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Drop Tuning Guitars – Pedals vs Tunings! Which is better!
Introduction
If you have been playing guitar for a while, you may have started messing around with drop tuning guitars! Altering the tuning on your guitar is a great way to expand your sounds and write and play new things! However, the two downfalls of drop tuning guitars are that it takes time to retune! Or you have to carry around a second guitar! There are a huge amount of pedals out there that aim to fix these issues and allow you to detune your guitar at the click of a switch. I have used a few of them for a while in my rig!
However, I have recently asked myself the question, when drop tuning guitars, does it sound any different through a pedal or actually drop tuning your guitars! So I thought I would put together a little article going over the sound differences! Run through various sounds and talk about what I noticed. Not only will I be talking about the sounds, but I will also discuss the feels and playability of drop tuning guitars!
Drop Tuning Guitars: The Plan
So what is the plan? Firstly, I will drop tune my guitar down to various tunings (E Standard, Eb Standard, and then D Standard) and see how it sounds with various sounds. Then I will tune it back to E Standard and then use my Nano Cortex (Review Here) to do the same thing but digitally. We can then hear differences (if there are any), and I will talk about how it feels to play as well.
For the video below, I will switch between the drop tune and digital drop tune for you so you can more easily hear the difference! All the amp sounds are coming from the Nano Cortex in both sound samples, and the Nano Cortex is also doing the drop tuning for me! So, why don’t we check out the sounds and see if we can hear any difference at all?
For the E standard tuning, When using the pedal I tuned the guitar to Eb then used the Nano Cortex to bring it up to E. So +1 semitone.
Drop Tuning Guitars: The Sounds
Below are some sound samples of the different ways to drop tune guitars! The first example will be a blind test! Have a guess on which one you think is the pedal and the drop-tuned guitar. After that, we run through a few different sound samples from nice, clean sounds, a crunch sound, and finally a high-gain sound. Hopefully, this will allow you to hear any variation (if there is).
For the following video, I recorded all the drop-tuned guitars, then used the pedal and recorded all the sounds. In the edit, I cut them up to how you see them below! I did try my best to play the same thing for each example; however, due to the way it was recorded, there is some slight variation!
What are your thoughts on the sounds and the different ways of drop tuning guitars? Can you hear any differences? Head over to the YouTube video and drop us a comment and let us know your thoughts!
"Although it sounds the same, I will say they play massively differently!"
Drop Tuning Guitars: My Thoughts
So, what do I think about Drop Tuning Guitars using a pedal? Honestly, I can’t hear a difference! Listening and editing the video, I honestly got lost in the recordings! The Eb is identical! It is wild! If you were running this live (as I do), no one, not even the player, will be able to hear the difference! As far as the Neural Nano Cortex goes, I couldn’t sense or feel any latency when using it to drop down! There were some things I picked up on when I pitched it up, but we will get onto that shortly! As far as sound and latency are concerned, I honestly don’t believe there was anything that I could tell apart.
Although it sounds the same, I will say they play massively differently! When tuned to D standard, the strings felt a lost loser and slinky. However, when tuned to E standard and using the pedal, then the guitar felt like “home!” It felt the same as you would expect but just sounded lower! This could be a good thing or could be a bad thing! Some people like the feel of a detuned guitar!
As mentioned above, I did do an experiment where I tuned the guitar down to Eb and then used the Nano Cortex to pitch it up 1 semitone. This was an entirely different story! It sounded strange and false! There were loads of artefacts in the audio! You will be able to hear them in the video above. There was also a bit of latency, not a whole lot but enough to feel when playing!
Why I use a Drop Tuning Pedal
The biggest factor for me is not having to carry around a spare just for the drop tunings! Also, the speed, when doing functions or weddings, you find yourself not having a lot of time between songs. So being able to just click on a button to detune the guitar is so helpful and efficient. However, I guess the positive could also be seen as a negative! You do have to have another pedal on your board. If you wanted to keep your board small and compact, then every pedal matters, so having a pedal that you will only use once or twice per set.
You could also argue that you keep your sound the same! You will always have the same guitar running into the same pedals and the same amp! So if you find a sound and tone you like, then you know you won’t mess it up changing to a different guitar with different output or style pickups!
For the price of some of the Drop Tune pedals, I would highly recommend giving them a go! It saves so much time and effort! Can’t tell you how much easier it is just to hit a pedal and be in Eb! Ready for the next song! Be warned! Don’t forget to switch it off! I have been caught out a few times where I have gone into the next song with it still active! Simple fix though! Just hit the pedal!
Conclusion
What did you all think of this? Could you hear a difference? Do you think this has changed your mind about digital drop tuning guitars? Maybe you might give it a go! Or maybe you might give it up! Let us know which one you prefer! For me, I will continue to use a pedal when it comes to drop tuning my guitars!
If you are after a drop pedal for yourself, we have put together some of our recommendations below for you to check out! They are affiliate links, so buying something through one of these links won’t cost you any extra but does provide us with a small commission!
This was something different to our standard reviews. If you like it, then please let us know and we will try to make more articles like this one! If you have any ideas for articles, then please drop me an email with them! Always on the lookout for new article ideas!
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Gigs & Guitars Affiliate Links:
- Digitech Drop Pedal (Thomann Affiliate)
- Digitech Drop Pedal (Andertons)
- Neural Nano Cortex (Thomann Affiliate)
- Neural Nano Cortex (Andertons Affiliate)
- Boss XS-1 Poly Shifter (Thomann Affiliate)
- Boss XS-1 Poly (Andertons Affiliate)
- Andertons Affiliate Link
- Thomann Affiliate Link
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