12 string bass tuned to 5ths. good idea?

[Lukeam101]

Hey folks,
I recently got the Dug Pinnick 12 string from Schecter and it's a ton of fun! Any 12 string players out there that mess around with different tunings? I was thinking of tuning one of the guitar strings as a fifth. (lower case guitar strings upper case bass strings)
ebE aeA daD gdG
My concern is changing strings for the fifths would throw off the tension.
Or it just wouldn't sound good in the end.
OR it would sound awesome and I would have to get another 12 string tuned to minor third and another tuned to major third.

 

[Bob_Ross]

My concern is changing strings for the fifths would throw off the tension.

Ya think?


If it worked I'll bet it would sound awesome...but I'd wear protective eyewear and perhaps even a helmet while tuning it up, just in case.

 

[rickwebb]

I tried it once, just messing around out in the garage on my own.
You'll never know until you take it to band practice and hear it in a "live fire" setting.
Hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

 

[claybone]

My Waterstone is tuned eeE eaA adD dgG. I tried tuning the E to beE, but it sounds cluttered and doesn't translate well. But the 3 other, well 9, strings sounds great. Like hitting a power chord everytime.

 

[HaphAsSard]

Hey folks,
I recently got the Dug Pinnick 12 string from Schecter and it's a ton of fun! Any 12 string players out there that mess around with different tunings? I was thinking of tuning one of the guitar strings as a fifth. (lower case guitar strings upper case bass strings)
ebE aeA daD gdG
My concern is changing strings for the fifths would throw off the tension.
Or it just wouldn't sound good in the end.
OR it would sound awesome and I would have to get another 12 string tuned to minor third and another tuned to major third.

Tuning one of the octave strings a minor third above the other would make each note sound like a bell (and not in a good way, I would imagine).
Now, make that a major third (= a major 10th from the low string in the course) and you'd be onto something. Whenever (i.e. most of the time) you'd be playing the chord root, it would turn every minor chord played by the guitar/keyboard into a major(#9) one. The result would be interesting, and this time not necessarily in a bad way.

As for tuning one string a fifth from the "root" string, I would try said in-between fifth for the A, D and G courses, but choose a B2 (a 5th above the E2, a 12th above the low E), instead of the expected B1, for the lowest course.
Why? Because even a 5th double stop starts sounding muddy somewhere around E2/A1 and further down, on any instrument, for reasons related to the functioning of the inner ear (look up "critical bands").


Please note: ALL the above-described experiments would have to be conducted with appropriately-gauged strings, NOT by tuning up or down one of the existing trebles.
In practice,
for a string tuned up a 3rd (10th), take the gauge of the existing octave-up strings and multiply it by 0.8, and use a string with the resulting gauge to replace one of the octaves;
for the in-between fifth, you need to replace one of the octave strings with a string 0.66 times the gauge of the root, and/or 1.33 times the remaining octave one;
for the...runaway B, make it 0.66 times the (extant) octave E, or/and 0.33 times the root E.

 

[Lukeam101]

Thanks for all the great advice everyone! This is exactly the kind of information I was hoping for. I think I'll do 5ths for A, D, and G (with appropriate string gauges)