I don’t care, I don’t go to church but if did I’d rock the $4it out of that boat... I’d totally show up to church with Satins Zombie Bass
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BEAD 4 String Pros & Cons?
- Thread starter grrg63
- Start date
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- bead bead tuning
I don’t care, I don’t go to church but if did I’d rock the $4it out of that boat... I’d totally show up to church with Satins Zombie Bass
Doner Designs
Steve Doner
- Jun 2, 2012
- 5,784
- 6,819
- Disclosures
- Doner Designs is an alias for Steve Doner
SIT Silencers are the perfect string to try it with. They offer a set with a 120 B string. No nut mod required. Jason at Bassstringsonline gave me the tip because I needed a set I could use on an acoustic bass with fixed bridge.
Doner Designs
Steve Doner
- Jun 2, 2012
- 5,784
- 6,819
- Disclosures
- Doner Designs is an alias for Steve Doner
From EADG? I can only assume that I have just discovered another thing I don’t know about basses: that you can de-tune them by a perfect fourth and still have a playable instrument.
Getting back onto the subject, My acoustic bass guitar is tuned ADGC, up a fourth from the standard EADG. I was reading about people downtuning BEAD to ADGC, which would produce an instrument an octave lower than my bass.
Seems like something to try on an electric, or maybe downtune my Krapstick a full tone on the bass side to produce ADGCF instead of BEADG. Thoughts?
I've done it (and actually recorded an album with it - link below) on a Fender P bass with a standard set of La Bella DTFs.
Thanks to the overall stiffness of the DTFs, the resulting feel was not that much different from the TIs I usually play, maybe a bit more loose than that. It was still perfectly fine. No issues with fret clank, intonation, etc.
Then again, I am known and feared for my very light touch, so that helps.
BEAD on a 4 banger...pros, its still a 4 banger...cons, if you need a G string you are S.O.L.
I switch between 4s and 5s as needed but I do keep one 4 tuned BEAD when I am feeling it.
Rock on.
I switch between 4s and 5s as needed but I do keep one 4 tuned BEAD when I am feeling it.
Rock on.
Well, this certainly makes things easier.
And they are available in the talkbass store too.^
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These would still need nut work to fit, correct? Would the medium-lights alleviate this concern at all?
It’s not a given that you’d have to cut the nut at all. Depends on where it’s at now.
I've tried it 3 times, with ... mixed results. First time was with this Kramer 540B, and a set of Warwick Low B strings.Pros? Well, it was a helluva sound.
Cons? This isn't a good bass for this kind of thing. It simply overwhelmed my old Marshal combo amp - and, I'm not sure any kind of reasonable rig that a "normal" player could have dealt with it, either. Then, the bridge wouldn't intonate properly when strung with those big strings; especially the B string. Close, but..no cigar. Finally, the pinned aluminum nut on a lefty Kramer lumie isn't something that can be easily replaced, if I opened the slots as much as they should have been.
So, off came the Warwicks, and the Kramer went back to "normal" tuning..
The second time I tried was with this Carvin LB-20. Why, is a long story; basically, I just didn't have any other use for it. I couldn't find those Warwick strings, so I put the 65-135 strings from a 5-er set of La Bella Black Tapes on it. Along with a new nut.
Pros? Well, it sure sounded good; and my combo amp tolerated the Carvin/Labella setup much better.
Cons? Again, the bridge (Hipshot "A") just barely intonated. This seems to be a fairly common problem, from what I've read on the BEAD Club forum. Especially with anything but flat plate, traditional Fender bridges. The biggest con, though, was that the B string was just too rubbery feeling. So, off came the La Bellas...
Currently, I have the 65-130 strings from a 5-er set of Roto 77 Flats on the Carvin.
Pros? They sound really good, and they feel good, too. Not quite as stiff as I'd like, but very playable.
Cons? They can overwhelm my old combo amp. And, again, The Carvin's Hipshot bridge doesn't like them too much; but it intonates a little better than it did with the La Bellas...
So, The Carvin will continue to wear the Rotos - for the foreseeable future. I will say that;
-The major problem I had/have, is just wrapping my head around this tuning. That was a big surprise, and something that's taking longer to overcome than I'd like to admit... I have to force myself to get the Carvin out and play it; which is a shame, because it's a really nice bass.
- Another thing is that, for what I'm used to playing - and what I like to play - BEAD tuning (or, for that matter, a 5 string bass) is just not necessary. And, yeah, it would be nice to have the G string - more often than I would have thought. But, coming to terms with it, is a challenge that I probably need. And, I have to admit - played through my new Fender Rumble 500 combo amp/ Fender 115 cab? It does sound really, really good...
I would if I could figure out how. It's the "Modified BEAD 4 String Bass Club" in the BASSES Forum here. Quickest way to find it, is probably do a Google search; type in the name of the club, and add Talk Bass after it. It came right up for me...The B string intonation problem, IMO, is people's usual tendency to use a B string that's just too large. Which is what happens when you rob a 5 string set. It also seems to be the major cause of floppy B strings, too. Quite a few complaints about that, as well, IIRC. Why aren't they floppy on a 5 string bass? And why don't they have intonation problems? I have no idea...
