Playing live in F#

[Todd Wright]

Epic stuff people.

Loads of great ideas here.

I'm going to go through, outline all the different options and try to score them based on $$ and quality. I'll drop it back in here for those interested.

Thanks again, great to see a thriving community here on my first post!

 

[byacey]

Am I missing something? What is the problem with F#? It's only two semitones above your lowest note. Your lowest G on a 4 string is yet higher...

 

[Rune Bivrin]

Am I missing something? What is the problem with F#? It's only two semitones above your lowest note. Your lowest G on a 4 string is yet higher...

You're probably missing about 12 semitones. The discussion pertains to the F# 10 semitones below the low E of a standard 4 string bass.

 

[musicman7722]

Are you the first bass player for this act? if not what did the previous player (s) do.?

 

[teleharmonium]

Is this a transposition thing, or an alternate tuning only ? In other words, when playing the note at the 3rd fret of a low f# string, are you calling it g or a ?

 

[Les Fret]

Also I'll add that if using tritone tuning on your four string you get very nearly the range of a five string.

Five string: B to G
Four string tritone tuning: C to F#

Tritone tuning? Why? I understand fifth tuning but tritone doesn’t make sense to me.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Test out the theory - put a capo on second fret of a standard tuned bass and then run it through an octave pedal with just the low octave. Is it even audible through your amp or with the band?

 

[Les Fret]

Test out the theory - put a capo on second fret of a standard tuned bass and then run it through an octave pedal with just the low octave. Is it even audible through your amp or with the band?

That’s not the same because most octave pedals don’t track below the G and the octave is a synthetic tone that doesn’t sound exactly like a normal tone. But I get your point.

For some metal genres the F# can work. I never get those guitar players who want to go lower than a bass guitar. Why? it may sound good when the guitar player plays on his own but it doesn’t sound heavy when the bass can’t double the line an octave lower. Playing at the same pitch as the guitar doesn’t sound good either.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

That’s not the same because most octave pedals don’t track below the G and the octave is a synthetic tone that doesn’t sound exactly like a normal tone. But I get your point.

Mine track below G. F# is only a semitone lower! Granted, it's not going to be the same tone, but it's the best you can do spending close to $0 to try it.