B♭ tuning

B-flat tuning.

B♭ tuning, or A♯ tuning, is a method of guitar tuning (and stringed instruments per se) in which all strings on a six-stringed instrument, most often guitar, are tuned down by 3 steps. For example, standard guitar tuning is E A D G B E. B♭ tuning starts by tuning the lowest string on a guitar E, to B♭ and then tuning all strings down in the same interval of 3 steps down.

Strings on a guitar tuned to B♭ are B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ F B♭

Seven-string guitars achieve B and B♭ tuning because they have a lower B string below the E string, which is the lowest string on a conventional guitar.

Used by

• Adema on most of their eponymous album and Unstable.
• American Head Charge
• Boris (also with 6th string dropped to G# and D# on some tracks)
• Brian "Head" Welch on his debut solo album Save Me from Myself, as well as with Korn on their demo "Neidermayer's Mind".
• Brujeria
• Buckethead on albums Inbred Mountain, The Elephant Man's Alarm Clock, The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell, and Island of Lost Minds.
• Cannibal Corpse on the album Vile and on, which is when guitarist Jack Owen started using seven string guitars. Cannibal Corpse's current guitar players Pat O'Brien and Rob Barrett still use the tuning, but both down tune six string guitars. Pat O'Brien used to use a seven string guitar (BC Rich), but has recently switched to six string guitars (Ran).
• Carnifex
• Disbelief starting from 66Sick.
• DragonForce on the songs "Three Hammers", "City of Gold", "Power and Glory", and "You're Not Alone", from album Maximum Overload
• Dream Theater, ("Panic Attack" and "Wither" from the albums Octavarium and Black Clouds and Silver Linings.^[1])
• Edenbridge on the albums, My Earth Dream, Solitaire, and the Bonding; also used in their cover of "For Your Eyes Only"
• Meshuggah (on their earlier material when they were exclusively using 7 string guitars)
• Morbid Angel (since Covenant))
• Mushroomhead (on all albums since XIII, 7-string guitars).
• Nevermore
• Nickelback on their song "This Means War" ^[2]
• Orgy (Amir Derakh used six-string guitar-synths and Ryan Shuck used a seven-string guitar)
• Pissing Razors
• Revocation
• Sepultura (since Roots)^[3]

References