Tuning down to E flat...drives me potty

RandallFlagg · May 2018

OK giving it another go...Strat is now in Eb, fitted some new D'addario NYXL .011-049, adjusted trem so I get the same slight float that I like (4/64ths clearance from bottom of plate to body). Tuning was a bit loopy for a bit but has settled. Open chords and strings sound more moody and epic.

It's been a couple of hours and haven't tuned back yet. Going to leave it and see how I go. Not sure how well I will sleep tonight, OCD might kick in and I'll have to pop downstairs and retune it to std.

BigLicks67 · May 2018

I think tuning to Eb is more to do with accommodating vocal range, than anything else. So, if you are not singing or in a band with a brass section why bother?

Alnico · May 2018

My GT100 does this using the pitch shifter at the press of a footswitch, in fact Josh Munday demo'd it as using it for going down to Eb for one song then back to standard for another.
It sounds perfect, tracking is spot on with no latency.

It sounds strange if you're not playing at a volume which drowns out the string noise but that's the only drawback.

If a GT100 can do it I reckon there's other multi fx that can and possibly there's a stomp box that can too.

olafgarten · May 2018

Alnico said:

My GT100 does this using the pitch shifter at the press of a footswitch, in fact Josh Munday demo'd it as using it for going down to Eb for one song then back to standard for another.
It sounds perfect, tracking is spot on with no latency.

It sounds strange if you're not playing at a volume which drowns out the string noise but that's the only drawback.

If a GT100 can do it I reckon there's other multi fx that can and possibly there's a stomp box that can too.

My Zoom G5 has a Pitch Shifter that can do a couple of steps down quite well, by extension the G3 would also be able to do the same.

sunshinewelly · May 2018

most of my guitars are tuned to Eb apart from my strat

Bridgehouse · May 2018

Capo on 11th fret - sorted.

Shelders · May 2018

Alnico said:

My GT100 does this using the pitch shifter at the press of a footswitch, in fact Josh Munday demo'd it as using it for going down to Eb for one song then back to standard for another.
It sounds perfect, tracking is spot on with no latency.

It sounds strange if you're not playing at a volume which drowns out the string noise but that's the only drawback.

If a GT100 can do it I reckon there's other multi fx that can and possibly there's a stomp box that can too.

After a year of wanting to buy a drop tune pedal this post made me check my katana effects, and there it is! Thank you but you also made me feel foolish!

darthed1981 · May 2018

Shelders said:

Alnico said:

My GT100 does this using the pitch shifter at the press of a footswitch, in fact Josh Munday demo'd it as using it for going down to Eb for one song then back to standard for another.
It sounds perfect, tracking is spot on with no latency.

It sounds strange if you're not playing at a volume which drowns out the string noise but that's the only drawback.

If a GT100 can do it I reckon there's other multi fx that can and possibly there's a stomp box that can too.

After a year of wanting to buy a drop tune pedal this post made me check my katana effects, and there it is! Thank you but you also made me feel foolish!

At one stage the theory about the Katana was basically a modified GT100 in a box with a power amp and speaker.

Certainly has a shed-tonne of FX hidden away in the software.

Alnico · May 2018

Shelders said:

Alnico said:

My GT100 does this using the pitch shifter at the press of a footswitch, in fact Josh Munday demo'd it as using it for going down to Eb for one song then back to standard for another.
It sounds perfect, tracking is spot on with no latency.

It sounds strange if you're not playing at a volume which drowns out the string noise but that's the only drawback.

If a GT100 can do it I reckon there's other multi fx that can and possibly there's a stomp box that can too.

After a year of wanting to buy a drop tune pedal this post made me check my katana effects, and there it is! Thank you but you also made me feel foolish!

No problem.
Anytime man.

Grunfeld · May 2018

I really disliked Eb.

Or rather, I disliked changing between Eb and standard.

These days I stay in Eb (except for acoustics) but I am sticking to Ibanez and Fender. The shorter scale guitars haven't been played in ages.

KarmaCannock · May 2018

Hi guys,

I'm new to this forum and was reading through a few threads when this caught my eye.

I tuned down to Eb for years, when I played in an originals band. We did it initially because we wrote a couple of songs that were too high for our bass player/lead vocalist to sing, so we stuck with it.

I loved the feel of the tuning, but it messed up my ears for years. While I would never claim to have perfect pitch, I'd sort trained my ears to recognise certain chords over the years. For example, if I listened to a record, I could regognise the chords of E, A, D and G (mostly by the way they were voiced, rather than the exact pitch). However, with my prolonged exposure to non standard tuning, my note recognition was always a semitone out and it took a while to recover from hearing an open E string and not wanting to tune it down half a step (if that makes sense).

Bucket · May 2018

KarmaCannock said:

However, with my prolonged exposure to non standard tuning, my note recognition was always a semitone out and it took a while to recover from hearing an open E string and not wanting to tune it down half a step (if that makes sense).

That makes total sense but is very strange at the same time.

Anyway, welcome - have a fret on me.

bingefeller · May 2018

ICBM said:

delorean said:

Have you tried a Digitech Drop? I use one for a couple of songs where we need to drop a semitone to D - works a treat, both with and without filth added.

These do work very well. The guitarist in my band has used one down as far as C, it sounds remarkably natural and not obviously 'pitch shifted'.

The only problem we found with it was that it's fussy about power supplies and can introduce noise into fuzz pedals if on the same supply.

Yeah the Digitech Drop is amazing! If you're playing at low volume it drives you crazy because you can hear the sound of your original guitar tuning combined with the dropped tuning.

I have found it tracks perfectly.

Roland · May 2018

olafgarten said:

Alnico said:

My GT100 does this using the pitch shifter at the press of a footswitch, ...

My Zoom G5 has a Pitch Shifter that can do a couple of steps down quite well, by extension the G3 would also be able to do the same.

We do one song in Eb. When we recorded it I downtuned. Live I use the AxeFX pitch shifter, coupled with a neat ADSR trick which avoids latency by letting through the first couple of milliseconds of the original note.

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Tuning down to E flat...drives me potty

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