Drop D answer

[Typhoon7M]

On a previous and (to my surprise) closed thread (re: A7 DLC) the question was posed:

Q:
Typhoon7M : (drop D = do not want)
Cloudfuel : Just curious, what makes you not want drop D?

A:
IMO if you are going to master the fingerboard, things like the CAGED diagram, you should pick a tuning and commit to it.
I have nothing against the sound of drop D (freakin love Tool) but I chose to commit to E standard.
In the near term I plan to get a 7 string, tuned BEADGBE, which could play drop D and other lowered tunings with no retuning, and just retab songs for it in GP6.

PS sry for the hokey format, for some reason I couldn't get the quote tags working today.

[SeattleSauve]

I understand wanting to really get standard tuning down solidly, but not sure why you wouldn't want to try out drop D tunings for songs that you like once in a while. There's not much negative to learning songs in various tunings even if your main focus is trying to get more familiar with standard tuning. Mixing it up a bit can be a good thing.

[Cloudfuel]

I get that, my uncle is the same way. Basically take it one step at a time... except the first step is pretty much a near life-long process, lol.

[CrazedRacer]

Just don't SO commit to a learning tool (CAGED diagram) that you miss other opportunities to learn because of it.

I love some of the Drop D songs in the game.

[rcole_sooner]

Yeah, and it doesn't change the rest of the fretboard. I just ignore the top string, except for chords/riffs.

[cws78]

I can see where Typhoon7M is coming from.....I believe he mentioned the hassle of having the FR or locked tuners. I had a Flying V once with the FR Tremlo and while I loved to dive bomb notes and not have the whole guitar go out of tune even the slightest, I hated having to spend almost a good half an hour or so to tune to drop D to play something like tool or at the time Silverchair. Man their first album was great, simple but not bad at all!!

But for the same reason that is why I dont have a guitar anymore with FR, while nice to have for some pretty cool lead guitar techniques, a pain to tune!!!

[rcole_sooner]

Yeah, with a floating trem (worse with double locking setup), it would be frustrating.

They make trem blockers and the D-tuna, that I hear work pretty well. I've never tried them myself. The whole setup can be a little pricey, at probably around $100 for both (maybe not quite that much).

I used to really like my FRs, back when I tried to be EVH and dive bombing until the string slapped against the fretboard. I don't do that much anymore (as in ever). Now, I seem to get the benefits with a regular floating 2-point trem, and none of the hassles of the double locking. I do miss the fine tuners, however.

[cws78]

Yeah, with a floating trem (worse with double locking setup), it would be frustrating.

They make trem blockers and the D-tuna, that I hear work pretty well. I've never tried them myself. The whole setup can be a little pricey, at probably around $100 for both (maybe not quite that much).

I used to really like my FRs, back when I tried to be EVH and dive bombing until the string slapped against the fretboard. I don't do that much anymore (as in ever). Now, I seem to get the benefits with a regular floating 2-point trem, and none of the hassles of the double locking. I do miss the fine tuners, however.

I had heard of them but never seen how one worked. Found this on youtube maybe it will help some of our FR or double locking players out there!! Here the guy gives an example of how both the D-Tuna and the trem blocker works.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTdvDJcQ9jo

[direevermore]

Knowing absolutely nothing about guitars when I first bought the game my first guitar was a Dean FR guitar and I broke it several times learning to set it up correctly. For the drop-d songs in the game I bought a d-tuna and tremolo block to try and switch easily between drop-d and e tuning and it was still a pain so much that I bought a les paul clone just so I could finally play the drop-d songs. The d-tuna is a neat concept and does work to some extent however 2 times out of 3 I would have to re-tune for both e and d tuning after I was done using it. It was not as bad as the 30 minutes to completely re-tune and re-float as without the d-tuna but would still take slight adjustments to both e and d tuning everytime you switched and it just became to much so I stopped playing drop-d till the les paul arrived.

[cws78]

Knowing absolutely nothing about guitars when I first bought the game my first guitar was a Dean FR guitar and I broke it several times learning to set it up correctly. For the drop-d songs in the game I bought a d-tuna and tremolo block to try and switch easily between drop-d and e tuning and it was still a pain so much that I bought a les paul clone just so I could finally play the drop-d songs. The d-tuna is a neat concept and does work to some extent however 2 times out of 3 I would have to re-tune for both e and d tuning after I was done using it. It was not as bad as the 30 minutes to completely re-tune and re-float as without the d-tuna but would still take slight adjustments to both e and d tuning everytime you switched and it just became to much so I stopped playing drop-d till the les paul arrived.

Thanks for the info good to know. Like I said before I will probably stay away from FR and such, unless I get one that I know I will keep in one tuning and one only.

[etter157]

Tremol-no was the best purchase I've made for my guitar thus far. Hand tighten some screws... full floating trem. Hand tighten some screws... hardtail. The strings do go just a bit sharp when I drop the E, but it's barely noticeable and easily remedied with one pass of the fine tuners.

It's also a big help when changing strings.

Definitely worth it for those of us with one electric.