• 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.

NBD: Why is a 4 string tuned standard EADG and not BEAD ?

EADG or BEAD

  • EADG

    Votes: 43 68.3%

  • BEAD

    Votes: 20 31.7%
  • Total voters
    63
#201
Trouztrouz said:
Because that's how uprights were tuned.
Click to expand...
Exactly. The bass guitar was conceived as an electric alternative to the double-bass, which is tuned EADG. Orchestral music often requires the double-bass to play notes below bottom E which is why many basses are fitted with a C-extension. This requirement became more common in the late Romantic period and into the 20th Century and today a lot of professional double-bassists (especially in Europe) play five-string basses tuned BEADG or CEADG.
 
#203
...my head is spinning with all of this...

Upright = EADG low to high (B extension)

Cello = CGDA low to high

Spanish Guitar = EADGBE

Electric Bass = (B) EADG (C)

Chapman Stick/Warr Guitar ??????????

Synth = Below D

Upright = HUGE/ Hard to Hear

Amplification = Bass is hard to reproduce

Electric Bass = you can feel the difference!

Subterrainian tunings in popular music means the Bass goes down lower!

But, in my experience, the D-tuner makes the most sense with a .110 E string in the majority of music.

HOWEVER...I do favor a BEAD tuning, with appropriate string gauges, because a writers music requires it and its easier to riff with a guitarist, and its MORE BASS! (I also have a rig that can hang with those freq's!!)

10-4?
 
Last edited:
#207
So I have recently ventured into some interesting territory. A lot of todays music is using some serious low end but I'm not especially fond of 5 or 6 string basses though I have owned a good number of them. After back surgery I had a need to lighten the load so I strung my newly acquired Empress bass BEAD and used it that way for over a year. I finally grew tired of this arrangement and swapped back to EADG. I purchased the discontinued DOD Meatbox Sub Harmonic Pedal and keep it on all the time with it blended in at 15 percent so I'm able to keep subs moving at a good clip while maintaining my favorite 4 string playing style.
 
#209
I'm just throwing this out. But, I tend to think EADG tuning had as much to do with reproducing the recording on the equipment of the day. Most home playback was on a record player or mono speakers from AM radio (the most popular format...according to my way-back machine) or other lo-fi. Anything in the lower freq. tended to "muddy" the sound. The best stereos of the day were WAY to expensive for the mass consumer. But then again...I've been wrong before :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Anders Barfod
#210
diehard70 said:
I'm just throwing this out. But, I tend to think EADG tuning had as much to do with reproducing the recording on the equipment of the day. Most home playback was on a record player or mono speakers from AM radio (the most popular format...according to my way-back machine) or other lo-fi. Anything in the lower freq. tended to "muddy" the sound. The best stereos of the day were WAY to expensive for the mass consumer. But then again...I've been wrong before :)
Click to expand...

Just, what would be the point?
 
#213
IamGroot said:
Yes, but actually it was the guy paying me who was the aging traditionalist. If I was more in tune with the younger audience, Id probably get some tats and dye my hair purple.
Click to expand...

You do what you gotta do for his gig, but conclusions drawn from their preferences won't generally apply anywhere outside their little retirement universe.

I wish I was more tuned in to the younger crowd. They seem to have some good stuff going on, hidden beneath the crap, just like we did.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back