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Anyone else tune their basses as I do?

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#21
If I were to detune I would keep the standard intervals between strings, seems like a lot of work to adapt to non-standard patterns on the fretboard.

Luckily I don't have to, only a few songs we cover are in Eb or Ab and we either shift them up or I manage because I play low B five string basses.

But to each their own, whatever works for you.
 
#22
Lots of musicians use altered tunings; nothing strange about it at all! J.S. Bach was using altered tuning way back in the 1720's with his Cello Suites. You either put in the time and mental energy to learn the new fingerings, or you don't and stay in standard tuning. Both approaches are totally fine, it's a personal choice!

One of my favorite tunings, I have never heard anyone else using it so maybe I invented it, is CEADG (standard 5 string with the B tuned up a half step). A little confusing but the open low C sounds great!
 
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#26
FretNoMore said:
But to each their own, whatever works for you.
Click to expand...

This is the bottom line.

Where would we be if nobody thought outside the box and broke accepted norms? One obvious answer: electric bass would never have been invented. "Upright was good enough for Mozart, why should I bother with this electric toothpick nonsense???"
 
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#27
Actually, the bass instruments in Mozart's orchestra would have been tuned either in 5ths (C-G-D-A) or a Violone (A-D-F#-A). There may have been a few 5-string Violone's still around, too.
Your C#-F#-C#-F# tuning is the same as D-G-D-G, but a half step lower. This tuning was actually used and taught in England in the late 19th and early 20th century. If you look at the bass part from Elgar's to "Enigma Variations" you will see a lot of low D's and G's.
 
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#29
Fuzzbass said:
This is the bottom line.

Where would we be if nobody thought outside the box and broke accepted norms? One obvious answer: electric bass would never have been invented. "Upright was good enough for Mozart, why should I bother with this electric toothpick nonsense???"
Click to expand...
Symphonies utilize multiple basses. Electric bass was invented to fill a need: one player with enough volume to be heard.
 
#30
paulunger said:
Actually, the bass instruments in Mozart's orchestra would have been tuned either in 5ths (C-G-D-A) or a Violone (A-D-F#-A). There may have been a few 5-string Violone's still around, too.
Your C#-F#-C#-F# tuning is the same as D-G-D-G, but a half step lower. This tuning was actually used and taught in England in the late 19th and early 20th century. If you look at the bass part from Elgar's to "Enigma Variations" you will see a lot of low D's and G's.
Click to expand...
It was abandoned because of lack of consistency.

Since then tuning in either 4ths or 5ths has been accepted as the standard, with the lone exception of a single major 3rd in guitar tuning (which I still find baffling...). Kinda proves what most of us thing about guitarists.
 
#31
The tuning the OP describes is something that would really only make sense on an instrument where you're playing chords or an instrument where sympathetic string vibrations are important to the sound of the instrument. Neither of those things apply to traditional use of the electric bass. If he's playing the bass in a non-traditional way I don't see the problem but if he's just playing regular one-note-at-a-time bass lines it's rather pointless. I'm all for experimenting but it seems like a lot of guys on here just go out of their way to be 'different' rather than just getting better at the instrument.

It is a bit fallacious to compare altered tunings on an electric bass to an instrument like the violone or even double bass. Totally different roles, applications, and method of sound production.
 
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#32
tfer said:
Symphonies utilize multiple basses. Electric bass was invented to fill a need: one player with enough volume to be heard.
Click to expand...

Simplification. If volume were the only need, then the solution would be to use an upright with pickup/mic and amplification.

I agree that alternate tunings aren't the best way to go for a beginner, but they also fill a need and aren't that unusual. Michael Manring speaks to this well enough (and if you don't care for his music, there are plenty of other examples).
 
#33
ole Jason said:
The tuning the OP describes is something that would really only make sense on an instrument where you're playing chords or an instrument where sympathetic string vibrations are important to the sound of the instrument. Neither of those things apply to traditional use of the electric bass. If he's playing the bass in a non-traditional way I don't see the problem but if he's just playing regular one-note-at-a-time bass lines it's rather pointless. I'm all for experimenting but it seems like a lot of guys on here just go out of their way to be 'different' rather than just getting better at the instrument.

It is a bit fallacious to compare altered tunings on an electric bass to an instrument like the violone or even double bass. Totally different roles, applications, and method of sound production.
Click to expand...
Completely agree.
 
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#38
Fuzzbass said:
Simplification. If volume were the only need, then the solution would be to use an upright with pickup/mic and amplification.
Click to expand...

Have you ever tried to amplify a double bass? The feedback is a constant fight. Now transpose that issue to the 1950s with the technology available then. The 'Fender Bass' was the only real solution.
 
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