REALLY? A 4 STRING WITH BEAG AND NOT EAGD, TELL ME MORE!

[michael_t]

BEAG AND NOT EAGD

Did you mean...

BEAD AND NOT EADG ??

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/the-modified-bead-4-string-bass-club.1069699/

 

[poochiecheeks]

The only thing you might find tricky at first about playing a BEAD bass is when you want to do an octave on the A string- you need to do it with intent and know both how far up the neck to jump and where to come back too, all very quickly and on the fly if you're improvising. This is obviously something you can perfect with practice but I believe you can accomplish 95% of what youd do on a 5 string on a 24 fret 4 string. Though to do this effectively and retain definition on the 5-10 fret area of the B and E strings where you'll be a lot then you really need the right strings, fine tuned setup, and preferably a neck through 35" scale bass- which is tough to find all in one bass. Just my experience

 

[DwaynieAD]

What is going on here

 

[2F/2F]

Go to school, then ask.

 

[Grinderman]

I’m really confused - B in place of E would be BADG. The thread title says BEAG. I’m not sure what you’re after!

(Stop Making Sense)

I'm not sure either. Let's talk about painting our paper speaker driver cones instead. //Might work with 10" drivers if it's a short scale. (from TB, Tuesday)

What is going on here

TB, Wednesday.

 

[B-Mac]

Did you mean...

BEAD AND NOT EADG ??

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/the-modified-bead-4-string-bass-club.1069699/

Obviously a typo.

 

[micguy]

You could just get a Digitech Drop or EHX Pitch Fork and drop tune to BEAD at the press of a button.

If you can stand the latency.

 

[bassbrad]

I keep a bass in that lo BEAD tuning as I do find a 4 string easier to manage, I use a capo to get different 'drop' tunings.

 

[Thumpin6string]

Get any 5 string set and use the 4 low strings. You may need to enlarge the string slots in the nut. Better yet just get a 5 or 6 string bass. Nothing like a low B IMHO.

 

[ZachM]

Sure, did it for a while in the 90s, when I was playing in a church choir and figured I'm not using the G string much anyway. Eventually I somehow ended up tuning in fifths, CGDA.

I've considered doing the cello-style tuning but haven't committed to buying the strings to make it work. How was your experience with it? I like the idea of a whole different spectrum of harmonics and the extended range, but seems like the difficulty of playing 3rds makes that a poor tradeoff.

 

[Sam Dingle]

Lots of guys in Nashville mainly play in this tuning. I have one bass setup like it but personally I like DGCF or C#F#BE better

 

[pklima]

I've considered doing the cello-style tuning but haven't committed to buying the strings to make it work. How was your experience with it? I like the idea of a whole different spectrum of harmonics and the extended range, but seems like the difficulty of playing 3rds makes that a poor tradeoff.

We have a whole fifths tuning thread (in technique, I think) where you can ask this, but short version: wasn't hard to switch because I remembered the notes from playing mandolin-family stuff. Playing 3rds is annoying, sure, but unless you're going to be playing walking lines all day I personally don't think it's that big a deal.

 

[ZachM]

Lots of guys in Nashville mainly play in this tuning. I have one bass setup like it but personally I like DGCF or C#F#BE better

Same, I've been playing DGCF for the last fifteen years or so, and don't ever see myself going back to E standard. I'll dip down to drop C or C# standard occasionally.

 

[Sam Dingle]

Same, I've been playing DGCF for the last fifteen years or so, and don't ever see myself going back to E standard. I'll dip down to drop C or C# standard occasionally.

I've been playing in Standard since the start of January because I started playing in A better than I did in G lol.

 

[michael_t]

Obviously a typo.

Yes, and typos are easy to fix. It's called "proofreading before posting".

 

[Wicked G]

Pretty common, especially for metal. @Wicked G has many duplicate basses set up BEAD & EADG. I believe he prefers this to using a five string depending upon where he’s gigging.

I’m sure he can give you a lot of useful real life experience information.

Actually it's more like EADG and either D Standard or C Standard. It gives me the opportunity to:

a) Show off multiple basses .
b) Switch tunings rather quickly .

Also some songs cannot be played correctly on a 5 string tuned to BEADG no matter what anybody else says. Slither from Velvet Revolver is one of those. You could, but it comes across choppy and too busy. YMMV.

 

[logdrum]

Did you mean...

BEAD AND NOT EADG ??

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/the-modified-bead-4-string-bass-club.1069699/

I would like to try those tunings though

 

[B-Mac]

Actually it's more like EADG and either D Standard or C Standard. It gives me the opportunity to:

a) Show off multiple basses .
b) Switch tunings rather quickly .

Also some songs cannot be played correctly on a 5 string tuned to BEADG no matter what anybody else says. Slither from Velvet Revolver is one of those. You could, but it comes across choppy and too busy. YMMV.

What did you have to do concerning string gauge selection?

Std vs D vs C

Obviously you had to file some nut string slots.

 

[B-Mac]

a) Show off multiple basses .

My favorite part of this answer
And I’ve seen a few on-stage photos to agree with you.

 

[Wicked G]

What did you have to do concerning string gauge selection?

Std vs D vs C

Obviously you had to file some nut string slots.

Actually no. I'm able to use the same string guage and the only thing I really needed to do was adjust my intonation.

I only tune down for the show and then back up afterwards so I don't even have to mess with the truss rod. However if I tune down to C the strings are getting loose so anything below that would require me to change the strings to BEAD.