This thread was sparked by an argument I overheard at the Guitar Center yesterday. A player bought some strings and wanted his instrument set up for "Drop C" and the Guitar Center tech tuned it to C standard, not understanding what the customer meant. That and my stupid guitarists have decided they want to play in Drop-B and I only have a 4 string at the moment.... will hopefully be ordering my Lakland DJ5 early next month.
This was a great discussion of drop tuning. HOWEVER, left unsaid were the negative reasons for doing this. First of all is it comes from the (negative) influence of guitarists! Let me say that there ARE valid reasons for drop-tunings, various standard tunings, and even open tunings on a guitar. A guitar is a totally different instrument where usually multiple strings (chords) are played at once. Variations in tunings can be a big help with difficult situations.
Typically these reasons do not apply to a bass. A bass usually plays one note at a time. Plus as pointed out, the high tension of bass strings leads to changes in neck bow with changes in string tension much more so than a guitar. And even worse the low frequencies of the strings makes them operate just barely into the region of decent tone so tuning down needs heavier strings to maintain tone (as mentioned).
And it gets still worse. Since a bass is tuned across the range in 4ths (guitars are not. That "b" string messes it all up) it allows you to move the patterns of scales etc. both up and down the neck as well as from side to side from string to string. Once you drop-tune a string (lowest) all that nice pattern shifting ability is gone. You have to learn a new scale (pattern) for each key etc. if a switch to another string is needed to get range.
The bottom line is that "drop-tuning" or even lowered standard tuning makes little sense for a bass. And that is especially true since there are now "real"* basses that can purchased that solve all these problems at once!
* all "real" basses have 5 or more strings.
With a 5 or 6 string bass, you have all the range you need and even better it's concentrated at one spot in the neck. You don't have to detune to get extended range so neck tension does not change so neck adjustments are not needed. And since strings retain original tension they don't have to be increased in gauge to maintain tone.
What the resistance is to a 5 or 6 string bass I'll never understand. Hey, if you are playing music that doesn't need the extra range then a 4 is all you need and more power to ya. But once you need that range, guitarist-style detuning is a crazy way to get it. So lets give Pablomigraine a big round of applause for coming to his senses in time with a Lakland DJ5. (An excellent choice by the way!)
