Drop A tuning

A1 · E2 · A2 · D3 · F#3 · B3

Drop A is about as low as a six-string guitar is taken. The bottom string sits at 55 Hz — the same A a bass guitar's fifth string produces — and the tuning is used almost exclusively in heavy music where that weight is the entire point. Note that on a seven-string, "Drop A" means something different: the same name, one more string.

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Strings

6 strings move from standard

  • 6A1▼7
  • 5E2▼5
  • 4A2▼5
  • 3D3▼5
  • 2F#3▼5
  • 1B3▼5

Last few seconds

Harmonics

How far each overtone sits above its ideal position. A stiff, wound string rises to the right.

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What to aim at

Matches what it hears to the nearest string of the tuning.

Getting there from standard

6 of 6 strings move.

  • String 6 E2 → A1 7 semitones down
  • String 5 A2 → E2 5 semitones down
  • String 4 D3 → A2 5 semitones down
  • String 3 G3 → D3 5 semitones down
  • String 2 B3 → F#3 5 semitones down
  • String 1 E4 → B3 5 semitones down

What it does to your playing

At this pitch the guitar has stopped behaving like a guitar in the low register and started behaving like a bass with more strings, which is either the appeal or the problem depending on what you are writing. Riffs need space around them; two guitars both playing dense low-string parts in Drop A will simply cancel into noise. The familiar one-finger power chord still works, and the top strings are still perfectly usable for melody — the tuning is at its best when those two roles stay separated.

Strings and setup

Very heavy strings and preferably a baritone or extended-scale instrument. On a standard scale even a .013–.062 set will feel loose at A. This is also where a tuner earns its keep: at 55 Hz a waveform period is nearly 900 samples long, most tuners have too short an analysis window to measure it reliably, and many will report the octave above instead. This one sizes its window from the lowest note the instrument can reach, which is why the seven-string preset and this one behave differently.

Other tunings

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