Can I tune standard with a bass setup for 1/2 step down?

[JUSTINKP]

I'm getting my bass setup currently as it's been having a ton of fret buzz. I chose to have it setup for 1/2 step down because my band plays all of our stuff in that tuning.

Now the issue is, I play in a church band every so often as well and we play in standard tuning there. How bad is it going to hurt for me to move up to standard when I play in church?

 

[Marton]

Try it, the worst that can happen it's that it sounds bad/buzz or something like that. You can't really damage anything doing this.

 

[Antny]

Hurt? Nah. My band plays in a dropped tuning too. No issues at all. Except when I play the 5-string in dropped tune, the B string flops a bit too much for my liking. I just grin and bear the pain.

 

[Arvin]

It shouldn't be a problem at all. I swap back and forth between standard tuning and 1/2 step down all the time.

 

[Diogenes]

It differs from bass to bass but I normally setup my basses for standard tuning. I'll down tune 1/2 a step for the 6 songs that requires it but will bring it back to standard when done. My ATK and Sluggers are very stable and the action won't change much when down tuning but my OLP MM2, EB0 and SX J bass (but not the P bass) will get borderline buzzy and I have to play with a lighter touch.

 

[TripleDouble]

I play in Eb with one band, and if I want to use that bass (A Precision bass with a pretty stable neck) in concert tuning, I can tune to standard and then lower the bridge saddles slightly and it plays just fine. Takes 2 minutes. The neck will move and settle a bit after you change tunings though, so best to make the switch a day in advance if you think of it to avoid fret buzzing half way through a gig. If you're really, really fussy about action being super low and ultra perfect, get another bass.

 

[Eric Scholz]

or you could just learn to play the songs in relation to the tuning.... or just use a capo if you can't or there isn't enough time.

 

[somegeezer]

or you could just learn to play the songs in relation to the tuning.... or just use a capo if you can't or there isn't enough time.

+1 for capo. Keep it tuned flat and then you just have to do a simple capo clip on to play in standard. No need for new set up and stuff every time you want to change tuning. But nothing can really beat just having 2 basses in different tunings.

 

[Roy Vogt]

Just watch your picking hand touch and where you fret (just behind the fret) and you should be cool. I've tuned basses as low as C-F-Bb-Eb for sessions with regular strings and setup and it's been fine.
IME, a lot of buzzes can come from overaggressive picking hands and fretting too far away from the fret. I've cleaned up a lot of students' sound with just drawing their attention to that.
You should be fine.

 

[Double Agent]

You'll have to live with higher action when you tune it back to standard, but it won't hurt anything. I do this with my P-bass pretty frequently. I have it set up perfectly for tuning to Eb and, if I need to, I can tune it back up to standard and it still sounds good and plays good enough, though not as good as it does in the 1/2-step down tuning that it is set up for. But, I would rather deal with slightly higher action in standard tuning than tons of annoying fret buzz when tuned down 1/2-step.

 

[JUSTINKP]

Thanks for all of the replies guys!

I'm going to just switch back and forth between tunings right now until I can save for another bass. Most of the time I play in 1/2 step down, and only one or two days a month I play in the church band which is standard tuning.

Thanks again!