Does Wooten Tune An Octave Up?

[Digo]

listening to his amazing grace bass notes it sound like he plays an octave up :/ i tried tunig mine that way but i stopped in case my strings snapped

[Sutton]

12th fret?

[drums_n_bass]

Victor has a Tenor Bass, which is strung a 4th higher than a regular bass... so instead of E-A-D-G, it's A-D-G-C

Basically, his Tenor Bass is a 6 string but only with the higher 4 strings. He uses the bass for many solo spots, but there are some versions of Amazing Grace where he uses a regular bass...

If you have a spare axe, I suggest trying it!

Now there are Piccolo basses which are actually strung an octave higher than a normal bass. Alain Caron used it a little on his "Call Me Al!" CD and Brian Bromberg's "Metal" is just bass and drums, to get a guitar-like effect.

[gkbass13]

i strung a 5 string bass eadgc....i love it. a lot of players do this, i would give it a try if you're really curious. deffinitely dont tune up a 4th though, you'll be buying new strings!

[Dash Rantic]

I think I've seen him play Amazing Grace on some video... I'm pretty sure it was played in all harmonics, so maybe that's what was going on?

-Dash

[superbassman2000]

true...i think it's the harmonics that Digo is hearing

[irjason]

It is harmonics. Here's a nice video of him playing it.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...+amazing+grace

[gkbass13]

im pretty sure he plays it on a tenor bass though, yes it is almost all harmonics, but the bass is still strung adgc.

[Kael]

Hmm, for some reason I thought he was using a fifths tuning on that thing. Don't know why I thought that. ADGC would also make sense.

[Aaron Saunders]

Originally Posted by gkbass13

im pretty sure he plays it on a tenor bass though, yes it is almost all harmonics, but the bass is still strung adgc.

Nope, he's not. I've learned it, and play it along with the recordings...it's a regular tuned bass. There's a rreally popular video -- I didn't check the link, so it might be that one -- where he plays Amazing Grace and Classical Thump. Both are played on a regular tuned, EADG bass.

[bikeplate]

HI

That solo is so good it brings tears to my eyes. I love Vic

Rob

[Digo]

i can play amazing grace and its mostly harmonics, bu my harmonics are deeper than his, thats why i thought he tuned different

[drums_n_bass]

Originally Posted by Aaron Saunders

Nope, he's not. I've learned it, and play it along with the recordings...it's a regular tuned bass. There's a rreally popular video -- I didn't check the link, so it might be that one -- where he plays Amazing Grace and Classical Thump. Both are played on a regular tuned, EADG bass.

On Live Art, he plays Amazing Grace on a Yin-Yang, I believe. I think it just depends on his mood. There's also a video floating around from the Montreaux Jazz Fest of him playing Amazing Grace on #1.

Live at the Quick's version is definitely a Tenor...

[iplaybassguitar]

Originally Posted by Aaron Saunders

Nope, he's not. I've learned it, and play it along with the recordings...it's a regular tuned bass. There's a rreally popular video -- I didn't check the link, so it might be that one -- where he plays Amazing Grace and Classical Thump. Both are played on a regular tuned, EADG bass.

if your refferring to the video from bela fleck and the flecktones live at the quick...where he starts out with the sweet melodic part from classical thump then goes into amazing grace...then sorry to say, but your wrong...that bass is tuned ADGC, you can even go to his website... www.victorwooten.com he has a page where he describes all his basses and how they are tuned and such

[iplaybassguitar]

Originally Posted by Digo

i can play amazing grace and its mostly harmonics, bu my harmonics are deeper than his, thats why i thought he tuned different

your right, it is mostly harmonics, but its a tenor bass so the harmonics will be higher than yours.

its all about the ADGC

[Grueber]

Originally Posted by iplaybassguitar

if your refferring to the video from bela fleck and the flecktones live at the quick...where he starts out with the sweet melodic part from classical thump then goes into amazing grace...then sorry to say, but your wrong...that bass is tuned ADGC, you can even go to his website... www.victorwooten.com he has a page where he describes all his basses and how they are tuned and such

+1

[Aaron Saunders]

Day-um. Well, slap my arse and call me Cindy!

[5stringDNA]

Originally Posted by gkbass13

i strung a 5 string bass eadgc....i love it. a lot of players do this, i would give it a try if you're really curious. deffinitely dont tune up a 4th though, you'll be buying new strings!

I won't have it any other way!

I do believe Vic owns a piccolo bass, or did at one time, but he plays the tenor for amazing grace- no question- i saw him do it in concert . A lot fo it is played in harmonics, which allows an extra octave or two, depending on the harmonic.

[bassman314]

Jaco only needed 1 bass....