Have you ever tuned AEADG?

[Riff Ranger]

Technically AbEbAbDbGb but close enough. I liked it enough that it eventually morphed into GCGCF. While I’m all about tuning low, playing any two intervals other than octaves that low will sound more like a sound effect than a chord. Above A1—your middle string in the tuning you’re contemplating—root-fifth power chords start to work.

 

[micguy]

My brain works much better when the strings are all tuned in 4ths - I've tried downtuning the lowest string, but it really doesn't work for me.

By the way, if you're gonna do that, the floppy B string (which is a string issue, not a bass issue) is gonna be even worse tuned to A. To misquote Jaws, you're gonna need a bigger...string.

 

[J Wilson]

No. And tabs are useless to me.

 

[lowfreqgeek]

I don't have a D-tuner on any B-strings (would that be an A-tuner?), but I have down-tuned a B to A on certain occasions where I needed that low A note. Not a big deal going back and forth as I also use D-tuners on most of my 4-strings. It's not a regular thing for me, but just another tool for when it's needed.

 

[VeryTallBassist]

I tune ADADG in my band. The guitarist uses drop D and this is an easier tuning for me to match him with.

 

[Chrisk-K]

Chris Squire tuned his Tobias AEADG.

 

[Riff Ranger]

I tune ADADG in my band. The guitarist uses drop D and this is an easier tuning for me to match him with.

I’m more or less matching Drop-C with the same rationale in my case, although I’m my own guitarist at the moment

 

[Jim McCaslin]

I say tune to whatever you think works/sounds best. I'm tuned to ADGCF every Sunday unless we're playing a bunch in Ab, then I'll go another half step down. That said I changed the B-string on all my basses to a .145, and that thing's good down to a C. It's a log, but sounds great.

 

[Gigas444]

tried in the past many drop tunings, but got back to "all in fourth" I found the "traditional finger positions much more confortable, even when I search for ninth I feel better with the "old way" than the drop one

 

[el murdoque]

Love all the info guys, I have an Ibanez SR406 with a 34” neck. Currently tuned to BEADGB. I would like to drop it an octave or so for a “dirty pop” vibe.

Just for your info: dropping the low B for another octave would land you one note below C0, at 15Hz for your fundamental. This note does not really exist, because people already have trouble hearing 16 Hz as a note, it's more like a vibration to most. Getting that audible would require a rather large stack of special gear (the most powerful subwoofers you can find), plus a bass that has an extended scale length plus strings that can swing that.

You might want to look at a Meatbox pedal to get a scope of what is possible and take it from there.

 

[Tommygun_ted]

It got mentioned earlier but I wanted to throw my two cents in. On guitar, drop tuning to play power chords is easier, but I find it much harder playing a power chords on a bass with one finger. If you're just trying to hit the root and the octave, practice. Changing tunings as a shortcut will turn you into a lazy player. I've played with guitarist who can't play chords without drop tuning and it's a red flag for me. Obviously there are loads of great songs written in drop tunings, just don't use them as a crutch. The lowest I've tuned is C# on a 4 string, so still higher than your average 5 string, but I would suggest looking into DR DDT strings, maybe a heavy set. I love them for lower tunings. They've got a lot of tension so they don't feel floppy and they're nice and clear.

 

[Jogobass]

I love it, but I hate the disruption in location of the notes. But for some songs it can work really well. It's the lowest note of a default piano and not all that far from the B note. Yes, your speaker will roll off some of it but that will not mean that it isn't there. Sounds mighty to me. Full power fundamentals might become too boomy as well in that range. You can always add a bit of EQ boost if you want to make it fatter. Just don't exceed the limits of your amp system.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Has anybody ever done this? What was the result?

Long story short - I'm still a rookie, but a saw a tab video where somebody played a Type O Negative song using a lot of chords, but they were basically all "octave" chords, where you play the root note and the octave above it (presumably by muting the string between the two. (I'm a huge TON fan.)

But if you dropped to A, you cold play the 1-5-Octave chord much easier, right? Seems like this would work pretty well for that situation, no?

Yeah, drop A. It's not a problem at all. Go for it

 

[80jazz]

I tried it on a couple of basses, but didn't like the low-end response on those instruments. I suspect a Dingwall would get it just fine, but I dont have one.

This is why I went with tried it and it was OK. I'd give it another shot on a different 5-string.

 

[Medicine Man]

As long as you have some decent amplification and enough cab it will be fine.

 

[ga_edwards]

Never done it myself but it's the 5 string equivalent of drop D so it's not a particularly outside the box idea.
The gotchas I see are that the bass you're doing this with better have a spectacular B-string to start with and (as mentioned above) A-0 is 27.5 Hz which is well into the roll off of most bass cabs.

I hate to be "that guy", but even the standard E string's fundamental is into most bass cabs roll-off (even the mighty ampeg 8x10 starts rolling off around 100hz). You don't really hear the fundamental frequencies of the lower notes, but the second and third order etc harmonics.

 

[Jim McCaslin]

That said I changed the B-string on all my basses to a .145, and that thing's good down to a C. It's a log, but sounds great.

Sorry, I was thinking in 4-string. I meant a low G, not a low C.

But now I want to try it for some reason.

 

[AHaze]

I hate to be "that guy", but even the standard E string's fundamental is into most bass cabs roll-off (even the mighty ampeg 8x10 starts rolling off around 100hz). You don't really hear the fundamental frequencies of the lower notes, but the second and third order etc harmonics.

Yes, I should have said something more like "well below the -3db point in the response curve". Even the second order harmonic of an A0 is pushing what some cabs can realistically do.