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Is keeping guitar in alternate tuning okay?


chili_time

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I should probably know this but... I've been playing Audio Slave's "Gasoline" recently and the top string is tuned down to "B" so it is BADGBE tuning. Is it a bad idea (like warp the neck bad idea) to leave a guitar in this tuning?   Should I just re-tune to E Standard when I'm done for the day?

 

If I took lessons from a real person I would ask them but RS and you guys are basically my guitar teacher at this point.

 

Thanks!

My Youtube channel is basically a list of Rocksmith's easiest songs because those are the only ones I can play.  :P

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMV9RfoApHM5Zmi1CobqTJw

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  • 1 month later...
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It should not be an issue at all, many people keep some guitar in different tuning all the time.

 

It's mostly the truss rod that help the neck keeping a certain shape, then it's the string tension. But as long as your guitar is correctly setup, there's no reason to have any issue.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It´s bad idea to change tunings frequently in a single guitar, if that your question that I´m already assuming because if you have this type of question 4 a beginner you probably won´t set your guitar only for playing a single song from Audio Slave. To keep a guitar in a single type already adjusted is fine but changin´ it constantly is not.The cons are that you can disarrange the curvature of the fretboard or neck,in case your neck is already set.

 

When a neck bows for,the strings may be to high,making the guitar difficult to play.

When a neck bows back ,the strings may be to low causing fret buzz.The neck is made of wood that is flexible and the strings along with the bolt-on neck design, keep it on certain shape and is in constant tension.

 

Furthermore this tuning change can cause your strings to lost tension and you have to keep them at tune frequently.

To check if your neck is set correctly do as follow.

On the low E string,push down on the first and last fret.Sighting under the string at the 8th fret.the gap should be around about the thickness about 3 sheets of papers. In case that neck needs adjustment take it to the guitar store.

 

In the least case your tunings would be unstable.The ideal thing would be to have different guitars ,each from a single type of tuning. A cheap solution would be to get a pedal that change the pitch for your guitar at will for different type of tunings, I heard that this kind of pedals work in RS.There was a pors before like this and there there´s the kind of pedals for it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I wouldn't worry about it with a guitar, as they're not under all that much tension to begin with. Even more since you're going down in tension. The only issue I've ever had was having to adjust the truss rod when I went from ancient normal to new heavy strings on a bass.

 

Generally speaking though, if you're going to lighter strings or lower tunings than the instrument was designed for, you're good. The worst that is likely to happen is a broken string, which on a guitar is common. Now this is from a physics standpoint, not a musician's, so there's that grain of salt. 

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  • 5 months later...

It´s bad idea to change tunings frequently in a single guitar, if that your question that I´m already assuming because if you have this type of question 4 a beginner you probably won´t set your guitar only for playing a single song from Audio Slave. To keep a guitar in a single type already adjusted is fine but changin´ it constantly is not.The cons are that you can disarrange the curvature of the fretboard or neck,in case your neck is already set. When a neck bows for,the strings may be to high,making the guitar difficult to play. When a neck bows back ,the strings may be to low causing fret buzz.The neck is made of wood that is flexible and the strings along with the bolt-on neck design, keep it on certain shape and is in constant tension. Furthermore this tuning change can cause your strings to lost tension and you have to keep them at tune frequently. To check if your neck is set correctly do as follow. On the low E string,push down on the first and last fret.Sighting under the string at the 8th fret.the gap should be around about the thickness about 3 sheets of papers. In case that neck needs adjustment take it to the guitar store. In the least case your tunings would be unstable.The ideal thing would be to have different guitars ,each from a single type of tuning. A cheap solution would be to get a pedal that change the pitch for your guitar at will for different type of tunings, I heard that this kind of pedals work in RS.There was a pors before like this and there there´s the kind of pedals for it.

This is the perfect response to the question. 

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