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Piccolo Strings & B-E-A-D - Am I crazy?

Piccolo strings tuned B-E-A-D - is it crazy?!

  • Yes

    Votes: 2 15.4%

  • No

    Votes: 11 84.6%
  • Total voters
    13
neutron619

neutron619

Jul 12, 2019
121
261
United Kingdom
#1
So I found out a few days ago that D'Addario make their EXP280 set of piccolo bass strings...

Background:

I play at my local church but really I don't need to - my teacher is their regular bassist. He makes me play too though, because he says I should practice playing with people. I agree - I don't really care for the religion, but playing with that group is the highlight of my week most weeks.

Trouble is, whilst he and I both think "the more basses the better" (and would invite friends), the rest of the band aren't so keen and I've always been a bit uncomfortable about the fact that we sometimes have 2 basses and a drummer, but no pianist, guitarist or vocals. Recently, when that's happened, we've done quite a good duet with him on bass "proper" and me playing the tunes somewhere up around 57th fret to get the congregation through the songs.

I've played a bit of electric 6-string (i.e. guitar, not bass) in the past, which would probably be the best thing to shift over to, but I'm very rusty and to be honest, I find it really uncomfortable plying a guitar compared to a bass.

Since I've got no spare bass at the moment, I wondered whether I should get one of those cheap "build your own bass" kits for about £80, throw some piccolo strings on it and make this playing-the-melody thing a feature of our Sunday mornings.

Am I crazy?

If I'm not, maybe this will convince you: I normally play a 5-string bass and my teacher is really keen that I don't get lazy and play a 4 too much. He says I'll forget how to use the 5 and he's right. A 4 is far too comfortable, but I promised myself when I was about 12 that I'd learn 5-string one day and I'm going to do it!

So I wondered - to keep me grounded with the 5-string, how about using piccolo strings, but tuned to B-E-A-D? Maybe 65-52-40-28 gauges? That 28 ought to be a wound string too. Possibly a 70 for the B string to make it less floppy?

Has anyone done this? Am I crazy?

Thanks for any input forthcoming. :-)
 
#2
neutron619 said:
I've always been a bit uncomfortable about the fact that we sometimes have 2 basses and a drummer, but no pianist, guitarist or vocals...
Click to expand...

That's a bit awkward to say the least... ;)

neutron619 said:
So I wondered - to keep me grounded with the 5-string, how about using piccolo strings, but tuned to B-E-A-D?
Click to expand...

I don't quite get your reasoning for going BEAD instead of the normal EADG for what you're trying to accomplish.
 
#3
neutron619 said:
Am I crazy?
Click to expand...
Nah.

What I'd do is get a five-stringer though. If you need to keep your chops up on a fiver, you might as well stick to fivers.
With the above in mind, if there's little used market where you live, and if you can stretch your budget up to a ton, have a look at this one:
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Alternatively, either of the following, though dearer, would round up your bass armoury, and actually make a lot of sense tuned an octave up if used occasionally unplugged (the average acoustic bass guitar is too small-bodied to amplify the fundamental frequencies of the lowest notes):
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(I can't vouch for any of the above's quality, mind you: no personal experience with them.)

Gauges you're considering look fine. (If I have interested you in a 5-string, a guitar .017w or .018w would be needed for the G.)
 
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#4
Thank you both for your replies - much appreciated.

michael_t said:
I don't quite get your reasoning for going BEAD instead of the normal EADG for what you're trying to accomplish.
Click to expand...

It's basically just staying used to having B as the bottom string. You know those moments when your previous (4-string) experience takes over and you spot a decently loud E chord coming up and give the bottom string a big tug because it just feels right, and then realize you've ruined the climax of the song by making the chord a second inversion rather than a root chord...

HaphAsSard said:
Nah.

What I'd do is get a five-stringer though. If you need to keep your chops up on a fiver, you might as well stick to fivers.

...

(I can't vouch for any of the above's quality, mind you: no personal experience with them.)

Gauges you're considering look fine. (If I have interested you in a 5-string, a guitar .017w or .018w would be needed for the G.)
Click to expand...

You make a good point. A 5-string with 20 frets, tuned up an octave, would give me all the notes anyone is likely to sing in a normal church song, so I could play melodies more freely than with 4 strings starting on B.

As for Gear4Music, I have one of their 4-string Jazz basses as my spare. It's not bad for the £100 I guess although I tend to avoid playing it for the reasons described above. The neck is (I think) sealed but unfinished and rather fat and slow but it is a cheap bass. Frets not too bad although by no means a work of art. Body is bloody heavy and has sharper corners than the average Squier / Fender, but it's playable. It's currently wearing an expensive set of flats I received as a gift which, in spite of the cheapness everywhere else, I rather like.

I guess I'm trying there to talk myself into ordering one of the "LA" basses you mentioned above. I wasn't going to shell out any more money on such cheap basses, but I don't have a P-bass currently, so that might be the excuse to use with the Missus when she takes the parcel...

I'll ponder it.

Thanks again for your replies.
 
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#5
neutron619 said:
So I found out a few days ago that D'Addario make their EXP280 set of piccolo bass strings...

Background:

I play at my local church but really I don't need to - my teacher is their regular bassist. He makes me play too though, because he says I should practice playing with people. I agree - I don't really care for the religion, but playing with that group is the highlight of my week most weeks.

Trouble is, whilst he and I both think "the more basses the better" (and would invite friends), the rest of the band aren't so keen and I've always been a bit uncomfortable about the fact that we sometimes have 2 basses and a drummer, but no pianist, guitarist or vocals. Recently, when that's happened, we've done quite a good duet with him on bass "proper" and me playing the tunes somewhere up around 57th fret to get the congregation through the songs.

I've played a bit of electric 6-string (i.e. guitar, not bass) in the past, which would probably be the best thing to shift over to, but I'm very rusty and to be honest, I find it really uncomfortable plying a guitar compared to a bass.

Since I've got no spare bass at the moment, I wondered whether I should get one of those cheap "build your own bass" kits for about £80, throw some piccolo strings on it and make this playing-the-melody thing a feature of our Sunday mornings.

Am I crazy?

If I'm not, maybe this will convince you: I normally play a 5-string bass and my teacher is really keen that I don't get lazy and play a 4 too much. He says I'll forget how to use the 5 and he's right. A 4 is far too comfortable, but I promised myself when I was about 12 that I'd learn 5-string one day and I'm going to do it!

So I wondered - to keep me grounded with the 5-string, how about using piccolo strings, but tuned to B-E-A-D? Maybe 65-52-40-28 gauges? That 28 ought to be a wound string too. Possibly a 70 for the B string to make it less floppy?

Has anyone done this? Am I crazy?

Thanks for any input forthcoming. :)
Click to expand...
Why don't you just use D'Addario EXL280 piccolo bass string set (which you wrote as EXP280 set) and add a single string for the B? So, your tuning will still be B-E-A-D-G but an octave higher than regular 5 string bass tuning.

The gauges of ELX280 are 52-42-32-20, which are more-less half of the regular gauges of 105-85-65-45 of regular E-A-D-G bass tuning. So for the B, you'll need to purchase additional single .065 string (D'Addario XLB065), which is also half the gauge of .130 low-B. Together they will be 65-52-42-32-20.
 
#8
ole Jason said:
If you want to practice bass wouldn't it make more sense for you to play the bass role and the teacher to play the chord/melody role? Usually with piccolo strings the instrument is played more like a guitar with 3 or 4 string chord voicings.
Click to expand...

Well... yes, on one level, that would make sense. But he's fluent / talented whereas I'm just - well - competent to some degree. So I'm the spare part, so to speak. Don't get me wrong - he's encouraged me to take the lead and quite often noodles around, playing chords, rhythm (slap) and so on, just as you'd expect of a good teacher, but on the other hand, it seems better for me to fit in where I can without depriving the band / the church of his abilities.

Plus, I'm a tinkerer, so there's a whole "doing it just for fun / curiosity" thing going on too.
 
#9
Like the octave strings of a 10 string bass with no G or the lowest four of a bari/7 string guitar but at bass length, Go for it, could be really cool.

That previous suggestion of getting a Curt Mangan 5 String Picollo Set sounds the most convenient.

I use the D'addario piccolo set's top three on my six but tuned down a tone. They are nice strings but if I were trying to put a custom set together I would go for
.065 B1
.050 E2
.035 A2
.028 D3
I had my five tuned in fifths for a while, I used D'addario 0.035 for the A2 it sounded really good.
 
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#10
I also suggest a 5 string tuned octave-up BEADG. If you are playing high pitched parts and chords 4 strings will be limiting in how you can voice chords and will have limited range.
You will then have another 5 string bass to tune however you wish in future.
Piccolo set plus a single B.
 
#11
Thank you both for your replies. Don't know if I'm going to go for the cheap four or the cheap five at this point, but whatever I get is going to start with BEAD and might have a G on top. Will talk it through with my teacher as well and make a decision. To be fair to him, his instinct is something of a traditionalist (I don't know how many P-basses he's got, but I've counted 6 and he still turns up with new ones!), but he's probably going to say "let's try it, it could be cool" and find a way to make it productive rather than talk me out of it. I'll try to report back in a few weeks if / when it's sorted.

Thanks again to all who have contributed thoughts / ideas.
 
#13
If you're trying to get experience playing bass, you should really be playing bass. I would never advocate having two bass guitars, as there is always differences in timing, attack, note choices (unless you are both deadly accurate readers). No two people play exactly alike.
The only way I could see this working is for one of you to play a muted bass sound to accentuate the attack, ala tick-tac bass. To learn more about this, Google Ladi Geisler.
 
#14
byacey said:
If you're trying to get experience playing bass, you should really be playing bass. I would never advocate having two bass guitars, as there is always differences in timing, attack, note choices (unless you are both deadly accurate readers). No two people play exactly alike.
Click to expand...
Their plan, IIreadC, is to have the teacher play the bassline and the OP play the melody of the song, not both play the bassline an octave apart.
 
#16
byacey said:
I'm not sure how playing melody will help acclimatize the original poster to playing bass. If you want to learn to play bass, it's a lot easier to learn by playing bass lines.
Click to expand...
I was just dispelling your idea that they were going to play the same parts, according to the opening post, inasmuch as I've understood it.

Now, that being said, it is also my understanding that regular bass lessons will continue, and the two-bass playing church situation is just in order for the OP to get the first experience in some sort of ensemble situation. It will of course be very different from being in charge of the bassline. (The teacher is already in charge of that, and if I were him I wouldn't give that up - permanently, as opposed to selected moments which the OP mentions - just to give an extra learning context for my student, nor would my church, I guess.) For the OP this is an aside in his training.

(All or part of the above may well be moot for now, in these isolating times.)
 

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