any GNR songs with drop tuned gtrs?

[AxlRQ93]

what are some GNR songs that have drop tuned gtrs if any?

[Ant000]

I think Slither was the first time Slash messed with a drop tuning.

[jekylhyde]

Slash used open C# on Beggars and Hangers-On, but if you don't count that as a dropped tuning, Slither is the first song where he used a dropped tuning. Also, Headspace and Superhuman from Contraband are in drop D.

As for Guns N' Roses songs, Chinese Democracy and Sorry are played in drop D. At least, I remember seeing a rig rundown video with Fortus, where he said they use drop D on Sorry. Better and Scraped are in drop C#. Shackler's Revenge is in drop B.

[sousadias]

I believe they use drop D on Monsters.

[WhazUp]

At the Golden God awards - DJ Ashba on SCOM!  Drop tuning meaning, it sounds like his guitar was tuned by someone dropping it

Edited January 16 by WhazUp

[Eric Cantona]

The Garden 

[Voodoochild]

7 hours ago, jekylhyde said:

Slash used open C# on Beggars and Hangers-On, but if you don't count that as a dropped tuning, Slither is the first song where he used a dropped tuning. Also, Headspace and Superhuman from Contraband are in drop D.

As for Guns N' Roses songs, Chinese Democracy and Sorry are played in drop D. At least, I remember seeing a rig rundown video with Fortus, where he said they use drop D on Sorry. Better and Scraped are in drop C#. Shackler's Revenge is in drop B.

This. I can confirm that Sorry is Drop D. 

Adding to that, from the village demos, D Tune is obviously drop C# (well, it's half step down, so they just called D lol). 

7 hours ago, sousadias said:

I believe they use drop D on Monsters.

From what I could tell, only the bass is in drop D. The guitars are standard tuning.  

Also, Bad Obsession is open F#, IIRC. 

[StrangerInThisTown]

Drop tuned guitars were pretty rare for rock bands in the 80s, I can only think of a handful of examples of bands that even used them during the 80s era before grunge hit and made that popular. Beggars (already 1995) is the earliest one I can think of with Slash that had the strings tuned considerably lower, if you pay attention to it you hear how heavy the low string on Beggars actually is, even though it's not technically a drop tuning.

Eddie Van Halen, always ahead of his time like always, used Drop A tuning in 1986 (!) which for anyone familiar with guitar, is completely insane for that time, this low of a tuning only came popular starting in the early 2000s or maybe late 90s. It's what you hear all the metal bands use nowadays. No surprise Slash didn't start to mess with it until after grunge.

Edited January 16 by StrangerInThisTown

[Cosmo]

4 hours ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

Drop tuned guitars were pretty rare for rock bands in the 80s, I can only think of a handful of examples of bands that even used them during the 80s era before grunge hit and made that popular. Beggars (already 1995) is the earliest one I can think of with Slash that had the strings tuned considerably lower, if you pay attention to it you hear how heavy the low string on Beggars actually is, even though it's not technically a drop tuning.

Eddie Van Halen, always ahead of his time like always, used Drop A tuning in 1986 (!) which for anyone familiar with guitar, is completely insane for that time, this low of a tuning only came popular starting in the early 2000s or maybe late 90s. It's what you hear all the metal bands use nowadays. No surprise Slash didn't start to mess with it until after grunge.

Drop tuning guitars were popularized in the 70s by Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath, though.

[StrangerInThisTown]

9 minutes ago, Cosmo said:

Drop tuning guitars were popularized in the 70s by Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath, though.

I can't think of any 70s bands (beside Sabbath) that drop tuned. Maybe Zep on some acoustic tracks? I'd hardly call that "popularized".

Edited January 16 by StrangerInThisTown

[WhazUp]

Going through my mental library these come to mind:

Cinnamon Girl by Neil Young and Black Water by the Doobie Brothers are in double drop D from what I recall

CCR used drop D in the 70s I believe (I Heard It Through the Grapevine and Ramble Tamble for example) and definitely Zeppelin for tunes like Moby Dick and Ten Years Gone.  

Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen (1978) was in drop D as well. 

Fleetwood Mac is another example I can think of, in 1975 doing drop D for "World Turning" and later on Rumors (Drop D but with a capo on fret 4 for Never Going Back Again)

 

Definitely later on in further decades Drop D became more prevalent and ingrained in styles, like heavier metal and grunge - that said it was for sure a compositional technique used in the '70s a decent amount.  Even if you take away the bands Sabbath paved the way for such as Pentagram who used drop tuned guitars in the '70s in that more heavy metal style

Edited January 16 by WhazUp

[Cosmo]

16 minutes ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

I can't think of any 70s bands (beside Sabbath) that drop tuned. Maybe Zep on some acoustic tracks? I'd hardly call that "popularized".

It originated two new genres of metal music: Doom Metal, and Stoner Metal. Both heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, that used down tuning as part of it’s identity and sound. Some examples of iconic bands from these genres that used drop tuning were Pentagram, The Obsessed, Witchfinder General, Pagan Altar and Saint Vitus, for example. I know they’re all not huge name bands but it was the beginning of what would become a very famous and influential metal subgenre.

[StrangerInThisTown]

30 minutes ago, Cosmo said:

It originated two new genres of metal music: Doom Metal, and Stoner Metal. Both heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, that used down tuning as part of it’s identity and sound. Some examples of iconic bands from these genres that used drop tuning were Pentagram, The Obsessed, Witchfinder General, Pagan Altar and Saint Vitus, for example. I know they’re all not huge name bands but it was the beginning of what would become a very famous and influential metal subgenre.

I'm not into those metal genres but I have no doubt you're right. I was more talking about more straight ahead hard rock bands of the 70s - 80s like GNR, that would use drop tuning. It was really not popular until late '91 with grunge bands using it. Drop B is VERY low and a popular tuning among metal bands of the 2000s, so Eddie Van Halen using Drop A, which is even lower, in the mid 1980s is really unusual. Drop A is even an unusually low tuning TODAY for rock bands. The only example that comes to mind for me is Motley using Drop D in 1989 on Slice Of Your Pie. Literally cannot think of any other band utilizing it other than that, from that genre.

Edited January 16 by StrangerInThisTown

[StrangerInThisTown]

52 minutes ago, WhazUp said:

Going through my mental library these come to mind:

Cinnamon Girl by Neil Young and Black Water by the Doobie Brothers are in double drop D from what I recall

CCR used drop D in the 70s I believe (I Heard It Through the Grapevine and Ramble Tamble for example) and definitely Zeppelin for tunes like Moby Dick and Ten Years Gone.  

Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen (1978) was in drop D as well. 

Fleetwood Mac is another example I can think of, in 1975 doing drop D for "World Turning" and later on Rumors (Drop D but with a capo on fret 4 for Never Going Back Again)

 

Definitely later on in further decades Drop D became more prevalent and ingrained in styles, like heavier metal and grunge - that said it was for sure a compositional technique used in the '70s a decent amount.  Even if you take away the bands Sabbath paved the way for such as Pentagram who used drop tuned guitars in the '70s in that more heavy metal style

Oh yeah how could I forget about Fat Bottomed Girls? It's insane to think they used Drop D as far back as the 1970s, when Drop D only really became a popular tuning in rock starting from the 1990s. It's so rare to hear heavy guitars such as that, other than Sabbath, before that time.

Edited January 16 by StrangerInThisTown

[DTV88]

41 minutes ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

Oh yeah how could I forget about Fat Bottomed Girls? It's insane to think they used Drop D as far back as the 1970s, when Drop D only really became a popular tuning in rock starting from the 1990s. It's so rare to hear heavy guitars such as that, other than Sabbath, before that time.

That riff with those harmonies!!!!
 

I took one of my kids to see Queen & Adam Lambert a couple of months ago and that song still kicks ass!

[The Real McCoy]

Better is in drop D.

[axl666]

What would drop d tuning d to music like gnr? If you went to a gig where all their songs were transposed to drop d would you notice?

[Rindmelon]

6 minutes ago, axl666 said:

What would drop d tuning d to music like gnr? If you went to a gig where all their songs were transposed to drop d would you notice?

In some ways yes and in others no. A song that's in standard tuning like Paradise City for example you couldn't just make drop d, that would just mean your fat E string would be tuned down to D (other strings would stay the same), it would be odd and even harder to play the song that way as you would need to alter the way you even played the first chord which is an open G. If however you tuned every string down half a step (which many bands do live) you may not notice the difference in the music but you may notice the difference in the vocals, those high notes become just a little less high and a little more achievable. Although to be fair to Axl it's not high notes where he struggles now or low really but projection in the mid range.

The songs would probably sound a bit heavier & tbf they may do this anyway I can't recall. To add to the gnr songs that are D tuned list I'm pretty sure Nightcrawler was (which later became Speed Parade by Snakepit) that may be the earliest example of them fucking with tunings. 

[StrangerInThisTown]

31 minutes ago, Rindmelon said:

In some ways yes and in others no. A song that's in standard tuning like Paradise City for example you couldn't just make drop d, that would just mean your fat E string would be tuned down to D (other strings would stay the same), it would be odd and even harder to play the song that way as you would need to alter the way you even played the first chord which is an open G. If however you tuned every string down half a step (which many bands do live) you may not notice the difference in the music but you may notice the difference in the vocals, those high notes become just a little less high and a little more achievable. Although to be fair to Axl it's not high notes where he struggles now or low really but projection in the mid range.

The songs would probably sound a bit heavier & tbf they may do this anyway I can't recall. To add to the gnr songs that are D tuned list I'm pretty sure Nightcrawler was (which later became Speed Parade by Snakepit) that may be the earliest example of them fucking with tunings. 

What makes you think Nightcrawler is in a different tuning than any other GNR song?

[Rindmelon]

8 minutes ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

What makes you think Nightcrawler is in a different tuning than any other GNR song?

That i vaguely recall learning the riff years ago and i think it was in drop D, I assume it isn't if your mentioning it.

[evilfacelessturtle]

19 hours ago, jekylhyde said:

Slash used open C# on Beggars and Hangers-On, but if you don't count that as a dropped tuning, Slither is the first song where he used a dropped tuning. Also, Headspace and Superhuman from Contraband are in drop D.

Take It Away is in drop D.

15 minutes ago, Rindmelon said:

That i vaguely recall learning the riff years ago and i think it was in drop D, I assume it isn't if your mentioning it.

Wait, since when was Nightcrawler leaked?

[Rindmelon]

On 1/17/2024 at 1:05 AM, evilfacelessturtle said:

Take It Away is in drop D.

Wait, since when was Nightcrawler leaked?

link removed

Edited January 18 by Rindmelon

[rocknroll41]

9 hours ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

Drop tuned guitars were pretty rare for rock bands in the 80s, I can only think of a handful of examples of bands that even used them during the 80s era before grunge hit and made that popular. Beggars (already 1995) is the earliest one I can think of with Slash that had the strings tuned considerably lower, if you pay attention to it you hear how heavy the low string on Beggars actually is, even though it's not technically a drop tuning.

Eddie Van Halen, always ahead of his time like always, used Drop A tuning in 1986 (!) which for anyone familiar with guitar, is completely insane for that time, this low of a tuning only came popular starting in the early 2000s or maybe late 90s. It's what you hear all the metal bands use nowadays. No surprise Slash didn't start to mess with it until after grunge.

What song did EVH do that on?

30 minutes ago, evilfacelessturtle said:

Take It Away is in drop D.

Wait, since when was Nightcrawler leaked?

Nightcrawler is Speed Parade according to Marc Canter.

[Rindmelon]

10 minutes ago, rocknroll41 said:

Nightcrawler is Speed Parade according to Marc Canter.

Yeah Nightcrawler is Speed Parade, Burnout is Ain't Life Grand which dates back to Adler days. There is a version of that with Iggy on vocals & I think Sorum on drums that was recorded for a les Paul Tribute album that has never leaked somehow.

[StrangerInThisTown]

1 hour ago, Rindmelon said:

you might find it here https://mega.nz/folder/tWUj1ArC#mAwBD951kdcio2-gcMAdnw no vocals were ever done for it in any version i ever heard sadly

What the hell I've never heard this before, do you remember what source this originates from? I got to say it doesn't sound like Speed Parade to me, I can't tell if it's legit or not.

 

58 minutes ago, rocknroll41 said:

What song did EVH do that on?

Nightcrawler is Speed Parade according to Marc Canter.

Good Enough from 5150. He also did it on Spanked from the FUCK album in early 1991 (pre-grunge) though I'm not sure it's Drop A, but it's ridiculously low for that time in rock still.

Edited January 17 by StrangerInThisTown