Guns N' Roses · Use Your Illusion II · song 12
You Could Be Mine tuning.
You Could Be Mine (Guns N' Roses, 1991) is in E♭ Standard at concert pitch (A 440), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Measured by TuneLit
At concert pitch
The album's value, measured on the CD.
Guns N' Roses · Use Your Illusion II · 1991
About You Could Be Mine
The closing track of Use Your Illusion II (1991), also known from the Terminator 2 soundtrack. A fast, riff-driven song in the band's usual E♭ Standard, with guitars and bass a half step down.
TuneLit measured the Mobile Fidelity gold CD of Use Your Illusion II (UDCD 712) about 3 ¢ flat and this song about 2 ¢ sharp: both count as concert pitch, so the setting is plain E♭ Standard at A 440. TuneLit's audio check hears the open low E♭ right where the tabs put it.
Nothing unusual to watch for in the tuning. If you learned the riff from a version written for E Standard, keep the frets and tune every string down a half step, or you will be a half step above the record.
Slash says its writing began at the first preproduction session for Appetite for Destruction, years before it came out; it is credited to Izzy Stradlin and Axl Rose and became the first single from Use Your Illusion II in June 1991, backed with Civil War. Matt Sorum drums here, while Civil War at the other end of the album is Steven Adler's last recording. It is the band at full hard-rock speed: practise the riff slowly to a metronome and raise the tempo only once every note stays clean.
Tip: Tune all six strings down a half step at plain A 440 and check the low E♭ against the main riff; no offset is needed.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E♭ Standard, the notes You Could Be Mine was recorded in.
- From E Standard: Every string down a half step. No tuner that knows E♭ Standard? Clamp a capo across fret 1, tune to E Standard as usual, then take it off: every string drops to E♭ Standard. Check each string again afterwards, since a capo pulls the strings a little sharp.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. You Could Be Mine sits at concert pitch on the record, so the tuner stays at A 440.
- Then play You Could Be Mine along with the record: its lowest open note and your String 6 should ring together without a wobble.
Or the other way round
Move the record into your tuning
Rather keep your guitar as it is? Let Play along move You Could Be Mine instead. Add your own copy, for example from your CD (it never leaves your device); the link already says the song is in E♭ Standard. Choose E Standard at A 440 and You Could Be Mine moves up a half step and 3 cents, at its own speed. Slow it down or loop a few bars to learn it, and save the result as a WAV file.
Questions
What tuning is You Could Be Mine in?
E♭ Standard: E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ B♭ E♭, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.