Drop D Tuning for Bass Guitar

Drop D runs D1, A1, D2, G2, in playing order. The lowest-pitched string is D1 (36.71 Hz) and the highest is G2 (98.00 Hz), measured against A4 = 440 Hz. Those are the exact target frequencies the tuner on this page listens for.

1 of the 4 strings move: E1 down 2 semitone(s) to D1. Work through them in order, then go back and re-check the first string — retuning shifts the neck tension slightly, so the earlier strings drift as you go.

The bass counterpart to Drop D on guitar, and usually adopted for the same reason — the guitarist went there first. The low D1 at roughly 37 Hz sits near the bottom of what most PA systems and small speakers can reproduce at all.

D1 is 36.71 Hz at concert pitch (A4 = 440 Hz). That's the fundamental — the string also produces harmonics above it, which is why a tuner reading the wrong octave usually means it locked onto a harmonic rather than the fundamental. This is the lowest string in this bass tuning.

Lowering the E string a whole tone puts the root at roughly 37 Hz — near the bottom of human pitch perception, where the ear increasingly reads events as pressure rather than note. Most stage wedges and consumer speakers cannot reproduce that fundamental at all, so what reaches the audience is the second harmonic an octave up. This is usually adopted to follow a guitarist rather than for its own sake, and many bassists instead play the D at the fifth fret of the A string, which sounds the same pitch an octave higher with far better definition in a mix.