Guitar detuning to D: what are my options?

[NOLA Bass]

I was in a band that tuned to D for years. Used a standard scale 34" scale bass with a slightly heavier set of strings (50-110). No issues. When we dropped to C, I had to go to a 35" scale bass to be happier.

You may want to try the La Bella Drop Tune Series strings. They work really well when tuning down.

I think the short scale bass will be an issue though.

 

[socialleper]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but given the context of the OP, the above doesn't make sense(to me)... For starters, much of the music he's talking about playing was actually written with the 5 string bass in mind... Next, taken to it's logical conclusion, would you also only play a 4 string for songs written with an open E in mind?

What I gathered is that he has a 5 but is still learning to play it, and that the songs were written with a D tuning.
I tune my bass to whatever the guitar is so I don't have to tie myself in knots transposing things. Also, knowing guitar players, they are going to hop back forth to whatever their lowest open not is a lot. So while I could potentially use a 5 string BEADG bass for our drop C tuning, it would be such a hassle that tuning a four string CGCF is much easier. When we play songs that they have a drop B tuning for (BADG etc, no E) I use either a 5 string or a 4 string tuned BEAD. I sort of prefer the 4 string.

 

[TrevorR]

Simple - it is a fact that the music they played didn't require it as playing much of today's music *accurately* does...

Never understood the obsession with cloning the bass line where it's not a fundamental distinctive of the tune. Makes no sense and has no necessity for me. So The Chain by Fleetwood Mac, of course I will play it note for note. That instrumental section bass line IS the song. Addicted To Love? Note for note.. Black Crows version of Too Hard To Handle? Maggie May? I'll play the line recognisably as the line but if there are extra passing notes, small variations, if I go up where he goes down... life's too short to care. No one in the audience will care or have a less entertaining experience for that variation.

Let's face it, Lee Sklar played Jameson's lines soooooo wrong when James Taylor covered How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You... it's still a killer version and still one (in fact, two) of my favourite bass lines ever!

 

[Ralph124C41]

Just got back from my local guitar shop (dad-and-son). The dad is known locally as a blues player while the son is a bassist. I asked the son his advice because he has played in modern country bands and started with a four stringer.

His choices were: (in order)
1. A five-string
2. A bass that has one string more than the current four-stringer
c. A ...oh, forget my attempts at humor. He said "five string five string five string five string."

He has done setups on my main bass (but not the five stringer) and most of my electric guitars and I've never had a problem with him in the years I've used his services.

Btw, they just got back recently from the big summer show at Philadelphia and had a bunch of great guitars, including some nice 5-string basses.

 

[NOLA Bass]

Just got back from my local guitar shop (dad-and-son). The dad is known locally as a blues player while the son is a bassist. I asked the son his advice because he has played in modern country bands and started with a four stringer.

His choices were: (in order)
1. A five-string
2. A bass that has one string more than the current four-stringer
c. A ...oh, forget my attempts at humor. He said "five string five string five string five string."

He has done setups on my main bass (but not the five stringer) and most of my electric guitars and I've never had a problem with him in the years I've used his services.

Btw, they just got back recently from the big summer show at Philadelphia and had a bunch of great guitars, including some nice 5-string basses.

My guess is it is probably easier to do this in country. Playing metal, I'd probably lose my mind trying to transpose the riffs our guitarist writes. So, I guess it could really depend on the material.

 

[Gearhead17]

There really is no law against tuning the 4th string to D on a 5 string bass. For certain songs, it's just easier to play like this.

Heck, I tune my 5 string A# C#F# BE. I ignore the A# and play normally. When doing Black Sabbath tunes, I find it easier to play like this. It also sounds better because you playing the same octave as the recording. To me, that matters a lot.

 

[mesaplayer83]

Never understood the obsession with cloning the bass line where it's not a fundamental distinctive of the tune. Makes no sense and has no necessity for me. So The Chain by Fleetwood Mac, of course I will play it note for note. That instrumental section bass line IS the song. Addicted To Love? Note for note.. Black Crows version of Too Hard To Handle? Maggie May? I'll play the line recognisably as the line but if there are extra passing notes, small variations, if I go up where he goes down... life's too short to care. No one in the audience will care or have a less entertaining experience for that variation.

Let's face it, Lee Sklar played Jameson's lines soooooo wrong when James Taylor covered How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You... it's still a killer version and still one (in fact, two) of my favourite bass lines ever!

Agree to disagree on that - as someone who plays in fairly successful cover bands, and stays as busy as he wants to be, I have to attribute at least some of that to actually playing the songs *as written*...

 

[ptooner]

I'm sure I'm missing something here, but I can't imagine what different it makes how the guitar player tunes his instrument? Let's face it, many players (keyboard for instance) are not going to change their tuning when the guitar player does. Why should the bass player? Perhaps it's just that I never try to duplicate someone else's playing exactly. If I were doing that they wouldn't need a musician, a computer could do it much better. Perhaps I should mention that I'm not a guitar player, I play bass or keyboard so perhaps my perspective is different.

 

[jimfist]

If the extents of the low notes you need to cover can be handled by simple Drop-D, then I'd get a Hipshot D-tuner and use it however and whenever you feel it is necessary. It keeps you in the comfort zone of standard tuning for the majority of songs, and allows you to drop when necessary, very quickly. Otherwise, it sounds like a 5 stringer is the way to go, if you plan on copping bass parts that go down to low B.

 

[FuturePrimitive]

not capos or detuners..imho.

I'm guilty of all these grievances, on a 5 string no less! Capo when I need an open Eb and my hand is too slow to keep it smooth otherwise (operator issue I admit), drop D for Tool songs, B string for every other song that needs a low B-Eb.

There really is no law against tuning the 4th string to D on a 5 string bass. For certain songs, it's just easier to play like this.

Yep, I tried but there's just no way I can play 46&2 in standard on a 5er.

I feel like the OPs question has been thoroughly answered but I'll just pile on, go with the 5 string. I tried playing both 4 & 5 together, switching basses between songs when I needed to. Ultimately it's just not worth it and I just dumped my 4 string and went exclusively 5 string basses. My main band plays in a lot of different tunings and the 5er makes it easy, I can just learn the song in standard no matter how it was written (except for a few songs as mentioned above). Another band I occasionally sub for plays a lot of stuff in alt keys so a 5er makes it easy for me to transpose these.

 

[musicman7722]

Yesterday I got accepted into a start-up new country/classic rock band. The guitarist tuns down to D. So to quickly learn the songs needed for the tryout I just detuned my short-scale bass to D. It got me though enough to land the post but I really didn't like how my bass sounded, especially on that almost floppy D string.

Now that I am accepted and can properly learn the songs how would you folks suggest I do to get the optimal sound for our gigs. I see my options are:

1) Just do what I did as the short-scale, semi-hollow is my go-to bass.
2) Use one of my regular-scale basses, also tuned to D. I understand the tension would be higher and so the "floppiness" may be less.
3) Tune in E, and learn the songs and just adjust for the tuning differences. That's fine but I will lose some of those lower notes.
4) Tune in E but use drop D tuning. It will be hard at first as I have only played out that way on a few songs. If I do this would, as in No. 2, it best to use my regular-scale basses. I don't have any long-scale basses.
5) Finally get around to learning how to play my 5-string bass. I've had it for several years and I've never played out with it or done much with it, except to get it repaired. (It has active pickups and the thing was always "on" even with the cable out.

Also I wonder if maybe just a string change may help. On my short scale I am using some La Bella Deep-Talking flats with an E strong of .105. I think they are sometimes called low tension strings but I don't know.

On my others I have D'addario Chromes flats in medium gauge, Fender flats in medium gauge. I forget what I have on my 5-string but they are either Chromes or D'Addario halfrounds or whatever they are called. I also have an Ibanez Iceman with non-flats; I think they may be medium gauge Boomers but I don't remember.

Sorry for being so wordy but I have never come across this problem before.

I use a Digitech Drop.

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Here is my review.