Does anyone know the easiest wasy to tune a guitar to C G D# A# F A#?!
Question: Im looking to play some In Flames for the bro so I can show him I can but Im hopeless at tuning xD HURRY!! Please =]
Answers: Im looking to play some In Flames for the bro so I can show him I can but Im hopeless at tuning xD HURRY!! Please =]
That tuning is called drop A# (drop A sharp). That is tuned WAYYY down. First of all I'd recommend getting either a baritone guitar or putting on REALLY thick strings to tune that low, look up some GHS boomers or something. If you tune that low on regular strings on a guitar that's setup for standard, your strings will be rubber bands on the fretboard, and they will buzz off the frets constantly, the action and probably intonation will be horribly unplayable.
BUT if you insist on tuning your guitar to this ridiculous tuning anyway, you have a couple of options. Either use a chromatic tuner (I recommend a Korg CA-30, they're really cheap and work very well), or use a regular tuner. For a chromatic tuner, tune strings 1-6 to C G D# A# F A# respectively. Strings are numbered from 1-6, 1 being the thinnest string, and 6 being the thickest. Using a regular tuner will require tuning the strings to how far off they are from standard. Drop A# is 2 steps down, and then the low E (6th string) is tuned down another step to A#. Each fret is a half of a step, so you'd use your standard tuner and fret the fourth fret of each string except the 6th and tune them to standard like that. In other words, instead of using your tuner to tune the high E string to E when you just pick it open, you need to play the 4th fret on the 1st string and tune that to E. This means that the open string is tuned down 2 steps from E, or C. Do this with all the strings, except once you get to the 6th string, tune the 6th fret of this to E. This will make the string be 3 steps down from E, or A#. Excessive changes of tunings will wreak havoc on your guitar, putting varied amounts of stress on the neck, nut, and bridge. Guitars are setup to have a certain amount of tension on these parts, and when the tension is changed often and drastically like it would be tuning to this tuning on regular strings, you may warp your neck.
Don't confuse the string numbers as I did when I was first starting out guitar, remember again that 1-6 is from thinnest to thickest, bottom to top if you're holding it in playing position. Also, when you tune, always tune from loose to tight, so when you get close to the note you want the string tuned to, go looser (below tune) and then tighten it up to tune, this will help your strings stay in tune.
Also, if you do put really thick strings on your guitar to play in a lower tuning, keep it in a lower tuning until you change your strings back to standard ones. Really thick strings in standard tuning put more stress and tension on your guitar, and can and probably will damage it over time. Good luck, I hope this helps.