Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
How low
- Thread starter WhoCares
- Start date
I'd do D standard (DGCF) or A standard on the 5 (ADGCF) - any heavy or medium-heavy five string set should do that. If you really wanted to do "drop G" (GDGCF) then you might need a .140+ string from Kalium, and drill out you bridge and all that. I think drop G tuning makes sense in this band, because you have the two open g strings to play the riffs on in two different octaves. Something weirder like GDGDG or GDGDA might also make sense, but that's a big commitment for one band.
I'll just tell you, I played in drop A for years in various projects, including metal, and I didn't play that low string very much. Tones below D are more like sound effects for occasional emphasis, it's not very musical to live down there.
I'll just tell you, I played in drop A for years in various projects, including metal, and I didn't play that low string very much. Tones below D are more like sound effects for occasional emphasis, it's not very musical to live down there.
Were I you I'd just offer to rent them a boss LS-2 and a bass amp to plug the ggguitar into and just play synth/noises for them.
Might not help but you could fire the drummer?
Or you could flick the guitarist in the forehead and tell them to tune normally.
Or you could play higher tension strings. But at some point tuning that way leads to scale issues.
Or you could flick the guitarist in the forehead and tell them to tune normally.
Or you could play higher tension strings. But at some point tuning that way leads to scale issues.
I would NOT be changing my tuning just because the guitarist is tuning to an open G. He does that so he can easily play a G-chord with open strings and a simple 1-finger bar across all the strings will allow him to move up form G to G# to A to A# to B to C, etc. Probably the most famous user of "open -G tuning" is Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones. It does also allow for some different sounds to the chords because where the notes are located can change the overall sound of the chord. But you will be playing notes, not chords! It's also a very useful tuning to use for slide guitar where the slide is usually a metal or glass tube over your third or your little finger.
But you are not going to be playing chords or slide guitar leads, so there's no advantage to that. And attempting to play chords down low will just sound like rumble and mud. If you want to play chords, buy a 6-string bass that has a high C string. Instead of chords, you will be playing individual notes! And you don't need to change your tuning nor learn new ways to play scales, arpeggios, and pentatonics. You can play all of those just as you always have and play it in G or whatever key with no problem. The problem I run into when playing with someone in drop G tuning is that I can no longer easily glance at their hands to see what chord they're playing.
IMO, there is no need for your to tune to anything other than BEADG with your 5-string. YMMV
JeezyMcNuggles
Inactive
- Feb 23, 2018
- 14,723
- 20,970
- Disclosures
- I suck, but nobody really notices
Why are they tuning G D?
I always tuned GCGCF
They're tuning is weird as hell. Plus, their two top strings are the same note. Worthless.
Your best option depends on you and your style of learning/playing. If you're constantly looking at the guitarist to pick up licks and roots, having a tuning that mirrors the guitars might be a good idea. If you know your way around a standard tuned-to-fourths bass with your eyes closed and are learning material by ear or charts, changing tuning might not be such an obviously good idea. When my band of a few years ago wanted to do a set of material in drop-D, at first I just kept playing my EADG 4-string, modifying and transposing parts as necessary, but in the end some passages just weren't right without the B or D below E. So I switched to a 5er, BEADG, for everything.
I fear you may be in a similar situation with your guitarist's GGDGDB, especially if they work the open G strings a lot. If it was me, I'd experiment with a GCFBbEb (which becomes a BEADG with an imaginary capo on the 4th fret), so all your usual scale and chord patterns are the same, but you can get down to those low G roots as appropriate. To get to that kind of stringing, I'd start out with a set of lightish gauge standard 5er strings, set aside the G string, install the others one course further up than they would normally be, and see if I couldn't order a custom low G string of the same brand as the other 5. A truss rod adjustment and some nut filing may prove to be necessary to actually make it work.
I fear you may be in a similar situation with your guitarist's GGDGDB, especially if they work the open G strings a lot. If it was me, I'd experiment with a GCFBbEb (which becomes a BEADG with an imaginary capo on the 4th fret), so all your usual scale and chord patterns are the same, but you can get down to those low G roots as appropriate. To get to that kind of stringing, I'd start out with a set of lightish gauge standard 5er strings, set aside the G string, install the others one course further up than they would normally be, and see if I couldn't order a custom low G string of the same brand as the other 5. A truss rod adjustment and some nut filing may prove to be necessary to actually make it work.
One-finger power chords is my bet. It's like two pairs of drop-tuned strings.
JeezyMcNuggles
Inactive
- Feb 23, 2018
- 14,723
- 20,970
- Disclosures
- I suck, but nobody really notices
That's what I had going. Two octaves of drop C, and an F. I was actually tuned to drop C, and just threw that extra G in there as an octave because low low G sounds a lot better than low low F/F#. It keeps it tighter, and let's it retain a little tone.
Edit: nm. I thought the Ds were Bs.
They're in drop G
^^^ This. As a bassist, you only need to play the correct notes - it does not matter where they are located on the fingerboard or how your bass is tuned - as long as you can play the necessary notes.
But a BEADG bass won't be able to play the G, G#, A, and A# below the B in the same way that the OP's guitarists can. Yes, you can transpose just those notes, or the whole part (been there, done that, for drop-D with an EADG 4-string), and on SOME songs it even improves things. But it often somewhat guts the feeling of the big low notes.
Not sure how low this is (I've never played along with it) but it is a Jazz Bass, albeit a 4-stringer.
Might be worth a look in this thread, though it hasn't been active in a while
Downtuning Mega-Thread
Downtuning Mega-Thread
G0 at 1:45
And he keeps going lower to 7.83 Hz. I don't see where he mentions which strings are used.
And he keeps going lower to 7.83 Hz. I don't see where he mentions which strings are used.
Go tune a 6 string guitar, DOWN to G on the E string, then down to G on the A string, let me know how that works for you. (the E string will probably fall out of the saddle unless they're using the B string from a 7 string pack.. which would still be kind of floppy)
They're likely tuning the E string up to G, the A string down to G, both are G2. It's just an open tuning.
DGCFA# would put him in the ballpark while maintaining a bass tuned in 4ths.
But standard BEADG is absolutely doable.
A standard tuned 5 string is capable of going as low as B0, when you play the first "G" on bass going from low to high it's a G1. Where these guitars are likely tuned to G2
The numbers are in relation to octaves on a piano btw.
He just needs to be able to hear, or find out the chord progressions and transpose them to his instrument.
Last edited:
Hmm... I'm not disagreeing - just trying to think this through.
- On a 4 string bass with standard tuning, the open E string is E1, and on a 5 string bass, the open B string is B0. So a G0 is about 24Hz and at the border of being outside the human audible frequency range. Even if it is possible, I'm not sure why the band would want the bass to play that note since a percentage of the audience likely won't hear it.
- As a 4 string player, I know that (depending on string gauge) you can drop-tune to D1 and even C1, which is 2 whole tones. I'm not a 5 string player, but can't a 5 string also be drop-tuned 2 whole tones to G0? If yes, then an option would be to drop-tune the B string instead of the entire bass.
- Since a 6 string guitar is an octave above bass, even when the guitars are tuned down to G2, the normal G1 (third fret on E string standard tuning) on bass is still an octave lower.
Last edited:
It's one of the great fallacies of bass guitar amplification that the fundamental needs to be heard for a note to be correctly perceived. Not much bass gear really produces even B0 fundamentals, but the brain reconstructs the pitch from the higher partials.
I've generally found that detuning that far makes my E string unpleasantly floppy, but with the right kind of strings that might be an option, especially if you need to go back and forth between tunings.
If you want to go super-fat for super-low without going the Kalium route, Rotosound, GHS, and Warwick all make .17ish strings. Might want to play around with an HPF to de-sludgify things (assuming you don't want sludge).
Latest posts
-
Need recommendation on Preamp Pedal with DI, EQ, Compressor and Overdrive- Latest: chiphaleonbass
-
-
-
-
