Setting Up a Six-String Guitar as a Seven-String Guitar
Most songs written for the seven-string guitar cannot be played with a six-string guitar in standard tuning. The design of the seven-string guitar can be awkward for some guitarists to play due to the wider neck. The seven-string guitar adds a low B string to the normal E-A-D-G-B-e strings found on a normal six-string guitar in standard tuning. Changing the tuning on a six-string guitar can enable it to play seven-string guitar parts, at the expense of the high e string no longer being present.
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Instructions
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Connect the guitar to an electric guitar tuner using an instrument cable.
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Tune the six-string, the thickest string normally tuned to low E, down to B.
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Tune the five-string, the next thickest string, down to E. This string is the same low E note that the six-string was originally tuned to.
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Tune the four-string down to A.
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Tune the three-string down to D.
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Tune the two-string down to G.
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Tune the one-string, the thinnest string, down to B.
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Make sure all of the strings are still on the correct pitch. The guitar neck sometimes shifts slightly when you tune down, causing some of the strings to stray slightly off pitch. Retune any string that has gone off pitch slightly.
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Tips & Warnings
The note produced by a guitar string is determined by the thickness of the string and the amount of tension it is under. Lowering the pitch of the strings requires lowering the tension since the thickness of the string is not changing. Some guitarists might find the lower string tension uncomfortable to use. Switching to a thicker string gauge might help in this case because thicker strings require slightly more string tension to reach the same note as a thinner string.
