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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
#41
C extensions have been std on 4 string URBs for centuries (?).

Truth be told, going lower than E or D tends to put the general publics teeth on edge and sounds harsh on the piano and leaves a gap in the band. Gospel spends a lotta time in the cellar, but that is a unique style.

Shred metal going to low A ... no comment.
 
#42
My thoughts: The 51 Precision was designed to let a 6 string guitar player pick up an electric bass and play the bass part. Precision has to do with the fact that it was fretted and not fretless like a double bass that was the standard bass instrument of the day. The neck was only 34" instead of the 41.3 – 43.3 inch aircraft carrier neck of the double bass. A decent guitar player could with a little practice play the bass part with this new bass which was tuned EADG just like the 1st 4 strings of his guitar. That is why 4 string basses are traditionally tuned EADG. I think Alembic made the 1st 5 string BEADG custom bass. My 1st 5 string was a used entry level Ibanez back in 1992. I've been playing 5'ers eversense. I did have a short affair with a 6 string but, I couldn't figure out what to do with that dang C string.
 
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#43
Killed_by_Death said:
The history of the electric bass part four: how many strings? | MusicRadar

"The first time a bass guitar received more than four strings was when Danelectro introduced the UB-2 bass as early as 1956."

It was 6-string, though:

View attachment 2888928
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jnewmark said:
And also used at the beginning of " La Bamba ", by Ritchie Vallens. Not to mention, a lot of Duane Eddy songs.
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I am not sure if the danelectro is even considered a bass, most of the info I've read says it's a baritone guitar.
 
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#47
My take on playing bass,
While some play uprights tuned in fifths, the length of the strings makes it harder to play an instrument tuned in fifths, to me it makes sense that bg is tuned in fourths and it's tuning follows the big brother.
Guitar techniques work on bg, but not so much on dbs.
 
#48
40Hz said:
I really don’t think it would have. Music didn’t radically change when modern low-B 5-string basses came out and amp and speaker technology was finally able to handle the lower range. It was just incorporated into our regular music and became another resource. Bass isn’t going to cause a seismic shift in musical direction like the advent of the electric guitar or the synths did. It’s just not that kind of instrument. People can “push the envelope” if they like. And it’s good they do. But at the end of the day, the bass still has its critical role to play. And that hasn’t really changed that much despite all the new tech that’s come along. The core role and function of the bass line in a piece of music endures. It is what it is.
Click to expand...

If Fender Pbass was tuned BEAD from the beginning, what was played on the bass would've been different and not cause as much shifting as someone tuning his bass BEAD and play in some cover band.
 
#51
Clef_de_fa said:
If Fender Pbass was tuned BEAD from the beginning, what was played on the bass would've been different and not cause as much shifting as someone tuning his bass BEAD and play in some cover band.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately we’ll have no way of ever really knowing will we? We can speculate all we like. But there’s no way to predict with any degree of accuracy how the musical universe would or wouldn’t have changed if one thing was just a little different.

So it’s an interesting speculation and argument. But that doesn’t make it a given. It might have been just as likely that with the state of bass amplification back then, the results would have been less than ideal and the bass guitar abandoned and ultimately seen as an experiment that failed. So maybe it’s just as likely the upright would have remained the bass instrument of choice had BEAD been how Fender tuned his first basses.

Aren’t alternate histories fun to spin? :)
 
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#52
5 string Basses are very popular in Europe (beadg)
Extensions are favored by the Americans. ([C] EADG)
The Canadians seem to want to follow Joel Quarrington and tune in fifths (cgda)

I've never heard of having a five string bass with an exention....
ShowKing said:
5 string upright isn't too uncommon. They used them in orchestral music depending on the piece. More commonly with high C and they would add low extensions to the E string by the headstock for lower notes.[/QUOTE
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#54
Back in the day, you'd be doing nothing except replacing speakers! They couldn't take a legitimate B string, let alone an E. I think I read somewhere that Leo built the Jazz because so many guys were blowing their 2x12 bassman cabs.
 
#55
Jaco who? said:
Because with BEAD, it's a pain in the *** to shift up and down the neck?
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Only if you're playing it wrong.

I play a five-string mainly because I get sick of sliding up and down the neck on a regular 34" scale, which I don't find very ergonomic. Turns out, I can minimize discomfort when shifting by hovering around the 4th-8th frets, where I do the majority of my playing. Sure, I play a five string, but I don't play on the G string all that much. I could totally do all day on a BEAD bass and my fingers wouldn't be tired.
 
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#56
IamGroot said:
C extensions have been std on 4 string URBs for centuries (?).

Truth be told, going lower than E or D tends to put the general publics teeth on edge and sounds harsh on the piano and leaves a gap in the band. Gospel spends a lotta time in the cellar, but that is a unique style.

Shred metal going to low A ... no comment.
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I don't know what you're trying to say about popular tastes. I mean, let's go down the list of current genres as they are commonly played today, and what that says about notes lower than E or D.

Gospel: You already said it.

Country: No matter what you might think about bro country and current pop country, fact remains that current trends favor a bass that can play low.

Pop: Obviously, pop music embraces low notes.

Rap and Hip Hop: Do I even need to talk about this?

Jazz: 5-string players, and therefore, low notes, are common.

Rock: Drop C# tuning and lower tunings are pretty common, even among bands that don't exactly have metal leanings, we're talking anywhere from Nirvana to Paramore to Jimmy Eat World.

Metal: Duh.

So what evidence is there that backs up your point that "going lower than E or D tends to put the general publics teeth on edge"? Yes, most players are 4-string players, but it seems like every genre has plenty of examples of bass notes that get lower than E and D.
 
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#57
honeyiscool said:
Only if you're playing it wrong.

I play a five-string mainly because I get sick of sliding up and down the neck on a regular 34" scale, which I don't find very ergonomic. Turns out, I can minimize discomfort when shifting by hovering around the 4th-8th frets, where I do the majority of my playing. Sure, I play a five string, but I don't play on the G string all that much. I could totally do all day on a BEAD bass and my fingers wouldn't be tired.
Click to expand...

You know, this shouldn't bother me, but for some reason it does - since I know nothing of your technique/ability, and you know nothing of mine, musical genre preferences, etc, chances are we both play it differently because we both approach the instrument differently. Congratulations on knowing so much about me from reading one stupid sentence though - you must be psychic.
 
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