Hello everyone, I was thinking of busking with some friends totally acoustically.
I've read online and watched some videos of fado bands where bass seems to resonate and project much better in tenor tuning.
Would my ABG blend well in a band with a singer, a guitalele and some small percussion in your opinion? Of course I'm aware I'll have to dig in with a thick pick.
This is my bass, it's on the big side.
I somehow missed this thread when it was posted.
Did you get around to doing it? If so, how'd it work? And how do you like Musicstore
Jack & Danny ABG-1? By the way, it's apparently the same instrument as the
Eagletone Leona, available at Woodbrass.
Also by the way, the original Portuguese
viola baixo tuning is, bass to treble, GDAE: in other words, an all-fifths, double-octave-down violin/mandolin tuning. It was also the tuning of at least some players of the coeval (late 1800s) Italian
chitarrone moderno.
When Joel Pina encountered the instrument around 1940 (back then it was only featured in popular music orchestras called
tunas), he had no trouble adjusting to the tuning since he was already a mandolinist. About ten years later, he first brought it into
fado. A sufficient number of modern epigones of his still tune to GDAE that Portuguese string maker AGI/NOVAGI/Dragão maintains a suitable string set in their catalogue, the D037:
http://www.novagi.pt/en/cordas-para-instrumentos-musicais
Nylon-core, silver-plated copper wound. In case anyone's interested, it is (usually) available here:
Dragão D037 Violã Baixo Acoustic bass Bass Classical 4 string
(However, it may be wound too short for 32" and 34" inch scale ABGs -
caveat emptor).
This notwithstanding, there also will be fado bassists who'll tune to conventional, electric bass-guitar (or double-bass) EADG.
Finally, the fact you report of at least some of them tuning to ADGC doesn't surprise me: it combines the higher tuning (ergo better audibility) of the original GDAE with the easier navigation (to bassists and guitarists) provided by an all-fourths tuning, with a penalty of mere two bottom notes (and four, arguably seldom used top ones).
