These two tunings, drop-A (A,G,C,F,A,D) and drop-B (B,A,D,G,B,E) perplex me. I know Mastodon uses drop-A, but I don't see how. For the Mastodon tabs I have he's doing power chords as he would in standard, but they're really octaves he's playing, correct? But they don't really sound like octaves, so what's the deal? Basically, any advice for playing in this tuning? I don't have my guitar with me right now to figure anything out, and I couldn't think of any way to comfortably play in these tunings.

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well an octave is in a powerchord so... its just the placing of it gets moved around
so low-e 5th fret is...............low-a 5th fret

a.......................................d
e.......................................d
a.......................................g

both still have an octave but in different spots

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First of all you have those tunings incorrect. Drop B is (low to high) B F# B E G# C#....and Drop A is (low to high) A E A D F# B. I didn't really understand the rest of your question though.

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well they could tune like that....btw my previouse post was based of the tunning of A that he gave

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B,A,D,G,B,E

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They could tune like that, but it wouldn't be a dropped tuning...hence the lack of the same notes on the open 6th and 4th strings.

Look, an octave on a drop tuned guitar would look like this:

A|-6-|
E|---|
A|-6-|

or

B|-6-|
F#|---|
B|-6-|

Versus octaves on a standard low tuned guitar:

G|-8-|
D|---|
A|-6-|

Hope that helps

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That's how it was tuned in all the tabs I have, as B,A,D,G,B,E or A,G,C,F,A,D. I know that a few of them are wrong but the others sound right. Zakk Wylde talks about B,A,D,G,B,E tuning in his column in guitar world sometimes, but it doesn't make sense to me. I'm wondering if anyone could show me how these tunings listed can be useful.

PS It was written as drop-B and drop-A where I saw it, that's why I used that name.

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You are right about Zakk using that tuning....he is just weird like that. He also uses those fucking .070 gauges for that tuning....but he just tunes it down like that on the fly for some songs...so he can still have the high strings to rip it up. Listen to the albums Stronger Than Death and 1919 Eternal. A few of the songs on there he actually tunes it around A A D G B E...and G G C F A D...thats just for that thick octave sound he gets....check out Berserkers on 1919....you'll see what I'm talking about.

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Will do, philkilla666.

But still, if anyone has any more advice on it, please post!

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Well, drop A and drop B are the correct ways to refer to those tunings. Although many people refer to A E A D F# B as drop A (similarly for drop B) - myself included - it isn't technically correct to do so. A E A D F# B should be referred to as B standard with the 6th string dropped to A but it's just easier to say drop A. As long as people know what you are talking about (as in this thread - the tuning was clearly stated) I don't see a problem with the terminology.

Anyway, when you play a standard octave in standard tuning, there is the percussive tone of the string inbetween that adds to the sound. It also means that there is a bigger time difference between strinking the lower octave and striking the upper octave. These two factors don't come into play as much when an octave chord is played in the tunings stated in the first post. Hence a slightly differently sounding octave.

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Johns sexy!

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Darko you scamp!

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scamp? is that one of those british words like bint

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Yeah, it's a word for a mischievous youngster but it's meant in a good 'looking back' sort of way: "Back in those days I was a right little scamp, always answerin' back to me ma. We never locked the doors back then and you never 'urd o' murders. Ah, those were the good ol' days!"

Kind of...

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*smacks head* Why didn't I think of that!! Ok, that answers my question, thanks a lot man!

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If your still wondering about that Zakk Wylde tuning, I can explain. It's standard tuning, but the low E is dropped all the way down to B. Easy as that. He sometimes drops it down to A also. This type of tuning is also used by Pantera on "The underground in america", but here the guitar is first tuned down a whole step, and the the low D is tuned down to G. Thats pretty deep.

Soundgarden also use B A D G B E on Rusty Cage.

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Download gtp file Cannibal Corpse - Festering In The Crypt... there are play Drop A... And tuning...