Rics can work well in this capacity too, but will often need to have the nut filed to fit. I run GHS heavy boomers on mine and they are a tight fit. It'll sound good though.
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A good 4 string bass to tune B E A D
- Thread starter markdavid
- Start date
"Only if you make the string longer between the nut and bridge saddle, as in a scale length change. How much string you use beyond the nut or saddle cannot change how much tension it needs to reach a pitch. This has been done to death on the forums. Another one was adding a string tree to strings that don't normally have them(eg, B-E), this also dose not work."
I asked this question in my physics class and the prof agreed it wouldn't affect tension. He said it is adding mass to the string only which would affect the strings resonance however. He suggested taking different lengths of string up to 5' and making a test recordings then checking them on a 'scope, but I don't know where to get bass string that long
I asked this question in my physics class and the prof agreed it wouldn't affect tension. He said it is adding mass to the string only which would affect the strings resonance however. He suggested taking different lengths of string up to 5' and making a test recordings then checking them on a 'scope, but I don't know where to get bass string that long
I see that heavier gauge strings was barely even mentioned in the answers. First off you need heavier strings. I suggest nothing smaller than 120, 100, 80, 60. Secondly you are going to need a bass with a longer scale neck (something with 35inch scale or more) so that your B string doesnt suffer from string flop. The nut on you bass will have to be widened, and the action and intonation will have to be adjusted accordingly. Also, your tuners may need to be adjusted to something aftermarket like hipshot tuners so that your bass stays in tune.
Peavey Grind 4 upgrades? Will upgrading pickups to bartolini and pots to dimarzio be sufficient?
My advice, get a 5er with a 35inch neck. If you read that link I pasted above, it lists the costs in both labour and parts in order to upgrade a peavey grind to a 4 string banger tuned to BEAD.
Most of them dudes in Death Metal band who tune low, they play 5 string basses. Behemoth, My Dying Bride, Dimmu Borgir, Edge Of Sanity, At The Gates, Nile, Anathema.
Seriously, dude, save yourself 1000s of dollars in upgrades, and just spend 1000 dollars (1 time) and purchase yourself a good 5 string bass.
I did it with a 4 string stingray a while back, sounded great. Most of the guys in originals bands in my area actually play 4 strings setup bead. I've seen everything from modded mim Jazz basses to emg loaded ESP basses sound good. I have noticed though that everyone in my area that has done this with good results is either playing an active bass or swapped out the factory pickups with for example Seymour Duncan quarter pounders in the Jazz bass. As far as moddifying the bass to accommodate the bigger strings. You'll probably have to have the nut filed a little. If not the strings may not sit down all the way in the nut which will make the action and intonation a bit whacky. you can find nut files in luthier sites pretty cheap if you just want to do it yourself. They make some that are sized appropriately for each string so you don't have to eyeball it. Either way though the nut is one of the most least expensive parts of an instrument so I wouldn't worry too much about messing it up.
