The Fifths Tuning Club

[Cal03]

The only key without any open strings available is F# / Gb major. If you don't count the lowest open string then Db major also has no open strings available. By this metric, these keys (tritone and semitone above lowest open string, respectively) are possibly the most difficult to play in for CGDA.

CORRECTION: I forgot that B major (semitone below lowest open string) also has no open strings available in CGDA. These three keys (B, F# / Gb, Db) are the 3 keys most distant from C in the circle of fifths.

To be honest if I had to play in these keys with CGDA tuning, I'd rather tune down to BF#C#G#. I know, I know, it's cheating but it so much easier!

 

[Vincent GROS]

My three basses are tuned in fifth because I can read jazz big band music easily with my cello classical training. Sofar no YouTube vidéo can help me with fingering techniques thpugh... all made for 4th tuning. As a result I develop my own fingering patterns. Would love to have a Rob Allen bass in fifth. ... should they agree to such challenge !
Vincent , Geneva

 

[pklima]

Yeah, there's no real standard fingering, I just played the "regular" fourths tuning Simandl exercises and figured out when to switch strings on my own.

Also, an update from my tests of FCGDA tuning... yeah, I don't need notes that low, though I did record a bunch of stuff with that low F even tuned down to C and A. Super-low strings aren't really all that useful for playing notes (at least not to me) but do make for really cool-sounding bowed drones and some FX like plucking behind the nut. So, I've traded that 5-string 35" T-bird for a more regular 4-string T-bird, though I'm keeping the Washburn AB95 mostly because it looks awesome.

 

[Mister_GothFrak]

I'd like to join. I recently put together a short scale bass and turned it into a cello guitar. 5-string from F1-A3

 

[pklima]

Clever way to get five strings and decent intonation without a narrow five-string bridge... how's the spacing on the high strings working out?

 

[Mister_GothFrak]

Clever way to get five strings and decent intonation without a narrow five-string bridge... how's the spacing on the high strings working out?

Thanks. It's a little close for finger style but, it's fine with a pik. I'd rather play this, relatively gently, with a pik anyway. lol. It's hard for me to have a consistent light touch without one. My whole life I've whaled on the strings and I don't like that attack for this. lol

That's just a temporary bridge. I bought the body w/ electronics! and the neck from G&L's clearance shoppe. Only things that were missing were the bridge and that metal place on the body around the neck screws.

Why they couldn't have tossed the plate and screws in is beyond me. I guess they sell those separately? Made me go all the way to the hardware store to spend another dollar!

I'm probably gonna throw a Kahler vibrato bridge on here once I've got the money. It's still going to have slightly closer spacing for the top strings.

Gonna get a Gizmotron e-bow machine, too.

It's got a custom set of flatwounds. Currently, they're Chromes but, I might see what else I can get in the future. I want all wound strings. I found octave4plus earlier. Pricey but, it'd work!


Addendum:
Oh, that's a really blurry photo by the time it got here. lol. So, that bridge I picked up used for $25. It's got grooves all along the saddles so I can put the strings pretty much anywhere.
Filed a groove in the nut in the center of the top two strings. I want to find a black bone/horn/hoof nut later on and completely re-finish it.

 

[itsuto]

Hello,I am Itsuto.
I play a mongolian horse-headed fidle bass modified to 3 strings from 2 strings and tuned in fifths 1E 2A 3D
My reason is to be different and to explore new fingerings, and I was starting to be curious if there were others, and I found this forum.
This is how my instrument sounds like
Noriko Kodama Duo

 

[mrvan]

That sounds amazing!

I'm not sure I follow the tuning - do you mean your lowest string is E1, and the next highest is A2 and then D2 (fourths) or Is the lowest string D(1?) with the next highest A2 and the highest string E2 (fifths)?

 

[Prodigus Filius]

That sounds amazing!

I'm not sure I follow the tuning - do you mean your lowest string is E1, and the next highest is A2 and then D2 (fourths) or Is the lowest string D(1?) with the next highest A2 and the highest string E2

The horsehead fiddle bass has the thickest strings on the opposite side of what a western stringed instrument has. Morin khuur - Wikipedia
So I presume from low to high is indeed DAE. Maybe itsuto could clarify. Be like playing a righty upside down I spose. Evocative sound

 

[itsuto]

The horsehead fiddle bass has the thickest strings on the opposite side of what a western stringed instrument has. Morin khuur - Wikipedia
So I presume from low to high is indeed DAE. Maybe itsuto could clarify. Be like playing a righty upside down I spose. Evocative sound

Thank you mrvan!! and PF,
yes the lowest is a D, cello tuning would be CGDA from the lowest, but a low C was too much for what I usualy do,so decided to go one step up or solo tuning DAE. the tricky part is that Im lefty.
I also do the throat singing in the album.

 

[eyvindwa]

Thank you mrvan!! and PF,
yes the lowest is a D, cello tuning would be CGDA from the lowest, but a low C was too much for what I usualy do,so decided to go one step up or solo tuning DAE. the tricky part is that Im lefty.
I also do the throat singing in the album.

Fantastic sound! Well done!

 

[Prodigus Filius]

@itsuto
Not a bass range instrument, but thought you and others, might enjoy this. The Tovshuur, like the horsehead fiddle, was traditionally tuned in 5ths but 4ths is used as well now days. And as per the morin khurr, the thinner string is where the thickest would be on western instruments.The throat singing is insane

 

[pklima]

Having tried FCGDA for a while, including sneaking it into a rehearsal where nobody noticed, I've concluded that I sure don't need it, though it can be useful for quiet intros, the last note of a song, or playing octave grooves but making the octave below the normal note not above. Still, I sure don't need it. I'll do a bit of recording with it sticking to the 11th fret and up, basically using it as an enormously oversized uke-scale bass, just for grins.

So that raises the question of what to do with my one 5-string bass after that. Could just keep it as is, sure, and use that string very occasionally for very special notes. Could restring it CGDAE and go high and then have a different string I sure don't need, haha. Tbh having all 4-string basses and making my life slightly simpler would probably be the smart thing to do, but this 5 looks really cool.

But, in any case, if anybody else has a 5 and is wondering about the viability and usefulness of FCGDA or other tunings in that neighborhood for genres other than metal: for me it's fun to try and occasionally usable but not necessary for anything.

 

[Cal03]

In my experience, a high E string opens up a whole world of possibilities for melodic lines and accompanying. You can intrude well into guitar territory and convincingly comp with the basic triad shapes. It's definitely overkill if all you need to do is hold down the low end.

The low F is intriguing but I've yet to try it given the many challenges of having such a thick string, though sometimes C1 just isn't low enough. Maybe the solution is in tuning down from CGDA? I've tried BbFCG(D) before and it could work, but I couldn't commit since I was too used to the CGDA open strings.

 

[pklima]

Yeah, I think a fiver with low Bb or low A would be a reasonable compromise, if I didn't spend all my practice time on DB with CGDA. But if somebody's willing to commit to fivers with that tuning, or doesn't mind switching tunings/instruments, I think tuning starting a little lower than C could be good.

A high E is, of course, more appealing to people who've been known to wander above the octave on the A string, heh. Me, I like CGDA, but different storks for different forks.

 

[The_Bass_Troll]

I just found this because I was searching for exercises for basses tuned in fifths. I want to start with simple root/5 blues progressions comonly found in old C&W music. I have one bass tuned Bb-F-C-G. This gives my 4-string every note that a 5-string (with the same fret count) has, plus one additional low note.

 

[pklima]

Not that this is some huge advantage of fifths tuning and will make people want to switch, but something I've realized playing in church where sometimes we'll stretch a four-chord song out very long while people pray over it and play it from very quiet to quiet loud. Fifths make it very easy to go from playing roots to playing chords or adding a tenth above the root. You can just sorta start playing chords without having to go into a higher octave or worrying how to voice them to avoid mud. Makes the pianist happy, too, she doesn't have to worry about carrying the harmony.

 

[Cal03]

Not that this is some huge advantage of fifths tuning and will make people want to switch, but something I've realized playing in church where sometimes we'll stretch a four-chord song out very long while people pray over it and play it from very quiet to quiet loud. Fifths make it very easy to go from playing roots to playing chords or adding a tenth above the root. You can just sorta start playing chords without having to go into a higher octave or worrying how to voice them to avoid mud. Makes the pianist happy, too, she doesn't have to worry about carrying the harmony.

That's one of my favorite perks of fifths tuning, easy spread triads in all inversions that only need 3 strings!

 

[pklima]

Got a set of octave4plus CGDA flatwounds about six or seven months ago with the idea of putting them on my Washburn AB95 that already had the octave4plus 0.175 low F at the bottom, and shortened double bass Spirocores for the other four, but I wanted to do some recording on the Washburn with the Spirocores first, and ended up putting that set on an Atelier Z ATB-1 instead.

In general, the octave4plus strings seem brighter on the A and D than the others. Spirocores are darkest (but have very uneven output - not meant for magnetic pickups, so they work fine but the D and A peak about 6 dB louder when plucked the same), Chromes inbetween. Will see how they settle in. I did tune them to pitch veeeeery slooooooowly (actually over an entire day, as I had some other things to do) like the instructions say, and nothing broke.

 

[Prodigus Filius]

Seen AEBF#C#G# mentioned a few times in this thread in the context of 5 and 6 strings. I’m trying out the tuning AEBF# on a 34” BEAD bass.
This tuning, in addition to the notes below E1 has all the other pitches except Eb4 found on a bog standard 20 fret bass tuned to E standard.

The stats

All 5ths Tuning Rotosound Trubass 88

Gauges 75 100 115 135

A0/.135/24.08lbf (very flubby)
E1/.115/34.53lbf
B1/.100/59.29lbf
F#2/.075/69.59lbf

TT = 187.49lbf

Not much more overall tension than a vanilla set of 45-105 nickel rounds in E standard


I opted to try this with Roto88 tapewounds because I get the girth of large gauge strings which I like, without unfeasible tensions for the B and F# strings you would run up against trying this with similar gauges in rounds or flats.
E.g with similar gauges of Roto77 flats (gauges 75 95 110 130) the tensions involved would be much much too high on the 75 and 95 strings tuned B1 and F#2 respectively. See beiow

All 5ths Tuning Rotosound 77 Jazz flats

Gauges 75 95 110 130

A0/.130/32.64lbf
E1/.110/50.78lbf
B1/.095/86.57lbf
F#2/.075/112.57lbf

TT = 282.58lbf

I prob won’t stick with this tuning because the 135 tape is too flubby and I can’t use similar gauged, but higher tension strings as the theoretical Roto77
tensions indicate. Why not try it with thinner gauges for B and F# s an iunderstandable response. But fact is I don’t want to lose the girth I have come to love about the tapes. So what tunings I try of whatever variety have to fit in the girth parameter.