was curious about something ... besides standard tuning, alot of bands out there like GnR, smashing pumpkins, green day & even hendrix, use, or used to use, 1/2 step down tuning ... just wondering why this is the case ?
i don't think it's due to vocal range, cause that'd just affect a few songs right ? no reason to use it for ALL the songs ...
and does it really affect the overall sound ? i mean, everything's just a step down ... if SOAD or sonic youth tunings then different la
hope someone can enlighten me on this !

Because it sounds br00tal.

Nah,actually I use it because it sounds different.Sounds creepier to me

well, mostly half-steps are use for easier vocal. besides that, it's mostly used because it's much heavier than a full note and at the same time still preserving the tone, unlike drop-D or C.

metallica uses half-steps in most of their live concerts(since "load"?) and face it, "fade to black" sounds better in half step .

HEAVIER !!

for metal bands, it sounds MOAR BRUTAL RAWR #$^%w$@.

for bands like GnR, who have a blues-based lead, or at least play blues-influenced music (see also: STEVIE RAY VAUGHN), they opt for half step down because it's easier to bend, and the strings also tend to carry a different tonal emotion when tuned half step down.

heck, even ben's b!tches plays in Eb

get a chromatic tuner

or if you dont have one, here's an old trick i used when i just started playing guitar, tuning my sisters classical to Drop C without a chromatic tuner

start in standard E tuning. since Eb tuning is a half step down, means its is 1 fret lower in terms of pitch. so what you do is, fret the first fret of every string with your left hand, and tune them back to standard. that way, you'll down tune ½ step. much easier done with a capo. else do it string by string

this way might sound stupid, but this is how i started off

or u can also use relative tuning ... like if ur guitar is in standard eADGBE, normally the 5th fret of the top (6th) string = open string of the 5th string ma ... so if u tune until the 6th fret of 6th string = open string of 5th, means u have successfully tuned down half a step ! yay !

thanks for the replies ... especially zeroglyph & liew90kw ... very informative =)

no problems
i wished my guitarists were as open to downtuning as you.
they refuse to do anything but standard tuning or even worse, TUNING UP.

my preferred tuning is D standard or drop C. can't stand high tunings

tuning up pulak ? o.O won't it be hard to play lead then ? with the extra string tension and all ...

Woah,tuning up?Your vocalist Mariah Carey ar?

Why they hate to tune down, is because of the bloddy floyd rose..... It's so freakin' hard to get it in-tune, let alone get it tuned back down and then up again.
The solution? Get 2 guitars!
I'm totally down tuning my RR3 once my E-Gen is in my grips!

don't ask me how they do it, but we played an entire song in G STANDARD, or something similar.

Our vocalist's "comfort note" is B, so for 1 "pop-ish" sounding song, we tried tuning up to G, so that B was the major 4th. Phailed horribly.