drop D with Jazz bass

[smellah]

Hello everyone,

I need any advise on an issue I'm facing.

I've been playing the bass since 20 years in powerful rock bands with my American Fender Jazz Bass tuned in E.
I play it with the pick, saturation and attack the strings hard.
My strings are 105-85-70-50

In a new band I'm in, I have drop the tuning to D. And here starts my problems. With the height of my stings I can't get the D string tuned all the way through the octaves. I have try to put a 110 string for the bass to hold better the tuning but it makes it worst at the octave.
The advice I've been having so far: change to 5 strings bass,
the jazz bass not being good at D tuning with hard playing.
I don't like the idea since I've always played on four strings.

Does anyone play in D tuning with a Jazz Bass ?

What d would be your recommendations ?

Thanks a lot for your input.

Souheil

 

[manolo578]

maybe adjust your action?

 

[J Posega]

Sounds like you need a good setup of your bass. Seems like you need to lower your action and adjust your intonation.

 

[AngelCrusher]

Ive played Jazz basses tuned to C#. they handle low tuning well.

Sounds like your action is too low. You basically have to choose between low action or attacking the strings hard. I choose the former every time.

 

[mpdd]

personally haven't had any problems, but i play hard finger style with medium low action

 

[Schmorgy]

It really sounds like an intonation issue to me.

 

[tomnomnom91]

A simple setup should do it. I'm always throwing my basses between standard and drop D, including a Jazz. Any bass set up properly can switch between E and D, it's not that big a change. Hope you get it sorted

 

[smellah]

Thank you all for the comments. What do you mean by low action ? The height of the strings ?
Does it worth it then to play on a 110 string when changing from E to D in between songs ? I use 110-85-70-50

Thanks for the support.

Souheil

 

[Ric5]

Hello everyone,

I need any advise on an issue I'm facing.

I've been playing the bass since 20 years in powerful rock bands with my American Fender Jazz Bass tuned in E.
I play it with the pick, saturation and attack the strings hard.
My strings are 105-85-70-50

In a new band I'm in, I have drop the tuning to D. And here starts my problems. With the height of my stings I can't get the D string tuned all the way through the octaves. I have try to put a 110 string for the bass to hold better the tuning but it makes it worst at the octave.
The advice I've been having so far: change to 5 strings bass,
the jazz bass not being good at D tuning with hard playing.
I don't like the idea since I've always played on four strings.

Does anyone play in D tuning with a Jazz Bass ?

What d would be your recommendations ?

Thanks a lot for your input.

Souheil

I used to play with 3 basses ...

A Rickenbacker 4001 tuned EADG
A p-bass tuned EbAbDbGb
and a Jazz bass tuned DGCF

I set up each bass for the tuning. It all worked great.

Then I got a 5 string bass and no more detuning needed.

 

[jamminology101]

U gotta shorten the saddle where it is setup to a 105 string E hz....to where the low B and octave match up. Your low E is way down there on the 5th fret now....thats it.

 

[jamminology101]

Every note should have its own personalized length and thickness(like a piano) to operate OPTIMALY with the same force applied(plucking) with the same tension on the strings...dingwall operate on this premise with its fret layout being kind of like a double parabola....sorry I went and smoked some whooch motivated by some new poster yesterday and its making me stupid I believe...

 

[smellah]

U gotta shorten the saddle where it is setup to a 105 string E hz....to where the low B and octave match up. Your low E is way down there on the 5th fret now....thats it.

Do you mean that when seting up the saddle to make the strings tuned all the way to the octave I should not use the D ref when to adjust but the note B instead ?

 

[jamminology101]

No...D is right. I was thinking BEAD. D is it dude..

 

[39-Bassist]

I use a Jazz bass with 45-105 boomers and a Drop D tuner.....I have no problems, maybe you should think of this option. You may just need to setup your string height a bit higher and then readjust intonation....I think that may help (as an idea) Good Luck

 

[smellah]

Okay okay,

I'll go adjust my setup again. But at this stage, the only thing I can do is to lower the action and get back to 105. Because the problem I'm having is that the saddle can't get further back and the D is still to high at the octave.

I'll report. Thanks

 

[Shardik]

I play 3 basses, all with a DGCF tuning. One is a Peavey BXP Millennium, which follow J bass standards pretty closely.

I use string sets with balanced or progressive string tension on all the basses. They all work great for EADG, DADG and DGCF tunings. I started out on EADG, then tried drop D, but finally tried DGCF and made that my personal standard. To me it doesn't seem like I need to change intonation between tunings as long as I keep to the same strings.

On balanced / progressive tension sets, it seems that the thickest string are a bit heavier than on "standard" sets. I think you should try a heavier string or a complete balanced tension set.

You'll have to adjust intonation when changing strings, of course.

 

[hover]

This is only tuned one whole step. Pretty benign stuff.

Re-setup your bass to play well in this tuning. Or, sounds like...pay someone else to do it.

Done.

 

[jamminology101]

Okay okay,

I'll go adjust my setup again. But at this stage, the only thing I can do is to lower the action and get back to 105. Because the problem I'm having is that the saddle can't get further back and the D is still to high at the octave.

I'll report. Thanks

Take the spring out of it....There 7u be

 

[jamminology101]

I use a Jazz bass with 45-105 boomers and a Drop D tuner.....I have no problems, maybe you should think of this option. You may just need to setup your string height a bit higher and then readjust intonation....I think that may help (as an idea) Good Luck

The d tuner works well...the only thing I would nitpik at would b some time it takes the fundamental a tad sharp after u release the lever...petty I kno

 

[bucephylus]

To the OP:

I'm assuming you are talking about detuning your E string only down to D (a whole step); and not detuning the other strings. But, I can't really tell from your OP.

IME, detuning the E does not have a significant effect on bridge determined intonation; and detuning works quite well IF the bass is properly intonated to begin with.

I do this on several J basses with few issues, aside from the very slight irreproducibility of the Hipshot previously mentioned. There is otherwise no general issue with drop tuning a J Bass E string. Many do it successfully on a regular basis.

Can't tell if that addresses your question or not.