C tuning (guitar)

C tuning.

C tuning is a type of guitar tuning. The strings of the guitar are tuned two whole steps lower than standard tuning. The resulting notes can be described most commonly as C-F-A♯-D♯-G-C or C-F-B♭-E♭-G-C.

The tuning is commonly used by metal and hard rock artists to achieve a heavier, deeper sound. It also makes bending easier for the player than in E standard using the same gauge of strings. Heavier gauge strings can be used in order to maintain tension in the strings. It is possible to play without them, but difficulties can be experienced as it becomes quite easy to unintentionally bend notes and chords out of tune. However, the ease of bends can be desirable, depending on playing style of the musician.

Used by

• Abigail Williams
• Abysmal Dawn
• The Absence
• Acid Bath
• Acid King
• Akercocke
• Alestorm (E-flat tuning for their cover of Hangover by Taio Cruz)
• Amon Amarth (on their first EP and studio album)
• Anaal Nathrakh
• Arch Enemy (2001–present)^[1]
• Autopsy
• Bolt Thrower
• The Black Dahlia Murder
• Black Sabbath (on some live songs that they play) ^[2][3][4]
• Blasphemy
• Called To Arms
• Cathedral
• Chimaira (all albums starting with The Impossibilty of Reason)
• Chthonic
• Cold^[5]
• Colour Haze
• Cradle of Filth (In "Better to Reign in Hell" from Damnation and a Day)
• Deadlock
• Defeated Sanity
• Dethklok
• Die Apokalyptischen Reiter
• Disgorge
• Dismember
• Dragonland (2003-present, with the exception of tracks 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 14 from the Astronomy album and the exception of some live performances in 2005 and 2006. Those exceptions are in B tuning)
• Dream Theater (used on "As I Am", "Honor Thy Father" and "In the Name of God" on Train of Thought, on "the Answer Lies Within" on Octavarium and on "A Nightmare to Remember" on Black Clouds & Silver Linings)
• Dying Fetus
• Entombed (From Clandestine onward)
• Elder (On debut album only)
• Electric Wizard
• Epica on most songs from Consign to Oblivion
• Evanescence on some songs
• Full of Hell
• George Cromarty
• George Ezra
• Goat Horn
• Gorguts ^[6]
• Hamlet (main tuning)
• Harvey Milk
• Hatebreed
• Hatesphere
• High on Fire
• Immolation
• Incantation
• In Flames^[7](all up until Reroute to Remain – since then, they drop the low string to A#)
• Into Eternity
• Jimi Hendrix (In the song "Here My Train A' Comin' (Acoustic)")
• John Butler
• Judas Priest (on "Dead Meat", "Brain Dead", and "Cathedral Spires")
• Katatonia (all albums since Viva Emptiness)
• Kittie
• Kyuss^[8]
• Melvins
• Merauder
• Misery Index
• Monster Magnet
• Necrophagist
• Neuraxis
• Nick Drake
• Nightrage
• Noah And The Whale
• Paradise Lost (first two albums)
• Porcupine Tree (in Anesthetize and Way Out of Here)
• Queens of the Stone Age (used exclusively on their debut album, after which C standard, E standard and various other tunings were used)^[9]
• Salticid (in "Black Fly")
• Scorpions (on "321")
• Sentenced (on their early death metal albums)
• Septicflesh
• Six Feet Under
• Sleep
• The Smashing Pumpkins (in "The Everlasting Gaze" "Lucky 13" and "The Imploding Voice")
• The Sword
• Sodom (in "Masquerade in Blood")
• Soundgarden (some songs in "Badmotorfinger", occasionally on other releases)
• Starkill
• Static-X (all up until Shadow Zone – since then, they drop the low string to A#)
• Suffocation
• Suidakra
• The Sword
• Therion (on their early death metal albums)
• Tony Iommi (on the song "Who's Fooling Who") ^[10]
• While Heaven Wept
• The Wildhearts (on 2009's "Chutzpah" album)
• Witchfinder General
• Wolfchant

References