Tuning down to e-flat or D. kill my neck?

[bouncy555]

Hello there:-)

I just had one quick question for ya :-)

I have an 1970's fender bass. And I was wondering if tuning it down from concert pitch to e-flat and back up again once each night would hurt the neck in anyway? We play usually two nights a week.

We want to try tuning down for our last set.

Because my voice is getting tired at the end of the night after 4 hours. And it means that we could still play songs that are vocally really high at the end of the night :-)
It could be called cheating. But ah well. the audience isn't gonna care. :-)
As long as it still rocks.

Thanks allot and help would be awsum!

Kind Regards

John Murray

New Zealand

[janekbass]

John,

tuning a half step shouldn't hurt the next that much. those 70's fender are a solid bass and I've dropped and damaged several of them and they still seem to roll on without any problems.

I'm not really a luthier though. So if you wanted a serious answer about the bass and what it will do to it by tuning down, you should ask the same question in the luthiers corner.

Easy,

Janek

[Dave Martin]

You should be fine with that practice - when it's appropriate on a session, I'll drop tune not only my fenders, but also 6 string basses and my double bass (Now that I think about, I think one of the P basses is still tuned down from a session on Friday). Typically, I'll do it when I want to have open strings to match a guitar riff or lick, and they're drop tuned. Or if it's at the end of a long day and the song calls for a slapping rockabilly bass line in A flat.


Oh, one thing - I have better luck with heavier strings when re-runing a step down - .095's and .100's get a little floppy when tuned to a low D.