CGCFA#

[m_bisson]

I also don't see the point in this. he'll be playing the SAME notes regardless of what the tuning is. D is D is D is D. Lots of octaves.

 

[m_bisson]

Except some people aren't Adam Clayton and play more than quarter notes. I love seeing crap like this when it's obvious posters have little to 0 experience with this. It's a forum-wide disease and is pathetic, IMO.

We all get it- it's too difficult for you. No shame in that.

Stop insulting people on the internet. You're probably 50 years old and you're acting worse than a spoiled little kid. Keep it up and I'll start reporting these offensive posts.

 

[bassbeard]

the guitarist in the last band i played in tuned to drop C. i am not that comfortable on a 5 string, so i just got a light 5 string set, strung up my 4 string with them and tuned it to C standard. it actually sounds awesome. i had to file the nut just a little and fix the intonation, but other than that, it was good to go. i don't play in that band any more, but i still keep one of my basses with that tuning. that thing absolutely crushes when i slap on it. it also has a very nice even response across the entire bass (which it did not before--my D and G were always a little weak. anyone else have that issue with a Schecter Stiletto?)

 

[bassbeard]

i am not much of a guitar player, but the guitar player in my last band told me that he like to drop tune because it freed up an extra finger or two to work on more interesting voicings of the chords and riffs he would write. i just tuned down to C so i could hit that "bottom" note with him when it came up in the songs. don't tell me you have never been playing a song in Eb or D on your 4 string and wished you could just hit that root note an octave lower than is possible with standard tuning. i totally get why some people like 5ers. i just don't get into them.

 

[rockstarbassist]

Stop insulting people on the internet. You're probably 50 years old and you're acting worse than a spoiled little kid. Keep it up and I'll start reporting these offensive posts.

Actually I'm barely half over that, and have been here 8 years longer than you, putting up with this alt tuning garbage so and go ahead report it- then we'll just get every tuning thread on this entire forum closed b/c people like you and others here again, are incapable of dealing with it.

Stick around, then maybe someone will value your opinion.

 

[rockstarbassist]

I also don't see the point in this. he'll be playing the SAME notes regardless of what the tuning is. D is D is D is D. Lots of octaves.

Lol, like I say Adam Clayton- you hammer those quarter notes all night long!

Do some searches here for some cool things called hammer ons/offs, slides, harmonics, etc.. There's more to bass than just the downbeat, FYI.

Again if this is too complicated for you, then that's fine. Just don't come into alt tuning threads acting like a 5 year old and whining about it.

 

[Febs]

Std. E just gets boring after a while.

Why?

 

[rockstarbassist]

Why?

I've been trying to learn the entire Mastodon-Crack the Skye album. When you see how just a simple 1-step down makes it that much more interesting, why not?
Again, it's such a stigma here to not play in Std. E when 99% of people haven't ever really tried it, it's just hilarious and sad at the same time.
It's not like alt tunings are "new" or created by a bunch of kids on skateboards while hanging outside the mall or something here recently, either. :scowl:

 

[Febs]

Again, it's such a stigma here to not play in Std. E when 99% of people haven't ever really tried it, it's just hilarious and sad at the same time.

There are plenty of good reasons to use alternate tunings. Using alternate tuning to extend the range of the instrument is the most obvious and then one that is probably most applicable to the bass. Many of the advantages to certain open tunings, however, relate to playing chords, and specifically to being able to take use open strings either as drone notes or to achieve voicings that would not be possible when voicing those chords in closed positions in a conventional tuning system.

There are some significant advantages to using a tuning that maintains a specific, consistent interval from string to string. For example, whether I play my 4 string bass or a 5 string, or pick up my friend's six string, in standard fourths tuning, the octave is always in the same place relative to the root.

Many of the advantages of open tunings that exist on guitar and other chording instruments do not exist, or are significantly diminished, on bass. I think too often, inexperienced players use alternate tunings because they mistakenly believe that they need to play in lockstep with their guitarists, when then the guitarists may be deriving a benefit from the open tuning that the bassist is not getting. It also frequently seems to be the case that less experienced players mistakenly believe that they need to be able to change their tuning to be able to play in a different key, which is certainly not true. In those instances, alternate tunings do not necessarily make sense.

It would be nice to be able to have a reasonable conversation about the topic. Maybe if you were a little less defensive, you would see that not every question about a specific alternate tuning is an indictment of alternate tunings in general.

 

[rockstarbassist]

There are plenty of good reasons to use alternate tunings. Using alternate tuning to extend the range of the instrument is the most obvious and then one that is probably most applicable to the bass. Many of the advantages to certain open tunings, however, relate to playing chords, and specifically to being able to take use open strings either as drone notes or to achieve voicings that would not be possible when voicing those chords in closed positions in a conventional tuning system.

There are some significant advantages to using a tuning that maintains a specific, consistent interval from string to string. For example, whether I play my 4 string bass or a 5 string, or pick up my friend's six string, in standard fourths tuning, the octave is always in the same place relative to the root.

Many of these advantages that exist on guitar and other chording instruments do not exist, or are significantly diminished, on bass. I think too often, inexperienced players use alternate tunings because they mistakenly believe that they need to play in lockstep with their guitarists, when then the guitarists may be deriving a benefit from the open tuning that the bassist is not getting. It also frequently seems to be the case that less experienced players mistakenly believe that they need to be able to change their tuning to be able to play in a different key, which is certainly not true. In those instances, alternate tunings do not necessarily make sense.

It would be nice to be able to have a reasonable conversation about the topic. Maybe if you were a little less defensive, you would see that not every question about a specific alternate tuning is an indictment of alternate tunings in general.

Trust me, I'm not the problem on this forum about alt tunings brother... :scowl:
Why don't you go search in the "Basses" forum for the "Bb on a 4 string??" thread. Then you'll start to get it.

 

[Febs]

Trust me, I'm not the problem on this forum about alt tunings brother... :scowl:

With all due respect, yes, you are. Your posts in this thread have consistently been unnecessarily inflammatory.

 

[rockstarbassist]

With all due respect, yes, you are. Your posts in this thread have consistently been unnecessarily inflammatory.

No, not really. I'm nipping crap in the bud before people get all stupid with it, just like usual. If you don't have anything useful to add, you can just leave. It's pretty simple. Your posts should consist of more than "That's stupid, you/your friends are stupid, that's stupid so I wouldn't do it b/c that's stupid." If not, then you probably don't need to have access to a computer...

 

[Febs]

You edited your original reply to add this:

Why don't you go search in the "Basses" forum for the "Bb on a 4 string??" thread. Then you'll start to get it.

That's a perfect example. You took less than 1 minute to reply to my post, so you obviously did not bother to really read it or to understand the points that I am trying to make, and you suggest that I don't "get it." I'm willing to make the effort to understand where you're coming from, but you're not willing to extend the same courtesy.

 

[rockstarbassist]

You edited your original reply to add this:



That's a perfect example. You took less than 1 minute to reply to my post, so you obviously did not bother to really read it or to understand the points that I am trying to make, and you suggest that I don't "get it." I'm willing to make the effort to understand where you're coming from, but you're not willing to extend the same courtesy.

Exactly.

 

[Burlington]

Alot of people in this thread have no idea what they are talking about.

Some songs are written on a drop tuned instrument. Some, not all of course, are impossible to play on a standard tuned 5 string. Don't believe me? I'll email you some GuitarPro files of songs my band plays, and you can send me a video of you playing it on your standard tuned 5 string.

OP, you are correct, you can tune your 5 string to drop C and have it work. You have to use a lighter set of strings. I use DR Bootzillas on my 5 string to tune to drop C and it works great.

I, myself, prefer to use a 4 string for drop C. I've found .115 is the best gauge for the low string.

 

[rockstarbassist]

Alot of people in this thread have no idea what they are talking about.

Some songs are written on a drop tuned instrument. Some, not all of course, are impossible to play on a standard tuned 5 string. Don't believe me? I'll email you some GuitarPro files of songs my band plays, and you can send me a video of you playing it on your standard tuned 5 string.

OP, you are correct, you can tune your 5 string to drop C and have it work. You have to use a lighter set of strings. I use DR Bootzillas on my 5 string to tune to drop C and it works great.

I, myself, prefer to use a 4 string for drop C. I've found .115 is the best gauge for the low string.

But wait, only "dumb" bands detune, right?? :scowl: They aren't "real" players if they can't play everything in Std. E!
And yes- that argument is what comes next.

 

[Febs]

No, not really. I'm nipping crap in the bud before people get all stupid with it, just like usual. If you don't have anything useful to add, you can just leave. It's pretty simple. Your posts should consist of more than "That's stupid, you/your friends are stupid, that's stupid so I wouldn't do it b/c that's stupid." If not, then you probably don't need to have access to a computer...

Why don't you take a few minutes to go back and read what I actually wrote, and then if you'd like to have a real conversation about it, I'd be happy to do so.

 

[rockstarbassist]

Why don't you take a few minutes to go back and read what I actually wrote, and then if you'd like to have a real conversation about it, I'd be happy to do so.

I've been around here long enough to know how those go. They're all the same.
If you don't like the thread, don't post in it, and let everyone else who's competent and capable enough to offer help do so without making a fool out of yourself. That's pretty much generally a forum wide courtesy, I thought.
i don't like Fenders, but do you see me posting in every Fender or copy thread about how I don't like them or this or that sucks about them? Nope. Why people think it's ok for these threads is beyond me, and a waste of time and effort and just makes you look childish, weak, and outing yourself as an amateur.
And that's all for me.

 

[OOZMAN]

I find that most bands/players detune to seem "cool" or to be "different".

Our vocalist and lead guitarist/backing vocals INSIST on dropped C because they find it much easier to sing and scream to, there are some songs where one or both of them can't get the high notes if its in drop D. This is actually a problem right now as our rhythm guitarist's guitar can't go down to drop C so we either play drop D and listen to the vocalists complain or only have 1 guitarist. He's getting it fixed though apparently.

If it was up to me we'd probably be in standard E; we're a metal band and i find it challenging and fun to get the same amount of heaviness without downtuning. Trivium does it well some songs, same with Pantera (see cemetary gates, some of the riffs on that song are epicly heavy!)

so i just got a light 5 string set, strung up my 4 string with them and tuned it to C standard. it actually sounds awesome. i had to file the nut just a little and fix the intonation, but other than that, it was good to go.

that thing absolutely crushes when i slap on it. it also has a very nice even response across the entire bass

WOW I did those exact same things, i just bought a .130 for the 4th string and moved the rest up a string, and had to file the nut. And i love the sound of a dropped C slap, I actually use my left hand thumb for octave slap and popping sometimes, as the notes one octave above are on the same fret.

 

[Febs]

I've been around here long enough to know how those go. They're all the same.

This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. They're all the same because you won't listen to other viewpoints, and because you keep making the same puerile, knee-jerk attacks on anyone who tries to add something new to the conversation.

i don't like Fenders, but do you see me posting in every Fender or copy thread about how I don't like them or this or that sucks about them? Nope. Why people think it's ok for these threads is beyond me, and a waste of time and effort and just makes you look childish, weak, and outing yourself as an amateur.

Again, I urge you to go back and read what I actually wrote, starting with my comment, "there are plenty of good reasons to use alternate tunings ..."