C G C F Permanently / Setup

[Solarmist]

I went from standard tuning to C G C F, and just love it. I could have done the B E A D thing, but personally I need a G string, and didn’t want to carve out the nut if I ever wanted to change it back plus I wanted a lower tension setup anyway. I had to loosen the trussrod just slightly by 1/8 turn to get the proper relief I wanted (.75 the thickness of a credit card). I only reset the intonation on the E string to account for it being tuned to a “D” note as going from “D” to “C” is only 1 whole note down as it is with the drop of the other three strings so the intonation level stays as an equal drop over all four strings in the detune. I raised the saddles (from stock settings) ever so slightly to compensate for the lower tension which caused a bit more fret rattle by about .25mm [G] to .75mm [E] at the 12th fret, and decided to stay with medium roundwound strings [.045 / .065 / .085 / .105], and it's setup absolutely perfect now. The action is slightly higher, but unnoticeable. I wanted the best of both worlds - the “lows” of a 5er combined with the narrow (1 7/16” nut) neck of my Ibanez SR4. I'm a major string-bender that likes narrow thin necks, low tension, and low, (but also bright) notes. I’m going to keep it this way.

[jady]

Do you do mostly solo stuff or band work. How was relearning all of the song that you know?

[Solarmist]

Originally Posted by jady

Do you do mostly solo stuff or band work. How was relearning all of the song that you know?

I mostly play solo stuff. I've been playing about 17 years, and haven't been in a band for a while now (by choice). I'm constantly learning more, and putting new stuff together. I love having found this website.

[Fretlessboy]

my only suggestion for really tweaking and tightening it up is to use a 125 "B" string and tuneit up a half step to "c"... the tone will be bigger and the pitch will speak clearer

[deanthemachine]

my only suggestion for really tweaking and tightening it up is to use a 125 "B" string and tuneit up a half step to "c"... the tone will be bigger and the pitch will speak clearer

I used to play alot in BEAD and I have recently switched to CGCF. And altho a 125 "B" string might give you a bit better tone, I feel that detuning a regular E string makes the low notes flow much better with the higher notes. To me it was very noticable when I was playing on the B string, and when I wasnt.

[RedCoatMonster]

I love this tuning, thats what Im tuned to right now.

[diechris]

niiice, ive been playing in that for almost 2 years now... i went from using a huge "b" string to a 110 and i find that 105 is perfect. got my action as low as i like and its great. my only gripe with different tunings... is that music books are harder to follow since they are all in standard ..

[Solarmist]

I'm half tempted to try a set of GHS heavies at .050 / .070 / .095 / 1.15. Thats just .005 more on the D & G, and .01 on the E & A.

[alexei]

what's the advantage in that new tunning? why don't you just buy a 5er and you will have all those notes available, plus more

Besides, tunning your 4th string to C, then your 3rd to G, will make a long way to play 5th intervals between those strings.

I've tried a different tunning once, and it felt i was playing music from another galaxy. Not for me, i have to admit

It took me quite a while to really "know" my fretboard. I won't be so happy to have to relearn it all over again.

[lowendgenerator]

Ahh yes, another convert to the wonderful world of CGCF. Everyone always chides me about the 5 string thing too, but pay them no mind. If I play a 5 string tuned BEADG and my guitar player is playing CGCFAD, we might as well be playing 2 different songs.

The only modification I made to my basses to set them up CGCF was to add a .115 in place of the .105. In my opinion it is the perfect string to tune to C. Tuning a .125 up to C just doesn't feel or sound right to me. The tension is higher than the rest of the strings, and the timbre changes as well.