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De-tuning/Downtuning a 5 string?

#22
RevGroove said:
+1 on all counts...unless you're all sharing the same charts and not making your own (which would eliminate the need for on the spot transpositions,) there's really no benefit to your detuning at all, unless you want the C...the ADGCF "Gospel Tuning" I also use is more than sufficient for my needs, but I wouldn't go any lower than that...if I needed lower, I'd find a decent 7 string somewhere...
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And here I thought that detuning was just for rock.

Good sir, what is this "Gospel Tuning" of which you speak? Our whole worship band just tunes to concert pitch because we have piano, keys, horns etc. My fivers are tuned to standard pitch and I've not needed to go lower than "B". Hmm, doing a doublestop with a low C 'might' be interesting though.
 
#24
this is fun,
I play with a bunch of mediocre rock guys and I play standard 5 string.
BEADG
ok the guitarist plays in drop D
DADGBE

NOW because he thinks the singer would have an easier time to sing at a half step down.

and some of my open whole tone (open string) ringouts wont even align with the chordings I have written, as off scale/key fills- dissonant sounding weirdness. I'll have to chart this out like I am building the eiffel tower.
jeez

great...
Horah! for guitarisis :P
 
#25
Hawkeye said:
And here I thought that detuning was just for rock.

Good sir, what is this "Gospel Tuning" of which you speak? Our whole worship band just tunes to concert pitch because we have piano, keys, horns etc. My fivers are tuned to standard pitch and I've not needed to go lower than "B". Hmm, doing a doublestop with a low C 'might' be interesting though.
Click to expand...

That's what a local instructor called it when I explained the detuning, and the term stuck in my head...guess it's a bit prejudiced/stereotypical, I'll have to come up with another term! I do use this tuning for my regular band, which is a rock band, as well.

Traa from P.O.D, Andre Gouche of Prayze Connection, and Fieldy of Korn are among those who tune down a whole step...I guess Andre is the only one of the three I've listed that plays the "Gospel" style, but I've come across a few lesser/unknown players who also say they regularly use or experiment with tuning down a step, and most of them are gospel players. I'd guess that especially with "black gospel", where there's a lot of emphasis on the low end, it wouldn't be uncommon for there to be a desire for lower frequencies to be reached (this is ALL my own personal opinion...I'm not saying it's right or wrong, or that everyone has to do it or anything like that!!! It works for me though, but you need a LOT of power to keep it tight! For example, the rig I'm building now will be aprox. capable of 1400W continuous.)

and yeh, a double stop low down...like on the open A...POWERFULL!!! I don't abuse it though...C and B are the lowest I'll regularly go, unless it's a gospel gig and it's in A and we're really hopping...
 
#26
Rev, 1400 watts is going to make you the sound man's best friend! :)

Thanks for the post, more food for thought. I apreciate your insight and the references you've made to other players.

Thanks for the correction. I meant "A". Doh! I can already do a "C" with standard tuning.

You just detune if the guitars are detuned too though right? Or no? You'd have to transpose everything in your head on the fly.

Too much CPU load for this player of meager chops.
 
#27
Hawkeye said:
Rev, 1400 watts is going to make you the sound man's best friend! :)

Thanks for the post, more food for thought. I apreciate your insight and the references you've made to other players.

Thanks for the correction. I meant "A". Doh! I can already do a "C" with standard tuning.

You just detune if the guitars are detuned too though right? Or no? You'd have to transpose everything in your head on the fly.

Too much CPU load for this player of meager chops.
Click to expand...

You're welcome!

Sound guys vs. the super rig (not liking it): Especially in my main band, where I'm the road/production manager as well...most sound guys end up working with me, I don't really need to crank the full 800w/600w I regularly use now, I just want the available headroom. I only go "Super Rig" if it's a really large venue or stage (as in the All Ontario Youth Convention, May Long weekend at Brock U. in St. Kitts, ON!) If they're...um...uncooperative, we work around them. Our drummer is actually the one who usually gets asked the most to "turn down" or play softer, and most of the time I'm the one asked to turn up...go figure???

(I'd post the makeup of the rig I'm building, but I dunno how that would fly with the CUP, so I'll wait on that for now...)


I don't bother detuning...I transpose on the fly with charts for the stuff that's newer, the older material I've pretty much got cold...capos are used so much, and the charts are based on the capo position anyways, so detuning would be a moot point.
 
#29
RevGroove said:
I don't bother detuning...I transpose on the fly with charts for the stuff that's newer, the older material I've pretty much got cold...capos are used so much, and the charts are based on the capo position anyways, so detuning would be a moot point.
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I know what you mean. Key change... No Problem! Wanna use a capo on your guitar... No Problem! Just do it in your head on the fly or it takes just a few seconds to pencil in some new notes on your chord sheet.

Our electric guitarist is the same, he never uses a capo, just plays bar chords at different places on the neck.

Sometimes our worship band wants to dumb down songs for simplicity's sake by skipping key changes that the guitarists and keyboardists don't like, or the vocalists will forget and I always say "Let's do it". Bass is good.
 
#30
I don't see what the problem is in not having your bass tuned to the same notes as the guitarist. I use three basses live one tuned ADGCF, one BEADG and one EADG and the guitarist is just using the standard EADGBE tuning the whole time. I try to think in terms of what notes I'm playing rather than where I am on the neck which helps though. I also found that my Warwick thumb handled the ADGCF tuning really well but I'm having a 39" Quake built so the lower tuning is not really going to be an issue.
 
#31
The Hammer said:
I also found that my Warwick thumb handled the ADGCF tuning really well but I'm having a 39" Quake built so the lower tuning is not really going to be an issue.
Click to expand...

I'm impressed...the 34 in scale on the Warwick Thumb I experimented with before going ADGCF had a really floppy low A (normallyB), and it was a .130 too...what is this Quake you speak of?
 
#32
RevGroove said:
I'm impressed...the 34 in scale on the Warwick Thumb I experimented with before going ADGCF had a really floppy low A (normallyB), and it was a .130 too...what is this Quake you speak of?
Click to expand...
The Quake is a 39" scale bass made by Knuckle guitars. Here's their website
Link Removed
 
#33
I know this is an old thread, but I just had to give my 2 cents worth. I play a 5 string almost exclusively. Gibson EB-5 and Fender Jazz Bass Plus V - with the electronics junk out! I use 135s and de-tune all the way down a minor 3rd - That's Ab-Db-Gb-B(Cb)-E(Fb) and have had a lot of fun with that low 25.96Hz. If clean enough the tuner on our 24 track recorder pics up the Ab-0 as G#-0, but hey, it's a computer. Built a special cab - huge with 15" Celestions. Building another with Celestion Pulse XL-15.25s. Listening to mixes, my stereo's ported Thiel Speakers get a workout, but contrary to many beliefs, you can hear that low, and it gives you some room to move around, and not just follow the other players. They move up - I move down and it adds a lot of depth.
 

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