Cover Band Tunings / Multiple Basses / Etiquette

[QweziRider]

Basically I’ve been using 2 basses, one in standard, and one a ½ step down, then use Hipshot Xtenders for dropping the E's. I’m pretty fast making the switch between basses, and I’m pretty sure I can accomplish it in less than 30 seconds (while the BL entertains the crowd).

If what you already do well works for the new band, I wouldn't worry. You certainly have time to try it out with them before the first gigs.

I only bring multiple basses (usually 2) so I have a backup - or sometimes I want the fretless on some songs. But never for tuning differences. I just stick with the 5 string or a 4 string tunes BEAD. Seems to work well for me.

 

[turf3]

Well, I'm not a cover-band bass player, but you've got an awful lot of complexity there - in theory it could be done with one four string bass, a drop D tuner (how reliably do those come back up to pitch, really, after a few thousand cycles?) and a half-step-down pedal. In that case you've got a lot of options to screw things up. Or you start swapping basses, which also sounds like a lot of opportunities for things to go sideways.

If I were faced with that situation I think I'd get a 5 string low B bass and just relearn the "signature" bass lines that absolutely have to be played; and get the rest of the stuff "audience can't tell the difference" close, and declare victory. Everything else sounds like trying to fix the problem with equipment and the problem with that is it'll go t*t$ up right when you need it to work. Or you'll grab the wrong bass. Or you'll push the pedal or not push the pedal, or you won't realize you did/didn't actuate the drop tuner.

Just my $0.0002.

 

[moon-bass]

Agreed. I'm not as sensitive as others about my tone, but if the Drop sucked a ton of tone out I wouldn't use it. I'm mainly only 1 or 2 half-steps down, with an occasional excursion to 3. As a matter of convenience one time I did take it down 5 to convert from EADG to BEAD and it did okay.



Haha I remember going through this when I started using it... so many dirty looks...

I'm really curious now if the Drop works well for bass. I would pick this up in a second if it tracked flawlessly. I never had high expectations for something like this, but it would be a game changer for me if it worked well.

I Have a TC Electronics Brainwaves - supposed to be able to do just exactly that. Need to check it out.

 

[Auspuff]

OK, so a short (or long) question…Advance Sorry to the TL;DR folks.

So, I just landed my first cover band position a few weeks back (established act, with great musicians), we don’t have anything on the books until late spring, so I have some time to get up to speed with the songs and gear needed…which segues into the questions.

Those of you that gig regularly in cover bands, do you bring multiple basses for different tunings? Or do you bring something like the Digitech Drop pedal to accomplish this? Both guitar players in this band use the Drop pedal, and “suggested” I get one, but I have no experience with those pedals to “simulate” a lowered tuning.

I have multiple basses, so that’s not a worry, but what’s the etiquette for switching basses for different tunings? All of the songs we play are in one of four tunings…either standard (or standard w/ drop D), then ½ step down (or ½ step w/ drop Db).

Basically I’ve been using 2 basses, one in standard, and one a ½ step down, then use Hipshot Xtenders for dropping the E's. I’m pretty fast making the switch between basses, and I’m pretty sure I can accomplish it in less than 30 seconds (while the BL entertains the crowd).

In my original band it was easy, we'd just cluster the same tunings on the set list to facilitate fewer guitar swaps...with the cover band, that isn't quite as easy, some songs just simply don't go together despite the same tuning.

So what do you veterans do?? Multiple basses?? FX pedal for alternate tuning??

Been there, many times.

Plug in, play. Don't overthink it.

 

[TexasHeat]

Basically I’ve been using 2 basses, one in standard, and one a ½ step down, then use Hipshot Xtenders for dropping the E's. I’m pretty fast making the switch between basses, and I’m pretty sure I can accomplish it in less than 30 seconds (while the BL entertains the crowd).

This is what I did when I was in a 90s cover band. One bass had the Hipshot D-tuner, the other was tuned to Eb; covered our complete setlist. Took all of a few seconds to swap and I was never the cause of any delay between songs. (That would have been the guitar player swapping his guitars)

Never heard of the Drop-D pedal until this thread. Honestly, I can't imagine using an effect to change tuning. Sounds suspiciously similar to Auto-Tune. Call me old-fashioned.

 

[basslayer]

I'm your shoes, I would opt to carry fewer basses and use a pedal.

 

[DwaynieAD]

What tunings are we talking about here? If it's something like E and Eb then the audience will 100% never know if you play them all in one or the other. E and Drop D? Got a detuner. Got some drop C in their just play them in drop D. Any lower than that use a 5.

Cover band crowds close enough is close enough.

 

[Chickenwheels]

While musical theater is my main gig, I have also been playing in cover bands - mostly pop, rock and jazz (when doing corporate, banquet type gigs) - for over 50 years. I played most of that on a 4-string ‘65 Jazz and a 4-string Fender A/E fretless. I put a HipShot Detuner on the Jazz maybe 20 years ago. Around that time I also acquired a Roscoe Beck 5 and a Turner Renaissance fretless 5. More and more of my theater and cover band work began calling for 5-string bass. Like the OP, I just preferred playing the 4-strings. For a while I would switch to a 5-string when necessary, but soon realized that it was just easier to play the 5s all night. In the cover bands even 15 seconds to change can seem like an eternity when the dance floor is packed. Playing musical theater taught me to be comfortable playing in all the non-rock keys. The show that I’m currently playing has multiple tunes in 5 and 6 flats.

Admittedly, I don’t play with many guitarists who consistently play in down-tunings, with Superstition in Eb being a notable exception. I also don’t play much music that was written in lowered tunings. However, I do play with a lot of guitarists who use capos and the occasional open tunings. Over the years I’ve learned to trust my ears more than my eyes when following a guitarist who plays in a non-standard tuning.

With all that said, in my experience, playing a 5 string covers just about everything I need. Yes, there are times when I have to really stretch to play a low note pedal and higher note fills, or alternatively I will switch octaves, or just do what I can to make it work.

What surprises me with the OP’s situation, is that around here and in my experience, with cover bands, the vast majority of the audience doesn’t care if you play every note and every lick exactly like the record. As a matter of fact, it is kind of expected that the band will have their own take on songs. Otherwise, the audience can listen to the recorded music in the background. Certainly, for much rock it was non-idiomatic to play live exactly like it was recorded; pop music was maybe more so. It might be different for other genres. Unless one is playing in a tribute band, where note for note accuracy is expected, I just don’t see where a basic 5-string in standard tuning wouldn’t fulfill the needs of a cover band.

Good luck with your new gig!

Yep. It’s surprising how many tunes have “5 string bass” on the header. I have cheated and transposed up an octave some written bass charts in the past! Sometimes it’s actually sounded better. Most of the stuff I’ve played has been written out by a keys player, and their low notes ain’t like ours.
But yeah, using a 5 is failsafe.

 

[pineweasel]

My band plays a few songs that were originally recorded in Eb but we just play them in E. As long as your singer can hit the notes nobody will ever know.

 

[2112]

I'm really curious now if the Drop works well for bass. I would pick this up in a second if it tracked flawlessly. I never had high expectations for something like this, but it would be a game changer for me if it worked well.

I Have a TC Electronics Brainwaves - supposed to be able to do just exactly that. Need to check it out.

I've personally never had any tracking trouble with tracking using the Drop, and it works great for me.. Others have mentioned trouble and were quick to blame the pedal, forgetting that it's a digital stomp box and so the input signal will affect the ability of the pedal to process the signal... some waveforms will track better than others. I like to tell these folks to try a different bass just for funsies, for some the problem resolved.

 

[bigswifty1]

We tune half step down for everything. For a while we had just a handful of songs which needed to go down another half step. I use a single 4 string tuned and setup for Eb. For the handful of songs which are another half down I used the Digitech Drop. I think it worked “ok”. Good enough for a song here or there live. I would for sure never use it for anything more than a half step as the latency is noticeable even at a semitone down. The tracking was really good, at least as good as the MicroPog (which is also very good) and better than the Zoom B3 IMO.

I see a lot of people saying it only takes 15 seconds to change bass, and I acknowledge that works for many situations. In my band I don’t even get 1 second between songs sometimes so that’s a no go. Plus our truck/load is like a sort of choreographed 3d tetris and even another bass throws the system out.

One other small comment about the Digitech. Due to various stage layout / setup issues I power my effects board with a battery brick and the Digitech was murder on the battery even if it was not actually engaged for 99% of the gig.

 

[Wasnex]

My #1 is a 6-string, and I rarely play music where a drop tuning is actually required.

My perception is most bands that play in drop tuning, usually stay with 1 tuning. Of course, if you are covering multiple bands this could be a problem.

The Digitech Drop is supposed to be one of the best. But it's still likely to change the tone and have tracking problems.

I occasionally used drop tuning when I still played a 4-string. I only had one bass so I had to tune between songs. This limited flexibility and sometimes there was not time to tune where I wanted to make the change, so I wound up play some songs in drop tuning that did not benefit from it. Too much hassle and confusion IMHO.

 

[Titch]

I take my 5 string Ibanez and either my 4 string Fender Pbass or my Maton JBiv and sometimes my NXT EUB 5 string... Sometimes I'll take all of them.
Each one is plugged in to a Behringer 4 way connector and I simply turn the volume down on each instrument I'm not using and swap between them all when necessary.

 

[brianrost]

I've only used drop tunings with one band, ever. That was a Celtic band with bagpipes and the pipes only played in the keys of D and G. I dropped the tuning to DGCF and never used standard tuning.

 

[Sam Dingle]

I vote 5 string too in theory, but in my experience i like the 4 string. i went on the road with a singer who does mostly covers and a few originals. i brought my p bass tuned a whole step down and just learned all the songs that way (with charts). easier for me

 

[Smooth Operator]

Another 5string player here. I always bring my 5er when playing a gig with multiple tunings, and I always bring a spare bass, usually a 4string. It only takes a few min to pack up my spare bass so Its worth lugging in the off chance I need it. I have also used my 4stringer in Eb and played that when we had multiple Eb songs in a row. Takes me 15 sec to swap a bass. Band starts playing an extended intro and I jump right in. There's multiple solutions. You can try the Digitech drop. It may work well for Eb or even D standard but probably wont work well below that. Note you're giving up tone for convenience which is a fair trade off to certain point. If you don't have a 5string bass I recommend trying the Drop pedal first and go from there. Although forcing yourself to learn to properly play a 5string isn't a bad idea either. Goood Luck.

 

[Amano]

Pedal tuner and Precision bass. a five string can help but its not necessary.

 

[40Hz]

Use a 5-string? No swapping required.

 

[Rich67]

I think since they're established, and you're the newbie that you'd not want to be the person breaking the flow of the show re: changing basses. This might be a situation where you adjust your style for the gig.
At least for the first few shows. If it's a good fit, and you're getting along with your bandmates, then maybe float some ideas re: changing set order to suit the tunings and then you can try changing a bass mid show.
It would be easier if one of the guitar players was changing guitars for different tunings, but it sounds like they don't.

 

[Selios]

I go for the 5 string approach. Both of my 5s are actually tuned CFA#D#G# right now, and I've been playing anything and everything that way for a few years. 4-strings tuned BEAD have also served me well.