Drop B tuning

Drop B tuning is a heavy metal guitar tuning for a six-string guitar where the strings are tuned to B-F#-B-E-G#-C# (or B-G♭-B-E-A♭-D♭). This is a "drop 1" tuning in the key of C# (i.e. tune the whole guitar down a minor third from standard tuning, then the 6th string is lowered an additional whole step down). As a result, it uses the same fingering as all other "drop" tunings.

Bands that have used Drop B

• Abigail Williams
• Acid Drinkers
• A Day to Remember
• Affiance
• All Shall Perish
• All That Remains (on their first album Behind Silence and Solitude and on most songs from Madness and Victim of the New Disease )
• Alter Bridge
• Amenra
• A Perfect Circle
• An Evening With Knives
• Architects
• Art of Dying ^[1]
• As Blood Runs Black on several songs on Instinct
• Asking Alexandria
• Attack Attack!
• Attila
• August Burns Red (on some songs starting from "Rescue & Restore")
• Baroness
• Black Light Burns
• Black Stone Cherry ^[2]
• Black Veil Brides (on the songs I Am Bulletproof, World of Sacrifice, Stolen Omen and The Last One)
• Bleed From Within
• Bleeding Through
• Blind Witness
• Blinded colony
• Breaking Benjamin
• Bring Me The Horizon (on all of their material prior to Suicide Season , Suicide Season has songs on Drop C , Drop G , And Drop A# )
• Buckethead (on the song "Frozen Brains Tell No Tales")
• Bullet for My Valentine (on most songs from their new album Gravity )
• Bury Tomorrow
• Carpathian
• The Chariot
• Chevelle on a lot of songs, some examples: "Family System", "Send the Pain Below", "Wonder What's Next", "Antisaint", "Well Enough Alone"...
• Children of Bodom (on I Worship Chaos )
• Cloudkicker (album "Beacons")
• Coal Chamber
• Code Orange
• Coheed and Cambria
• Conquer Divide
• Crossfaith
• Crown The Empire (on The Fallout)
• Crowbar
• Creed (on 1/3 of Full Circle)
• Cult of Luna
• De La Tierra
• Celtic Frost (on their final album Monotheist)
• Damageplan (on "Wake Up", "Pride", "Explode", "Save Me", "Crawl", and "Blunt Force Trauma" from New Found Power )
• Dark Tranquillity (on much of their material starting from Fiction )
• Dead to Fall
• Demon Hunter
• DevilDriver (on their self-titled and The Fury of Our Maker's Hand albums) ^[3]
• The Devil Wears Prada (It is the primary tuning on Zombie EP and Dead Throne. It is also used on With Roots Above and Branches Below, 8:18, and Transit Blues)
• Disturbed (on most tracks on Immortalized )
• Dope
• Down ^{[4] [5]}
• Dream on Dreamer on their album Heartbound
• Eighteen Visions (Except for XVIII)
• Elder Druid
• Elitist
• Eyes Set to Kill (on their album Masks )
• Famous Last Words
• Five Finger Death Punch
• For All Those Sleeping (on their album Outspoken )
• For Today (on their Prevailer EP and their album Fight the Silence )
• From Ashes to New
• Funeral
• The Gazette
• Gemini Syndrome
• The Ghost Inside on their album Fury and the Fallen Ones
• Greeley Estates on their album No Rain, No Rainbow
• Halestorm (on the songs "Freak Like Me", "I Get Off", and "I Like it Heavy", though only Lzzy Hale uses drop B on the latter two)
• Hamlet (on most songs on Syberia, and the songs "Arruinando Nuestra Vida", "En Mi Nombre" and "Bajo Su Cuerpo" of the album Pura Vida)
• Heart in Hand
• I Killed the Prom Queen (on their album Music for the Recently Deceased )
• Ice Nine Kills (on some songs starting from Safe Is Just a Shadow )
• Intronaut
• In Extremo (songs "Rasend Herz", "Horizont", "Lieb Vaterland, magst ruhig sein")
• I See Stars
• Isis
• Islander
• I Prevail
• Iwrestledabearonce
• Karnivool (highest 3 strings are all tuned to E Standard tuning)
• King's X on their album Dogman (specifically, "Shoes", "Black the Sky" and "Don't Care")
• Knights of the Abyss
• Lamb of God (on the song "Straight For The Sun")
• Limp Bizkit
• Linkin Park (on "Don't Stay" and "Nobody's Listening" from Meteora )
• Lorna Shore
• Machine Head (tuned 40 cents sharp) ^[6]
• Marilyn Manson (on the song "Antichrist Superstar")
• Memphis May Fire
• Möngöl Hörde ^[7]
• Motionless In White
• Mudvayne (on their album L.D. 50)
• Mark Tremonti (on "Leave It Alone", "Giving Up", "Proof", "Decay", "All That I Got" and "Gone" from the All I Was sessions) ^[8]
• Mike Shinoda (On "Selector" from MTV VMA Score 2005 )
• Nickelback (on the song "Side of a Bullet")
• Nightwish (on the song "the Islander")
• Oceana
• Of Mice and Men
• Origin
• Palisades
• Papa Roach (on the songs "Revenge" "Warriors" and "Falling Apart")
• Parkway Drive
• Pathology (on the song "A Bleak Future")
• Pierce The Veil
• Projected ^[9]
• Raunchy
• Rob Zombie
• Seether (On the songs "Given" and "Tonight")
• Sepultura (On the song Roots Bloody Roots for example)
• Sevendust (primary tuning, although several variations of it are also used) ^{[10] [11]}
• Skillet (On select songs from their album Comatose, as well as several songs transposed to Drop B for live concerts)
• Soilwork
• Slayer (On select songs from God Hates Us All , Christ Illusion , "Americon" from World Painted Blood , and half of the songs of Repentless")
• Slipknot ^[12]
• Stone Sour ^[13]
• Sienna Skies
• The Amity Affliction
• The Kills - "Future Starts Slow"
• Theory of a Deadman
• This or the Apocalypse
• Thousand Foot Krutch
• Three Days Grace (on the song "Drown" from their self-titled debut album)
• Triptykon
• The Dweller Beyond
• UFOMAMMUT
• Vanna
• Veil of Maya
• Vorvaň
• We Came as Romans
• Weekend Nachos
• Wretched
• Young Guns

References

1. "Greg Bradley of Art of Dying – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2011". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
2. "Rig Rundown - Black Stone Cherry's Chris Robertson". All Axess. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
3. "Jeff Kendrick & Mike Spreitzer Talk About Tuning". Fret 12. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
4. "Pepper Keenan of Down – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2008". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
5. "Kirk Windstein of Down – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2007". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
6. "Phil Demmel of Machinehead – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2007". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
7. "Mongol Horde - Casual Threats From Weekend Hardmen (Tab)" . Retrieved 2018-09-10.
8. "Guitar tunings from Shiprocked setlist". Fret 12. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
9. Connolly, John. "HELLo guitars and tuning explanation". John Connolly. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
10. "Clint Lowery & John Connolly Talk About Tuning". Fret 12. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
11. "Clint Lowery & John Connolly Talk About Alternate Tuning". Fret 12. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
12. "Jim Root of Slipknot – Guitar Rig and Gear Setup – 2004". GuitarGeek. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
13. "Jim Root Rig Rundown". All Axess.