# 7 string tunes in A, then D standard



## halsinden (Apr 9, 2008)

ok, everyone else can play other people's music. i want to be accepted in life and am sick of having stones thrown at me from ice cream trucks and having my ears pulled by people's pets for being such a freak.

so... just... just leave me the fuck alone and tell me some decent metal songs that would fit being played with a 7 string that's down to A on the heaviest and then as a D standard above it.

seriously, i'm telling mum. you're going to be in so much trouble. you'll see.

H


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## Nick (Apr 9, 2008)

all necrophagist tracks are in D standard i think.

I cant think of any bands that play in A standard apart from the obvious korn lol


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## Mr. S (Apr 9, 2008)

the berzerker are the first band that pop into my head, ill try and think of more though


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## distressed_romeo (Apr 9, 2008)

'These Walls' by Dream Theater is a six string baritone in A, so that would work well in that tuning.

The whole of Death, Symphony X, and Paradise Lost's back catalogues are in D standard (although I'm not sure whether Greg still tunes down a tone on his sevens).

I think most Motley Crue songs (at least the early ones) are in D standard.

Actually, it's suprisingly hard for me to think of bands who aren't Korn who tune to A on sevens. It's much easier to think of bands who tune to Bb...


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## GuitarG2 (Apr 9, 2008)

You could check out Capharnaum. It's A on the bottom and Drop D for the top 6 strings, so it's slightly different, but it's pretty cool because there's ADAD at the bottom i.e. play a riff or some notes on the bottom 2 strings, and then play the same frets on the next string pair for an octave up. Plus Capharnaum just fucking shred!


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## metalfiend666 (Apr 9, 2008)

You can of course transpose songs. As long as it sounds like the song people know, they won't realise you're dropping it down a step. Unless you're trying to play to the original track.

Nevermore tune (usually) to Bb, so it's not that far a jump. They used drop D on their 6 string albums I believe. Also, try messing around with songs so they fit on a 7. I've got a nice way of playing AIC's Them Bones on a standard tuned 7, even though it was recorded in drop Db.


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## MrJack (Apr 9, 2008)

GuitarG2 said:


> You could check out Capharnaum. It's A on the bottom and Drop D for the top 6 strings, so it's slightly different, but it's pretty cool because there's ADAD at the bottom i.e. play a riff or some notes on the bottom 2 strings, and then play the same frets on the next string pair for an octave up. Plus Capharnaum just fucking shred!



I just have to add a band with the same tuning, *Stam1na*. They have awesome songs in my opinion and are fun to play. The rhythms they use sometimes may prove to be a bit tricky to get down but once you get them, they're like second nature.

Here are some samples. *Might be NSFW because of the violence in the last one. *

The singer has serious talent since he's able to play everything while singing while I have trouble just trying to play the first song properly. They have even more difficult songs where he sings at the same time.





Oh, it's in Finnish if you missed it.


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## zimbloth (Apr 9, 2008)

halsinden said:


> ok, everyone else can play other people's music. i want to be accepted in life and am sick of having stones thrown at me from ice cream trucks and having my ears pulled by people's pets for being such a freak.
> 
> so... just... just leave me the fuck alone and tell me some decent metal songs that would fit being played with a 7 string that's down to A on the heaviest and then as a D standard above it.
> 
> ...



All of my guitars are tuned ADGCFAD as that's what we use in my band, so I too jam along to other bands that tune to D standard or A sometimes. Some that come to mind in D are Gojira, Dimmu Borgir, old Children of Bodom, Cradle of Filth, etc.

Bands that tune like we do? Not many, which is cool I think. There are many bands that tune to B, Bb, or drop A but not many A standard. Fear Factory (most of 'Obsolete' was in ADGCFAD) comes to mind, as well as Hypocrisy, a few Arch Enemy songs, etc.


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## halsinden (Apr 9, 2008)

guys, this is all brilliant advice, thank you. reps to all.

standouts are:

*capharnaum* - what a find. such amazing music, but i'm really not a fan of the vocals at all. this is definitely music for me to work at being able to tackle. what's a good tune to start on and who might know it best? are they on 7s? i love the vocals on the last tune on the myspace page

*stam1na* - oh. my. fuck. _why_ had nobody told me about these lads? i am BLOWN AWAY. who are they? why they fuck aren't they huge over here? need more on them. anyone know them?

realising i may need tabs here, but oh well - working the stuff out myself can only improve me.

H


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## GuitarG2 (Apr 10, 2008)

halsinden said:


> *capharnaum* - what a find. such amazing music, but i'm really not a fan of the vocals at all. this is definitely music for me to work at being able to tackle. what's a good tune to start on and who might know it best? are they on 7s? i love the vocals on the last tune on the myspace page
> 
> realising i may need tabs here, but oh well - working the stuff out myself can only improve me.
> 
> H



Well, it's Matt Heafy from Trivium on vocals, so probably not a death metaller's favourite choice lol. However, on two of the tracks (including 'Icon of Malice') it's Jason Suecof, one of the guitar players (better known as a producer than a guitarist but oh well), doing the vocals in more traditonal death style. Yes, they play 7s, in ADADGBE tuning. There were a few tabs on Rivers of Gore - Brutal Tablature to start of from.

Also, they have Dan Mongrain from Martyr doing a couple of solos and the bass player from Monstrosity so they're a bit of a supergroup!


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## quartie (Apr 11, 2008)

MrJack said:


> I just have to add a band with the same tuning, *Stam1na*. They have awesome songs in my opinion and are fun to play. The rhythms they use sometimes may prove to be a bit tricky to get down but once you get them, they're like second nature.


 
Thankyou for bringing this into our lives. It is currently on constant repeat, streaming through our household the way something this beautiful should.


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## MrJack (Apr 11, 2008)

halsinden said:


> *stam1na* - oh. my. fuck. _why_ had nobody told me about these lads? i am BLOWN AWAY. who are they? why they fuck aren't they huge over here? need more on them. anyone know them?
> 
> realising i may need tabs here, but oh well - working the stuff out myself can only improve me.
> 
> H



They were the supporting act for Apocalyptica on the German leg of the tour and also in Estonia and some other places. I'm gonna see them at least once this summer, perhaps even twice depending on my luck.

Stam1na have links to a site with tabs for their songs on their homepage. There's Guitar Pro and plain text based tabs available for most if not all songs.


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## halsinden (Apr 11, 2008)

MrJack said:


> They were the supporting act for Apocalyptica on the German leg of the tour and also in Estonia and some other places. I'm gonna see them at least once this summer, perhaps even twice depending on my luck.
> 
> Stam1na have links to a site with tabs for their songs on their homepage. There's Guitar Pro and plain text based tabs available for most if not all songs.



dammit, just popped onto the tabs page and its all in suomi. not only that, but by all accounts it looks like theyre in dropped D. im in standard D with the extra A. plus, how is it they have a H string? am i being stupid?

H


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## Nick (Apr 11, 2008)

Europeans refer to the Low B as H i believe

mental but true

*it may not be low b but its either that or a low A*


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## quartie (Apr 11, 2008)

Nick said:


> Europeans refer to the Low B as H i believe


 
The UK isn't considered part of Europe yet, right? Phew...


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## Nick (Apr 11, 2008)

ok mainland europeans 

find me someone who refers to Uk folk as europeans and not brittish


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## halsinden (Apr 11, 2008)

Nick said:


> Europeans refer to the Low B as H i believe
> 
> mental but true
> 
> *it may not be low b but its either that or a low A*



what?

hang on, sorry, *WHAT*?!?!?!?

yeah, of course, that makes loads of sense, what with it being right in the middle of A and C

and then, hang on, if thats the low B, why in the stam1na tabs page does it appear nowhere near the low B string? what the fuck is going on? whats with these continentals?

i desperately want to play along to these guys, but if its a dramatically different tuning that they use then im going to be a bit screwed. i just dont have the utensils (ie. enough guitars) or the technical skills to set my guitar up each time i change.

H


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## Mr. S (Apr 11, 2008)

i just thought of another one, Iron Tusk by Mastodon is tuned low to high: A G C F A D great song too


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## quartie (Apr 11, 2008)

halsinden said:


> i just dont have the utensils (ie. enough guitars)


 
...tee hee...

Borrow mine. You KNOW you want to. It's just so much YUMMIER!

Stam1na blasted out on some phat acoustic with a shoebox drumkit. YES!


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## halsinden (Apr 11, 2008)

quartie said:


> ...tee hee...
> 
> Borrow mine. You KNOW you want to. It's just so much YUMMIER!
> 
> Stam1na blasted out on some phat acoustic with a shoebox drumkit. YES!



im worried that if i play your acoustic again, the action may cause my fingers to double in amount due to being halved. 

H


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## quartie (Apr 11, 2008)

halsinden said:


> ... may cause my fingers to double in amount...


 
I ain't complainin'.


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## MrJack (Apr 11, 2008)

halsinden said:


> dammit, just popped onto the tabs page and it&#8217;s all in suomi. not only that, but by all accounts it looks like they&#8217;re in dropped D. i&#8217;m in standard D with the extra A. plus, how is it they have a &#8216;H&#8217; string? am i being stupid?
> 
> H



No, you aren't being stupid. It's just that a lot of people in Finland use H instead of B, it's an old system that was originally used in Germany at the dawn of time. So instead of it being *A A#/Bb B C* etc. it's *A A#/B H C* etc.
The dinosaurs still alive insist on using this crazy system so it's what we have to use when we study music theory in Finland.


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## quartie (Apr 16, 2008)

Stam1na just accepted my friend request on myspace! *swoon*


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## guitarplayerone (Apr 18, 2008)

Not a huge korn fan, but I'm pretty sure everything after ADIDAS was tuned to A standard.

Isn't Bleed the Fifth in A standard as well?


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## halsinden (Apr 18, 2008)

right, that being the case though, and deeply cool for everyone explaining that it _does_ happen

A-D-A-D-G-H-E

what the hell is that in normal, non-faddy ooh look at us, we invented beer and confusion teutonic ridiculousness?

and, being the dunce that i am, is it a dropped tuning (as in being able to play a power chord with 1 straight finger) then normal with all the rest? so basically its not what i was saying; that i have a guitar tuned in D standard with an additional A as a lower string?

H


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## ArchAngel1024 (Apr 18, 2008)

I think Mushroomhead plays in A.


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## Mr. S (Apr 18, 2008)

halsinden said:


> right, that being the case though, and deeply cool for everyone explaining that it _does_ happen
> 
> A-D-A-D-G-H-E
> 
> ...



thats basically drop-D tuning (D-A-D-G-B-E) but with the B tuned down to A, intresting idea for a tuning ive never actually seen it used before, so basically you can do the single finger powere chords on the 6th string but normal power chords on the others..


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## halsinden (Apr 18, 2008)

Mr. S said:


> thats basically drop-D tuning (D-A-D-G-B-E) but with the B tuned down to A, intresting idea for a tuning ive never actually seen it used before, so basically you can do the single finger powere chords on the 6th string but normal power chords on the others..



gotcha. i can see the niftiness of it to a degree but i generally dislike dropped tunings as i only just got my head around managing the theory for normal tunings.

im now in a conundrum. i badly want to play along to stam1na, i havent felt this enthralled by a band in quite some time. right now i only have 1 7 string, although the custom from roter may be done soon. in general, ill be playing in A then D standard and i dont want to keep having to set the damn guitar up for each act i write with.

hmm

H


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## Mr. S (Apr 18, 2008)

i guess you could always find a cheap fixed bridge 7 until your custom is done? but alas i guess that is extra expenditure that might not be possible...


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## Se7enMeister (Apr 19, 2008)

distressed_romeo said:


> '
> 
> I think most Motley Crue songs (at least the early ones) are in D standard.



only the ones with mick mars


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## MrJack (Apr 19, 2008)

You can transpose the songs either manually or by using Guitar Pro if you happen to have it.


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## distressed_romeo (Apr 19, 2008)

halsinden said:


> gotcha. i can see the niftiness of it to a degree but i generally dislike dropped tunings as i only just got my head around managing the theory for normal tunings.
> 
> im now in a conundrum. i badly want to play along to stam1na, i havent felt this enthralled by a band in quite some time. right now i only have 1 7 string, although the custom from roter may be done soon. in general, ill be playing in A then D standard and i dont want to keep having to set the damn guitar up for each act i write with.
> 
> ...



I don't know if you've tried the Tascam CD trainers, but they're excellent for solving this problem. I used to have the same problem; my floyd-equipped guitars were mostly set up for Eb tuning, which made transcribing a collosal pain in the ass if the song was in D or E. Nowadays I just use whatever tuning the guitar's in to begin with and use the Tascam to transpose the song to whatever my guitar's tuned to.

Kinda perverse I know, but it spares a lot of headaches caused by having to constantly transpose everything up or down a fret or messing around with toolkits...


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## Anthony (Apr 20, 2008)

Immortal and Wintersun tune to D standard.


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## halsinden (Apr 21, 2008)

distressed_romeo said:


> I don't know if you've tried the Tascam CD trainers, but they're excellent for solving this problem. I used to have the same problem; my floyd-equipped guitars were mostly set up for Eb tuning, which made transcribing a collosal pain in the ass if the song was in D or E. Nowadays I just use whatever tuning the guitar's in to begin with and use the Tascam to transpose the song to whatever my guitar's tuned to.
> 
> Kinda perverse I know, but it spares a lot of headaches caused by having to constantly transpose everything up or down a fret or messing around with toolkits...



hmm. i may have to look into this then...

cost?

H


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## StevieHimself (Apr 21, 2008)

I think Ion Dissonance tunes to A-flat (now they play 8-strings, so who knows where that's going now!) Beneath The Massacre might be in A-flat as well. There's a band from Philly that I saw last week called Murder In Greenwich and they tune to A.


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## distressed_romeo (Apr 29, 2008)

halsinden said:


> hmm. i may have to look into this then...
> 
> cost?
> 
> H



About £120 IIRC.


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## Vyrh (Jan 14, 2009)

distressed_romeo said:


> About £120 IIRC.


hI,
Which set strings use for tune "A"???
i have the set of ernie ball of baritone (13-72) more a 10 for D (hi)
but i listen the A strings too lower....
Which scale i must use???
this is my tuning :A-D-G-C-F-A-D


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## Eptaceros (Sep 12, 2009)

Gorod tuned to D Standard on Neurotripsicks; then they went down to A Standard on seven strings for Leading Vision.


The fact that this wasn't mentioned yet is terrifying. One of the better "tech death" metal bands today.


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## TheAceOfSpades1 (Sep 13, 2009)

Hour of Penance use 7's tuned down a whole step to A. For D standard; Decrepit Birth, Death, or Sleep Terror all rip it up.


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## InCasinoOut (Sep 13, 2009)

Forget the Tascam CD Trainer, just get this:

BestPractice, an open-source audio time-stretching tool for Windows

I've been using it for a long time to transpose songs so I can play them without changing my tuning. (I can play along to Keith Merrow's EP in Drop A ) You can also change the tempo with altering the pitch, which is a god send for transcribing difficult parts.

Oh, and it's free.


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## KurtisBrudenell (Jan 14, 2010)

Try Divine Heresy.
They are epic.


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## DamienAzrael (Mar 3, 2010)

ArchAngel1024 said:


> I think Mushroomhead plays in A.



Actually Gravy only tunes down a half step. I know that on the first album the guitars were tuned to match their old keyboard, but live he plays everything tuned down a half step.


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