A little help please

[Pudding Taine]

Ok for my birthday, I got a black acoustic Ibanez guitar. I recently changed the tuning to dropped d. Soon things began to act strange. On the second and third string; third fret, when I play the strings, this weird unnatural ring comes. Is it the tuning that I messed up on or something else?

[Kane Knight]

When you say drop D, you mean DADGBE, correct? I'm just checking because a lot of people misuse the term.

Anyway, when you downtune, you alter the tension in the neck and on the strings. You may well need to adjust the action of your guitar to do it. You can also try heavier and lighter strings to see if that works.

[El Fangel]

KK, quick question, my bass I know for a fact is out of tune, and I have not tuned it in awhile, hell I forget how.

Top string is E, I know that, and you tune it off of that right, 5th fret is the same sound as the string above played open, or am I really fucked up.

[Kane Knight]

Yeah, on a four string bass, you can tune each string off the fifth fret of the one before it. The Four String is E, and so on. Or you can use a tuner.

[El Fangel]

Yeah, I should get a tuner.

Also, how exactly do you know when the top string is E, I cant remember what it sounds like. :-\

[Kane Knight]

There are online tuners, or you can find a reference pitch. Something you know to be an in-tune E.

[El Fangel]

Yeah, I wonder if I can find a sound player online that plays an in-tune E, likely can, I will have a look.

Also, how do online tuners work?