Bassist4Eris
Frat-Pack Sympathizer
I had a drummer who tuned his kick to E, and his three toms to A, D, and G. I kid you not.
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dumbest thing i have ever heard
- Thread starter remainthesame
- Start date
I had a drummer who tuned his kick to E, and his three toms to A, D, and G. I kid you not.
Bassist4Eris
Frat-Pack Sympathizer
To my ear, about the same as tuning the drums any other way. But he liked doing it, and it didn't cause any issues, so hey, let him have his fun, right? I didn't even know he was doing it until he pointed it out.
- Oct 7, 2000
- 18,619
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- Endorsing artist: Musicman basses
Hmm...
I want to play devils advocate, and not jump on the hate wagon with ya'll, but I have to admit, it's tough... trying to decifer exactly what the dude said.
My 1st guess is that spell check got in the way of that sentence. But I can't figure out how.
My 2nd guess is the OP misunderstood, or is misquoting.
My 3rd and only guess in defense of the singer possibly actually saying that, is the possibility that they've got some real riffy stuff going on, and that they know from experience that it can't be pulled off in any kind of standard tuning. Not too hard to see something like that cramping a bassist up. I can imagine some dude thinking he's god on bass trying to play something impossible in standard tuning - and killing the groove, vibe, and even presence of a band.
Lastly, people like to attack bands that are image or "presence" conscious, yet they can both be a necessity, AND, even more important than anything else, depending on what the band is aiming for. If they're clear on what they want, good for them. Let them find it. I've done my share of putting square pegs in round holes. Too much work, and it always winds up looking stupid in the end.
PS: In a not too often posted video of a band I played with for a while, I'm playing standard tuning to I'm not even sure what they tuned to. Drop C maybe? I believe I made it work. It's a live recording that I think was kinda cool:
I want to play devils advocate, and not jump on the hate wagon with ya'll, but I have to admit, it's tough... trying to decifer exactly what the dude said.
My 1st guess is that spell check got in the way of that sentence. But I can't figure out how.
My 2nd guess is the OP misunderstood, or is misquoting.
My 3rd and only guess in defense of the singer possibly actually saying that, is the possibility that they've got some real riffy stuff going on, and that they know from experience that it can't be pulled off in any kind of standard tuning. Not too hard to see something like that cramping a bassist up. I can imagine some dude thinking he's god on bass trying to play something impossible in standard tuning - and killing the groove, vibe, and even presence of a band.
Lastly, people like to attack bands that are image or "presence" conscious, yet they can both be a necessity, AND, even more important than anything else, depending on what the band is aiming for. If they're clear on what they want, good for them. Let them find it. I've done my share of putting square pegs in round holes. Too much work, and it always winds up looking stupid in the end.
PS: In a not too often posted video of a band I played with for a while, I'm playing standard tuning to I'm not even sure what they tuned to. Drop C maybe? I believe I made it work. It's a live recording that I think was kinda cool:
Yeah, maybe just try it once and if it sucks, no real harm. But if you don't give it a shot, who knows what you might miss?
Fairly common actually. DW drums actually stamp a note on the inside of the shell because that's the optimal note that the shell resonates at.
I have a percussionist who does this with his congas and retunes them for every song—or at least he tries to.
Fortunately, he is good enough to indulge him a little bit, but it does drive everybody crazy, and you don't really hear the difference until he points it out, but he's important enough to the sound that we have to go along—to an extent.
I played in a band where they freaked out because one of my basses had a reverse headstock.
To be fair, audiences definitely left bars immediately when they noticed that the bass was upside down. Then they came back and tried to burn my sacrilegious piece of equipment up.
If there's any possible reason i could think of that would make sense for tuning exactly to drop db it would be because of the string tension difference so only you low string has that floppy sound. I remember one time me and some guys i know were trying to start a band but we broke up before it started because the guitarist kept insisting on tuning to drop c with light strings so it sounded like an old rubber band. I really just couldn't deal with that and everyone we asked said it sounded terrible too.
Just snap yourself in line and get with the program, why don't you come over to his side for the big win!I played in a band where they freaked out because one of my basses had a reverse headstock.
To be fair, audiences definitely left bars immediately when they noticed that the bass was upside down. Then they came back and tried to burn my sacrilegious piece of equipment up.
You had the most knowledgeable and attentive audience EVER!
I think you need to talk to the entire band, and clear that up. I think the singer is confused. That's a common occurrence among singers when they start talking about instruments, tunings, theory, etc. Some are knowledgeable, some are not.
