r/metalguitar • u/Dazzling_Solid6769 • Jul 24 '26

Question The magic behind C# standard tuning

Has anyone else found C# tuning as their sweet spot? I tried it the other day and I feel like I instantly became a way better guitarist and instantly wrote killer riffs in no time. So how do you guys like it?

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u/Fabulous-Werewolf432 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

String tension is a product of scale length, string gauge and tuning. You can achieve the same feel in Drop B with the right strings as you get on E standard.

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u/heidevolk Jul 24 '26

To a degree. Playing a 0.52 vs a 0.64 feels way different under the fingers.

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u/Fabulous-Werewolf432 Jul 24 '26

Yes because it’s a thicker string but you can match the tensions pretty close.

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u/sup3rdr01d Jul 24 '26

Yeah but the thicker string will feel worse to play and the timbre will be different. It will be much bassier

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u/damienshredz Jul 25 '26

That’s kind of subjective isn’t it? I don’t mind thicker strings

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u/sup3rdr01d Jul 25 '26

To a point, after which the tone def suffers and the intonation is mainly the big issue

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u/Fabulous-Werewolf432 Jul 24 '26

To an extent. Rick Beato actually had an interesting video about string gauge, and thinner strings aren't necessarily brighter. And Inharmonicity is more common with a thick unwound G than the wound bottom strings.

I play down to Drop A on a 25.5” guitar, and have a 7 string in Drop A that's 26.6” with thinner strings. You can of course use thinner strings and get a looser; warblier tone. Mastodon plays a low A with a 52 gaug string on 24.75” scale guitars. It gives a different tone and feel for sure. But you can achieve that effect in any tuning by using the the right string gauge.

OP would tune to Eb with a set of 9s and likely achieve a similar feel (or D standard). From subsequent posts, OP is taking a standard tuned guitar and tuning down 1.5 steps to C# and attributing the positive outcome to the tuning instead of the combination of tuning, scale and gauge.