Yeah I'm concerned about that but it's good to know that that test is something I'll be able to do in a guitar store, just say "hey can I see if this fits in there" done, easy. I still need to find a string that will fit on the bass though, been looking for a few hours no and still no luck, everything in short or medium only goes up to .105.
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Downtuning a Mustang Bass
- Thread starter Blade3dge
- Start date
Yeah I'm concerned about that but it's good to know that that test is something I'll be able to do in a guitar store, just say "hey can I see if this fits in there" done, easy. I still need to find a string that will fit on the bass though, been looking for a few hours no and still no luck, everything in short or medium only goes up to .105.
I can. It just plain does not matter. If that's how you like to do it, that's cool. Not everyone is you.
It seems to depend more on how you like to play than on anything else. Bassists who copy lines or get cues from watching the guitarist's fingers prefer to tune like the guitarist. Metal players, especially, spend a lot of time pounding on open strings (at least this is what some of them tell me, I would not know from personal experience) so they strongly prefer to have the same tuning, the same set of open strings, as the rest of the band.
Certainly if the tuning you use covers the range that is needed it does not have to match the tuning that any other instrument in the band uses. If you play in a mixed band there is in fact no way in which you could tune the same way as a flute or keyboard except in the trivial sense that you all use even tempered tuning. But some people just prefer to tune like the other guitars out of habit or true need.
I've been using the CGDA cello tuning an octave down since last spring. It is something that some double bass players do as well and one of the things that they universally like about the tuning is that suddenly they are "in sync" with the rest of the string section. Traditionally DB players are fourths tuned islands in a sea of fifths tuned strings. So, I would suppose that something similar happens for electric bass players who tune like their guitarists.
Ken
We're punk rockers and metalheads. We write riffs that take advantage of the layout of our instruments, we write riffs that assume the low C is the lowest note accessible. It's not beyond my ability to play everything in a higher octave, it is detrimental to the sound of the band. Whatever effect you may think of an entire band dropping to their lowest available note may have (good bad or otherwise) the effect that it gives would not be achieved with a bass playing an octave higher it would be jarring and achieve a different effect. Our songs are written such that the effects which we try to achieve as a group require a certain tuning, to play the songs in a different octave would be jarring to the listener and detrimental to the dynamics of our music.
But can we get back on topic please? ^.^
I think my initial comments were misunderstood. I wasn't saying that it's right or wrong to use alternate tunings, and I wasn't referring to downtuning. (Downtuning and alternate tunings are two different subjects.)
I was just wondering if people using alternate tunings are doing so out of real necessity or because they think they're "supposed to". I'm not claiming to know the answer and that's why I asked. It seems to me that if the OP needs a low C he could tune his bass BEAD and have that low C and still use a standard tuning. (And before you jump on me I'm not saying standard tunings are better.)
I think that you just glanced at my post without making the effort to understand that it was in fact neutral to supportive to your "cause". I really don't care how you or anyone else, in my band or outside of it, tunes. I was just trying to give the person who asked some good reasons why someone might want to do what you do.
"My" band in fact is a church band staffed by 20 or so volunteer musicians who all play in an asynchronous rotation driven by personal schedules. I haven't yet played with the same collection of musicians twice. There is no way I could even attempt to copy anyone's tuning, I'd have to change tunings every time I played. And so far no one has noticed how I tune my bass....
Ken
Nah I noticed you were neutral I was more addressing the topic on the whole and quoted the most recent post. The only thing that had anything to do with you was you seemed to imply it was about the ease of playing. I keep my tuning with the guitarists for the dynamics of the song moreso than ease of playing.
I most certainly could... If I could find strings that would allow a mustang bass to drop that low which if somebody would remember was the original topic of discussion. I've been told that thick medium scale strings exist but when I asked where to find them I haven't had any response and after hours of searching the internet I've still turned up nothing
Actually I said both because I've heard both answers from various people. Some people do it because it makes their playing a LOT easier (their words, not mine), some do it because it puts them "in synch" with other members of the band/orchestra/ensemble (again, their words not mine). The latter is essentially what you are saying.
The bottom line is that playing a short scale instrument doesn't make this sort of thing easy because so few string choices are available and the ability to use medium scale strings only improves things a bit. If I were going to build me a short scale bass I would build it so that it could use long scale strings, then the world of strings is your oyster. But you have what you have, what you like, so you might have to modify strings to get what you need. I have no experience with this. The soldering technique for shortening strings will work with strings that are solderable. You might be able to use epoxy (or tape or ??) to keep the outer windings in place on strings that are not solderable and this may make it feasible to shorten the tuner end of the string. It may also be possible to unwrap and shorten the bridge end of the string and then reattach the "ball" using the same technique the string manufacturer uses.
Probably what I would really do is take a hard look at my bass and contrive a way to let it use long scale strings....
Ken
Nah I noticed you were neutral I was more addressing the topic on the whole and quoted the most recent post. The only thing that had anything to do with you was you seemed to imply it was about the ease of playing. I keep my tuning with the guitarists for the dynamics of the song moreso than ease of playing.
I most certainly could... If I could find strings that would allow a mustang bass to drop that low which if somebody would remember was the original topic of discussion. I've been told that thick medium scale strings exist but when I asked where to find them I haven't had any response and after hours of searching the internet I've still turned up nothing
There is a current thread here called "short-scale bass, long-scale strings" or something like that. I suggest you read it if you haven't already. Considering so many people are saying it's no big deal to use longs on a shorty, I can't see the problem with using longs on a bass that would usually need mediums.
Failing that, Slapinfunk has mentioned that La Bella will make any of their sets in any scale you want, though I imagine you'll have to pay a premium.
