Originally Posted by: RazboI personally don't bother with alternate tunings (at this point). Although my Strat is downtuned a half step for SVR, my other guitars aren't and most stuff I just adapt to what ever key it needs to be played in. If it just sounds wrong (like I can't substitute an open E really) I'll just avoid it. It's good for making me comfortable playing in # and b keys, too. :)

Thats a good point about adapting to the key and staying in the same tuning. I do that when I'll just improvise-solo along with a song, its good practice on figuring out what keys people are playing in on the spot. And as you said, a good way to learn the different keys as well.

Although when I actually want to learn a song note-for-note, I tend to tune my guitar along with whatever they are playing in. Haha and once again as you mentioned, its primarily because in metal they abuse the open-E. For that genre, avoiding or alternating the open-E is difficult :p