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

[bouncy555]

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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

[Diggler]

My band tunes down a half step, permanently. I don't notice any problems with my basses, nor with the guitar.

On the other hand, we break FAR fewer strings, and our voices aren't nearly as tired at the end of the night.

[bouncy555]

I was more wanting to know if. It could stuff up the neck of my Bass. Because I would be tuning from concert pitch down to e-flat then back up again. twice a week. what do you reckon?
Because it's old and all.

Also where are you from and whts the music scene like there man??



Regards

Johnny

[Diggler]

I don't think it would mess it up. I don't do it on a regular basis, but I used to tune up to concert pitch if I had to learn a song that was in that key. Now I just use a WinAmp plugin to drop the song to the right pitch, and record it to file from there. The difference in tension would be so slight that I can't see it as being significant.

I live north of Pittsburgh PA and play in a cover band; there's a decent number of opportunities to play.

[zachbass02]

I constantly drop my e to d then back up in the middle of sets like crazy on my jazz bass. Usually several times a week. No problems here. I don't think anybody plays in standard tuning hardly at all anymore.

[jady]

I dont think that retuning at all would hurt the neck (unless you are tuning up quite a bit) Michael manring retunes all over the place (over 100 times in one song) and I have seen a lot of players tune in 5ths CGDA with no problems.