You forgot the best thing about DGCF tuning - that look of horror on the Guitard's face when he tries to follow your fingers 
.
.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
I do like that about a low B, but I also find it a waste of frets too because I really think it starts to turn to mud after Db. Some people need a low B or C though. I'm glad I don't need notes that low.The only good reason I've seen to have a low B is so you can avoid all open strings so that you can transpose on-the-fly if you're doing a lot of that. I really prefer using open strings myself - and have recently started using a pitch shifter for the occasional transposing. It doesn't sound perfect but better than me stumbling all over sour notes
Interesting. I have a beat up old G&L that has been going back and forth between D and Eb for the last several years, depending on who I'm playing with. My current full-time project has several tunes dropped to D as well as C, so the G&L is living in DGCF and I have a five string that's up a full step.
What do you use? I've been using the heck out of a Digitech Drop for the last 6 months or so.
DGCF is my preferred tuning as well. I dig the couple of extra low notes and the lower string tension. I use Bass Boomers 105's.
You forgot the best thing about DGCF tuning - that look of horror on the gui****'s face when he tries to follow your fingers
I don't tune in D standard, just stopping by because I feel an affinity with anyone who tunes outside of the (B)EADG(C) norm, not that there is anything wrong with that norm. I tune in what you could call C standard but I also tune in fifths rather than fourths so I am tuned CGDA(E)(B). Yes, I have a Squier VI that is tuned CGDAEB and as long as you use a light touch a 120 C string from LaBella works very nicely tuned to that pitch on a 30 inch scale!
So there I am with a bass that looks just like a guitar but it's tuned in fifths. There is no look of horror on the guitarists' faces when they try to follow my fingers. Their heads just explode! We go through more guitarists than Spinal Tap does drummers!!
But enough of that. For those who want to stick with fourths (and there are a lot of advantages to that) I think you have found the four string sweet spot. I've tuned like a cello for three years now and I use the Eb and D all the time. I use the C occasionally. And I have one bass, my main player, with a Hipshot tuner that lets me go as low as an A. I've used that feature to get a B on one occasion now, and that just a couple of weeks ago. I may use it a little more in the future but it is safe to say that if you can get to D you have expanded your low end to a very useful degree and you don't give up much on the high end to get it. It is an excellent fourths tuning for a four string and just as useful if you have five or more.
You are close enough to the standard tuning to use standard string sets if you like. But if you can't quite find what you want in standard sets don't be afraid to go custom. They are fairly widely available and not terribly expensive. If you are the type of person who plays flats and changes them every decade or so, then there is basically no extra cost to custom sets! Because of my tuning I have no choice but to go custom. Places like Bass Strings Online, Kalium Strings, LaBella, and there are probably others will be able to help you get strung properly in any tuning you take a fancy to. For that matter, even if you tune in one of the standard tunings but don't like the tension distributions that standard string sets give you then custom sets are your answer!
I've contemplated tuning a 6 string in major thirds - C#FAC#FA 
. Besides the symmetry of the repeating three strings, the fifth above and below a note have a symmetry too that is lacking in the 4ths tuning 
.
. Besides the symmetry of the repeating three strings, the fifth above and below a note have a symmetry too that is lacking in the 4ths tuning .When I was doing my first CD, I had all these one-off tunings and stuff to play the guitar parts. Then one day I just tuned down a whole step and they all became easy like pie. Although let me point out that making a good pie is a significant chore.
So I guess I'm now a full time DGCFer.
So I guess I'm now a full time DGCFer.
I tune my acoustic guitar to D standard as well because of the lower tension, but I usally end up putting a capo on the second fret.
It is not hard. It certainly is different! One thing that helps in the beginning is remembering that three of your strings are the same as E standard, just upside down of where they should be. Truth be told it is difficult to impossible to play some common fourths tuned patterns as quickly as you can on a fourths tuned bass because the notes are in too different a location to reach quickly. You can play them upside down which works but can sound very different. In the end you will just play differently than you do now which is neutral in most cases, bad if you play in a note for note cover band, and great if you need a nudge to play more creatively. Something about the tuning just spoke to me the instant I tried it and I tried it for entirely mundane reasons. My first attempt(s) to play a fiver had me recoiling in horror from the wide neck, or close strings, or extra string. So I was just trying to get the range of five strings out of four and instead I found my true love! People who try fifths and end up sticking with it will typically find that two to three weeks of practice with the tuning will get them to a level where they feel comfortable playing in public. Some people who try it just hate it however, it is not for everyone! But we have a club for it like this one for anyone who is interested. And I know that there are people who use both tunings successfully including at least one who tunes his double bass in fifths and his bass guitar in fourths!
Oh, there is one group of guitarists who would watch my fingers and just get a big, I see what you're doing there, grin on their faces. Robert Fripp of King Crimson fame uses and promotes a tuning called New Standard Tuning or as he prefers the Guitar Craft Standard Tuning or C Pentatonic Tuning. It is basically the same tuning I use on my Squier VI but an octave up. However it is difficult to impossible to get a reliable B string when you start an octave above where I start so the NST has a top string tuned to G instead which means the last interval is a minor third instead of a fifth. Evidently string technology has advanced to the point where a reliable A string is now possible and Fripp is now advocating the adoption of that in place of the high G. I guess he is dedicated to achieving his ultimate goal of a high B string some day, otherwise I think it would be easier to drop the bottom string to Bb, end on A and have an entirely practical six string, even fifths tuning. People would then be able to get highly proficient with the all fifths tuning and it would be relatively easy to bump that up a step on every string to reach the original goal when string technology makes that possible some day.
But this is probably WAY more than you wanted to know....
Enjoy D standard, I think it is an excellent choice!
I tuned DGCF for years before switching to 5-string. My favorite strings were [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. They are designed specifically for DGCF tuning. Gauges are .054-.075-.090-.111.
hey, brothers and sisters...well...here we are. all the way down here. I had a bass that would NOT work in EADG and I took it home to DGCF and we're all fine now...thanks...how are you?
Yea I'm getting ready to tune one of my basses to D standard. I have a set of DR DDT's. My band plays Eb but I'm venturing out and that's a great tuning
The extra half step will be very useful. I can't tell you how many times in EADG I needed an Eb.
Well, the DGCF thing worked for a long time, but eventually I started playing with a guitarist who tuned to Eb standard, and half the songs were drop C#. It got to be a pain in the butt. I was about to put a Hipshot X-Tender on my bass, when I lucked into trying a new 5-string P-bass (long story, but the bass gods clearly intended it to happen.) I bought it and haven't looked back.
