Double Bass Stringing A D G C?

[TroyK]

Far be it for me to argue with Slam Stewart's dad, but I share Eric's confusion here. I have to fundamentally disagree that those frequencies are not acoustically audible in a group setting. I played an art gallery last night, no amp with a guitar player (who had an amp and laid into it pretty hard). 2 story ceilings and 150 or so people at the high point. There were times when I had to work harder to hear and be heard and times when i did not, but those E string notes were always the strongest, regardless. The notes up my g-string are actually the ones that tend to disappear on me when the room or the other instruments get too loud.

I have to think that something is going on with either your bass or your technique.

Logically, giving up the E string in favor of a high C, you're not gaining anything, only giving up notes. Unless you spend a lot of time at the top of thumb position on the G string, you've not added any notes to the range of your instrument, you've just moved them into lower playing positions. If the music you're playing or the settings you're playing in call for the notes you would be playing on that high C, you can play them with your existing set-up, you just have to do it up the neck a bit.

Again, not to be snarky, but it sounds like a problem (2 problems actually) that can be overcome with a little technique.

 

[Sam Dingle]

You might even experiment with different E strings if you can't hear it in the mix. I found that It was hard to hear my Evah Weich E but very easy to hear a Spiro and Super Silver.

 

[Edvin]

Sounds like you would rather play guitar to me.

Oh god how i hate those comments.

 

[icanjam]

Well I have no first hand experience but I'll chime in for what my word is worth. I do almost no Jazz on my double bass and play mostly in orchestra and classical solos.
Back in the day the lowest string was in fact an A. I once had the pleasure to play on a very old three string double bass tuned ADG, so far EVERY three string bass I've seen is tuned that way. I have also heard people tune their basses in Fifths and dropping the C string so their tuning then becomes GDA HIGH E, now I'm not sure where they get this high E string but it actually gave a really nice "sing" that I think would be appropriate for certain types of music. That's really all I have to say, I have no idea how a higher tuning would work in your kind of music.