New standard tuning (?), one whole-step down on all strings.

[Bassic Playing]

I'm not say DCEF is "worse" or "less" useful than EADG, I'm merely stating that IMO music has not reached a point where a new "standard" tuning is needed. Sure, use different tunings but is a new standard tuning necessary?

 

[Jcy1011]

This is an interesting tuning (which I haven't tried)

Has anyone played a bass tuned in 5ths (New standard tuning).

I am considering stringing my 5 string electric bass CGDAE.

My concerns are
1) Unusual tensions on the neck
2) Buying strings

I'm exciting to try it because the open voicings it would allow with less string crossing (for both melodic lines and chords)

Any general or specific feedback much appreciated.

 

[khutch]

Thanks for resurrecting this thread. It is interesting to see my first thoughts about tuning in fifths. I don't know if the OP is one of the people currently promoting the D standard tuning, but there are a number of TB members who have tried it and found it to be a useful compromise tuning for four string basses. The D standard tuning is not THE standard tuning for a bass guitar of course but like THE standard EADG tuning it is an even fourths tuning. I don't know if this was standard usage back in 2011 but today when we speak of "standard" tunings on TB we mean even fourths tunings. So EADG is the E standard tuning, BEAD is the B standard tuning, etc.

As far as fifths tunings are concerned, yes, a number of us here use them on bass guitars, myself included. A few months after my previous post in this thread I bought a five string bass, an SR505. I loved the neck, hated the string spacing at the bridge, and so about five months after that previous post I tried tuning my bass CGDA. I loved it and have played it exclusively ever since. I had talked about the tuning several times on several thread always thinking it would be unwieldy on a bass until I discovered that Red Mitchell and a number of his "disciples" tuned CGDA on the double bass! It is a very long story but I did eventually branch out to five and six strings, I currently have an SR605 tuned CGDAE and a Squier VI tuned CGDAEB and the last is a short scale no less. Your two questions are related. If you buy a custom set of strings chosen to give the same tension as the strings your currently use then there is no unusual tension on the neck. Vendors like BassStringsOnline and Kalium Strings can help you with that. But this is a very big topic and if you want to know more you should check out the fifths tuned club thread.

 

[bikeplate]

Motley crue's tuning 30 years ago. Not exactly new

 

[bassbenj]

Has anyone played a bass tuned in 5ths (New standard tuning).

I am considering stringing my 5 string electric bass CGDAE.

My concerns are
1) Unusual tensions on the neck
2) Buying strings

I'm exciting to try it because the open voicings it would allow with less string crossing (for both melodic lines and chords)

Any general or specific feedback much appreciated.

I don't think neck tension would be a problem if you choose the right gauge strings to keep tensions normal and within bounds. And then that raises the second point which is where to you get the "right" strings? Some cooperation with a string maker may be necessary!

Personally speaking as someone who also plays 4 string banjo (tuned in 5ths) I am not very excited about the prospect of playing a bass tuning in 5ths. This increases the intervals between strings and chords on a banjo is ALL about a lot of hand stretching and that neck is no where near as long a scale as a bass!

My personal view (which I expounded on earlier in this thread) is that my main gripe was problems with a 4 string bass in horn keys (like Eb). If I had been cool, I'd just have tuned the whole thing down a step or so to deal with it. Unfortunately I didn't think of it and moved on to 5 and 6 string basses (tuned in 4ths). And that is great because it gives you the advantage of a nice handful of scale right across the neck!

And this is what I see as the problem with a bass tuned in 5ths. It gives you an extended range like a 5 or 6 stringer, but the more notes between strings doing a scale makes the advantage of a 5 string much less so.

Still, tuned in 5ths works for cellos, so I'd say it's worth a try. Who knows? You may love it.

 

[Kirk Bryant]

Hey guys look at me look at me who Hoo I just created a NEW INVENTION.......ITS CALLED THE WHEEL.....

IM GOING TO RULE THE WORLD. YEA THATS IT IM CALLING IT THE WHEEL. .....as he goes back to sleep

Sheesh three pages ...really. Go back to school and study music history ...and a string type bass has been around over 400 yrs not just 200

Sarcasm alert

 

[Bass4LifeRS]

LOL lighten up a little. I probably should have chosen the thread title more wisely back then, but it's interesting to see the responses. I'm still at normal eadg-tuning but I also feel that the deep D is as low as I normally need. I just tune down the e-string but darn the huge stretches on that string hehe

 

[NoBlackTShirts]

I interrupt the usual flock of Talkbass sarcastic nitwits to say that DGCF works best for my singing range.

Okay, proceed.

 

[khutch]

I don't play chords much, never so far in a performance, but simple major/minor chords are no big stretch in a fifths tuning. You only need to cover three frets, which I don't find a problem at 34". More exotic chords could be an issue, I suppose, but I have never been good at playing them on a guitar so I don't attempt them on a bass although I do have the 30" Squier if I should change my mind about that. I've been playing the Bouree movement from one of the Bach cellos suites for a couple of years. It all falls right under your fingers when you tune in fifths. There are a few high Es you have to reach a bit for and one F, so you do what cellists do, shift your hand position. Of course if you play the piece on a fiver those Es and that F are also right under your fingers. If you have a large collection of basses then it is easy to take one that doesn't get much love and tune it in fifths for a while. A lot of the music we play will play most naturally in fourths since the musicians who composed it tuned that way. But a lot of it will play very well in fifths, some will be harder in fifths, and some things that are a bit hard in fourths can be easier in fifths! It is not for everyone obviously, if it were the lot of us would have switched years ago. I took to it within a single practice session and had learned it well enough to play it in public in a couple of weeks. I had never actually played in public before, I was just a hobby player when I was young and occasionally played with my father at family gatherings and then hadn't played at all for a couple of decades. I was kind of apprenticing with a church band when I decided to change tunings in the middle of that, and then an illness forced them to put me on stage before they had even had the chance to audition me! It's not the procedure I would suggest to anyone but if I could do that, at that stage in my development as a bassist, then it should not be hard for someone with real skill to give the tuning a good try to see if it does anything for you. There are people who play both tunings, so that is a possibility too.

On the other hand playing in a tuning that goes down to C has taught me that the most useful notes in that range are the Eb and the D so even though I don't use it myself I can attest to the value of the D standard tuning. I have a Hipshot tuner on one of my basses that can drop the C to a B or A. I have now used the low B on exactly one occasion. But if you put a Hipshot on a bass tuned in D standard you will be able to get as low as B when you need it and that would make D standard quite a versatile tuning for someone who loves fourths on a four string.

 

[Steve Tucker]

I've been tuning this way since the mid 80s. Er... since... oh wow now I feel old. -er-than-usual. I find that the extra range is great, but remember to bring a good capo if you expect to play any traditional rock/blues/etc styles that lean heavily on the open E/A/D strings. This style goes well with a splittable Stingray style pickup, as you're a little farther up on the neck and it can almost pass for a P if you need it to. Whole-step detuning goes well with modern country music, even (or especially) on a 5-string.

Negatives include slight loss of intonation, as you're frequently higher up on the neck. The tone is definitely different from the shorter, heavier strings. Well-made basses may not have enough truss rod tension even with mediums. (I have more trouble with my Surine than with other floppy-neck basses. )
I like it, and never really see a need for "standard" tuning at this point.

So here is my question...just to make sure I understand. I recently began performing most of my known songs by tuning my acoustic guitar a full step down D-G-C-F. At 67 years old, I find it a bit comforting for performing for any duration. My partner plays bass. What kind of strings (gauge of strings) would be the least noticeable...both to the feel and the sound. It is a Fender Jazz Bass. Thanks, Steve Tucker

 

[michael_t]

So here is my question...just to make sure I understand. I recently began performing most of my known songs by tuning my acoustic guitar a full step down D-G-C-F. At 67 years old, I find it a bit comforting for performing for any duration. My partner plays bass. What kind of strings (gauge of strings) would be the least noticeable...both to the feel and the sound. It is a Fender Jazz Bass. Thanks, Steve Tucker

You posted this question in an old thread where the last post was in 2015.

You can join us here: D Standard Club (DGCF)

 

[tekhedd]

So here is my question...just to make sure I understand. I recently began performing most of my known songs by tuning my acoustic guitar a full step down D-G-C-F. At 67 years old, I find it a bit comforting for performing for any duration. My partner plays bass. What kind of strings (gauge of strings) would be the least noticeable...both to the feel and the sound. It is a Fender Jazz Bass. Thanks, Steve Tucker

Sorry for the necro, just getting back to old messages!

I have been buying custom gauges from Kalium for rounds, and for flats I like the Chromes light mediums (more or less) or the Ball Slinkys (only come in one gauge for 5-string, and I think the standard "medium" gauge is fine) as a good bright-all-occasion flatwound (currently my favorite string). For Kaliums I've been using a 5 string set from 158, 118 ... 49. (4 string starts at 118 obvs), using their standard gauge calculator. If they recommend a slightly different size as a result of process/material changes, I suggest you follow their advice.

For off-the-shelf rounds, usually "mediums" down a whole step work right, as then they feel like "lights" which is the typical baseline feel for most players.

Most of my basses had to have had the nut filed to fit, and that 158 is pretty fat and required reaming some bridges. But the D usually is fine.

Hope this helps.

 

[MrLenny1]

Just get a 5 string .

 

[Clark Westfield]

I’ve been playing in a few cover bands recently in this pandemic getting ready for the summer.

My one singer, a piano player, sings in a lower key for some songs.

Some of the covers we do cross over between bands.

I’m toying with the idea of just changing the tuning of the bass to match certain songs, so I don’t have to relearn the song completely. Currently suffer from CRS. (Can’t Remember S@#*)

I sometimes run out of fretboard and don’t like the sound in the higher registers.

Then just put a second guitar on the stand and build set lists for the current guitar in hand.

 

[Steve Tucker]

Sorry for the necro, just getting back to old messages!

I have been buying custom gauges from Kalium for rounds, and for flats I like the Chromes light mediums (more or less) or the Ball Slinkys (only come in one gauge for 5-string, and I think the standard "medium" gauge is fine) as a good bright-all-occasion flatwound (currently my favorite string). For Kaliums I've been using a 5 string set from 158, 118 ... 49. (4 string starts at 118 obvs), using their standard gauge calculator. If they recommend a slightly different size as a result of process/material changes, I suggest you follow their advice.

For off-the-shelf rounds, usually "mediums" down a whole step work right, as then they feel like "lights" which is the typical baseline feel for most players.

Most of my basses had to have had the nut filed to fit, and that 158 is pretty fat and required reaming some bridges. But the D usually is fine.

Hope this helps.

Thanks much. Steve