tuned down a half step and lost all my tone

[markie]

Turn your Amp up Dave ....................... That should make it sound better :tongue:

 

[Danerada]

I am the opposite. I like my tone more when tuned down a half step.

 

[solacematt]

Ahh got it - I misunderstood your intent in the first post. Reading it over, I guess you were wanting to distinguish yourself from folks who only go down to drop C#?

You detune your high E string as well? Never heard of anyone doing that before...what does it do for you?

Not really trying to distinguish myself, but it wasn't till only a few years ago people started referring to Drop D down a half step (popularized by a ton of 80's bands, but for me it was introduced by Alice In Chains) as Drop C#. Then all of a sudden no one seemed to know exactly what a perso meant when they said they 'tuned down to C.' For years tuning down to C meant either Drop C or Standard C.
Yes, I tune down both the low and high E strings. I got the idea from an interview that Travis Meeks from Days of the New did during their first album. There was a tuning legend in an issue of Guitar World for their songs and he referred to a tuning called triple drop D where he tuned down the low and high E down to D sounding 3 D notes. So I tried it and thought, I wonder how it would sound if I tuned down the whole thing an additional full step giving me CGCFAC. I liked it so much I never stopped using it.

 

[nosidamde]

Definitely a higher gauge ....OR digitech drop pedal.....that works for me

Or both. I've personally used a Morpheus DropTune for years.

 

[Michael_DK]

You might have better luck with a different guitar, if you have one.

Funnily enough, I find that my LP takes a drop D tuning better than my Brent Mason (Which is odd, in a way, as the LP is the shorter one).

 

[watelessness]

I ended up taking the 513 into my local pusher: Parkway Music. It's amazing what the right skills can do to a guitar setup because i obviously do have them. It plays like a dream again. Thanks, Matt!

I kept the 10's because 11's are just not for me. 10/52 wasn't right either because my sloppiness was on the lower strings but the setup seems to have cured that.

As for tone, i guess i'm just going to have to learn to adapt to the darkness but i certainly reserve the right to whine about it! :bawling:

 

[solacematt]

I ended up taking the 513 into my local pusher: Parkway Music. It's amazing what the right skills can do to a guitar setup because i obviously do have them. It plays like a dream again. Thanks, Matt!

I kept the 10's because 11's are just not for me. 10/52 wasn't right either because my sloppiness was on the lower strings but the setup seems to have cured that.

As for tone, i guess i'm just going to have to learn to adapt to the darkness but i certainly reserve the right to whine about it! :bawling:

I know my way around low tunings! Glad it's playing better for ya. I don't have an Archon because I'm a Mesa person, otherwise I'd suggest some settings too for ya, plus no idea what your looking for in sound. First off maybe try laying the distortion off a bit to start if it's sounding too dark for you

 

[Hollis Prince]

I agree with most of these posts. I sing and play guitar in a rock cover band. We play about half our songs in standard and the other half tuned down a half step. To accommodate the lower tuning, I set up my PRS with 11's (I use 10's in standard). I'm not crazy about it, I prefer tuning to standard with 10's. BUT, I've recently purchased the Digitech Drop Tune pedal and it works great. It's not perfect, but it does the job. Now I'll be setting my PRS back to standard with 10's. Yay!

 

[NotPaulreeedsmith]

I've had my suspicions that PRSi don't go well half step down. I always keep about half of my guitars in Eb and Stratocasters and les pauls sounds better to me, while PRSi sounds worse. Always using 11s for Eb but never adjusts anything. I always felt that 11s half down would create the same tension as 10s in E. My theory is that the longer scale on Stratocaster help them keep the sound, and my 2 les Paul's are very bright sounding in comparison with my PRSi, even the ones with 57/08s.

 

[HANGAR18]

This thread has me thinking about my Custom 24 with 59/09's that I am preparing (myself mentally) to set it to Drop C and leave it there. I'm wondering what to expect for the string height/setup, tone and so on. It currently has 10's on it and I'm planning to leave it that way but I do have a package of 11's on stand by.

Installed the Dean Markley Blue Steel 11's (11-52) onto the Black/Gold Burst Custom 24 and down tuned it to Drop C. "CGCFAD"
The 6th string, low E was binding real bad when I inserted it into the slot on the nut so without pressing down too hard on the string, I dragged the full length of the 52 string through slot in the nut in both directions a few times until it didn't bind anymore. That's probably the wrong way to do that but it worked. Tone seems to be okay in different pickup selector positions and the string tension seems to be good too.