Metal Tunings: Drop C, Drop B, and Beyond

The tunings most used in modern metal start from Drop D and go progressively lower: Drop C, Drop B, and, for the most extreme sounds, Drop A. You tune down to get heavier, darker riffs, one-finger power chords, and deeper palm muting. The price you pay is needing thicker strings to keep tension and intonation under control.

In short: you drop the register for a heavier, more powerful sound — Drop C (C G C F A D), Drop B (B F# B E G# C#), and beyond. In every Drop tuning, the two lowest strings stay a fifth apart, so power chords come from a single finger. The lower you go, the thicker your strings need to be.

Why metal tunes down

Tuning down shifts the guitar's entire register lower. The fundamental frequencies of the bass strings drop and the sound gets darker, denser, and more aggressive — ideal for metal riffs.

There are three practical reasons to tune down:

• One-finger power chords. In every Drop tuning, the two lowest strings sit a fifth apart, exactly like in Drop D. The root and fifth of the power chord end up right next to each other, so a single finger laid across two (or three) strings is enough to move the riff all over the neck.
• Deeper palm muting. Lower, thicker strings respond with a punchy, percussive attack when you mute them with your palm near the bridge — the genre's signature "chug."
• Dark, heavy sound. The low notes add weight and darkness, perfect for breakdowns and slow riffs.

From Drop D to Drop C

The starting point is Drop D: you lower just the 6th string by a whole step, from E2 to D2, leaving the other five untouched.

The easiest way to get to Drop C is to think of it in two steps. First tune the whole guitar a whole step below standard EADGBE, giving you D G C F A D. Then lower just the 6th string another whole step, down to C: you get C G C F A D. The 6th (C) and 5th (G) strings stay a fifth apart, just like in Drop D, so the one-finger power chord works the exact same way.

Drop B: an even lower neck

Going down a half step from Drop C gets you to Drop B, one of the tunings most loved in modern metal (the note B sits right below C, with no notes in between). The 6th string reaches B1, a very low note: the full tuning is B F# B E G# C#.

At these pitches tension drops a lot and intonation gets delicate: with strings that are too thin, the low notes turn "floppy," buzz on the frets, and sound flat as soon as you press down. Always double-check tuning across all the strings, because at low registers even small inaccuracies are very noticeable: take a look at the most common tuning mistakes.

Beyond Drop B: Drop A, baritone, and 7-string guitars

You can go even lower. Drop A, a whole step below Drop B, brings the 6th string down to A1 (55.0 Hz), an extremely low note: the tuning is A E A D F# B.

At these depths, a regular guitar struggles. Drop A and everything lower is usually played on baritone guitars (with a longer scale that keeps tension even on extremely low notes) or 7-string guitars, where the extra low string gives you the bass register without upending everything else. Many of the sounds that defined this territory can be found among famous guitarists' tunings.

You need thicker strings

There's a rule that holds for every step down: the lower you go, the thicker your strings need to be. A string tuned lower has less tension and, if it's too thin, turns floppy — fret buzz, unstable intonation, a weak attack.

To keep tension and intonation in check:

• Fit a heavier-gauge set: the bass string needs to be noticeably thicker than a standard-tuning set.
• Consider a longer scale (baritone guitar) for tunings from Drop B down: more vibrating length means more tension for the same note.
• After fitting new strings, recheck the intonation at the bridge, since changing gauge also changes the compensation needed.

To hit every target note, you can use a browser-based chromatic tuner like EasyGuitarTuner: play the open string and bring it to the note shown in the tables, one step at a time.