Need Advice On Strings

[micguy]

In no universe is adding an extra string simpler than tuning down half a step.

If you have perfect pitch, playing an instrument downtuned will mess with your head for quite a while - notes won't be where they "should" be. I tried D standard tuning; a 5 is much easier for me.

 

[jdjk7]

In no universe is adding an extra string simpler than tuning down half a step.

How do you figure that? When you add a string, you don't change any of the other strings. You can play all the same stuff in exactly the same way on a 5 string as you can a 4 string, barring ergonomic differences which may differ between different 5 string basses.

You can't, however, play the same things in the same way by tuning down half a step... all the strings change. Nothing that you used to play one way can be played that way, because the hand positions are now different.

It's not a significant difference, and most people would be able to overcome it, but I would argue that the complexity it adds to the situation would exceed that of adding a fifth string.

 

[BassFalcon]

And have no interest in classic fingerings and turnarounds. And never have droned an open string.

my point of view is coming from a background in jazz, where horn players and especially singers will change keys on you on the bandstand. You might rehearse something for weeks with a singer in one key, but because she forgot to ask for no ice in her pre-gig water, now she needs to lower it, or any other reasons singers have to change keys in either direction. At that point you better know how to play your instrument and figure out your “classic fingerings and turn arounds” in whatever key the singer wants, and I guarantee you she doesn’t care about the convenience of your open strings. It’s for these reasons it’s common in jazz to learn something in all keys, in addition to just a deeper understanding. When you approach it like that you can overcome the reliance on open strings and things like a guitarist saying they tune down half a step won’t make any difference to you at all.

 

[iiipopes]

TI Jazz Rounds because whatever, they’re just better.

Why? Without detail observations, there is no way for the OP to know if they will work for him.

 

[Killing Floor]

Why? Without detail observations, there is no way for the OP to know if they will work for him.

You don’t choose TI Jazz Rounds. They choose you.

 

[J-Mags]

my point of view is coming from a background in jazz, where horn players and especially singers will change keys on you on the bandstand. You might rehearse something for weeks with a singer in one key, but because she forgot to ask for no ice in her pre-gig water, now she needs to lower it, or any other reasons singers have to change keys in either direction. At that point you better know how to play your instrument and figure out your “classic fingerings and turn arounds” in whatever key the singer wants, and I guarantee you she doesn’t care about the convenience of your open strings. It’s for these reasons it’s common in jazz to learn something in all keys, in addition to just a deeper understanding. When you approach it like that you can overcome the reliance on open strings and things like a guitarist saying they tune down half a step won’t make any difference to you at all.

OP plays in a country band, and if country means one thing, it's open strings. It has generally been the practice of bass players such as Tommy Shannon, Noel Redding, Gene Simmons et. al., who play in guitar bands that tune to E flat, to also tune down.

My first guitar teacher was very jazz-oriented, and the worst advice I ever got from him as a kid who wanted to play rock concerned open strings. While there's no law against playing country, blues, or rock any way you want on bass, playing in a band in a more simplistic genre can have more exacting requirements about timbre, and voicings, and greater use of open drone strings, etc. You'd be nuts to ask John Lee Hooker or Fred McDowell, or the AC/DC's Young brothers to avoid open strings on guitar, and the same can hold true to a lesser extent on bass.

Largely it's a difference between a folkish, guitar-based genre and a genre that usually features horns and pianos, but is far less grounded it the specifics of particular instruments.

How do you figure that? When you add a string, you don't change any of the other strings. You can play all the same stuff in exactly the same way on a 5 string as you can a 4 string, barring ergonomic differences which may differ between different 5 string basses.

You can't, however, play the same things in the same way by tuning down half a step... all the strings change. Nothing that you used to play one way can be played that way, because the hand positions are now different.

It's not a significant difference, and most people would be able to overcome it, but I would argue that the complexity it adds to the situation would exceed that of adding a fifth string.

In a guitar-based genre, chord voicings, bass drones, etc. are frequently based on guitar fingerings and open strings. When a band expresses a desire to tune down to E flat, what they're saying is simply that they're going to treat E flat as E for the purpose of their guitar instrumentals.

90% of guitar rock or country bands simply couldn't play their songs in E flat, G flat, etc. without re-tuning their guitars. A band like AC/DC simply could not play their songs in E flat, and without open strings. While it's possible for the bass to play a standard-tuned bass in in E flat while the guitars are tuned down half a step, it's entirely reasonable for the bass to join the guitars in guitar world, especially since the guitar players are going to persist in calling E flat "E". It's the difference between playing jazz and playing a folk music.

For guitar bands, especially bands that aren't sight-reading, it's simpler to drop each string 1/2 step than it is to find a new bass, new fingerings, etc.