Converting to BEAD

[BradWardOnBass]

I've been experimenting with 5 strings and a couple BEAD 4 strings over the past couple of years. I didn't really gel with the tuning as much as I did 5ers, it's hard to completely sacrifice the G string. I'd personally advise against doing it to ALL your basses especially if you're doing a wide variety of genres, there are several that never use notes below a low E and use a lot of higher notes. Tunings all have different benefits and drawbacks, sometimes you need a G string to accompany a wide variety of instruments, sometimes you need a B for playing metal. If you have different instruments, set them up for different jobs.

I'm leaving one bass in standard tuning. Thanks for the advice.

 

[darwin-bass]

I have 4 basses, one that I can reconfigure BEAD if that week's songs need it. But I find I miss the G string to support octaves of notes on the A string. And many songs actually sound odd with super low B, C, D notes so I often prefer the notes up an octave.

Yes, BEAD gives those low notes, but I don't tend to use them much and miss the G too much.

My obvious answer is to play 5 string but my arthritic hands won't tolerate that.

So I bought a bass synth keyboard instead to give me access to the low notes.

 

[poochiecheeks]

I tried to make BEAD tuning work for a long time but it always felt like playing a 3 string bass. The B and C were great to drop down to but I found I was playing too much in the 5-9 positions where the notes sounded rounder and tubbier. Playing in the 1-4 positions sounded better but certain phrases and especially octaves were limited without jumping all over. Plus after trying many different basses and configurations I could never get a B string to sound good higher up the neck where it would be needed.

Earlier this year I gave up completely and switched to the Krist Novoselic method, which is just tuning to the lowest note you'll need consistantly, i.e. the open string of your lowest tuned song, and transposing everything else. In my case this was D standard, which fixed the tonality problems and actually made a lot of the E standard songs easier to play. This was after I read an interview with Krist talking about exactly this and how a good amount of Nirvana live shows were played with the bass tuned D or Eb standard, with drop C# or C on some songs as needed. I also recently discovered that using standard gauged sets tuned down has a different and personally more appealing sound than the 110-50 sets I had been using, with the added benefit of playing over the bridge pickup more which I tend to enjoy.

On the flipside though if you are playing music where the B string is treated like an open E string, or using Drop B, Bb or A tunings then BEAD tuning makes sense for sure. Just not in my specific application

 

[Jay2U]

I converted my old Ibby to BEAD about 15 years ago. It's a great bass for heavy stuff. I filed the but to accommodate the fatter strings an did a full setup.
For this cover I tuned down to ADGC

 

[Swerve]

I converted my old Ibby to BEAD about 15 years ago. It's a great bass for heavy stuff. I filed the but to accommodate the fatter strings an did a full setup.
For this cover I tuned down to ADGC

Ha, that was great! What strings are you using for BEAD?

 

[Jay2U]

Ha, that was great! What strings are you using for BEAD?

Sometimes I'm using Ernie Ball flatwounds. They're fat, sleak and stiff, allowing me to play super fast. The 0.130 B string gives that extra punch. Sometimes I'm using very cheap Red Label Warwick strings, which are pretty zingy. The gauge of the B string is 0.135, so tuning down to A is no problem at all.
This was recorded with flatwounds on: