Tenor Bass: Clever Idea or Oxymoron?

[bassmanbucko]

You all have completely digressed from the point of this thread, lol.

 

[BenderR]

So true! Nonetheless, it has made for interesting discussion. Actually, I am in favor of the idea of instruments that fall outside of the common ranges. A tenor bass sounds like it would be interesting. Maybe I'll give that a try on my spare bass some time.

The instrumants that I find more compelling are the guitar derived, 6 string instruments such as the old Fender Bass VI and the Bajo Sexto or Baritone guitar. If I ever had the money to throw around I would get one in a minute.

 

[john turner]

Allright, I still think it should be more specific what to call things.

why bother? if everyone in the conversation knows what you're talking about, who cares what you call it?

 

[DW]

Only if you take the words out of context. People like to do that just to start controversy and try to make themselves feel special.

In this context, the word bass is not the range in which the instrument plays, but what the instrument itself is called. Tenor bass and piccolo bass are not oxymorons unless you refuse to use the term in the context in which they exist, which, quite frankly, is closed minded and ignorant.

Amazing. Point out the obvious - something that couldn't be more obvious if it bit you in your nether regions - and get accused of trolling and ignorance. What utter tripe!

Well, I'm off to play my double piccolo bass. It's really a mandolin, and it's obvious to anyone with half a brain, but if you dare say so, that makes you an ignorant troll.

 

[Nick Gann]

You pointed out nothing obvious, only your opinion, and stated it as fact. That right there is ignorance. You had a snotty know it all attitude and stated these "facts" that well, clearly aren't such. You can go play your double piccolo bass, but that wouldn't be a mandolin because they are tuned differently, have coursed strings, and is, well, a completely different instrument. But hey, call it what you want. I don't really care. When I say piccolo bass, people know what it is. When you say double piccolo bass people look at you like you've got a booger hanging out of your nose.

Just for fun, what would you call a piccolo bass? You cannot call it a guitar, because it sure isn't a guitar.

 

[Rifter17]

I have a 30" 5 string bass tuned ADGCF. I say bass as opposed to 5 string baritone guitar, or what-have-you, because it feels like a bass.

 

[BenderR]

If my memory serves me correctly Fender did something very similar in the 60s. They had a 5 string bass that had a limited number of frets. The idea was that the higher note could be played on the highest string instead of moving upward on the neck.

 

[MortWP]

IIRC, Fender did build a six string bass tuned EADGBE, but it didn't work out...

 

[Blazer]

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...

This is Stanley playing the world's first Picollo bass, a custom Carl Thompson.

And here he is using that bass Live, I wish I could go back in time to see that particullar performance because sitting behind the keys is none other than Herbie Hancock while the one of a kind Carlos Santana is playing guitar. Talk about having an awesome gig...

 

[vometia]

Hmm. If a multi stringed bass had 24 frets, how many strings would be needed to have more range than a piano?

I have always wondered that. And I also want a bass form of a piano one of these days.

Erm... well, a piano's normally about 7½ octaves; so one string on your 24 fret bass will cover two octaves, that leaves 5½ octaves to be filled in with a bunch of strings tuned in 4ths, so that'll be another 13 of them. Better get started on those stretching exercises for a 14-string wide fretboard, then!

Chris.

 

[BenderR]

A 24 fret, 6-string bass would be a major 3rd short of covering 4 octaves.

 

[embellisher]

IIRC, Fender did build a six string bass tuned EADGBE, but it didn't work out...

Actually, it worked out pretty well. They built a lot of them in the sixties and seventies, and they have been reissued a couple of times since. Not in J bass or P bass territory, but a success by most peoples standards. It was their take on the tictac bass originally made my Danelectro, also pretty popular in the late 50's through the mid sixties. And Ernie Ball makes a version called the Silhouette Bass guitar.

 

[GobyWan]

I seem to recall JT tuning a few of his basses something like that - BEADGBE on a 7 (or all of his 7's, can't recall.) It's excellent for chordal work if you know your guitar chords, but I'd probably tune a 7 in 4ths all the way up - BEADGCF - and use it as more of an extended range bass than a chordal instrument. That's just me, though, your mileage may vary.

 

[DW]

You pointed out nothing obvious, only your opinion, and stated it as fact. That right there is ignorance. You had a snotty know it all attitude and stated these "facts" that well, clearly aren't such. You can go play your double piccolo bass, but that wouldn't be a mandolin because they are tuned differently, have coursed strings, and is, well, a completely different instrument. But hey, call it what you want. I don't really care. When I say piccolo bass, people know what it is. When you say double piccolo bass people look at you like you've got a booger hanging out of your nose.

Just for fun, what would you call a piccolo bass? You cannot call it a guitar, because it sure isn't a guitar.

Nothing snotty said or implied. Only someone intentionally spreading falsehoods - which you're obviously doing - could possibly read that into what I said.

In fact, there is nothing bass about a "piccolo bass". Longer scale length doesn't make it a bass. You can go through all the contorted reasoning and doublethink you want, but an instrument with no strings in the bass range and all strings in the guitar range is not a bass.

Pretty sad when a moderator intentionally promotes ignorance.

Go ahead, say what you will. Throw out a few more infantile comments. I have nothing but contempt for you.

 

[john turner]

I seem to recall JT tuning a few of his basses something like that - BEADGBE on a 7 (or all of his 7's, can't recall.) It's excellent for chordal work if you know your guitar chords, but I'd probably tune a 7 in 4ths all the way up - BEADGCF - and use it as more of an extended range bass than a chordal instrument. That's just me, though, your mileage may vary.

yeah, most of the 7 stringers that i know tune the standard 4ths tuning, but when i got my first 7 in 93, i didn't really know any others. i had had a chance to play tim bogert's 6 string tobias at the namm show in atlanta in '88, and he had his top string tuned to b, so i always had that in the back of my mind. when i got the 7 (i went from 4 to 7) the low b string was easy to incorporate into my playing, but the high strings were sorta odd, in that i didn't want just more wank-land, so the guitar tuning made sense to me, and forced me to learn guitar chord shapes, which in turn helped me learn how to write better parts for guitar.

i have one bass tuned e-a-d-g-c-e-a that i like to experiment on, but i don't use it much in any existing band situation. still, though, it definitely sounds different than guitar, even distorted.

 

[john turner]

Nothing snotty said or implied. Only someone intentionally spreading falsehoods - which you're obviously doing - could possibly read that into what I said.

In fact, there is nothing bass about a "piccolo bass". Longer scale length doesn't make it a bass. You can go through all the contorted reasoning and doublethink you want, but an instrument with no strings in the bass range and all strings in the guitar range is not a bass.

Pretty sad when a moderator intentionally promotes ignorance.

Go ahead, say what you will. Throw out a few more infantile comments. I have nothing but contempt for you.

well, first of all, there very much is something "bass" about a piccolo bass - all the open strings reside on the bass clef. perhaps the "bass clef" doesn't qualify as "bass range" to some folks, but if it doesn't then i don't know what does.

secondly, "can you feel the love tonight" ?

 

[Limo]

why bother? if everyone in the conversation knows what you're talking about, who cares what you call it?

Because I don't know what a tenor bass is and I was taking part in the conversation.
But I can only speak for myself, can't I?

 

[Nick man]

Erm... well, a piano's normally about 7½ octaves; so one string on your 24 fret bass will cover two octaves, that leaves 5½ octaves to be filled in with a bunch of strings tuned in 4ths, so that'll be another 13 of them. Better get started on those stretching exercises for a 14-string wide fretboard, then!

Chris.

Actually I calculated it a long while back in a thread where they were bashing extended range basses. Must have been at least a year ago.

In any case I calculated that JT's 7s (or anyone elses actually) have more range than a 88 key piano.

 

[Nick man]

Lately Ive been thinking of picking up a 6 string bass tuned like a guitar but an octave lower like the Fender Bass VI. It would be cool to fill in for a guitar or bass on one instrument.

I could also mess with different tunnings including tenor bass or true guitar tunnings. Schecter just released a new version. I'll have to hope I find a nice cheap used one floating around.

Peace
Nick

 

[slugworth]

well, first of all, there very much is something "bass" about a piccolo bass - all the open strings reside on the bass clef. perhaps the "bass clef" doesn't qualify as "bass range" to some folks, but if it doesn't then i don't know what does.

secondly, "can you feel the love tonight" ?

>>> Interesting thread....The English language is full of
of what some may consider oxymorons. The creative
nature of humans has produced things that don't easily
fit into categories, or perhaps the names assigned to
some of these things are limited in their ability to be
descriptive to everyone's liking. The piccolo bass AFAIK,
is a 4 string bass tuned an octave higher, and it is a member of the electric bass/bass guitar family of instruments. If you call
a string supplier and ask for a piccolo bass string set,
that's what you'll get. If you ask 1000 bass players what
a piccolo bass is, You'll probably get 99% agreement that
it is a 4 string bass tuned an octave higher, and that the
technique used to play it is akin to it's lower tuned
bretheren. I don't think anyone here at Talkbass invented
the term PICCOLO BASS, but I think most folks here are
in agreement as to what it is and what it is not. If DW
wants to get himself all foamed up, throw tantrums and
keep hurting himself by making accusations and hurling contempt and insults (as he quite often does when he has a disagreement with someone) at people here at TB who had no hand in naming this musical instrument, guess what? Too bad. Little people concern themselves with little things, and
instead of pissing & whining, should extricate their craniums
from their lower intestinal tract and get a life. Nobody likes
a hair splitting misanthrope. It's petty and irritating.


Isn't a piccolo just a soprano flute? or is a flute really
a bass piccolo?

Slug
Ignore list activated.