Quote:
Originally Posted by lucasreis
Itīs not about limiting, itīs about keeping their sound classic. I respect Dave for his decision not to jump in the seven string bandwagon. Not everyone HAS to play them. Itīs called DIVERSITY. We are the minority, E is still the standard tuning and it will always be as far as Iīm concerned. What I tried to say is that a lot of people play seven-strings and just use the LOW B and are just as limited as the guys only playing in E, itīs a matter of how you use it. Some bands are very limited, remember new metal? They didn't play in E, but were far more limited in writing and playing than Megadeth. Iīm a seven stringer but also a six stringer, so, what I think is that the only thing that can limit a guitar player is himself, not his tunings.
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What the hell ever dude. If people know how to play guitar and have a clue about songwriting, they'd use the extra range to their advantage. It's completely weak for Dave to turn his nose up to lower tunings, while he embraces his primitive & limiting tuning. What's "classic" to me is Black Sabbath, who tuned to C# back in 1972. Or all the old school thrash bands who tuned to D, or the old school death metal bands who tuned to B or A. The Beatles and a lot other bands tuned to D as well. There's just no good reason to not EVER want any notes lower than an E. I'm convinced based on the vast majority of Dave's material in the last 15-20 years that he has a poor musical ear and that could explain these kinds of things.
I don't get your nu-metal comparison. Obviously if someone sucks at writing music, no tuning will help him. Obviously badass songs like Painkiller by Judas Priest prove you can sound heavy with E tuning. That's not the point. The point is, Dave is a complete moron for having the attitude he has about down-tuning. If you can play guitar, you can write awesome stuff in any genre of music in any tuning. Having more range let's you be so much more dynamic and heavy. Metal is just like classical music with its sensibilities and compositional structure, they're almost the exact same thing just with different instruments. For almost every style of music the extra range would give any decent songwriter the necessary tools to use the scales to the fullest and create the most interesting pieces. Unless you're just playing repetitive thrash stuff, I see no benefit from not having a 7-string or using alternate tunings.
Again, I don't see how it's "diverse" to limit yourself. I don't think Dave should be applauded for being lazy and complacent. Most people who laugh at people who tune down to D or C or use 7's usually are clueless about songwriting or have shitty gear and don't realize you need good pickups/amps to amplify lower notes properly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DDDorian
I hardly think E-E is "limited and primitive". It's the standard because it gives you easy grips for a lot of common keys in the open position. Plus, there isn't a decent thrash band that tunes any lower than Db, and even a lot of those that go tha low sound like shit (in a thrash context anyway).
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D standard actually makes just as much sense in that regard if you want to use that argument. It's standard because musician's as a whole are very stubborn and adverse to change. That's why there's legions of people out there who will turn their noses up at the thought of Pro Tools, or tube that's not a NOS Telefunken, or all the people that spend $7000 on a Gibson 59 reissue when you could get an infinitely better sounding/playing guitar for 1/4 of that, etc. Really though we should explore context. In metal and hard rock, it's not standard and it really never has been. Again, Sabbath C#, Rush, Stones, Beatles, Hendrix, etc used alt. tunings. Old school thrash bands tuned to Eb and D often, old death metal in D, C#, B etc, 80's hair metal bands often tuned in Eb or D (Motley Crue comes to mind), etc.
As for the thrash thing, I agree with you that thrash (usually not the most dynamic music but fun) doesn't need to be in B or anything. I mentioned thrash above for that reason. That said, it certainly sounds better in Eb or D than in E most of the time, at least IMO. I'm no advocate of riding a low B-string. On the majority of our songs, you could play 70-75% of the song on a 6-string tuned to D standard. I don't mind if someone likes E tuning. It's just so limiting and for people like Dave to put down 7's is just ridiculous.