Guitar tuning · C♯ F♯ B E G♯ C♯
C♯ Standard tuner.
C♯ F♯ B E G♯ C♯: 1½ steps down from standard. Tune with your mic or by ear, at A4 = 440 or any pitch you need.
Tuner · Any tuning
Tune your guitar.
Pluck a string and the meter shows how far off it is. Tap any string to hear it at its true pitch and tune by ear.
- Pick any instrument and tuning
- Shift it down or up by half steps
- Set A to anything: 440, 432, 442…
C♯ F♯ B E G♯ C♯ · E Standard shape · −3 st
Check string tension →The sound never leaves your device.
Keys: Space start or stop · ← → half step · ↑ ↓ A (Shift: bigger steps) · 1–9 string · M mode · R hear · − + volume · L copy link · Esc done
Ready
tab: E
Strings 1 → 6
3 times each
Tap Start, then pluck any string.
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Strings · tap to hear
Instrument
Try uke, bari, 5 string, cello…
Tuning
C♯ Standard
Shape
Shift
Standard pitch
Higher or lower
Fine-tune
Moves every string a little, for example to match a recording.
Custom tuning
Any strings, any notes
One row for each string. The top row is the top string, usually the thickest.
Start from
Strings
+ adds a lower string at the top. − takes the top string away.
Notes from C0 to C8. Type a note like D2, F♯3 or B♭1, or use − and +.
Save and use keeps it on this device (up to 8 tunings). Use without saving tunes with it for now.
Reference A
Slider 380–500 Hz. Type any value from 300 to 600 Hz.
More pitches
Sound
Violin, viola, cello and double bass start with Bowed, the rest with Acoustic.
Note length
Match a recording Beta
Find the A a song was recorded at, then tune to it and play along.
…listening
Play the song, loud and clear.
Result
This recording sits on A 440
The tuner already matches it: nothing to change.
A recording is only known within a half step: if the song is a half step down, also change the tuning.
Beta: tested on real records and synthetic songs. Check the result by ear.
Nothing is uploaded: the sound is measured on this device.
Settings
Mode
Guided: one string at a time, from the thickest.
Meter
Bar: a slider with a mint in-tune zone.
Note length
How long a tapped string and Hear sound. Repeat plays the string again every few seconds, Continuous holds it: tap it again to stop.
Reference sound
Violin, viola, cello and double bass start with Bowed, the rest with Acoustic. A sound you pick stays.
Volume
Phone speakers play very low notes an octave up.
Note names
Sharps and flats
Octave numbers (E2, E4)
Tells the two E strings apart: E2 is the low one, E4 the high one.
Frequencies (Hz)
Each string's pitch in hertz, such as 82.4 Hz.
In tune within
Precise is not used with harmonics: Normal ±3 applies.
Harmonic mode
For one low string: play its 12th-fret harmonic (×2) or its 5th-fret one (×4).
Pro view
The pitch heard in Hz, tenths of a cent and the input picker. Turns on octave numbers and frequencies.
Device names appear after you allow the microphone.
Input channel
Auto picks the channel with sound. Interfaces: choose the input your instrument is plugged into.
Background
Night ocean, cosmos, forest and more.
The sound never leaves your device. No account, no cookies.
Guitar · Downtuned standard
About C♯ Standard
Every string sits 1½ steps below E Standard: C♯ F♯ B E G♯ C♯. Downtuned standard tunings keep every chord shape you know; songs simply sound lower and the strings feel a bit looser.
C♯ Standard sits between D and C Standard. Heavy rock and metal bands use it for a lower sound without a big jump in string gauge.
Also written: C#F#BEG#C#
How to get there from standard
- String 6: lower 1½ steps (E2 → C♯2)
- String 5: lower 1½ steps (A2 → F♯2)
- String 4: lower 1½ steps (D3 → B2)
- String 3: lower 1½ steps (G3 → E3)
- String 2: lower 1½ steps (B3 → G♯3)
- String 1: lower 1½ steps (E4 → C♯4)
Quicker from Drop B: raise String 6 a whole step (B1 → C♯2).
Why players use it
Why C♯ Standard
C♯ Standard, C♯ F♯ B E G♯ C♯, lowers every string three half steps. That is far enough to change the feel of a riff: the open low C♯ rumbles rather than rings, and slow power chords take on the weight that doom and grindcore are built on.
The strings get much softer too. Tony Iommi lost the tips of two fingers on his fretting hand in a factory accident and played with home-made thimbles, so slacker strings were easier to press and bend. He has said the main aim was a bigger, heavier sound; the easier feel came with it.
On the records
Who plays in C♯ Standard
Black Sabbath made it famous on Master of Reality (1971). Iommi tuned three semitones down for Children of the Grave, Lord of This World and Into the Void, Geezer Butler tuned his bass to match, and C♯ carried Vol. 4, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and the heavy songs of Sabotage: 24 songs on TuneLit, Sweet Leaf and Symptom of the Universe among them.
The biggest share of the 144 songs here belongs to Napalm Death: 81, from From Enslavement to Obliteration (1988) and the run from Utopia Banished (1992) to Words from the Exit Wound (1998). Slayer moved to it for Diabolus in Musica (1998) and God Hates Us All (2001), Disciple included: 18 Slayer songs in all. Kyuss's 1990 Sons of Kyuss EP sits in C♯ too, about 40 cents flat, from the years before the band owned a tuner.
Songs on TuneLit
Famous songs in C♯ Standard
Each song has its own page: the exact tuning, the pitch of the record and how to get there string by string. Tune sets the tuner to the record, cents included.
- Sweet LeafBlack Sabbath · Master of Reality (1971)Tune
- Space CadetKyuss · Welcome to Sky Valley (1994) · +8 ¢Tune
- Breed to BreatheNapalm Death · Inside the Torn Apart (1997) · +7 ¢Tune
- First It GivethQueens of the Stone Age · Songs for the Deaf (2002) · +9 ¢Tune
- DiscipleSlayer · God Hates Us All (2001)Tune
- SnuffSlipknot · All Hope Is Gone (2008) · +10 ¢Tune
- Children of the GraveBlack Sabbath · Master of Reality (1971)Tune
- Little SisterQueens of the Stone Age · Lullabies to Paralyze (2005)Tune
- Into the VoidBlack Sabbath · Master of Reality (1971)Tune
- Sabbath Bloody SabbathBlack Sabbath · Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) · +24 ¢Tune
144 songs · 9 bands
Every C♯ Standard song on TuneLit
Open a band to see its songs in this tuning. Each song opens on its album page, at its own Tune button, set to the pitch of the record.
Napalm Death 81 songs
- From Enslavement to Obliteration (1988): Evolved as One, It's a M.A.N.S World!, Lucid Fairytale, Private Death, Impressions, Unchallenged Hate, Uncertainty Blurs the Vision, Cock-Rock Alienation, Retreat to Nowhere, Think for a Minute, Display to Me…, From Enslavement to Obliteration, Blind to the Truth, Social Sterility, Emotional Suffocation, Practice What You Preach, Inconceivable?, Worlds Apart, Obstinate Direction, Mentally Murdered, Sometimes, Make Way!
- Utopia Banished (1992): Discordance, I Abstain, Dementia Access, Christening of the Blind, The World Keeps Turning, Idiosyncratic, Aryanisms, Cause and Effect (Part II), Judicial Slime, Distorting the Medium, Got Time to Kill, Upward and Uninterested, Exile, Awake (To a Life of Misery), Contemptuous
- Fear, Emptiness, Despair (1994): Twist the Knife (Slowly), Hung, Remain Nameless, Plague Rages, More than Meets the Eye, Primed Time, State of Mind, Armageddon X 7, Retching on the Dirt, Fasting on Deception, Throwaway
- Diatribes (1996): Ripe for the Breaking, Cold Forgiveness, My Own Worst Enemy, Just Rewards, Dogma, Take the Strain, Diatribes, Placate, Sedate, Eradicate, Corrosive Elements
- Inside the Torn Apart (1997): Breed to Breathe, Birth in Regress, Section, Reflect on Conflict, Down in the Zero, Inside the Torn Apart, If Symptoms Persist, Prelude, Indispose, Purist Realist, Lowpoint, The Lifeless Alarm
- Words from the Exit Wound (1998): The Infiltraitor, Repression out of Uniform, Next of Kin to Chaos, Trio-Degradable / Affixed by Disconcern, Cleanse Impure, Devouring Depraved, Ulterior Exterior, None the Wiser?, Clutching at Barbs, Incendiary Incoming, Thrown Down a Rope, Sceptic in Perspective
- Napalm Death: every album and its tuning
Black Sabbath 24 songs
- Master of Reality (1971): Sweet Leaf, Embryo, Children of the Grave, Orchid, Lord of This World, Into the Void
- Vol. 4 (1972): Wheels of Confusion, FX, Supernaut, Snowblind, Cornucopia, Under the Sun
- Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973): Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, A National Acrobat, Sabbra Cadabra, Killing Yourself to Live, Who Are You?, Looking for Today, Spiral Architect
- Sabotage (1975): Hole in the Sky, Symptom of the Universe, Megalomania, The Writ
- The Eternal Idol (1987): Scarlet Pimpernel
- Black Sabbath: every album and its tuning
Slayer 18 songs
- Undisputed Attitude (1996): Gemini
- Diabolus in Musica (1998): Bitter Peace, Death's Head, Stain of Mind, Overt Enemy, Love to Hate, Desire, In the Name of God, Point
- God Hates Us All (2001): Darkness of Christ, Disciple, God Send Death, New Faith, Threshold, Exile, Bloodline
- Christ Illusion (2006): Black Serenade, Cult
- Slayer: every album and its tuning
Kyuss 12 songs
Metallica 3 songs
Pantera 2 songs
Queens of the Stone Age 2 songs
Sepultura 1 song
Slipknot 1 song
Playing tips
Playing in C♯ Standard
The same notes are often called D♭ Standard, and Kerry King names his tunings by sharps, so go by the notes rather than the name. Tabs of Sweet Leaf in E Standard are simplified arrangements: the shapes match, but you would sound three half steps above the record. Several early Sabbath and Kyuss records also sit well off A 440, and the Tune buttons set the reference for each one.
Kerry King strings his C♯ guitar with .010–.046, one size up from the .009s he uses half a step down. If your set is lighter than that, go up a size, then check the intonation: heavier strings often need the saddles moved back a little. The bass tunes to C♯ F♯ B E.
6 strings
Notes and frequencies
| String | Note | A = 440 | A = 432 | A = 442 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | C♯2 | 69.30 | 68.04 | 69.61 |
| 5 | F♯2 | 92.50 | 90.82 | 92.92 |
| 4 | B2 | 123.47 | 121.23 | 124.03 |
| 3 | E3 | 164.81 | 161.82 | 165.56 |
| 2 | G♯3 | 207.65 | 203.88 | 208.60 |
| 1 | C♯4 | 277.18 | 272.14 | 278.44 |
The tuner on this page works at any A4 from 300 to 600 Hz, and can shift the whole tuning by half steps or fine cents.
Measured
How the tuner hears C♯2
C♯ Standard goes down to C♯2 on String 6, 69.30 Hz. A phone mic hears C♯2 faintly: in our phone-mic model its fundamental arrives 7 dB quieter. Read from its overtones, C♯2 stayed within 1 ¢.
No tuner for C♯ Standard?
The capo trick
If your tuner only knows E Standard, clamp a capo across fret 3 and tune the strings, capo on, to E Standard (E A D G B E) as usual. Take the capo off: every open string drops 1½ steps and you are in C♯ Standard (C♯ F♯ B E G♯ C♯).
A capo pushes the strings a little sharp, so the open strings can end up a few cents flat. Check each one again without the capo: the tuner on this page reads C♯ Standard directly.
String tension
Strings and tension
Strings 6–1: about 29% less tension (approx., same strings, same scale length).
To keep the feel of a 10–46 set at standard pitch, try about 12–54 (approx.: string makers' charts differ, and many players simply like it looser).
A longer neck helps too. Compared with a 25.5″ guitar, a 27″ scale gives back about a half step of tension and 28.6″ about a whole step (approx.).
Check string tension → String by string, with your own set and scale length.
Neighboring tunings
Higher tunings first. Each rung moves every string of C♯ Standard by a half step; in the tuner, the ◂ ▸ arrows on the tuning chip do the same.
- E♭ StandardAll strings 1 half step lower
- D StandardAll strings 2 half steps lower
- C♯ StandardThis pageAll strings 3 half steps lower. Notes: C sharp F sharp B E G sharp C sharp
- C StandardAll strings 4 half steps lower
- B StandardAll strings 5 half steps lower
Questions
What are the notes of C♯ Standard?
From String 6 to String 1: C♯2 F♯2 B2 E3 G♯3 C♯4. At A4 = 440 Hz the lowest string is 69.30 Hz and the highest is 277.18 Hz.
Why is it called C♯ Standard?
Standard tunings are named after the lowest string. All strings move 1½ steps down from E Standard, so String 6 becomes C♯2 and every chord shape stays the same.
Do I need heavier strings for C♯ Standard?
Strings 6–1: about 29% less tension (approx.). To keep the feel of a 10–46 set at standard pitch, try about 12–54 (approx.: string makers' charts differ, and many players simply like it looser).