D Standard Guitar
All strings tuned a full step down from standard. Common in heavy and doom metal.
D Standard takes every string down a full step from E Standard. The tone gets noticeably heavier and darker. Black Sabbath's later albums, Alice in Chains and several doom metal bands use this tuning to get a thick, grinding sound without needing extended-range guitars.
Your chord shapes and scale patterns stay the same as E Standard, just transposed down two frets. A song in D Standard that you fret at the 2nd fret sounds like the open position in E Standard.
At the Gates 1
Bob Marley & The Wailers 1
Cat Stevens 1
David Bowie 1
Day Of Suffering 1
Dissection 4
Eric Clapton 7
- 1 Layla Unplugged - Solo LESSON 1992
- 2 Layla Unplugged - Verse & Chorus LESSON 1992
- 3 Layla Unplugged Acoustic TAB 1992
- 4 Layla Unplugged Pt.1 - Intro LESSON 1992
- 5 Layla Unplugged Pt.3 - Solo LESSON 1992
- 6 Tears in Heaven TAB 1992
- 7 Tears In Heaven - Acoustic LESSON 1992
Fleetwood Mac 2
Megadeth 3
Metallica 3
Pantera 8
Pink Floyd 8
Robert De Visée 1
Simon & Garfunkel 1
The Beach Boys 1
The Beatles 7
The Mamas and the Papas 1
The Police 2
D Standard for Heavy Styles
The lower tension means heavier strings are recommended to keep the feel tight. A set starting at .011 or .012 works well. The tone sits in a sweet spot between standard tuning clarity and the muddiness that can creep in at lower tunings like C Standard.
If you like the weight of Drop D but want all six strings tuned evenly, D Standard is the natural choice. Explore C Standard to go even lower.