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Why aren't 6ers tuned in 3rds?
- Thread starter FryFunk
- Start date
The bigger question is why would you? There’s no benefit.
School of Rock | Beginner’s Guide to Tuning a Bass Guitar
Apparently this subject has come up before here.Tuning in THIRDs
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Stringjoy, or I guess in your case, Newtone, would be your huckleberry. Shouldn't be hard.
I was looking at Stringjoy and the thickest short scale string they have is .110. That'll work for D, not sure about C or lower. If I could find a short scale flatwound set that plays like the LaBella LTFs I have now, I'd be all over it.
I've read it a bunch.
I think if I didn't play short scale exclusively, this could be a thing.
I've read it a bunch.
I think if I didn't play short scale exclusively, this could be a thing.
Short scales should help. I recently commissioned a 27" piccolo bass, to be tuned in fifths, specifically to play cello music, so as to minimize the stretches. However it's tuned (in fifths), the fingering will be identical.
In a lot of ensembles, bass is the lowest instrument. If you're out of tune relative to the other instruments, you'll make the whole band sound out of tune.
Because the temperament system (12TET) that the bass is designed around prioritizes consonance between octaves and fifths above all other intervals, choosing an interval that's audibly different from the natural harmonic system is probably not going to do you any favours.
Also, the third determines the quality of each chord (its major or minor-ness), while a fourth or fifth is relatively benign by comparison. If you clam up a string in a major thirds tuning, you have a 4:7 chance of sounding really bad (only three modes can be considered major: lydian (aug4), ionian, and mixolydian (min7)).
You can do anything you want with your bass. If you can get used to playing with the tuning in thirds, and it works for you, then great!
But...
It kinda reminds me of Dustin on the YouTube channel Smarter Every Day. He built a bicycle where the steering was geared backwards. You'd steer right and the bike would go left. He actually learned how to ride it that way, after months of trying. But in the process, he forgot how to ride the regular way. He had to re-teach himself how to ride a regular bike. The real value of the reverse-steering bike wasn't in riding it, it was in the pranks and dares and bets that followed.
But...
It kinda reminds me of Dustin on the YouTube channel Smarter Every Day. He built a bicycle where the steering was geared backwards. You'd steer right and the bike would go left. He actually learned how to ride it that way, after months of trying. But in the process, he forgot how to ride the regular way. He had to re-teach himself how to ride a regular bike. The real value of the reverse-steering bike wasn't in riding it, it was in the pranks and dares and bets that followed.
Pipes (and therefore the covers for them) are often round, because that's the shape that's best for things under pressure - a cylindrical shape means the walls are in tension when the thing is pressurized - a round pipe can handle a lot of pressure without distorting with relatively thin walls. If you want your sewer pipes to always contain sewage (which seems like a reasonable goal), you make them round. The vertical part for the humans to enter is something you don't want to collapse from external pressure - the ground around the pipe trying to crush it.
I believe that the poster you're quoting was alluding to Fripp's having dubbed his own system "New Standard Tuning."
Bass mandola. Or, bass tenor guitar!
I always struggled with playing melody on guitar. It’s one of the reasons I switched to bass. When I took up mandolin about ten years ago I was amazed at how intuitive the fifths tuning is. Now I play a lot of melody on mandolin.
Double the bet and try 6ths! BG#FDBG#!!
You will feel alone for a while, no friends, nobody to share your experience with… but remember, Isaac Newton also felt alone at first.
You will feel alone for a while, no friends, nobody to share your experience with… but remember, Isaac Newton also felt alone at first.
