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Tenor Bass: Clever Idea or Oxymoron?
- Thread starter bassmanbucko
- Start date
I think that high C instead of low B tuning is just fine. It's all in what the player wants to do with the instrument.
Still a bass. If you start higher than low E... say, ADGCF... then that might be a tenor bass.
Piccolo bass, OTOH, might be an oxymoron...
Piccolo bass, OTOH, might be an oxymoron...
Fuzzbass said:...Piccolo bass, OTOH, might be an oxymoron...
lol True. I was always under the impression that a tenor bass is a bass tuned (or restrung) up a 4th higher than normal.
- May 2, 2004
- 2,862
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- Disclosures
- owner/builder, ISLAND Instrument Mfg.
WHat exactly is a Piccolo bass?Fuzzbass said:Still a bass. If you start higher than low E... say, ADGCF... then that might be a tenor bass.
Piccolo bass, OTOH, might be an oxymoron...
sargebaker said:
It's a regular bass tuned an octave higher. Stanley Clarke is the best know player to use them...
Piccolos predate tenors by a couple of decades at least...
A lot of people use 5 strings tuned EADGC, which I find fine. As Fuzzbass said, I think a higher starting bass like ADGCF might be tenor. All I know is Adding a few higher string doesn't really take away the fundamental of the bass, so I'd consider it a bass. When you remove the E string, it starts to lose its bass characteristics.
Jazzin' said:
It's already done, talk to mark beem his 9 strings are all the way from bass voices to treeble voices
Blackbird said:
Actually, Fender had a 5 string tuned EADGC in the mid 60s...
Brian Bromberg has used the piccolo bass to good effect.
Matt Garrison plays 5 strings tuned EADGC.
werner vw said:
That's one of his signature Fodera Yin Yang basses, of which he also has a fretless 4 and fretted 4, both of which are regular tunings. His other 5 string is a fretless bass made by a friend of his, tuned in regular tuning as well. The rest of his basses can be seen [Invalid or Expired Link Removed], though he may have added new gear since this page was last updated.
whatever floats your boat. if you like a low b, fine. if you like a high c, fine. i myself prefer both, thats why i am saving for a six string.
I've been thinking about making my fretless bass a "tenor" bass -- ADGC. Before experimenting with different tunings, though, I'd like to have more than two basses -- preferably another fretless. That way, I can have my four string changing tunings until I find an alternate one I like (tenor is on the top of my list, tuning in fifths is next) while my other basses do their normal thang.
Personally, I've always thought of it as pointless. Of course, you could add high strings as you want, but you should keep the low ones as well. It could work for some of the classic rock players and the guys who play high up... some of them hardly use the E string. I myself am at the opposite end of the spectrum; I hardly ever use the G string. 99% of my playing is on the B, E, and A. I've used the D enough to justify it's being there, but the G really doesn't get much use at all.
john turner
You don't want to do that. Trust me.
he's a crazy 88 
Limo said:If piccolo bass is tuned octave higher than a regular bass isn't it basically a guitar then???
Yep, just an extra long scale guitar with (usually) 4 strings. But apparently if it's played by Stanley Clarke, you can't call it a guitar, you have to pretend it's a bass.
Hey, whatever anyone wants to play, that's fine with me. But "tenor bass" and "piccolo bass" are oxymorons.
