Tuning?

[LuvMaMetal]

I wasn't sure where to put this, so I put it here.

My bass is currently tuned B F# B E
I want to know how to tune it to GDAD
Or Drop B or Drop D

Anyone help?

[Jake of Bass]

Ummm... get an electronic tuner, find those notes, tune to them... ?

[Jake of Bass]

Which strings are you talking about here?

[LuvMaMetal]

When your holding the bass, looking down on it, its tuned

__________________________ E
__________________________ B
__________________________ F#
__________________________ B

It was tuned to play the Slipknot song Duality, and I just can't seem to get around to bringing it to my friend for tuning so I'm trying to do it myself

[Jake of Bass]

So your 1st string is E, and your 4th string is B?

1st string being the thinnest, 4th string the thickest.

[lemur821]

That's just about the weirdest tuning possible. You must have some pretty floppy strings.

For GDAD you could tune the fourth (thickest) string to the first fret of the third, tune the third to the seventh fret of the fourth, tune the second string to the seventh fret of the third, and then tune the first string to the fifth fret of the second.

Or for drop B you could tune the third string to the seventh fret of the fourth string, then the second to the fourth fret of the third and the first to the fourth fret of the second.

Those will put your bass properly in tune with itself, but the actual pitches of the strings are going to drift as the tension on the neck changes drastically. Your G may not be near what everyone else calls a G. But if you're only tuning when your friend can do it for you, it's probably way off anyway. Get yourself a chromatic tuner, they're $20 or so.

[Jake of Bass]

Better yet, just get a five string bass and play it in standard tuning.

If you're thinking of tuning it down to a low G, there's not much point as you'd lose a lot of note definition and your strings would be so floppy as to be unplayable.

[Jake of Bass]

I checked a couple tabs, to play you apparently need to be in drop A.

On a five string bass this simply means dropping the low B to an A, which is one tone, or 2 frets.

Attempting songs in tunings like theses on a standard four string with regular strings is not worth it, as dropping all strings down by 5 frets and the E down by 7 isn't going to produce good sounds. You'd be better off playing it up an octave for playability and tone reasons.

[LuvMaMetal]

Yeah I'm trying to play "Purity" "Iowa" (Slipknot) and "Call Me When Your Sober" (Evanescence)