# Meshuggah in Drop Tunings



## alvaro (May 8, 2017)

Hi! I am looking to broaden my repertory with some Meshuggah stuff. Problem is, that is I have only one guitar and I tune it in Drop (F).

¿Does any one know any Meshuggah songs that can be played in Drop tunings? For now I just learned Demiurge, it translates fine and I love it. Would love also to be able to play Break Those Bones, Koloss and Pravus, maybe some tracks from Catch 33...

thanks in advance. Also I would appreciate any other suggestions, I'm also learning stuff from Humanity's Last Breath, Lifeforms and things such those bands (thall?).


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## A-Branger (May 8, 2017)

whats the other tunings of Meshuggah? or the one they use?

basically seeing how far are you with your settup


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## endmysuffering (May 8, 2017)

You can play meshuggah in drop f for sure, it'll be a bit harder but you can still get the same notes.
They tune to f standard.


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## alvaro (May 8, 2017)

AFAIK they play in F standard. I'm not expert in their discography but many riffs sound like they use a lot open strings so it will be kinda hard or even physically imposible to translate it on drop tuning versions.


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## A-Branger (May 8, 2017)

If all their songs are in F standard and tour guitar is in Drop F then your choices are:

-transpose the songs to a DropF format, if you find the guitarpro/powertab files, then it takes 1 sec to do on the software. BUT, you might wont be able to play all the songs, some might be limited due to open strings

-Detune your whole guitar to match, its annoying, but its not that far in order for the guitar become too floopy/out of intonation. BUT, you would be limited to waht you can play per day, like once detuned, then better for you to play all Meshuggah only till you get bored so then you re-tune your guitar for all other songs. So maybe a couple of days of Meshuggah, couple of days of other stuff. 

-You could also find a happy medium between those two points?, so you only have to tune your 6/7/8th strings to F standard, and leave the rest as you curently have. In that way you can play all the riffs, its only the solo/ambient stuff that you would have to transpose on the software. In that way you are only changing tunning on 2 strings, so quicker approach

-Get a digitech Drop pedal, tune up your 8th string to a standard G guitar and tune down 2 semitones with the pedal. BUT, sound maybe be affected?, I have the pedal for my standard E 6 string and it works great, I can do 5 semi-tones easily with a small tweak in the EQ amp settings, 2 semi-tones is nothing and I cant tell the difference in sound, but in my bass 2 semi-tones is awfull and the sound quality gets affected a lot. So not sure how this pedal would work on an 8 string


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## vilk (May 8, 2017)

I used to play ObZen title track on my 7 string baritone in drop F


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## alvaro (May 8, 2017)

A-Branger said:


> If all their songs are in F standard and tour guitar is in Drop F then your choices are:
> 
> -transpose the songs to a DropF format, if you find the guitarpro/powertab files, then it takes 1 sec to do on the software. BUT, you might wont be able to play all the songs, some might be limited due to open strings
> 
> ...



I will try transposing string option on guitar pro. Thanks for the idea!






vilk said:


> I used to play ObZen title track on my 7 string baritone in drop F



Thanks i will try this one too... Pretty wild riffs in there!


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## alvaro (May 8, 2017)

oooooops there's a diminished F chord on Obzen second verse.... no way


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## vilk (May 8, 2017)

Why can't it be played by jumping a string? I know that I used to play it on my 8 tuned to F but I swear I have a vivid memory of also playing it on my 7... maybe I never played it all the way through... but I thought you could find all the notes on a higher string and make it work


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## wankerness (May 9, 2017)

vilk said:


> Why can't it be played by jumping a string? I know that I used to play it on my 8 tuned to F but I swear I have a vivid memory of also playing it on my 7... maybe I never played it all the way through... but I thought you could find all the notes on a higher string and make it work



Cause then you'd be in a higher octave?


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## vilk (May 9, 2017)

Sorry for not being clear; I meant the same note played on a higher string. Granted that might affect the timbre. Despite having taken 2 full years of Music Theory in high school, I actually don't know what the f/// we're talking about right now.


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## wankerness (May 9, 2017)

vilk said:


> Sorry for not being clear; I meant the same note played on a higher string. Granted that might affect the timbre. Despite having taken 2 full years of Music Theory in high school, I actually don't know what the f/// we're talking about right now.



They're saying there's a chord that would be played 0-1 on the low F and Bb strings (chord notes being F and Cb/B). If you're in Drop F tuning, it is not possible to play both of those notes at once, as your low strings are F and C. 

So basically, I have no idea what you're talking about, as you can't play any note on a higher string unless it's played higher than the 5th fret on the lower string 

Unless you're one of those people that call the string that's lower in pitch the "higher" one cause it's closer to your face, I guess! You can't in this case, either, cause the chord is effectively the 0 on the low F and the 6 on the low F. And by low, I mean lowest in pitch, lowest on a guitar tab, etc.


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## DLG (May 10, 2017)

Why not just play the old 7 string stuff, it's their best stuff anyway


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## Rxcoma (May 10, 2017)

Combustion can be transcribed into open quite easily as to where playing along with the album will provide next to nothing as far as tonal discrepancies while playing along. Not to mention its pretty fun to play. That'd be my first suggestion to you. You could also tune up to play some older stuff. Like the None EP. I learned that whole album.in drop tuning. Its really easy stuff to play and a great exercise in keeping your guitar parts tight over drumlines where the loop falls into strange slots. Meshuggah is just a great exercise in all things metal really .. But yeah, hook yourself up with some Combustion brother!


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## Rxcoma (May 10, 2017)

Just noticed the comment above mine, I second that motion DLG. Good call, in agreement by my suggesting None EP. None, Destroy Erase Improve and oddly enough Violent Sleep are my favorite Shug albums. So older stuff mainly. Didn't care for vocal production on Violent Sleep tho. Plus the cat who engineered it was the same guy who did my old bands first professional album "Droid" and that guy pretty much destroyed my drummers drum tone with sampled toe replacement. He recorded his drum parts in th same place We Are The World was recorded on a vintage Gretsch kit that was like $7K. Pork Pie snare, who endorsed him. The tones on our demo sessions sounded waaaay better. Anyway, that was a tangent.. Violent sleep was a great album sans Tue killing Jens vocal tone. Made him sound like a fry-screamer


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## Rxcoma (May 10, 2017)

Tone replacement* not "toe" hehe


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## jmeezle (May 10, 2017)

alvaro said:


> AFAIK they play in F standard.



Meshuggah tune a half step below standard 8 string tuning (F, B&#9837;, E&#9837;, A&#9837;, D&#9837;,G&#9837;, B&#9837;, E&#9837.


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## wankerness (May 10, 2017)

Rxcoma said:


> *Combustion can be transcribed into open quite easily as to where playing along with the album will provide next to nothing as far as tonal discrepancies while playing along. *Not to mention its pretty fun to play. That'd be my first suggestion to you. You could also tune up to play some older stuff. Like the None EP. I learned that whole album.in drop tuning. Its really easy stuff to play and a great exercise in keeping your guitar parts tight over drumlines where the loop falls into strange slots. Meshuggah is just a great exercise in all things metal really .. But yeah, hook yourself up with some Combustion brother!



Combustion's main riff is entirely based around pull-offs onto open strings from high frets (particularly the Eb string) and thus would not be transcribeable into drop F (or any drop tuning, for that matter, as the two strings being pulled off onto are F and Eb). Unless you have some interesting method of doing it. I'd be curious to see a tab.


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## vilk (May 10, 2017)

wankerness said:


> They're saying there's a chord that would be played 0-1 on the low F and Bb strings (chord notes being F and Cb/B). If you're in Drop F tuning, it is not possible to play both of those notes at once, as your low strings are F and C.
> 
> So basically, I have no idea what you're talking about, as you can't play any note on a higher string unless it's played higher than the 5th fret on the lower string
> 
> Unless you're one of those people that call the string that's lower in pitch the "higher" one cause it's closer to your face, I guess! You can't in this case, either, cause the chord is effectively the 0 on the low F and the 6 on the low F. And by low, I mean lowest in pitch, lowest on a guitar tab, etc.



I was trying to say I don't know what notes mean on a guitar, and especially in a weird tuning. But now that you told me what frets it is it all makes sense. You can't play an open note and the 6th fret of a single string simultaneously.

I wasn't trying to say I know music theory. I was trying to say that I forgot almost every single thing I learned in high school.


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## Vres (May 10, 2017)

jmeezle said:


> Meshuggah tune a half step below standard 8 string tuning (F, B&#9837;, E&#9837;, A&#9837;, D&#9837;,G&#9837;, B&#9837;, E&#9837.


That's what F standard is.

F standard =/= 8 string standard


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## DLG (May 11, 2017)

Rxcoma said:


> Just noticed the comment above mine, I second that motion DLG. Good call, in agreement by my suggesting None EP. None, Destroy Erase Improve and oddly enough Violent Sleep are my favorite Shug albums. So older stuff mainly. Didn't care for vocal production on Violent Sleep tho. Plus the cat who engineered it was the same guy who did my old bands first professional album "Droid" and that guy pretty much destroyed my drummers drum tone with sampled toe replacement. He recorded his drum parts in th same place We Are The World was recorded on a vintage Gretsch kit that was like $7K. Pork Pie snare, who endorsed him. The tones on our demo sessions sounded waaaay better. Anyway, that was a tangent.. Violent sleep was a great album sans Tue killing Jens vocal tone. Made him sound like a fry-screamer



I think Jens might actually be a fry-screamer now. There's no way he can scream the way he screamed on Chaosphere playing 100 shows a year at the age of 50.


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