Tuning to Eb

[Fishheadjoe]

Had a conversation with a guy the other day. We were talking about going from standard tuning to down a semi-tone to Eb tuning and he suggested that in doing so, I would have to re-intonate my bass, which is set up for standard tuning.
Is lowering the tension on the neck/strings a semi tone really going to make that much of a difference?
Appreciate your thoughts!
Fishheadjoe

[mikezimmerman]

Several of my bands have tuned to Eb, and I play with standard tuning in church, so I end up going back and forth.

I do notice the difference in tension, so I find the strings feel a little looser, and the neck relief a little less with Eb. I never noticed a big enough difference in the intonation to require me to re-intonate it, though.

[stflbn]

1/2 step isn't going to make any bigger difference IMHO than you make yourself by varying pressure on the strings when playing.

Tune down 1/2 step... check your intonation.

[Fishheadjoe]

That's kinda what I thought as well guys... but this guy insisted that my intonation would be messed up...
I to notice the difference in string tension tuning to Eb, but it's something I can live with.
Fishheadjoe

[Floyd Eye]

Depends on how much you care about intonation. It will definitely throw it off. All my basses except one I set up 1/2 step flat and I had to intonate all of them. Maybe I'm picky. You will need to adjust the truss rod too. At least if you want the neck to be the same as it is now.

[testing1two]

If you're going to leave the bass in Eb, then set the bass up accordingly by adjusting the neck relief, action and intonation. If you're going to regularly switch between Eb and E then optimize the setup for the tuning you use most. In either case the intonation should not shift noticeably between the two tunings.

[Thor]

I don't use that tuning, but one of my bass bros does use it
consistently because of the singer he has.

He brings 2 basses to his gigs. Each is dedicated and set up
for the key. One for Eb and one for E.

[Jools4001]

Originally Posted by Thor

I don't use that tuning, but one of my bass bros does use it
consistently because of the singer he has.

He brings 2 basses to his gigs. Each is dedicated and set up
for the key. One for Eb and one for E.

That's what I do.

The first half of our second set is made up of songs that were originally played by bands that tuned down a half step (Guns & Roses, Thin Lizzy etc). We could play them in standard of course but strangely the songs don't seem to have the same vibe when we do (and of course it gives the lead singer and me on backing vox a slightly easier time).

I was going to use the same bass to do everything and just tune down but...I like 40-100 strings on my Ric and it's a slightly shorter scale at 33.25", so when I tune down the tension gets a bit too loose for my taste. If it was just a couple of songs it would be fine but it's half an hour of playing with a much lighter touch than I'd usually use. The clincher was that we started to do Black Stone Cherry's 'Blind Man' at the end of the downtuned set which needs the Eb(D#) tuned down a further step to C#, in this tuning the string was like a skipping rope and produced a useless flubby tone.

So, I setup my backup bass as an Eb bass with 45-105 strings instead of my usual gauge with the required adjustments to truss rod and intonation (I'm even thinking about going up another gauge to 55-110 ProSteels). My Palm Bay Atlantic is currently set up as my Eb bass, but shortly to be replaced by an Epiphone T-Bird Pro.

It makes life so much easier when we reach the point in the set where we return to standard tuning to just pick up another bass instead of retuning - and of course if either bass fails it's not beyond the possibility of using the other bass for the whole set

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Like said earlier, it depends on Your instrument and on Your personal taste about the accuracy of the intonation.

I've done that a couple of times when I've been subbing on a Eb band or when gigging with them, and on my basses (Epi's) mostly, no problem.

On a skinny, very responsive neck of a Ibanez for example, the relief may or may not be to Your liking after a half step detuning though.
Then again, those necks go out of tune if You look at them funny.

The intonation will change, that's for sure, but since no fretted instrument can't be intonated correctly across the whole FB, there's really very little to be arguing about.

Regards
Sam

[OOZMAN]

Don't worry about intonation, do worry about tension/relief. This is coming from someone who changes tunings 3-10 times a week.

[flyingfinbar]

Just curious, and I don't mean to hijack...

but if tuning down, would one generally loosen the truss rod a bit (turn counterclockwise) to avoid excessive fret slap down by the first five frets?

Thanks!

[OOZMAN]

Yeah

[OOZMAN]

Height of the strings at the bridge is equally important

[Fishheadjoe]

Again, thanks for the replies... I'll take it under advisement.
Fishheadjoe