D♭ tuning

D♭ tuning, also called C♯ tuning, is an alternative guitar tuning. Each string is one and one half steps lower than in standard tuning, or one half step lower than D tuning. The resulting notes can be described as D♭-G♭-B-E-A♭-D♭ or (less often) as C♯-F♯-B-E-G♯-C♯. "Extremely slack,"^[1] it is very popular amongst alternative and heavy rock bands because it has a darker and lower-pitched sound compared to E standard.

Some bands use a tuning known as "drop B tuning", where they drop the low D♭ to B, so the tuning is B-F♯-B-E-G♯-C♯ (or B-G♭-B-E-A♭-D♭). This is a "drop 1" tuning in the key of C♯ (i.e. tune the whole guitar down a minor third from standard tuning, then the 6th string is lowered an additional whole step down). As a result, it uses the same fingering as all other "drop" tunings. This tuning and other drop tunings are popular with a variety of genres of metal music, including Nu-Metal bands. The tuning's use was popularized by Slipknot on their self-titled album.

Used by

A Pale Horse Named Death
A Perfect Circle - nearly all of their songs are in this tuning.
Abbath (album only; live performances are on D tuning)
Akercocke
Al's Band (on "My Bologna" and "Perform This Way")
All That Remains (since Overcome and live performances since 2007)
The Almighty
Amorphis (on Tales from the Thousand Lakes)
An Isle Ate Her
Anata
Architects (drop B, they also drop the low string to G♯/A♭)
Arcturus (on some songs from their debut album Aspera Hiems Symfonia)
Art of Dying (drop B)^[2]
Attila (drop B, they also drop the low string to G♯/A♭)
Ava Inferi
Basement
Before the Dawn (on the song "The Black" from 4:17 am)
Behemoth
Black Sabbath^[3] - many songs from Master of Reality onward to at least Sabotage (because Tony Iommi had two damaged fingertips).^[1] They still use this tuning on some songs from later albums and on live performances of Dirty Women since 1998.
Black Stone Cherry (drop B)^[4]
Blink-182 (on the songs "Obvious" from their self-titled album, "Time to Break Up", and for live performances of "Adam's Song")
Bolt Thrower
Brutal Truth
Candlemass
Cannibal Corpse ("Mummified in Barbed Wire", "Disfigured", "Absolute Hatred", "Eaten from Inside", and "Orgasm Through Torture")
Carnivore (band)
Chevelle (on three songs from Wonder What's Next: "Comfortable Liar", "The Red", and "Don't Fake This")
Children of Bodom (on their first album Something Wild, and on some songs from I Worship Chaos and Hexed where they've mainly use drop B)
Coalesce
Coldplay (on their song "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face")
Comeback Kid^[5]
Creed (on 4 songs from Full Circle, although most of the rest of the album has the low string dropped to B and, on one song, G♯/A♭)
Cult of Luna (they also drop the low string to B or G♯/A♭)
Dark Tranquillity
Decapitated
The Devil and the Almighty Blues
DevilDriver (drop B, on their self-titled and The Fury of Our Maker's Hand albums)^[6]
Dimension Zero (on their Penetrations from the Lost World EP)
Down (drop B)^[7]^[8]
Dying Fetus
Dream Theater (on the songs, "Along for the Ride", "New Millennium", "Vacant", and "You Not Me")
El Caco
Epica (on some songs from Consign to Oblivion)
Eyehategod
Exhorder (on The Law)
Falconer (on the albums, Northwind and Among Beggars and Thieves)
God Forbid (on some songs from Gone Forever)
Godflesh (Used from Slavestate up to Songs of Love and Hate)
Gorgoroth
Gorguts (first two albums)
The Grass Roots (on the song "Let's Live for Today")
Green Carnation (on their debut album Journey to the End of the Night)
Guns N' Roses (on "Heartbreak Hotel" and "I Don't Care About You")
Hate Eternal
Isis
I the Mighty
John Prine (on most songs since 1998 until his death)
Judas Priest (on "Jugulator", "Blood Stained", "Death Row", "Decapitate", and "Abductors")
Kalmah (starting from For the Revolution and live performances since 2008)
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (used on I'm In Your Mind Fuzz, Polygondwanaland, and Infest the Rats' Nest)
Kyuss (on Sons of Kyuss EP)
Las Cruces
Legion of the Damned
Limp Bizkit (on most albums, along with drop B and 7-string guitars in the late 1990s)
Machine Head (drop B, tuned 40 cents sharp)^[9]
Mark Tremonti (drop B, on many songs)^[10]
Microwave (band) (on "Something Right" from "Stovall" and multiple songs from their Much Love album)
Monster Magnet (on "Melt" from God Says No, among others)
Monte Pittman^[11]
My Dying Bride (on most songs)
Neil Perry
Nirvana (On certain recordings of Old Age)
Omnium Gatherum
Orange Goblin
Pantera (Most of the album "The Great Southern Trendkill")
Pianos Become the Teeth
Portraits of Past
Prayer for Cleansing (live performances and The Tragedy EP)
Projected (drop B)^[12]
Queens of the Stone Age (early live performances)
Rains
Repulsion (band)
Reverend Bizarre
Rivers of Nihil (along with 7-string G♯/A♭ and drop F♯/G♭ tuning)
Rotting Christ
Saturnus (on most songs)
Scorpions (live performances of "Bad Boys Running Wild", "Coming Home", "Can't Get Enough" since 2017, on "Send Me An Angel (2016 Acoustic Version)")
Sent By Ravens
Sentenced (on albums North from Here, The Trooper, and Amok; they switched to D tuning and drop C tuning for subsequent albums)
Sevendust (drop B, along with several other variations)^[13]^[14]
Shotmaker
Sinergy (on the album Beware the Heavens)
Slash (on "Crucify the Dead")
Slayer (on the song "Gemini" from Undisputed Attitude, the albums Diabolus in Musica (except "Perversions Of Pain", bonus track "Unguarded Instinct", and "Scrum"), God Hates Us All (Except "Payback", "Here Comes The Pain"), and the songs "Black Serenade" and "Cult" from Christ Illusion)
Sleater-Kinney
Slipknot (drop B)^[15]
Smashing Pumpkins (on various songs, including "Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans" and "X.Y.U.", and almost every song on Zeitgeist)
Sodom (in several songs from "'Til Death Do Us Unite" and "M-16")
Spiritual Beggars
Stone Sour (drop B)^[16]
Stormlord
Suffocation (on Pierced from Within)
Superheaven
Superjoint Ritual
Testament (since Low)
Therion (on some songs and albums, and their death metal demos)
Truckfighters
Torture Squad (on the albums "The Unholy Spell" and "Pandemonium")
Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Vader (2002-present)
Venom
Winds of Plague (on the album Resistance; previous albums used standard E tuning and drop D tuning)
Within Temptation (on most songs from the album Mother Earth and some songs from the albums, the Heart of Everything and the Unforgiving)
Woods of Ypres

Sources

^ ^a ^b Hunter, Dave and F Gibbons, Billy (2010). Star Guitars: 101 Guitars That Rocked the World, ^{[page needed]}. ISBN 978-0-7603-3821-6.
^ "Greg Bradley of Art of Dying – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2011". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
^ Wilkinson, Paul (2007). Rat Salad: Black Sabbath, The Classic Years, 1969-1975. ISBN 978-0-312-36723-7.
^ "Rig Rundown - Black Stone Cherry's Chris Robertson". All Axess. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
^ Bean, Perry. "Rig Rundown - Comeback Kid". Premier Guitar. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
^ "Jeff Kendrick & Mike Spreitzer Talk About Tuning". Fret 12. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
^ "Pepper Keenan of Down – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2008". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
^ "Kirk Windstein of Down – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2007". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
^ "Phil Demmel of Machinehead – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2007". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
^ "Guitar tunings from Shiprocked setlist". Fret 12. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
^ Dirks, Rebecca. "Rig Rundown - Madonna's Monte Pittman". Premier Guitar. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
^ Connolly, John. "HELLo guitars and tuning explanation". John Connolly. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
^ "Clint Lowery & John Connolly Talk About Tuning". Fret 12. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
^ "Clint Lowery & John Connolly Talk About Alternate Tuning". Fret 12. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
^ "Jim Root of Slipknot – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2004". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
^ "Jim Root Rig Rundown". All Axess.

[Star-1] Hunter, Dave and F Gibbons, Billy (2010). Star Guitars: 101 Guitars That Rocked the World, ^{[page needed]}. ISBN 978-0-7603-3821-6.

[2] "Greg Bradley of Art of Dying – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2011". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.

[3] Wilkinson, Paul (2007). Rat Salad: Black Sabbath, The Classic Years, 1969-1975. ISBN 978-0-312-36723-7.

[4] "Rig Rundown - Black Stone Cherry's Chris Robertson". All Axess. Retrieved 12 December 2013.

[5] Bean, Perry. "Rig Rundown - Comeback Kid". Premier Guitar. Retrieved 5 February 2014.

[6] "Jeff Kendrick & Mike Spreitzer Talk About Tuning". Fret 12. Retrieved 16 March 2014.

[7] "Pepper Keenan of Down – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2008". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.

[8] "Kirk Windstein of Down – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2007". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.

[9] "Phil Demmel of Machinehead – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2007". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.

[10] "Guitar tunings from Shiprocked setlist". Fret 12. Retrieved 29 May 2014.

[11] Dirks, Rebecca. "Rig Rundown - Madonna's Monte Pittman". Premier Guitar. Retrieved 5 February 2014.

[12] Connolly, John. "HELLo guitars and tuning explanation". John Connolly. Retrieved 16 March 2014.

[13] "Clint Lowery & John Connolly Talk About Tuning". Fret 12. Retrieved 16 March 2014.

[14] "Clint Lowery & John Connolly Talk About Alternate Tuning". Fret 12. Retrieved 16 March 2014.

[15] "Jim Root of Slipknot – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2004". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.

[16] "Jim Root Rig Rundown". All Axess.

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