Drop tune - why is it looked down on?

[zachoff]

All of my instruments used for CGCF tuning are set up for it and do not get tuned to anything else.

Plus, the setup is for the gauge.. Not the tuning. Whether you tune a .100 E string to E or D it will maintain intonation if it's properly set up.

 

[billhilly66]

Wow, you drop guys are kinda defensive. I still think it would screw with my sight reading if I tuned differently because my hand wouldn't automatically know where to go to outline say a Gm7b5 without looking and if I'm looking at my neck, I'm not looking at the chart.

If I had a gig playing tunes that called for a drop tuning, I'd probably set one of my basses up for it but the gigs that pay well around here don't so niether do I.

 

[zachoff]

Wow, you drop guys are kinda defensive. I still think it would screw with my sight reading if I tuned differently because my hand wouldn't automatically know where to go to outline say a Gm7b5 without looking and if I'm looking at my neck, I'm not looking at the chart.

If I had a gig playing tunes that called for a drop tuning, I'd probably set one of my basses up for it but the gigs that pay well around here don't so niether do I.

If I was at practice and my guitar player said it's a Gm7b5 chord I think I'd ask him if he was high and then I'd tell him to just show me.

I can't sight read and I don't play covers. The music I play is the music my band writes and we write in drop D and drop C tunings. It's our sound and it's what we like. We have a couple E standard tunes and might write in E standard again but for the most part we're in drop D and drop C.

Not being defensive... Just saying that having such a hardcore mentality against drop tuning is pretty dumb.

 

[Febs]

How I'm able to play in drop C and D standard and C standard is impossible according to you.

What advantage is there to using these three separate tunings compared to, say, having one bass tuned to D standard with a Hipshot to allow you to flip that low D to a C?

 

[eSmith]

I'm not wrong about this. Not my fault that you would rather put the time into shortcuts than learning the correct way to do something. Show me you playing Giant Steps in your tuning.... Does my asking you to do that somehow obligate you to do it? Are you wrong about the whole topic if you do not? By your statments above, that is EXACTLY what your trying to pull here on me.

-eSmith.

 

[rockstarbassist]

What advantage is there to using these three separate tunings compared to, say, having one bass tuned to D standard with a Hipshot to allow you to flip that low D to a C?

Who says I don't...?

I actually play a 5'er detuned so I've got 'em all covered.

And C std. is two steps down from D std., so just a drop tuner wouldn't exactly fly right here but I get what you're saying.

I'm actually trying to get my band to do everything we currently play in D std in C std. More evil, more raunchy.

 

[rockstarbassist]

I'm not wrong about this. Not my fault that you would rather put the time into shortcuts than learning the correct way to do something. Show me you playing Giant Steps in your tuning.... Does my asking you to do that somehow obligate you to do it? Are you wrong about the whole topic if you do not? By your statments above, that is EXACTLY what your trying to pull here on me.

-eSmith.

Actually, playing songs differently than composed to suit your shortcomings and making it "easier" for you to play is taking the proverbial shortcut...

 

[Burlington]

I'm not wrong about this. Not my fault that you would rather put the time into shortcuts than learning the correct way to do something. Show me you playing Giant Steps in your tuning.... Does my asking you to do that somehow obligate you to do it? Are you wrong about the whole topic if you do not? By your statments above, that is EXACTLY what your trying to pull here on me.

-eSmith.

That's apples to oranges. I thought you would actually like to learn why people play in this tuning, but you don't, you are set in your ways.

Also, you are wrong.

 

[Febs]

I actually play a 5'er detuned so I've got 'em all covered.

I lost you there. How does playing a detuned 5-string allow you to play all three of those tunings that you mentioned without retuning or switching basses?

And C std. is two steps down from D std., so just a drop tuner wouldn't exactly fly right here but I get what you're saying.

Um, not it's not. It's one step down (two half steps) and a Hipshot will do that just fine.

 

[eSmith]

I already know why people do it. I just know it isn't required. There are no songs that cannot be played in standard tuning. All that the guys doing this are accomplishing is to relocate the notes under each fret. This isn't a complicated concept.

Imagine a drummer stopping between songs to put the snare drum at his foot and his bass drum by his hands all to avoid having to learn how to play the Snare on 1 and 3 rather than 2 and 4.... That is essentially what you are doing.

Good luck with that......

-eSmith.

 

[rockstarbassist]

I lost you there. How does playing a detuned 5-string allow you to play all three of those tunings that you mentioned without retuning or switching basses?



Um, not it's not. It's one step down (two half steps) and a Hipshot will do that just fine.

I don't know where I said there was an advantage to just playing one bass for all those- I said that's the tunings we play. So I don't understand your question and how that correlates to how many basses I have on stage since I didn't say it. My bass is set up to handle mainly drop C- that means I can play D std no problem (dropped C comes up to dropped D, just one step up, no biggie) as well as C std (my bass and strings can go an extra step down on the ADG strings and again, no issue). So that's how my detuned 5'er fits 'em all. Never said tuning wasn't required...

And I meant C std. is 2 down from E, so how would just a Hipshot detune my B, A, D, G strings also?

 

[rockstarbassist]

I already know why people do it. I just know it isn't required. There are no songs that cannot be played in standard tuning. All that the guys doing this are accomplishing is to relocate the notes under each fret. This isn't a complicated concept.

Imagine a drummer stopping between songs to put the snare drum at his foot and his bass drum by his hands all to avoid having to learn how to play the Snare on 1 and 3 rather than 2 and 4.... That is essentially what you are doing.

Good luck with that......

-eSmith.

Your ignorance is impressive. I am impress.

 

[Burlington]

There are no songs that cannot be played in standard tuning.

Then prove it, I have given you a simple way to do so.

Until then you are a troll.

 

[lucas vigor]

To a lot of people, Sabbath does suck. It's pretty simplistic stuff, it is the bread and butter of every teenager that picks up an instrument. I have known PLENTY of guys that could play that stuff forward and backwards by 16 years old. None of them could improvise a walking line over a standard progression however.

I know this is going to upset some, but I also think Jack Daniels tastes like crap and Harley Davidsons are poorly designed junk that vibrate themselves into a pile of parts as you drive them.

That said, do whatever you like. Just stop pretending it's some new technique to dumb down your part in learning your instrument. Calling it "Efficency" is just living in denial.

-eSmith.

I am digging your posts! Glad to see someone else saying the things that I think about as well!

 

[zachoff]

I already know why people do it. I just know it isn't required. There are no songs that cannot be played in standard tuning. All that the guys doing this are accomplishing is to relocate the notes under each fret. This isn't a complicated concept.

-eSmith.

I'll freely admit that it's easier to play our songs on a dropped 4 string. We write them that way.

What I don't understand is your staunch aversion to making things easier. If a song is easier to play you're more apt to be able to concentrate on other things like singing (in my case), rocking the f out (in my case), and bewbage.

 

[Febs]

I don't know where I said there was an advantage to just playing one bass for all those- I said that's the tunings we play. So I don't understand your question and how that correlates to how many basses I have on stage since I didn't say it. My bass is set up to handle mainly drop C- that means I can play D std no problem (dropped C comes up to dropped D, just one step up, no biggie) as well as C std (my bass and strings can go an extra step down on the ADG strings and again, no issue). So that's how my detuned 5'er fits 'em all. Never said tuning wasn't required...

And I meant C std. is 2 down from E, so how would just a Hipshot detune my B, A, D, G strings also?

OK, I see where the misunderstanding is. Let's start again.

Your earlier post mentioned D standard (D G C F), C standard (C F Bb Eb), and drop C (C G C F).

Let's say I set up my 4 string P bass for D standard. I have a Hipshot on that bass, so just by flipping the lever, I could switch from D standard to drop C. This would allow me to have two of the three tunings you mentioned immediately accessible, with no need to retune on stage or switch basses.

As my earlier post in this thread should make clear, I understand why you would find an advantage to having the low C string if a song called for it. But what advantage is there to retuning the bass to C standard for certain songs rather than the setup that I described?

 

[eSmith]

Sorry Burl, until I see your recorded version of Giant Steps played in dropped tuning you are dead to me..... If I was a hudderite, I would call it shunning....... Come on, I've given you a simple thing to do......

Now stop trolling. You prove YOUR points, I'll prove MINE.

-eSmith.

 

[zachoff]

Sorry Burl, until I see your recorded version of Giant Steps played in dropped tuning you are dead to me..... If I was a hudderite, I would call it shunning....... Come on, I've given you a simple thing to do......

Now stop trolling. You prove YOUR points, I'll prove MINE.

-eSmith.

Apples and oranges, man. I sincerely doubt that Giant Steps was written on or for a drop tuned bass.

 

[Burlington]

Sorry Burl, until I see your recorded version of Giant Steps played in dropped tuning you are dead to me..... If I was a hudderite, I would call it shunning....... Come on, I've given you a simple thing to do......

Now stop trolling. You prove YOUR points, I'll prove MINE.

-eSmith.

Do you mean "hutterite"?
I think he's gone senile folks....

 

[billhilly66]

Yeah but I bet his keyboard was configured for QWERTY and not an 'alternate' configuration like Dvorac.