5 string bass tuning with drop D guitars

[oysteivi]

I've been known to play drop D riffs on the 2nd string of my standard tuned bass, using an octave pedal to get the low bass notes. Lazy, but I'll claim it's not cheating if it sounds cool. ;-)

 

[jamersonburton]

Only disadvantage to using bead in a drop d band is if you have to pedal off of the low d if that makes sense.

 

[progrmr]

Only disadvantage to using bead in a drop d band is if you have to pedal off of the low d if that makes sense.

^^ BAM!!

This is correct - I just bought a 5-string because I didn't want to have to drop the E to a D all the time. Low and behold, go and try to play some Volbeat and have to pedal the D octave. Which on BEADG tuning is the 3rd fret on the 5th and the 5th fret on the 3rd string - a large string skip in there that make timely pedaling nearly impossible for BEADG.

So now I'm like "***, I guess I'll take the 5 back and just stick with a 4-string with drop D tuner".