B tuning explained

B Tuning or B Standard Tuning is the standard tuning for a seven string guitar, where the strings are tuned B-E-A-D-G-B-E. B tuning can also be achieved on a six-string guitar, when the strings are tuned B-E-A-D-F♯-B, known then as Baritone Tuning. This tuning is popular among several different types of metal bands.

Some bands use a tuning known as "drop A tuning", where they drop the low B to A, so the tuning for a 7-string guitar is as follows A1-E2-A2-D3-G3-B3-E4. Also, for a 6-string guitar, drop A tuning is achieved by tuning all strings down a 4th with the lowest string tuned 1 additional step down as follows A1-E2-A2-D3-F#3-B3. This is a "drop 1" tuning in the key of B (i.e. tune the whole guitar down a perfect fourth from standard tuning, then tune the 6th string a whole step down).

Used by

• A Day to Remember (some songs)
• Aborted
• The Absence
• Aeon (7-string guitars)
• Aghora (7-string guitars) (on the album Aghora (album))
• Allegaeon (7-string guitars)
  • All Shall Perish Alterbeast
• Amaranthe (since Massive Addictive)
• Amenra
• Amon Amarth (on most albums)
• Amputated
• Anacrusis
• Anal Cunt
• ANTISMA
• Anathema
• Angel Vivaldi (7-string guitars)
• Animals as Leaders (On most of their first album, 7-string guitars)
  • Arch Enemy (On their first three albums: Black Earth, Stigmata and Burning Bridges; and a few songs from their more recent albums)
• Arctic Monkeys (If You Were There, Beware; Alex Turner uses a baritone guitar)
• Arcturus
• Armagedda
• Asking Alexandria (some songs)
• At the Gates
• Attack Attack! (on the album self-titled Album)
• Augury
• Avatar (from Black Waltz onwards)
• BABYMETAL
• Bal-Sagoth
• Battlelore
• Behemoth
• Benighted
• Biomechanical (7-string guitars on the album)Cannibalised
• Black Midi
• Black Label Society (on "13 Years of Grief" from the album Stronger than Death)
• Bloodbath
• Blood Has Been Shed
• Blood Red Throne (on the album Altered Genesis)
• Blunt Force Trauma
• Bongzilla
• Bring Me the Horizon (on their album Count Your Blessings)
• Brujeria
• Brutart
• Burial Invocation
• Cannabis Corpse
• Cannibal Corpse (7-string guitars)
• Carpathian
• Carach Angren
• Cavalera Conspiracy (on the album Blunt Force Trauma and some songs on the album Inflikted)
• Carajo (B flat tuning)
• Carcass
• Cathedral (on the albums Forest of Equilibrium, The Ethereal Mirror, Statik Majik, and The Garden of Unearthly Delights)
• Celtic Frost (on "Monotheist" and live performances during 2000s)
• Cephalic Carnage
• Coal Chamber (BEADGB, although some songs used drop A)
• Coheed and Cambria (Key Entity Extraction II: Hollywood the Cracked, Key Entity Extraction V: Sentry the Defiant)
• Crowbar
• Cryptopsy
• Dave Matthews Band (On "You Never Know", “I Did It” and “The Space Between”)
• Decapitated (On the Blood Mantra album)
• Despised Icon
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Dismember
• Divine Heresy (7-string guitars)
• DragonForce (7-string guitars, except for the song "Three Hammers")^[1]
• Dream Theater (7-string guitars) (used on many songs, including "Lie", "Caught in a Web" and "The Mirror" from Awake; the 1994 version of "To Live Forever"; "A Change of Seasons"; "Just Let Me Breathe" from Falling into Infinity; "Scene Seven: I. The Dance of Eternity" from, and most songs from the Twelve-step Suite)
• Drowning Pool
• Edenbridge (7-string guitars) (on some songs from their first five albums)
• Edge Of Sanity
• Éjfény
  • Electric Wizard Eluveitie (on many songs)
• Emperor (on the album)
• Engulfed (7-string guitars)
• Entombed (on their album Left Hand Path)
• Epica (on The Divine Conspiracy and all subsequent albums)
• Eucharist
• Evanescence (on "Going Under")
  • Exhumed Fallujah (7-string guitars)
• Fear Factory (used B on a six-string prior to Dino Cazares' 1996 switch to Ibanez, from whom he began 7-string guitars.)
• Five Finger Death Punch
• Fleshgod Apocalypse
• Gemini Syndrome
• Godflesh (used on the Godflesh EP and the Streetcleaner, Us and Them, and Hymns LPs
  • Grave Graveworm
• Hail of Bullets
• Haken (7/8-string guitars)
• Halestorm (drop A, on the song "I Am the Fire")^[2]
• HIM (on many songs)
  • Hunting Humans Hypocrisy (along with drop A on all albums up from The Fourth Dimension until The Arrival, after which A# Standard and Drop G# are used)
• I Killed The Prom Queen
• Illdisposed (All albums up until Burn Me Wicked)
• Iron Monkey
• Iwrestledabearonce
• Joe Bonamassa (on "The Ballad of John Henry")
• John Prine (on "The Late John Garfield Blues" and "Fish and Whistle" since 1998)
• Jungle Rot
• Kataklysm
• Kingdom of Sorrow
• King's X (along with drop A, on Please Come Home... Mr. Bulbous and most subsequent albums)^[3]
• Kenn Nardi
• Kreator (some songs on the album "Renewal")
  • Krisiun Kyuss (some songs on Wretch (album))
• Lacuna Coil (7-string guitars)
• Lead Belly was rumored to use this tuning in a 12-string variation.
• Leprous (7-string guitars)
• Lik
• Linkin Park (BEADGB. Used on live performances of the songs "Runaway" and "With You" from 2003 onwards; originally recorded on standard tuned 7-string guitars)
• Massacre (on Back from Beyond)
• Mnemic
• The Monolith Deathcult
• Muse (on "Won't Stand Down" and "Kill or Be Killed")
• MyChildren MyBride
• Ne Obliviscaris (7-string guitars)
• Negură Bunget (7-string guitars)
• Nekrogoblikon (7-string guitars)
• Nickelback (some songs)
• Novembre
• Oomph!
• Otto Mann
• Pain of Salvation (7-string guitars)
• Parkway Drive
• Pelican
• Pomegranate Tiger (7-string guitars)
• Pro-Pain
• Profiles in Terror (7-string guitar and 6 guitar B tuned)
• Raintime (7 string guitars)
• Rammstein (on "Dicke Titten")
• Rose Funeral
• Satariel (7-string guitars)
• Scar Symmetry (7 string guitars, on Symmetric in Design and Pitch Black Progress; have since switched to Drop A tuning)
• Seventh Void
• Sepultura (from Roots onward)
• Seringai
• Skinless
• Shadow Over Innsmouth
• Slayer (some songs)
• Sleep (on their new single "Leagues Beneath")
• Soilwork
• Soulfly
• Spawn of Possession (6- & 7-string guitars; Jonas Bryssling plays a 6 string, while Jonas Karlsson and Christian Muenzner's parts are written for 7 strings)
• Spineshank
• Stencher
• Steve Vai (7-string guitars)
• Sun Caged (7-string guitars)
• Textures (7 string guitars)
• Theory of a Deadman (on their song "No Surprise" and recent live performances of "Bad Girlfriend")
• The Project Hate MCMXCIX
• The Safety Fire (7-string guitars, drop A)^[4]
• To/Die/For
• Tremonti (on the title track of the album A Dying Machine, and on live performances of songs originally recorded in C tuning)
• Triptykon
• Trivium (7-string guitars, on some songs from The Crusade and all songs on Shogun)
• Type O Negative
• Unearth (7-string guitars)
• Universum
• Unleashed
• Vehemence
• Veil of Maya
• Visceral Bleeding
• Warning
• Whitechapel (7-string guitars, only on a few songs)
• Wicked Sisters
• Winterfylleth (also use Drop A)
• Within Temptation (lead guitarist Ruud Jolie uses 7-string guitars, while Robert Westerholt downtunes a six-string to B)
• Wormed
• Yanomamo

See also

• List of guitar tunings
• Guitar tuning
• Dropped A

Notes and References

1. Web site: Three Hammers.
2. Web site: Rig Rundown - Halestorm's Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/OrFA9sP6nno . 2021-12-21 . live. Premier Guitar. Premier Guitar. 22 August 2016.
3. Web site: Ty Tabor – Kings X – 2008. GuitarGeek. 8 September 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160827231800/https://www.guitar.com/rigs/ty-tabor-kings-x-2008-rig-and-gear-setup. 27 August 2016. dead.
4. Web site: RIGGED: THE SAFETY FIRE GUITARIST DERYA "DEZ" NAGLE. 5 January 2012.