars)
• Sino (7 string guitars)

References

1. "Three Hammers".
2. "Rig Rundown - Halestorm's Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger". Premier Guitar. Premier Guitar. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
3. Napalm Records (2016-05-30), JINJER - "King of Everything" Studio Diary #2 | Napalm Records, retrieved 2017-11-24
4. "Ty Tabor of Kings X – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2008". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
5. "Karl Sanders Talks About Nile's Tunings". FRET12. FRET12. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
6. Armstrong, Anthony. "RED: Anthony Armstrong Guitar Lesson - Feed The Machine". RED. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
7. "Rig Rundown - Slipknot's Mick Thomson and Jim Root". Premier Guitar. Premier Guitar. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
8. "RIGGED: THE SAFETY FIRE GUITARIST DERYA "DEZ" NAGLE".