I agree on the chords being played, so yeah, if he's only using that guitar on songs tuned a full step down, then you've got a point! ;-)

Just watched the Barrymore show and Phil is using that same guitar for We don't Run, and the chord fingering they are using is in Am, but as someone corrected me when I asked, the key is the same as when they played it in the 2015 shows so, that guitar is for sure tuned a full step down....

I fail to follow this thread... the whole debate about downtuning is from the studio version and usually to attack Jon's lack of vocal ability, not the tuning of the guitars... standard tuning is pretty arbitrary - it's common for different styles of music to use different tuning from the barely different like drop d to different major, minor, modal, extended tunings - many of which are actually easier to play than standard tuning, depending on what you're doing...
If you're playing a few very basic songs in Eb or D it kinda makes sense to downtune your guitar for ease, but I'm unsure as to why this is a point to debate in quite this way? I can understand if you're just analysing the play but I don't see what the critical point is at all?

Yeah, it's all about vocals. That's the whole point of debate from my angle - will Jon downtune some old songs even further, because he is clearly incapable in delivering those songs in the current tunings. Who knows how that would sound, but if ever decides to do it, the time is now.

It's just something I find interesting. Tuning down guitars a full step will make things easier for Jon to handle vocally and was kicked around as an idea for the last few years. It means Jon's voice is at a point where they need to occasionally tune down a full step. I didn't do this to be critical of the condition, there were people saying the music would sound too sluggish and low to sound good and from what I can tell it sounds okay. The whole point was this is a new tuning for the band.

I known nothing about tuning and key, tbh. However, I am aware that songs can be adjusted to fit the vocals. That is why, I assume that the band will have to do some adjustments ( I am not sure if "downtune" is the right term to call it) so that Jon isn't forced to sing the classics they way they were recorded back in the day. There must be a way to do this without ruining them.
P.S. Joey Tempest of Europe has been singing the back catalogue differently ever since the band reunited in 2003 and the old songs do not sound bad at all, even though Joey's vocals are not that "high" anymore. Those of you who are well versed in this field will tell if a similar strategy can or cannot be applied to Bon Jovi.

It's not a technique he's done to the classics yet, just a couple of songs off the new album. Basically were saying they keep the chord shapes the same, just tune the strings a half step down from the recorded version. Which has been pretty much what they've always done but in the past when a song was recorded in Eb its stayed in Eb live, not dropped another half step.

I see. Do you think there will be another half step drop next year for the classics?

Not really an expert in here, but as a guitarist and pianist I'll give my thoughts and simple explanations on why they keep the chord shapes while tuning the strings down.

If you are Richie or Phil or even David and have played the songs for decades in a particular tone, then it would be really difficult to "re-learn" it in another. They would have to move the riffs, the chords, hit the chords differently etc. So it's easier to play as always while having the instruments transposed down. About David, you can transpose the keyboard very easily for many steps.

Another reason is the way it sounds when you hit a chord in a fixed position. In HAND, Richie and Phil use a capo on the 2nd fret. This is essential because without this, if they played the chords otherwise, the sound will be not exactly the same. The notes of the chords would be the same but positioned on other strings and this makes a difference.

As for the songs that are played like the studio, I guess it's because Jon can still hit them this way. If he is struggling, he may drop it a little lower.

Listening to various artists lately, I hope they won't drop any song another step down (that means two). The songs sound differently and you can hear that something is slightly wrong.

So, for what I understand, they keep playing the songs half step down live, right?

Even with rollercoaster being played a full step down from the standard tune live, it's still half step down from the album version, isn't it?

I guess what you're trying to say it's that playing a full step down doesn't sound bad, so they can do it with the old songs. But I think what would sound bad wouldn't be playing with that tuning, just the fact of playing a full step down from the album version, regardless of which tuning is used.