Question about 70s Jazz bass tone

[stshipley]

All,

I have a parts bass with a Classic 70's body, and I LOVE the tone of the bass.

I also like to play basses tuned D-G-C-F instead of the E-A-D-G tuning. On a 60's / normal spacing bass, the tone changes a little but still sounds like a 60's Jazz bass with the lower tuning.

On the 70's spacing with the lower tuning, the nice growl goes away and is replaced with harsher tone that is pronounced in the upper mids. I've tried this with different amps, strings and pickups, but no matter what I do, you get this harsher tone. Tune it back in E-A-D-G and like magic, the tone is back to normal.

Does anyone have an explanation on what this is, or better yet a possible solution?

Thanks,

-STS

 

[stshipley]

Bump?

 

[mblackford]

Just a guess... with the lower tuning the amplitude of the string vibration is larger, so the string is getting too close to the pickups?? Maybe try lowering your pickups, count the number of turns on the screw so you can return it to normal if this doesn't fix the problem.