Playing live in F#

[Nashrakh]

Looking at Meshuggah, I would not be adverse to trying to tune UP actually, and get "above" the guitars. Might not work for everyone though, suddenly you can hear the bass player! Shocker!

F# is tricky, but bands like Bongripper etc. make it work (they're in F last I heard). EQing correctly will be your friend in that scenario.

 

[dkelley]

I owned an ERB that was 35" scale and had not only a B string but an F# string. at 35 scale it was outstanding and sounded great.

Personally I feel that a 34" scale can do it too, but yes you need at least a B string gauge to work at all for such a low note, and possibly more.

Considering I don't like to go above 120 or 125 for my B strings, because thicker sound horrible to me and don't blend with the rest of the instrument, I suspect that a 130 or 135 would do just fine.

But I like thinner strings (for all reasons - tone, playability, sustain, playing up the neck, overtones, flexibility at tuner/bridge bends).

 

[TNCreature]

I will look for the trail of blown speakers

 

[BarfanyShart]

Looking at Meshuggah, I would not be adverse to trying to tune UP actually, and get "above" the guitars. Might not work for everyone though, suddenly you can hear the bass player! Shocker!

F# is tricky, but bands like Bongripper etc. make it work (they're in F last I heard). EQing correctly will be your friend in that scenario.

The bongripper guy plays that aluminum bass down in sub-F-standard. That's pretty cool. But, I mostly think that adding a bass note an octave below the chug isn't adding much to the music. Adding a nice, defined bass note to all that distorted chug, however, does make everything come together. It's also always a transcendent moment when a bass melody or counter-melody rises above the chug for a little time in the limelight. In a band like this, the thing that your instrument adds isn't necessarily the lowest note, but the tone, timbre, and pitch-definition from that nice long string.

 

[brianrost]

What does an open F# even sound like? That's only 23hZ.

 

[Slevage]

Once my bass is set up well, I can play in any key with good results.

All my basses, including uprights have a proper setup.

 

[JW56789]

F-sharp below open E. Holy Smokes.

You're gonna need one of these . . . .

 

[lucas303]

but with tritones all the "geometry" of the notes on the neck and the muscle memory have to be re-learned again.

Yeah of course.

 

[ERIC31]

…..and I remember thinking Fieldy was nuts for drop tuning his 5 -string Ibanez back in the mid 90s…..‍

 

[lucas303]

Looking at Meshuggah, I would not be adverse to trying to tune UP actually, and get "above" the guitars. Might not work for everyone though, suddenly you can hear the bass player! Shocker!

F# is tricky, but bands like Bongripper etc. make it work (they're in F last I heard). EQing correctly will be your friend in that scenario.

The bongripper guy plays that aluminum bass down in sub-F-standard. That's pretty cool. But, I mostly think that adding a bass note an octave below the chug isn't adding much to the music. Adding a nice, defined bass note to all that distorted chug, however, does make everything come together. It's also always a transcendent moment when a bass melody or counter-melody rises above the chug for a little time in the limelight. In a band like this, the thing that your instrument adds isn't necessarily the lowest note, but the tone, timbre, and pitch-definition from that nice long string.

Agreed...that's why if it were me I'd be paying more attention to F#1 than F#0, and then deciding how much lower than that I'd want to go (C, C#, etc).

 

[Bunk McNulty]

Ummm...why not just play in F# with your standard tuning?

 

[lucas303]

Ummm...why not just play in F# with your standard tuning?

I'm guessing an open F# string would come in handy more often than an open E if the guitars are tuned to F#.

 

[Altitude]

Once my bass is set up well, I can play in any key with good results.

All my basses, including uprights have a proper setup.

Hm. My electrics all have a proper setup but I set up my upright improperly.

Just kidding.

I think the OP plays in bands where the members use alternate string tunings to achieve certain audible effects. He's looking for a bass where the low string would be the F# below E as an open string. I think it's a metal thing.

Of course we should all be capable of playing in the key of F# when the song calls for it. I don't think that is exactly what the OP is saying his goal is.

 

[devnulljp]

I don't think humans can hear that low anyway

 

[lucas303]

I don't think humans can hear that low anyway

Amazing that it took two pages for this stock response to come up.

 

[bigjames]

Maybe someone already posted this, but here is an old thread on this topic.

Low F# on a 7-string?

I recall an article in Bass Player years ago about a guy who played for a circus show and used a 7 string string F# to C and it seemed to work well for him. Personally, in the same situation, I think I would stick with standard tuning on a 5 string (B-G); you get the B and a solid F# on the E string that has clarity and sounds solid through most speakers. If I was a 4 string player and played a lot in D or C I would likely grab a 5 string, but notes below B in my experience are few and far between and I would want to be really sure that notes played below B (on the F# string) were tight and clean...otherwise, they might just be gimmicky. my 2 cents.

 

[bigjames]

Also, Drop-B kind of makes sense to me, tuned B-F#-B-E-A. Use the sub-octave pedal as needed, but you might not need it so much - stuff just tends to not be very musical below a A-0. Those super-lows are more of a sound effect, best used sparingly. Even the subs in rap music don't really go below C1 very often.

I agreed on all points. Even with my 5 and 6 I seldom use the low B even.

 

[AngelCrusher]

What kind of band? It really helps to say what the genre is.
If it is technical death metal/hardcore..etc you will need that F# to ring out as an open string most likely.

Bands that play this low have their basses set up for it. Super thick strings, high action..etc. I have played some of their setups and F'ing hated it, but thats just me.

 

[mikewalker]

Wow! WAY DOWN... can you link to any recordings using a bass guitar for that?
I tuned a 5-string down two steps to "drop-A" once ( because the song needed a low-D open pattern, and the 5-ver was handy) and to be honest the low A (which i did find a place to use here and there) was almost just percussion, not really a focused note. I can only imagine how a bass string sounds even a couple semitones lower! This was at an outdoor show with 5,000 people in a natural ampitheatre, and a very good PA crew... probably best possible acoustics for bass guitar

 

[micguy]

What does an open F# even sound like? That's only 23hZ.

It'll sound like a woofer valiantly trying to reproduce something that it simply can't. Bass guitar cabinets don't accurately reproduce the fundamental on an E string - the market forces to make them small and loud mean they are optimized for something else - they simply don't do an open E string justice. An open B string; they're completely out of their element, but with a high pass to protect them, they can kinda do something - the reproduce the harmonics, which isn't the same, but it makes noise. You really need top grade subwoofers in the PA to really do a B string justice - that can be awesome. An F#, you're just pushing things, and you're never really gonna get there - nobody makes even Pro Audio stuff that goes down that far.