Tuning In Major Thirds?

[musomark]

Does any tune their bass in major 3rds?

I was searching the net for ideas about alternate tunings and came across this web site:

http://www.ralphpatt.com/Tune.html

This guy tunes his guitars in maj 3rds so in any position (using 1 finger per fret) you have all the notes of a chromatic scale - and therefore any other scale/arpeggio shape - without having to change position or stretch.

The main disadvantage (apart from having to relearn the fretboard) is the reduction in range of the instrument. Ralph dealt with by adding extra stings to his guitars (7 or 8).

I've tried the idea on my 4-string - I found F-A-C#-F worked best with my standard guage strings. I loved being able to play all the strange jazz modes (of melodic & harmonic minors) I've been working on without having to shift but I found the reduction in range from the lowest to the highest string (only a minor 10th!) very resticting.

I'm hopefully buying my 1st 6-string within the next month and I'm looking forward to trying the idea out on it - maybe C#-F-A-C#-F-A.

I have 2 questions:

Does anybody else tune their bass in 3rds?

Is it possible to get strings that would work with balanced tension?

[HaVIC5]

I actually had this idea a while back (if you do a search in this forum you can find my thread). I'm glad to hear that somebody else thought of it, because it really seems like a useful kind of system to exploit. The problem, of course, is relearning how to think in that alternate tuning, and I simply haven't had the time, energy or reason to do so. Maybe somewhere down the line I might try it.

[Dave Muscato]

No way I could get along with a low E!

I do have a six-string MTD... Maybe I'll try it out and report back to ya

[EADG mx]

I've had this idea as well but I don't think I'd like the relearning, finding strings, lost range, different harmonics, etc.

It's easy enough to experiment with. Try E-G#-B#-E, or F-A-C#-F