Drop C Guitar Tuner
Tuner settings
🎶 Tune by ear 🎶
Drop C is one of the most widely used heavy guitar tunings. It is Drop D moved down a whole tone: every string of the standard tuning drops two semitones, and the 6th string drops two more, landing on C. The result is C, G, C, F, A, D — a fifth between the bottom two strings, which is what lets you play a power chord with a single finger.
Because the whole instrument sits lower, Drop C sounds thicker and more aggressive than standard tuning without changing a single chord shape you already know. Click here to open the tuner below and follow the steps on this page to get there accurately.
Strings and Frequencies of the Guitar in Drop C Tuning
In Drop C tuning, the guitar strings are tuned to the following notes and frequencies:
- 6th string (C2): 65.41 Hz
- 5th string (G2): 98.00 Hz
- 4th string (C3): 130.81 Hz
- 3rd string (F3): 174.61 Hz
- 2nd string (A3): 220.00 Hz
- 1st string (D4): 293.66 Hz
Drop C takes a lot of tension out of the strings. A regular 9-42 set will feel loose and buzz against the frets, so most players move to 11-56 or 12-60 and have the guitar set up for it. The 6th string in particular benefits from a heavier gauge, since C2 at 65.41 Hz on a standard 25.5" scale is a long way below where a light string wants to sit.
Tune your Guitar to Drop C
Tuning your guitar to Drop C with OnlineTuner.org is straightforward:
- Ensure you are in a quiet environment and position your guitar near your device’s microphone.
- Click the "Start Tuner" button and allow microphone access when prompted.
- Pluck each string of your guitar one by one, letting the note ring rather than damping it, and the tuner will display the nearest note.
- Use the tuning pegs to adjust each string until it matches the correct note for Drop C.
- Retune and double-check each string, since adjusting one string changes the tension on the others.
Drop the 6th string all the way to C2 last — it travels the furthest and will pull the neck slightly as it goes, which nudges the other five strings flat.
OnlineTuner.org's Features for Tuning your Guitar More Accurately
OnlineTuner.org offers a number of features that make tuning to Drop C both easy and precise:
- Customizable A4 Frequency: Adjust the reference pitch for A4 from the default 440 Hz to alternatives like 432 Hz or 442 Hz, depending on your preferences.
- Sensitivity Control: Fine-tune the tuner's sensitivity so it picks up only the sound of your guitar, even in noisy environments.
- Noise Gate: Set a volume threshold to filter out background noise and improve accuracy.
- Save Settings: Keep your preferred sensitivity and reference pitch for future tuning sessions.
- Visual Tuning Interface: Choose between a meter or a slider display, depending on your personal preference.
History of Drop C Tuning for the Guitar
Drop C grew directly out of Drop D. Guitarists in the 1990s who had been detuning to Drop D for heavier riffs kept going, and by the early 2000s the whole-tone-lower version had become the default for a large part of metal and hardcore. System of a Down's Toxicity is often the record people point to as the moment Drop C stopped being an experiment and became a standard.
The tuning spread quickly because it costs nothing to learn. Anyone who could already play in Drop D could play in Drop C the same evening — the shapes are identical, only the pitch is different. That combination of a genuinely darker sound and a zero-effort transition is why it took hold faster than tunings that require new fingerings.
Usage of Drop C Tuning
Drop C is the working tuning of metalcore, nu metal and a good deal of modern hard rock. Bands including Bullet for My Valentine, Killswitch Engage, Trivium and Bring Me the Horizon have built large parts of their catalogues on it. The single-finger power chord on the 6th, 5th and 4th strings makes fast riffing across the low register practical in a way standard tuning never allows.
It also suits singers. Dropping a whole tone from standard brings a lot of material into a more comfortable vocal range without transposing anything, which is why bands often move a song to Drop C in rehearsal rather than rewriting it. If you want the same shapes without the extra drop on the 6th string, our one step down tuner covers that.
Understand our Drop C guitar tuner's settings
The present Drop C guitar tuner, provided to you by OnlineTuner.org, is designed to suit both novice and experienced musicians' needs. It offers an accurate, robust and versatile tuning experience that can be customized to your specific requirements. You can access each of these settings directly on our Drop C guitar tuner, or by clicking on “Advanced settings”.
Set the A4 value of our Drop C guitar tuner
One of the most crucial settings to consider when using our Drop C guitar tuner is the adjustable frequency of the A4 note. This setting serves as the foundational pitch from which all other notes are calculated. While the default is set to the international standard of A=440 Hz, many musicians have strong preferences for alternative frequencies such as A=432 Hz or A=442 Hz. The ability to adjust this foundational pitch makes our Drop C guitar tuner flexible enough to accommodate musicians who play in various tuning systems, whether historical temperaments or modern experimental tunings.
Set the sensitivity of our Drop C guitar tuner
Another pivotal feature is the sensitivity setting, which can be altered to suit the specific environment or instrument in use. You control it through the detection algorithm's probability threshold, which determines how readily the tuner commits to a note. Drop C matters here because the low C2 has a weaker fundamental than a standard low E, so a threshold set too loosely can latch onto the octave above. If your 6th string reads as C3 rather than C2, raise the threshold and pick closer to the bridge.
Using our Drop C guitar tuner in challenging environments
Further, the noise gate setting of our Drop C guitar tuner stands as a strong ally for those tuning in acoustically challenging environments. Whether you are in a room with an air conditioner humming in the background or in a rehearsal space with other musicians, the noise gate lets you set a threshold below which sounds are ignored. This ensures that only the sound of your instrument is picked up and analyzed, increasing the tuner’s accuracy.
Meter tuner vs Slider tuner
This last setting is simply a matter of taste, but you can choose whether you prefer our Meter tuner or our Slider tuner. To alternate between one and the other, just click the "Display the slider tuner" switch on our Drop C guitar tuner.
All our online guitar tuners
Different songs call for different tunings. Below you will find every free online tuner we offer for this instrument, from standard tuning to alternative options such as drop, open and half-step tunings. Each tuner runs directly in your browser and listens through your microphone. There is nothing to install and nothing to pay. Choose the tuning you need and start playing in seconds.
