6 Stringer with guitar tuning??

[lotusland9663]

I just got my first 6 string bass a couple of weeks ago - I love it. It's tuned in the standard BEADGC. It occurred to me that tuning it like a guitar (EADGBE) would open up all the guitar chord and soloing possibilities.

Has anybody tried this tuning? Pros? Cons? Are strings available for this tuning?

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[TheWeaver]

Well my bass isn't a standard BEADGC Bass, but it is a short scale bass, a Jerry Jones Longhorn Bass6 tuned to EADGBE. One of the most coolest basses I have ever played, sounds and plays like a dream!

 

[darkstorm]

Yes , makes perfect sense and allows for better guitar chord use. When Ive had fivers they allways ended up EADGB like guitar, cause high C made no sense for intended usage approach. With sixer your just adding the high E. It may be difficult finding string for that one with some mfg, but mfg like Rotosound make wide enough range of gauges that should include 1 or 2 that would work for it. Not sure what gauge range would be best if running 45-105 for the B and E pair.

 

[lowfreq33]

For me I can't really see the point. Guitars are tuned the way they are to allow open position chords, which I don't think would be very useful on bass... Too muddy. As far as soloing I feel like it's easier if all strings are tuned in 4ths, you don't have to compensate for that major 3rd interval throwing off the fingering patterns. Easier to visualize the fretboard, at least for me. But hey, you might like it. There's all kinds of ways to play bass, and if you're already experienced with guitar it might work for you.

 

[bassbenj]

I just got my first 6 string bass a couple of weeks ago - I love it. It's tuned in the standard BEADGC. It occurred to me that tuning it like a guitar (EADGBE) would open up all the guitar chord and soloing possibilities.

Has anybody tried this tuning? Pros? Cons? Are strings available for this tuning?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Sure, lots of people use guitar style tunings for 6 string basses. The advantage of that is usually for people who already play guitar so they can use what they already know (chords etc.)

Typical things people do is BEADGB (makes bottom liike 5 string bass and top useable for guitar chords and also uses standard 6 string bass strings.

Another typical thing is tune EADGBE (like a guitar only lower) which you may think gives you an advantage as you are tuned like a guitar over the whole bass, but it doesn't really because you can't use the low strings easily for chords because they are too muddy. And also the problem is that to tune like this you need to use strings for 7 string basses and don't use the Low B string. (6 string sets are hard enough to get!)

The advantage of guitar-like tuning is that you get to use your guitar knowledge to make chords etc. The disadvantage is that you cannot move scales and patterns around to start on any note (key) the way you can with standard bass tuning. This then makes playing all chord names more difficult.

The choice is yours. But even though I play both guitar and bass I much prefer to keep bass tuning for basses and guitar tuning for guitars and just learn what I need to know to play either.