It is still amazing to me that the majority of modern guitarist STILL do not know how Dime tuned his guitars...yet they still try and play his songs.

He always tuned down a 1/4 step...whether he played in E, D, Drop-D, C#, Drop-C, and/or Octave G (on Underground in America and Sandblasted Skin)

an easy way to achieve this (for me at least ) is, I use my Pod XT to tune. Simply switch from A440 HZ to A425 HZ. Than tune like so.

For example, if you tune to E at A425 HZ, it is actually E-Flat, plus a quarter. (when you switch back to A440 and compare of course.)

This was a very big part of dime's sound...and unfortunately has been overlooked quite a bit.

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Megadeth's 'Peace Sells...' was recorded 1/4 down apparently.

Thanks for the insight in how to do it accurately! Dunno why that never occured to me.

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im pretty sure everyone who didnt give a damn shit about dimes playing knows this but noone will attempt to use "dimes tuning" for his own work or band. for me its pretty much like using signature guitars etc ... it has been done before. anyways youre right ...if you want to cover pantera songs you have to tune down 1/4 to whatever tuning in order to get the original sound otherwise it will sound shit

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i think it can also be done using a whammy, using the down-tune option

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Did he pay much attention to scales, then?

I mean, are they still relevant?

lots of bands tune down a half step. Even Extream on the first album.

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it's half a half step.

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Thank you. I thought that was made blatantly obvious by now.

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oh right...im very sorry. didnt read well

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yes, but that was due to poor equipment, not on purpose.

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Right.

I know Killing is My Business is off a quarter step, as well as Dark Angel - Darkness Descends, Wehrmacht - Biermacht, Razor's older stuff, among others. We should start up a sticky tunings thread in the tab questions/requests forum.

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Dimebag just ghetto tuned his guitars (by ear) so thats why theyre all tuned a little bit flat.

even discrepancy from the proper frequency can happen on account of the recordings being sped up or slowed down as well.

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Nah man he had guitar techs change his strings and all that, he even talked about how it was tradition for him to tune down a 1/4 step... Whatever works...

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i bet the bass player in pantera really appreciated that

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They played together for about 20 years. I bet he got used to it at some point. I doubt either one had tuned their own instruments in a decade, anyway.

with dimes playing, its so real im thinking he didnt have to worry about scales. more like he did whatever the fuck he wanted, and it worked

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Nah, he used a lot of pentatonics and diatonics.

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cool

btw, how do you know this?

Well, I've played a few of his solos, and I saw that the pattern that Dimebag used matched that of a pentatonic, and sometimes the major / minor scale

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anyway, imho he played them like a fucking god

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no wonder its so goddamn hard to play a pantera album, all the fuckin tunings are wacky. I kinda thought so...

Thats one thing that pisses me off about guitar, you need like 8 guitars in different tunings to be able to jam random songs that you know.

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why would it not be? ALL of his strings are down a 1/4 step. intonation of the notes with respect to each fret IS RELATIVE as long as the 'shape' of the tuning is the same from string to string (i.e. standard...down 1/4, 1/2, whole step, C-standard, w/e). therefore all scales will also be relative and will work. its not really an alternate tuning per se....just standard dropped 1/4 step

If you really want me to, I will post every tuning for every pantera song from Cowboys and up.

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that would be awesome. hah after reading this thread i went through all the albums with my guitar in front of me.... i cant tune to Cowboys F.H. though, my string guage must be too low. Must be E or D?
Great Southern TK sounds good though but i still noticed 3? different tunings on that album too.

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Remember, all these tunings are also a quarter step down as well!



COWBOYS FROM HELL:

All tracks in Standard E except for Primal Concrete Sledge, and Medicine Man which are both in Drop D



Vulgar Display of Power:

Mouth for War: E
A New Level: Drop D
Walk: D
Fucking Hostile: E
This Love: E
Rise: E
No Good: D
Live in a Hole: E
Regular People: E
By Demons Be Driven: E
Hollow: E

Far Beyond Driven:

Strength Beyond Strength: E
Becoming: D
5 Minutes Alone: D
I'm Broken: D
Good friends and a bottle of pills: (?)
Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks: D
Slaughtered: E
25 Years: E
Shedding Skin: E
Use My Third Arm: D
Throes of Rejection: D
Planet Caravan: E

The Great Southern Trendkill:

The Great Southern Trendkill: D
War Nerve: D
Drag The Waters: D Flat
10's: D
Thirteen Steps to Nowhere: D
Suicide Note Part 1: Drop D
Suicide Note Part 2: D
Living Through Me: D
Floods: D
The Underground In America: Octave G (see note)
Sandblasted Skin: Octave G (see note)

For the above two mentioned songs, Dime tuned his guitars sixth string (which is already in D mind you) to match the pitch of the 5th string. Hence, an octave G.



Reinventing The Steel:

Hellboud: D
Goddamn Electric: D
Yesterday Don't Mean Shit: D
You've Gotta Belong To It: D
Revolution Is My Name: D
Death Rattle: D
We'll Grind That Axe For A Long Time: D
Uplift: D
It Makes Them Disappear: Drop C
I'll Cast A Shadow: Drop C

Hope that helps.

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dimebags korg tuner was always 1/4 down for the whole band histroy of pantera. this has absolutely nothing to do with "ghetto tuning" ...

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Correct. He mostly used the natural minor and blues pentatonic with heavy doses of chromaticism thrown in for good measure.

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He also plays alot of symmetrical patterns i.e. diminished runs and atonal patterns.

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oh yeah but I meant, how do you know the 1/4 tone thing?

is there a video where he says he tuned that way?

I've always kept up with dimes playing. I think I picked it up from guitar world or somewhere along the line.

if you check out Dimebag Darrells Riffer Madness book, its in there as well. Only its explained a little bit differently.

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ALTERING THE FUTURE! damn, i love this song.

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It's also been mentioned lots of times in magazine columns in various guitar mags...

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have any of you listened to the rebel meets rebel cd. i think its fucking brilliant.

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That it is. BTW, I believe that one is in D...just don't quote me on that.

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or 4 seven string guitars

But it isn't a proper 'note'. Yes, they are relative to each other correctly, but it isn't in the proper musical alphabet, that's why I asked whether scales would be relevant.

I know that scales are Derived from a method such as TTSTTTST, but they possess a 'sound'. A sound which could be lost from this 1/4 tuning.

okay i see what you were thinking...true it is now not part of the proper musical alphabet...it is off 1/4 step....but the steps would be the same and it just acts as if the whole freq range is off a 1/4 step (25hz at A)

Yea, like any studio producer would let him do that.

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you guys are nerds. i bet dime himself doesnt even know what the fuck that means.

hell in that guitar world video that came out with the dime lesson.. he couldnt even telll what key he was actually in...

"F... or.. uh.... what looks like F"

lmao its calssic

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a scales a scale... regardless of what the fucking tuner says.
if its all tuned in the same shape you can play the scale regardless of what key its in.

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Dime knew his theory, trust me.