C tuning (guitar)



C tuning is a type of guitar tuning. The strings of the guitar are tuned two whole steps lower than standard tuning. The resulting notes can be described most commonly as C-F-A♯-D♯-G-C or C-F-B♭-E♭-G-C. This is not to be confused with C♯ tuning, which is one and one half steps lower than standard tuning.

The tuning is commonly used by metal and hard rock artists to achieve a heavier, deeper sound. Slackening regular strings on a regular guitar to a lower pitch makes bending easier. Depending on personal playing style, some guitarists find this desirable, while others switch to heavier-gauge strings to avoid unintentional bending and to play chords in tune more easily. Another option is the use of a baritone guitar, which is built slightly longer and stronger than a regular guitar to achieve the desired pitch with heavy strings at average tensions.


 * Abysmal Dawn
 * The Absence
 * Acid Bath
 * Akercocke
 * Alestorm
 * Al-Namrood
 * Amaranthe (this tuning and drop B-flat used on their first two studio albums)
 * Amatory
 * Amon Amarth (on the albums Sorrow Throughout the Nine Worlds, Once Sent from the Golden Hall, and their new album Berserker along with drop B-flat)
 * Anaal Nathrakh
 * Ani Di Franco
 * Anathema (on their recent progressive rock albums)
 * Arch Enemy (2001–present)
 * Avatar (on the first three studio albums)
 * Autopsy
 * Bad Company
 * Behemoth
 * Black Sabbath (on live performances of most songs from Master of Reality and Vol. 4 since 2012, including "Into the Void", "Under the Sun", and "Snowblind")
 * Blasphemy
 * Blut Aus Nord
 * Bolt Thrower (on their debut album In Battle There Is No Law!)
 * Brendon Small
 * Bring Me the Horizon
 * BroodMother
 * Burnt By The Sun
 * Called To Arms
 * Cancerslug
 * Chthonic
 * Chuck Berry (most notable songs were recorded in standard tuning)
 * Cold
 * Colour Haze
 * Cradle of Filth (In "Better to Reign in Hell" from Damnation and a Day)
 * DarkWrench
 * Dawn Of Demise
 * Deadlock
 * Death (metal band) (1985)
 * Deathstars
 * Defeated Sanity
 * Dethklok
 * Devourment
 * Die Apokalyptischen Reiter
 * Dimension Zero
 * Dirty Sound Magnet (most songs on their album DSM-III)
 * Disgorge
 * Dismember
 * Dissection
 * Dream Theater (used on "As I Am", "Honor Thy Father" and "In the Name of God" on Train of Thought, "A Nightmare to Remember" on Black Clouds & Silver Linings, and "Untethered Angel" on Distance over Time)
 * Entombed (From Clandestine onward)
 * Elder (On debut album only)
 * Electric Wizard
 * Epica (on most songs from Consign to Oblivion)
 * Evanescence on some songs
 * EyeHateGod
 * Fight (band)
 * From The Vastland
 * Full of Hell
 * George Cromarty
 * George Ezra
 * Goat Horn
 * Gorguts (since Obscura)
 * Grand Magus
 * Guía Luz Negra (d bandolier)
 * Hamlet (main tuning)
 * Harvey Milk
 * Hatebreed
 * Hatesphere
 * Heaven Shall Burn
 * High on Fire
 * Hypocrisy (from Penetralia to The Final Chapter)
 * Immolation
 * Incantation
 * In Flames (since The Jester Race; after Reroute to Remain, they started using drop A# exclusively)
 * Into Eternity
 * Jimi Hendrix (In the song "Here My Train A' Comin' (Acoustic)")
 * John Butler
 * Judas Priest (on "Dead Meat", "Brain Dead", and "Cathedral Spires" from Jugulator, "Hell Is Home" from Demolition)
 * Katatonia (all albums since Viva Emptiness)
 * Kip Winger (solo)
 * Kittie
 * Kyuss
 * Kreator
 * Kuthah
 * Legion Of The Damned
 * Life of Agony (on half of “Ugly”, the entirety of “Soul Searching Sun”, and some songs from "The Sound of Scars")
 * Licuation
 * Monster Magnet
 * Murder by Death
 * NAILS
 * Necrophagia
 * Nervosa
 * Neuraxis
 * Nick Drake
 * Nightrage
 * Noah And The Whale
 * One Ok Rock
 * Panopticon
 * Paradise Lost (first two albums)
 * Parasite Inc.
 * Pantera (in most tracks of their eighth studio album The Great Southern Trendkill)
 * Pile
 * Porcupine Tree (in Anesthetize and Way Out of Here)
 * Punch the Klown
 * Queens of the Stone Age (used exclusively on their debut album, after which C standard, E standard and various other tunings were used)
 * Royal Blood (How Did We Get So Dark?)
 * Salticid (in "Black Fly")
 * Scorpions (on "Love 'em or Leave 'em")
 * Scythrow
 * Sentenced (on their first album Shadows of the Past)
 * Septicflesh (in a few earlier songs, and in much of their recent symphonic death metal material)
 * Sepultura (on "Antichrist" and "Necromancer")
 * Six Feet Under
 * Sleep
 * Suffocation (on Effigy of the Forgotten)
 * The Black Dahlia Murder
 * The Smashing Pumpkins (in "The Everlasting Gaze" "Lucky 13" "Heavy Metal Machine" and "The Imploding Voice")
 * The Sword
 * Sibylle Baier
 * Sodom (in "Masquerade in Blood")
 * Soundgarden (occasionally on other releases)
 * Spectrum Disorder
 * Spiritual Beggars
 * Starkill
 * Static-X (all up until Shadow Zone – since then, they drop the low string to Bb)
 * Strapping Young Lad
 * Suidakra
 * Tal Wilkenfeld (open C# in Pieces of Me, among others)
 * Therion (on their early death metal albums)
 * Tiamat (on their first album Sumerian Cry)
 * Tony Iommi (on the song "Who's Fooling Who")
 * Tremonti (on the songs "Arm Yourself", "Throw Them to the Lions" (performed in B tuning live), and "Make it Hurt")
 * While Heaven Wept
 * The Wildhearts (on 2009's "Chutzpah" album)
 * Witchfinder General
 * Wolfchant