Dedicated Instruments for tunings

[Dr. Love]

This is why I have a 6 string. Guitar can tune down or capo and call an Eb an E or Q or Do re mi or whatever they want, I’ll play the real note in the real spot. I don’t want to mess with multiple tuning. The only exception would be a song that requires a different pitch on an open string to pull of a specific lick, but that has only happened once in my about 20 years of playing bass.

 

[wmhill]

I work with one band that tunes to Eb, and I went with these. Rotosounds are not my favorite, but my bass feels pretty normal with these.
I set up one bass specifically for the tuning.

 

[mrcbass]

This is why I have a 6 string. Guitar can tune down or capo and call an Eb an E or Q or Do re mi or whatever they want, I’ll play the real note in the real spot. I don’t want to mess with multiple tuning. The only exception would be a song that requires a different pitch on an open string to pull of a specific lick, but that has only happened once in my about 20 years of playing bass.

I briefly considered doing that when I joined my down tune band - I can transpose pretty well. For a song or two this works fine. But when your band's whole catalog is down tuned, it makes it really messy to communicate and you essentially lose all your open strings. A down tuned bass is really the best solution for this situation.

 

[kjp360]

I have the same issue. One of my regular gigs the BL keeps us down to Eb. Personally, I would prefer that we simply transposed the few songs where he had difficulty singing the original key (both older originals and some covers) but I believe he doesn't want to put in the work to do that. Tuning down a half step is the easy way out for sure. Luckily, my main player (CIJ Mustang) is ok with either tuning and has no (or very minor) intonation issues as a result. However, I do notice the reduced tension. More importantly, it is a PITA to go between tunings on various gigs and for home practice. Invariably I am always in the wrong tuning for what I want to work on. I recently tried a number of 5ers thinking that might be the answer but have yet to play one where the neck was narrow enough for my taste. I have resigned myself to needing another bass to dedicate to Eb. I tried the drop pedal option (EHX) but it was definitely not working for me and I am not much on needing pedals on a gig (wanting is a different story lol). Best of luck bass shopping

 

[gustobassman]

For me, it's better to have a dedicated instrument in Eb... The setup of the instrument is different, truss rod adjustment and strings height...

Bingo. Having an instrument setup vs. just "tuning down" is the key. Makes a big difference IMO as well.

 

[npbassman]

I have in the past dedicated instruments to Eb tuning when the entire shows were tuned a 1/2 step down. Mainly 80’s hard rocks hair metal gigs. The change in string tension was probably there but it never bothered me.

Nowadays, I only need that low Eb here and there so what I do is use my hipshot d tuner to go down the 1/2 step on the E string and I play with the other strings tuned normally. Stevie Wonder’s Superstition is an example of when I do this. Does it make me relearn how I would normally play the tune? Yep, but it has also resulted in me coming up with different improv lines because I wasn’t using the same patterns that I usually go to.

YMMV but it works for me and also allows me to go from one tuning to the next in a flash.

 

[sotua]

I'll just say it... I hate Eb tuning.... It feels like my bass just changes character, tone, and the strings just feel all loose and floppy. Not to mention the odd occasion I look down and I'm not fretting the note I am playing.

So I was thinking of dedicating 1 instrument full time to Eb tuning and putting on some new strings. My theory is they get stretched out on E tuning and feel loose and floppy when I tune down. So if I only have it tuned to Eb and never higher, the string will feel like they always have the proper tension. Yea? No?

So for stage performances, will have a dedicated instrument for each tuning, and then get a hip-shot for my E instrument for the 1 or 2 drop-D songs we play and just deal with 1 floppy string. The one D tuning song we occasionally play will just be tuning the Eb down

I know this is common for the stage but I am curious if anyone is 100% dedicating 1 or more instruments to special tuning to avoid floppy string syndrome?

Get a second bass, string it with thicker strings than your standard, and tune it to Eb.

Guthrie Govan does something like that - has two guitars on stage, one in standard tuning and the other in drop D. The standard one has a 46 sixth string, the drop D one has a 52 sixth string, for consistency of tension/feel.

For the drop D, if you want to stick with your hipshot dtuner you'll just have to live with the floppier 4th string. Or have a third bass in drop D with a custom, thicker 4th string to compensate for lower tuning.

 

[Pings Bass]

Personally, I love the key of Eb in standard tuning. Ask anybody who plays standards, singers and horn players are always calling those flat-side keys.

 

[kalle74]

I have a dedicated 4-string 35" scale bass for D standard -tuning. 50-110 strings on it. The string-pull, IMO, is very close to 34" scale in E standard. I don't mind hauling a couple of instruments as much as I would hate changing tunings mid-show.

 

[Seashore]

Blind people navigate the world by counting steps between landmarks in their world. Ray Charles (though he could probably afford nice hotels) always stayed at Holiday Inns - because the layout of the rooms (at least in that era) was the same, no matter where you went. There was an old joke about how Helen Keller's parents used to punish her - moving the furniture. As insensitive as that joke might be, it's true - if you're used to doing something without looking, re-arranging things makes it a lot harder. I play without looking at the fretboard much (again, LOTS of practice so I don't need to look to see where my fingers are) - I know where I'm going, I use my eyes to gather cues from other musicians, from the audience, etc. Move where the notes are on my fretboard, it's like re-arranging the furniture to a blind person.

Perfect pitch is relative pitch taken to the extreme. Relative pitch means you can figure out from where you are, how to get to the right note - you have some memory of where the right note, is, but it doesn't persist - you can adapt, because your memory is flexible. Perfect pitch means your memory is NOT flexible - it's not about where the note was a few seconds ago, it's always in the same place; you can't move it in your mind - it's THERE. If you played a virtual reality game, where things in the virtual world (what you're seeing) were exactly the same things as in the real world, but every thing was 10 feet North of where you saw it, you'd be bumping into things, and falling off ledges all the time. Pretty much the same thing in this case - I have a mental picture of where to go that doesn't change; by re-tuning the bass, someone has moved the real world on me.

This is interesting. I don't have perfect pitch and from the outside it's always seemed like magic to me. I have reasonably solid relative pitch, a good ear for intervals, and I can usually piece together an understanding of a chord or phrase if I don't recognize it immediately, but play me some random tone and ask me to identify it? Not a chance. If I'm listening to music when I'm driving and I can't make out the pitch of an intro part over the road noise, I'll even "hear" the whole arrangement in my head in the wrong key until the vocal comes in.

It's definitely more practical for me to have different instruments set up for the tunings my bands use. I don't like how floppy the strings get when I tune standard gauges down, and conversely, when I tuned one of my basses up to C without going to a lighter gauge, the strings felt like tree trunks and I strained my forearm a bit trying to adapt. Right now I have a six string bass set up in all fourths from C, a five string that's going to go back to BEADG, and one guitar each in C standard and E standard.

 

[Charlzm]

Our band wrote a couple of songs that use drop D tuning. I used to have my backup bass tuned for this. Now, I have a bass with a Hipshot Bass Xtender (aka detuner) on the E string that I use for this purpose.

 

[Obese Chess]

If I had the budget, I'd do it. Right now we have half of our set in ADGCF and half of it in FCFBbEb, so I've got a .170 as my low string. I only have one five-string. I just tune up for half of the set and deal with the higher string tension.

 

[TheReceder]

That's insane - how would you getting more familiar with a bass that they want you to play with them ever be a negative for them?

In a nutshell... it's a peavey. Either a B-quad, or an occasional USA Cirrus, and they have no idea how good those basses really are. They see me with a Ric, Vintage Fender, or an EBMM with another band and they act like they're being disrespected. They really have no idea what they're getting... only that it's a Peavey, and of course they've been told... "peavey doesn't make good gear". To be honest... the B-quad is my #1 right now.

 

[Nephilymbass]

I'll just say it... I hate Eb tuning.... It feels like my bass just changes character, tone, and the strings just feel all loose and floppy. Not to mention the odd occasion I look down and I'm not fretting the note I am playing.

So I was thinking of dedicating 1 instrument full time to Eb tuning and putting on some new strings. My theory is they get stretched out on E tuning and feel loose and floppy when I tune down. So if I only have it tuned to Eb and never higher, the string will feel like they always have the proper tension. Yea? No?

So for stage performances, will have a dedicated instrument for each tuning, and then get a hip-shot for my E instrument for the 1 or 2 drop-D songs we play and just deal with 1 floppy string. The one D tuning song we occasionally play will just be tuning the Eb down

I know this is common for the stage but I am curious if anyone is 100% dedicating 1 or more instruments to special tuning to avoid floppy string syndrome?

I mainly play 5 string with the band. And both of my 5ers are setup for beadg. We have one song where I use aeadg and for my Dingwall in that’s not an issue but for my jazz it’s super floppy. The guitarist both bring at least two guitars each because they use several different tunings. Rythm player even has a digitech drop which he does use to pitch shift from drop b to drop a but for the drop D stuff they use different guitars. The digitech drop works gold for a half step or a full step but shifting farther than that it really starts to sound artificial. For the low baritone tuning stuff they use a PRS and a ESP eclipse, for the drop D stuff they use a fender strat and a musicman JP.

 

[Jay2U]

I usually have one bass tuned to standard E, another to standard D# and a third to B, E, A, D. The latter having been modified to accommodate the fat strings. I like the feel of the D# tuned bass the most. It has rather stiff steel strings on, with the fattest being a 0.105.

 

[overit]

If you can afford it and have room/time during a performace then why not?

 

[MoeTown1986]

I own at least 2 exact copies of every instrument in my stable for this very reason. We play most songs in my top 40 cover band the way they are recorded. So, I always have a Standard and Eb bass on stage.

 

[micguy]

In a nutshell... it's a peavey. Either a B-quad, or an occasional USA Cirrus, and they have no idea how good those basses really are. They see me with a Ric, Vintage Fender, or an EBMM with another band and they act like they're being disrespected. They really have no idea what they're getting... only that it's a Peavey, and of course they've been told... "peavey doesn't make good gear". To be honest... the B-quad is my #1 right now.

In the last decade of gigs (playing with a lot of different people) I have had a few people ask me about my basses - usually they like what they hear, and are just interested in what's making that sound. I make my own instruments, and freely tell them that, and...not once has that been an issue - nobody has ever implied that I should play anything else. I do different circuits in my basses, and a few bassists have asked me to do circuits for them. So far, I've converted a few Laklands (USA models) and a bunch of Fenders (mostly 70's models), along with a few oddities. Most of the circuits I've done for other guys are pros that use those basses to make a living - they don't seem to care that the guy doing their mods isn't a "name" guy, or that I'm modding a high end bass of theirs - they just want the thing to make the sound in their head, and I can get them closer to that.

Your band mates think with their eyes - not a good thing.

 

[funkinbottom]

I went and got a 5 string bass … now that is what I play

Same here.

 

[Ric5]

The Eb bass seems unnecessary... the DGCF one would cover all of the notes you need. In fact, with one bass tuned to DGCF, you wouldn't even need the E standard tuned one.

Anyway, in my stable I have three basses and each is tuned differently. One is tuned to E standard - I use this one for most gigs (been thinking about putting a D-tuner on for some time now but haven't gotten around to it). The second is tuned BEAD and gets used for all the hip hop/reggae/country gigs. The third one is my experimental/fun home bass and usually sits in Drop D but often gets tuned in weird/funky/experimental ways for the classical music that I enjoy playing and for various mental workouts that I put myself through to stay sharp.

So, to make an already long story slightly longer - Yes, I have basses with dedicated tunings. None are tuned that way in order to avoid floppy strings though.

The p-bass tuned to Eb really sounded good down a half step, and after a while used just the Rick and jazz … Until I went to a 5

These days I like to take 3 basses, a fretted 5 string, a fretless 5 string, and an 8 string …