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Originally Posted by zimbloth  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. |
You will note that this is 100% your opinion. I personally think that E tuning is much much better for thrash than Eb or D. I also think that E standard is a much better standard tuning than Eb or D and anything lower than that gets rid of the brightness or low range (which is the reason why I play sevens). Sure, E standard is not the "standard" tuning for metal right now, but it still is the standard tuning for rock, blues, jazz, funk, classical, and so on. I think throughout metal's entire history, E standard has been used more than any other tuning.
To insult someone as "primitive" and old-fashioned because they don't downtune or use extra strings is just ridiculous. Seeing as guitarists who use sevens or eights are pretty uncommon, the huge majority of guitarists would be primitive - including most bands you listen to. I think Dave is wrong and hypocritical for ridiculing downtuning, but it's his choice. I don't really trust your opinions on tuning because I remember you saying several times that nothing tuned above D can be heavy.
Seriously...
And what do you mean Megadeth haven't released any good albums since the 80s? Their best album was released in the 90s, Rust In Peace. They also released several good albums after that such as Countdown to Extinction and Youthanasia. I agree that the last 4 or so albums have been pretty mediocre (or just downright shit) but I think all of their stuff from the 80s and first half of the 90s was of excellent quality.