I'm looking for a guitar pedal that will do automatic tuning-down so I don't have to fiddle with my strings all the time if I want to play in different tunings. My whammy sort of works, but I don't like having to mess with the settings all the time; so I was wondering if there is a special pedal made specifically for this. Any help is greatly appreciated.

(Sorry if this is in the wrong section or something.)

This may be able to help you out a little bit, not quite sure to be exact, but I caught the gist of its explanation for other things as well, http://www.zzounds.com/item--BLCAX100SB, but, also remember, if you can find a way to tamper with the frequency so it set's to a lower pitch each time you strike a string with your pick, it should work as well. Take care.

-Andrew

That's a MIDI controller or something...and it's over $700... I'm just looking for a basic, single-function pedal.

Not what I'm looking for, but thanks for the reply.

good question, i don't know... but am interested as well


my solution is more guitars... can't go wrong there

hmm, I'd be interested in this too, but I really can't see anything other than a really good whammy pedal doing this function? Defo use more guitars, or learn to tune quickly!

I think the Line 6 guitar can do this. But for anything that sounds good you're talkin big bucks. Pitch tracking is usually too slow to play faster stuff and has probs with chords etc. some of those midi things are ok cos they track each string individually allowing for chords etc but in reality the best option is a back up guitar and a guitar tech/mate that can tune your guitar up for each song.

If you want to do it midsong just rely on a octave and tune down from there, that'd be a cool thing to do if you actually made it fit in the song. If you're just playing drop tuned from the beginning, just get a Chromatic Tuner and tune it down.

yeah, just get a chromatic tuner pedal. You can't really alter the pitch convincingly very well. I assume you want to tune CGCFAC? You could just always keep your guitar tuned to that and then keep a capo on the second fret for when you want to play drop d tuning.

I have one, and don't like to retune. It can make your strings go bad faster.Not especially; I play songs in about a million different tunings.

There is no cheap way of doing it man. Either get a bunch of guitars OR

go to this link!

http://transperformance.com/index2.htm

It's a mechanism fitted on your guitar that will tune to any tuning at the press of a button, it takes a couple of months to get it fiitted but it will tune in a matter of seconds to any tuning you want and it's perfectly accurate.
It's the only way to do what you want to do, it's Very expensive though! But hey if jimmy page can afford it then it cnt be so bad...he's not that rich, right?!

A pedal WONT do it because even if there is a pedal that will do it it will sound processed and shit. I've used my whammy to go dwn a tone for deftones songs and I can just about get away with it coz steff has that chorusy, processed kinda sound to his guitar anyway.

Okay. Well, thanks for all your help, guys.

buy more guitars.

otherwise your just going to fuck your existing one up/go through strings very quick.

My Zoom 707 does exactly what you're describing. I've been using the pedal for years. It's just a cheap multi effecets pedal. I think it was only $150 about 6 years ago. Basically, it has a programmable pitch-shifter built into it that I can add into the loop of any effects preset that I create. I have made presets for the following:

clean - 1/2 step down
dirty - 1/2 step down
clean - 1/2 step up
dirty - 1/2 step up

clean - 1 step down
dirty - 1 step down
clean - 1 step up
dirty - 1 step up

clean - 2 step down
dirty - 2 step down

clean - 3 step down
dirty - 3 step down

It works flawlessly. It does not change the tone, it just sounds like my guitar tuned up or down. If I run my acoustic through it, I can choose the 1/2 step up or 1 step up presets and not have to use a capo. This pedal is about 6 years old, so there has to be cheap pedals out now that do the same thing.

Now...if you want to tune your guitar to standard tuning and have a pedal make the guitar play like it's tuned to open-c or open-g or some other non-standard tuning, then you're outta luck. Someone above mentioned the Transperformance guitars. Those things have got to be expensive...

From the Transperformance site:

"What does the Performer system cost?

The installation price for the tuning system in a Les Paul or Telecaster style guitar is $3,399. The Stratocaster style guitar requires additional work and is priced at $3,899. Contact the company for additional information."


ouch... My Peavey Wolfgang was expensive enough. I'll tune my own string...

Whoa...that's pretty much what I'm after. Thanks; I'll look into that.

Nope.