The Offspring tunings.

• Tuning: E Standard (E A D G B E) for nearly everything.
• Pitch: concert pitch, A 440, on Smash, Conspiracy of One and everything from 2008 on. Ignition, Ixnay on the Hombre and Americana sit 6 to 10 cents sharp (A ≈ 442). Splinter sits about 14 cents flat (A ≈ 436), with a few songs sharp instead.
• E♭ Standard (half step down): Living in Chaos (2000); Neocon, Never Gonna Find Me and Spare Me the Details (2003); Trust in You (2008); on Supercharged, Hanging by a Thread and probably Make It All Right.
• Drop D: Americana (the title song) and Light It Up. On Special Delivery only the bass drops to D.
• Live: a half step down on the live recordings TuneLit measured. Try E♭ Standard for live albums and concert videos.

Dexter Holland plays rhythm guitar and sings; Noodles (Kevin Wasserman) has played lead since the mid-1980s. The community transcriptions show a band that rarely leaves standard tuning. Of the 128 album songs TuneLit looked up on Songsterr, the most-viewed tab puts the guitars in E Standard for all but ten, and the Ultimate Guitar tabs that state a tuning almost all say "standard". The bass follows the guitars, so a 4-string bass in E A D G works for nearly every song.

Plain E Standard does not mean every song is in the key of E, though. Many Offspring songs sit in F, A♭ or E♭ and never touch the open low E. That matters for one reason: those songs are exactly the ones where tabs and ears most easily disagree about the tuning, because nothing on the record rings out on the open string. TuneLit's semitone check (below) also has the most trouble with them.

The exceptions follow no obvious era. The first E♭ song is Living in Chaos in 2000; Splinter (2003) has three; Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace (2008) has one; Supercharged (2024) has one or two. Drop D shows up only twice, on the title track of Americana and on Light It Up. Capos are rare too: the one that matters is on Dexter Holland's acoustic guitar in Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?, tabbed at the first fret.

TuneLit measured the owner's Japanese CD editions of nine studio albums, from the self-titled debut (a 1995 reissue) to Days Go By, plus the 2021 digital release of Let the Bad Times Roll: 124 songs in all. The method reads 90 seconds of each song and finds how far its notes sit from the A 440 grid. It only knows the offset within one semitone; the semitone itself (E or E♭) comes from the tabs, checked against the audio.

None of the sources we found say anything about the pitch of these records, and for the most part they sit right at concert pitch. Anything within ±4 cents counts as concert pitch here, and six albums land there. Smash, the best-known record, is dead on: −0.2 cents. The surprises are small but real:

• Three sharp albums. Ignition, Ixnay on the Hombre and Americana all sit 6 to 10 cents above concert pitch. That is not enough to sound out of tune to most ears, but a strobe-accurate tuner will show it, and you may notice it when you play along on headphones. TuneLit's buttons for those albums include the offset.
• Splinter is flat. The 2003 album measures about 14 cents below concert pitch, and it is not even consistent: Long Way Home and Hit That sit 11 to 15 cents sharp instead, The Worst Hangover Ever right at concert pitch, and When You're in Prison about 24 cents flat. It is the only Offspring album where the reference A really matters.
• Two odd songs on Conspiracy of One. Come Out Swinging measures about 7 cents flat and Special Delivery about 14 cents sharp, while the rest of the album sits at concert pitch.
• Everything from 2008 on sits at concert pitch within a few cents.

A measurement hears the result, not the cause: it cannot tell a guitar tuned slightly sharp from a tape that ran slightly fast. Either way, the Tune buttons follow the record.

The Offspring (1989)

E Standard11 songs, each with a Tune button

Main tuning: E Standard, concert pitch (measured +3.5 ¢ on the 1995 Japanese reissue).

The debut, produced by Thom Wilson and first released on the small Nemesis label, is fast and raw, and the community tabs read every song in E Standard. The songs lean heavily on the low strings, which makes the semitone easy to hear, and TuneLit's audio check agrees with E on seven of the ten songs on the CD, and none points to another semitone. Kill the President, the original closing track, is missing from the CD TuneLit measured (later pressings dropped it); it is listed here in the album's E Standard.

With TuneLit: E Standard at A 440 for every song.

Baghdad (EP, 1991)

Main tuning: E Standard, not measured.

A four-song EP on Nemesis: an early version of Get It Right, a cover of Hey Joe, Baghdad itself (a reworked Tehran from the debut) and the instrumental The Blurb. TuneLit has not measured it. The tabs of the songs it shares with the albums are all in E Standard, and the debut and Ignition, recorded either side of it, both sit at concert pitch or a few cents above, so start from E Standard at A 440.

Ignition (1992)

E Standard +8 ¢12 songs, each with a Tune button

Main tuning: E Standard +8 ¢ (A ≈ 442), measured on the CD.

The second album, again with Thom Wilson, includes the first version of Dirty Magic, which the band re-recorded on Days Go By twenty years later. Every tab is in E Standard. The CD sits about 7.5 cents sharp, the same on nearly every song, so the whole album shares one setting. Get It Right reads a little higher still (about +15 cents), but not clearly enough to get its own value.

With TuneLit: E Standard +8 ¢ for every song. If you would rather not fiddle, plain E Standard is close enough for most players.

Smash (1994)

E Standard14 songs, each with a Tune button

Main tuning: E Standard at concert pitch (−0.2 ¢), measured on the CD.

The breakthrough. Come Out and Play, Self Esteem, Gotta Get Away and Bad Habit are some of the most-viewed Offspring tabs, and all of them are in E Standard. TuneLit's audio check agrees with E on every one of those four, and Gotta Get Away is a textbook case: about half of its low notes are the open low E. The album sits within a fraction of a cent of A 440. Time to Relax, the spoken intro, has no guitar.

Genocide is one of the songs the audio check pushes toward F, a known quirk of the method on songs whose riffs never sit on the open low string. Something to Believe In is the other doubtful one: its low notes cluster on F and E♭, and the open E is never heard.

With TuneLit: plain E Standard, A 440, for the whole album.

Ixnay on the Hombre (1997)

E Standard +10 ¢14 songs, each with a Tune button

Main tuning: E Standard +10 ¢ (A ≈ 442.5), measured on the CD.

The first album produced by Dave Jerden, and the sharpest Offspring record TuneLit measured: about 10 cents above concert pitch, the same on almost every song. All I Want, The Meaning of Life, Gone Away and Mota are all tabbed in E Standard. Gone Away is a good example of a song that never uses the open low E: its chords sit on F, A♭, E♭ and B♭, so the audio check cannot confirm the semitone from the record alone, and the tabs are the evidence. Cool to Hate is the one song where the audio check leans toward E♭ (see the semitone check below); no tab supports it, so it stays in E.

With TuneLit: E Standard +10 ¢ for every song.

Americana (1998)

E Standard +6 ¢13 songs, each with a Tune button

Main tuning: E Standard +6 ¢ (A ≈ 441.6), measured on the CD.

Pretty Fly (for a White Guy), The Kids Aren't Alright, Why Don't You Get a Job? and She's Got Issues are all tabbed in E Standard, and the CD sits about 6 cents sharp. The exception is the title track, Americana: the tabs put it in Drop D, with the bass dropped as well, and TuneLit's audio check confirms the low D. Welcome is a ten-second intro, and Pay the Man ends with a hidden reprise of Pretty Fly.

With TuneLit: E Standard +6 ¢; the Americana button opens Drop D +6 ¢ (only the low string goes down to D).

Conspiracy of One (2000)

E Standard13 songs, each with a Tune button

Main tuning: E Standard at concert pitch (+1.5 ¢), measured on the CD.

Produced by Brendan O'Brien, with Want You Bad, Original Prankster and Million Miles Away all in E Standard and confirmed by the audio check. Three songs stand out:

• Living in Chaos is the first Offspring album song tabbed a half step down, in E♭ Standard, and the audio check agrees.
• Special Delivery measures about 14 cents sharp, unlike the rest of the album, and the Songsterr tab drops the bass to D while the guitars stay in E Standard. The record backs that up: the bass reaches a low E♭, a note a standard bass cannot play.
• Come Out Swinging measures about 7 cents flat.

Denial, Revisited is a puzzle: Ultimate Guitar's tab says standard tuning, while the Songsterr transcription writes it in F Standard, a half step up, with the bass dropped to E♭. The record never sounds an open low E, and the audio check cannot decide between E♭ and F, so TuneLit keeps the album's E Standard, where the main riff sits on the first fret.

With TuneLit: E Standard for the album, E♭ Standard for Living in Chaos, E Standard +14 ¢ for Special Delivery (with a Drop D bass), E Standard −7 ¢ for Come Out Swinging.

Splinter (2003)

E Standard −14 ¢12 songs, each with a Tune button

Main tuning: E Standard −14 ¢ (A ≈ 436.4), measured on the CD.

Splinter, again with Brendan O'Brien, is the one Offspring album where tuning to A 440 leaves you noticeably off. Most of it sits 11 to 17 cents flat: The Noose, Race Against Myself, (Can't Get My) Head Around You, Lightning Rod. Three songs are tabbed in E♭ Standard, and the audio check agrees with all three: the short opener Neocon (almost nothing but its open low E♭), Never Gonna Find Me and Spare Me the Details. Never Gonna Find Me is disputed in the tabs, with the most-voted Ultimate Guitar tab in standard tuning and Songsterr and another tab a half step down; the record sides with E♭.

The rest of the album does not follow one pitch. Long Way Home (+15 ¢) and Hit That (+11 ¢) sit sharp, The Worst Hangover Ever sits at concert pitch, and the closing track, When You're in Prison, about 24 cents flat. Each has its own button.

With TuneLit: E Standard −14 ¢ for most songs; E♭ Standard −14 ¢ for Neocon, Never Gonna Find Me and Spare Me the Details; check the song's own setting for the rest.

Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace (2008)

E Standard12 songs, each with a Tune button

Main tuning: E Standard at concert pitch (−3.1 ¢), measured on the CD.

The first album with Bob Rock producing, and from here on the records sit at concert pitch. You're Gonna Go Far, Kid, Hammerhead and Half-Truism are tabbed in E Standard, and the audio check agrees. Trust in You is the exception: Songsterr has it in E♭ Standard, the Ultimate Guitar tabs in standard (one of their authors suspects E♭), and the audio check sides with E♭. On Kristy, Are You Doing Okay? both main tabs put a capo on the first fret of Dexter Holland's acoustic guitar, while Noodles plays without one. Stuff Is Messed Up is another song where the audio check leans toward E♭ while every tab says E.

With TuneLit: E Standard for the album, E♭ Standard for Trust in You, capo 1 for the acoustic part of Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?

Days Go By (2012)

E Standard12 songs, each with a Tune button

Main tuning: E Standard at concert pitch (−2 ¢), measured on the CD.

Bob Rock again, and a very consistent record: every song sits within about 7 cents of A 440. Every tab is in E Standard, and the audio check agrees on the title track, Secrets from the Underground, OC Guns, Dividing by Zero and the re-recorded Dirty Magic. Two songs, All I Have Left Is You and I Wanna Secret Family (With You), lean toward E♭ in the audio check without a tab to back it up; they stay in E for now.

With TuneLit: E Standard, A 440.

Let the Bad Times Roll (2021)

E Standard12 songs, each with a Tune button

Main tuning: E Standard at concert pitch (−0.3 ¢), measured on the digital release.

Produced by Bob Rock, with Dexter Holland playing the bass parts. The tabs are all in E Standard, and the record sits at A 440. The audio check agrees on This Is Not Utopia, Army of One, Coming for You and most other songs, but leans toward E♭ on four: the title track, The Opioid Diaries, Hassan Chop and Lullaby (which reprises the title track). No tab puts any of them in E♭, so they stay in E Standard here; if one sounds a half step off, try E♭ Standard.

The new Gone Away is a piano ballad, and it sits a half step below the 1997 original: the low notes TuneLit measured move from F, A♭, E♭ and B♭ down to E, G, D and A. To play it with the Ixnay chord shapes, tune down to E♭ Standard; in E Standard, play everything one fret lower. In the Hall of the Mountain King is a one-minute instrumental take on Grieg.

With TuneLit: E Standard, A 440.

Supercharged (2024)

E Standard10 songs, each with a Tune button

Main tuning: E Standard, not measured (not in TuneLit's library).

Bob Rock's fourth album with the band. The Songsterr tabs put most of it in E Standard, with three exceptions: Light It Up in Drop D, Hanging by a Thread in E♭ Standard, and Make It All Right in E♭ Standard in one tab and E Standard in another. You Can't Get There from Here is tabbed in E Standard with the bass in E♭, and a second, little-used tab puts everything in E♭. None of this has been measured, so treat it as a good starting point. The later albums all sit at concert pitch, so A 440 is the safe bet.

TuneLit measured three live recordings that the owner's Japanese CDs carry as bonus tracks: The Kids Aren't Alright (on Conspiracy of One), and You're Gonna Go Far, Kid and Gotta Get Away (on Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace). In all three the band plays a half step down: the strongest low notes all sit exactly one semitone below the studio version. Gotta Get Away makes it plain: in the studio about half of its low notes are the open low E; live, the same share sits on E♭. Some community transcriptions of live shows, such as Self Esteem in Athens and Want You Bad in Helsinki, are written in E♭ Standard as well.

So for a live album or a concert video, start from E♭ Standard and adjust by ear. The bonus live recording of The Opioid Diaries on Let the Bad Times Roll sits at the same pitch as the studio version, which is one more reason to give the E♭ reading of that song a try.

TuneLit's semitone check listens for the lowest open string: the bass and guitars play it often, and the note just below it almost never. It agrees with the tabs on 78 of the 124 measured songs, including Self Esteem, Come Out and Play, Gotta Get Away, All I Want, Pretty Fly (for a White Guy), Want You Bad, Original Prankster, Hit That, You're Gonna Go Far, Kid and every E♭ and Drop D song above. That is strong support: when it agrees, it has never been wrong in TuneLit's tests.

It disagreed with the tabs on 19 songs, and on its own a disagreement is only right about one time in four, so no song was moved without a second hint, and none had one:

• Toward F (10 songs, among them The Meaning of Life, Staring at the Sun, Walla Walla, Why Don't You Get a Job? and Genocide): the method's known weak spot. On songs whose riffs sit on F and never use the open E, it picks a semitone too high. Nobody tunes The Offspring up to F; these stay in E Standard.
• Toward E♭ (9 songs): Cool to Hate, The Worst Hangover Ever, Stuff Is Messed Up, All I Have Left Is You, I Wanna Secret Family (With You), and four songs on Let the Bad Times Roll (the title track, The Opioid Diaries, Hassan Chop, Lullaby). In all of them the open low E hardly ever sounds while E♭ does, and every tab says E. They are the best candidates for a listen by ear.

For the remaining 27 songs it was not sure, mostly because nothing on the record lands on the low string at all, or because the low notes sit on both neighbours of E (Gone Away, Denial, Revisited, Something to Believe In).

• Measured by TuneLit: our own pitch analysis of a CD or the digital release. Every studio album from 1989 to 2021 has it; only the pitch offset is measured, while the tuning name still rests on the tabs and the semitone check.
• Community: tunings from community transcriptions, mostly Songsterr and Ultimate Guitar. We found no interview in which the band or its crew discuss tunings, so the shape of nearly every song rests on tabs, backed by the audio check where it agrees.
• Disputed: the tabs disagree. Never Gonna Find Me, Trust in You and Make It All Right fall here; we show the most likely tuning and explain the other.
• Not measured: the Baghdad EP and Supercharged carry the tabs' tunings only.

• The Offspring (1989), Smash (1994), Conspiracy of One (2000), Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace (2008), Days Go By (2012), Let the Bad Times Roll (2021): E Standard, A 440.
• Ignition (1992): E Standard +8 ¢ (A ≈ 442).
• Ixnay on the Hombre (1997): E Standard +10 ¢ (A ≈ 442.5).
• Americana (1998): E Standard +6 ¢ (A ≈ 441.6); Americana in Drop D.
• Conspiracy of One (2000): Living in Chaos in E♭ Standard; Special Delivery +14 ¢ with a Drop D bass; Come Out Swinging −7 ¢.
• Splinter (2003): E Standard −14 ¢ (A ≈ 436.4); Neocon, Never Gonna Find Me, Spare Me the Details in E♭ Standard −14 ¢; Long Way Home +15 ¢, Hit That +11 ¢, The Worst Hangover Ever at A 440, When You're in Prison −24 ¢.
• Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace (2008): Trust in You in E♭ Standard; Kristy, Are You Doing Okay? acoustic with capo 1.
• Supercharged (2024, not measured): E Standard; Light It Up in Drop D; Hanging by a Thread and (probably) Make It All Right in E♭ Standard.
• Live: E♭ Standard.
• Golden rule: start in E Standard at A 440. If a song sounds a half step off, it is one of the E♭ songs; if it sounds only slightly off, check the album's offset.