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[Daz21]

Hey!
The other day I was tabbing a track from the new Nickelback album and realized that I had to go down to drop C tuning to play the intro in the position Chad Kroeger does. I also noticed that Kroeger plays in Drop C about 90% of the time.
When I tune my guitar down to Drop C, though, its hard to play for much longer that a few minutes without having to retune. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I'm using 10's, would it hold the tuning better if I were to use a heavier gauge?

- D a z -

[Monk Rocker]

What kind of bridge does your guitar have? A floating bridge will take a bit of time to settle down, and you will need to use pretty heavy strings to play in drop C and might need to adjust the spring tension in the bridge if its floating.

I've used 10 - 52's and played in drop C with a fixed bridge with no problems......

11's hold up fine on fixed bridge guitars

[David]

dropping from e to drop c on a guitar will adjust the tension on the neck, so you will retune it, then the neck will settle and will knock it out again - just because there will be such a change in tension the neck will actually move (the trusstrod will be adding enough tension to hold it in e, when you lower the tuning it will move the neck a bit)

you have to just let it settle, if you were going to be playing only in drop c it would be a good idea to either adjust the truss rod (remove a little tension in it) or use a thicker set of strings (so they are back into a 'normal' tension when you are downtuned)

David

[Monk Rocker]

Just to be sure....

Drop C - guitar tuned C, G, C, F, A, D yeah? With heavier strings, ie 10 - 52's or 11/12's then you shouldn't need to adjust the truss rod, and unless you know exactly what you're doing, I'd recommend against it.

I changed my strat from 10's to 9's last night and it took a good while of tuning until it finally settled so be patient.......

[Dan Atom]

Originally Posted by Monk Rocker

Just to be sure....

Drop C - guitar tuned C, G, C, F, A, D yeah? With heavier strings, ie 10 - 52's or 11/12's then you shouldn't need to adjust the truss rod, and unless you know exactly what you're doing, I'd recommend against it.

i agree with this man! Don't fuck around with your truss rod. Just get some Erni Ball power slinkies (or something similar) and drop-C tuning will do just fine.

P.S. My ibanez has a fixed bridge, EB power slinkies and drop-c tunning... it rarely goes out of tune even during gigs.

[Daz21]

Originally Posted by Monk Rocker

What kind of bridge does your guitar have? A floating bridge will take a bit of time to settle down, and you will need to use pretty heavy strings to play in drop C and might need to adjust the spring tension in the bridge if its floating.

I've used 10 - 52's and played in drop C with a fixed bridge with no problems......

I have a floating bridge.

I'll try using a heavier gauge, thanx!

- D a z -

[HateEvent]

This is where me knowing that technically this is NOT drop C is really annoying! Especially because I know what you mean!

Consider this:

Standard = EADGBE
Drop D = DADGBE (dropping the E to D)
Drop C = CADGBE (dropping the E to C)
Drop D down a step = (CGCFAD)

Agree or disagree, I know I'm right and it's the most common thing I see notated wrongly, but anyway, for CGCFAD, try Ernie Ball Power Slinkys ( 11-48 ). I used them when in that tuning and didn't need to adjust anything.

[Hogisbald]

I use those "not even slinkys" nice

[Daz21]

Originally Posted by Angel Of Death

This is where me knowing that technically this is NOT drop C is really annoying! Especially because I know what you mean!

Consider this:

Standard = EADGBE
Drop D = DADGBE (dropping the E to D)
Drop C = CADGBE (dropping the E to C)
Drop D down a step = (CGCFAD)

Agree or disagree, I know I'm right and it's the most common thing I see notated wrongly, but anyway, for CGCFAD, try Ernie Ball Power Slinkys ( 11-48 ). I used them when in that tuning and didn't need to adjust anything.

I know what your saying is right, but it shouldn't be. When I talk of Drop D tuning, I don't just mean dropping the Top E down a step I mean Tuning the entire set down a step. Same with Drop C tuning.

When I mean tuning Top E down a step, I just say it like that!

(I like to challenge convention!)

- D a z -