Metallica · The Black Album · song 1
Enter Sandman tuning.
Enter Sandman (Metallica, 1991) is in E Standard, about 5 cents sharp (A ≈ 441), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Measured by TuneLit
5 ¢ sharp
The album's value, measured on the CD and the original LP: Tune moves every string +5 ¢.
Metallica · The Black Album · 1991
About Enter Sandman
Enter Sandman opens Metallica's 1991 self-titled record, the Black Album, and it is the song that carried the band to a mass audience. Like ten of the album's twelve songs it is in E Standard (E A D G B E), and the main riff keeps coming back to the open low E on String 6.
TuneLit measured the Black Album about 5 ¢ sharp (A ≈ 441.3) on the CD, and the Tune button uses that value. Enter Sandman on its own reads a little higher, about 11 ¢ on the CD and 13 ¢ on the original LP, but not far enough from the album to get its own setting. A guitar at plain A 440 is only a hair flat against the record; if long chords still seem to beat after you tap Tune, add a few cents of Fine-tune.
The usual trap is a live version. Since the Load era Metallica have played this song half a step down in E♭, so a live video, or a tab made from one, sits a half step below the album. For the 1991 studio take, stay in E Standard.
Tip: Tune with the album's +5 ¢, then hold the open low E against the intro riff; if it still sounds flat, push Fine-tune up a few cents.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, every string +5 ¢, the notes Enter Sandman was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Enter Sandman sits 5 cents sharp on the record: at A 440 your guitar would sound that much flat against it, which Tune already corrects.
- Then play Enter Sandman 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 Enter Sandman 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 +5 ¢. Choose E Standard at A 440 and Enter Sandman moves down 5 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 Enter Sandman in?
E Standard +5 ¢: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.