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The Modified BEAD 4 String Bass Club

#261
Doner Designs said:
Usually the piezo pickup is built into the bridge, so modification would be tricky at best.

Do you have an acoustic or were you answering as to BEAD tuning in general?
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I have an acoustic, but it's tuned EADG.

Three of my basses are tuned BEAD, though.

If you used a bridge/tailpiece, you could still probably mount an aftermarket piezo, though with my acoustic I'm honestly about to modify it with a regular magnetic pickup in the sound hole.

With a regular acoustic bridge, could you possibly shim it so that the B string side was a little bit higher?
 
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#262
Doner Designs said:
Why do you think the longer scale would be an issue. Should work better - will tighten up the B a smidge.
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I should have been clearer. I don't think there's any issue with the longer scale, in fact I much prefer it. 35" four strings with shallow P-style necks is my favorite combination. I just didn't want to change the Carlo to BEAD it until I know I'll have a solid fretted 35" EADG. The 35" Lowdownbass neck for the Jazz is not too far off from completion. If it works well I'll take the Carlo in and have it switched to BEAD. Then I'll have the three main 35" scale, 1.75"nut, Shallow necked, 4-stringbasses I want:
-EADG Fretted (Passive): Jazz style
-EADG Fretless: Wendler Electrocoustic
-BEAD Fretted (Active): Carlo

Someday I may make my Darkstar Frankenbass a 35" as well, but that's a long way off and I don't know if I'd order a new neck or just have a whole (hopefully much lighter) new bass made for the Darkstars. If I did that I'd probably put a preamp in the Jazz.
 
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#263
Doner Designs said:
Have any of you fellow BEAD folks tried BEAD on an acoustic electric. Seems like the fixed bridge would be a problem. I can't play in standard tuning anymore and don't want to go to a 5-er.

Skinny BEAD strings might work I guess but might be a little floppy for my taste. I normally play 130, 110, 90, 75.
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I’ve been toying with this idea for a while. Right now my main bass is my Schecter Raiden Special-4 (passive) tunes BEAD with La Bella Gold Tapewounds (the ones with black silk woven around the gold).

I’m hoping to get a set of D’Addario Nickel XLs for that bass (BEAD still) and then I might put the La Bellas on my Ibanez AEB5E acoustic bass. I’ve also considered doing a Piccolo BEAD set on the acoustic, since that bass is solely played around the house unplugged. That would give me BEAD tuning on my main basses and make the acoustic very usable for tinkering around at home.

I don’t have any further insight for you but I’ll keep you posted!
 
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#264
bassist4dalord said:
I’ve been toying with this idea for a while. Right now my main bass is my Schecter Raiden Special-4 (passive) tunes BEAD with La Bella Gold Tapewounds (the ones with black silk woven around the gold).

I’m hoping to get a set of D’Addario Nickel XLs for that bass (BEAD still) and then I might put the La Bellas on my Ibanez AEB5E acoustic bass. I’ve also considered doing a Piccolo BEAD set on the acoustic, since that bass is solely played around the house unplugged. That would give me BEAD tuning on my main basses and make the acoustic very usable for tinkering around at home.

I don’t have any further insight for you but I’ll keep you posted!
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I've been using the XLs for years with good results. I use a 130 low B, which is what comes with the EXL175 set.
 
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#265
Found a great deal on a Breedlove Solo, so am going to give it a go with BEAD tuning. Hope it works since I can't and don't want to play in standard tuning anymore. Using SIT Silencers which come in a very light set - the B string is 120. The Silencer name refers to reduced finger noise from the compression winding.

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#266
Doner Designs said:
. . . I can't and don't want to play in standard tuning anymore. . . .
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:woot: Wow! I thought I was a convert with three of my five 4-strings now BEAD, after just 8 years of "giving it a try". But I can still play standard tuning. I just prefer not to ( except on my 5-string ). But, you sure got me beat, @Doner!

I look forward to hearing your results, as this could be my next conversion.
e4fa1511e263b5de48ca1fdb53733147--acoustic-bass-guitar-bass-guitars.jpg
 
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#270
Doner Designs said:
Found a great deal on a Breedlove Solo, so am going to give it a go with BEAD tuning. Hope it works since I can't and don't want to play in standard tuning anymore. Using SIT Silencers which come in a very light set - the B string is 120. The Silencer name refers to reduced finger noise from the compression winding.

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Loaded up the strings today. Works great!
 
#271
I'm going to order a 4 string Fender elite from Thomann. Talked to them and they said will setup the bass for me to acomodate the thicker strings needed for BEAD tuning.
Curently i have a 5 string jazz elite. The B string sounds excelent on this bass. But i have to return it because it's to noisy.
So instead i will order a 4 string version of the same bass, i find the neck to be a little too wide, on the 5 string, wich makes quite difficult themuting on the strings i don't play. I play metal with lots of 32's and 16's so a good muting tehnique is essential.
I'm curious if the B string will sound the sameon the 4 string version compared to 5 string one
 
#272
Doner Designs said:
Have any of you fellow BEAD folks tried BEAD on an acoustic electric. Seems like the fixed bridge would be a problem. I can't play in standard tuning anymore and don't want to go to a 5-er.

Skinny BEAD strings might work I guess but might be a little floppy for my taste. I normally play 130, 110, 90, 75.
Click to expand...



my DEAN EAB bass...strung with la bella tapewound in BEAD
 
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#274
Up to this point, I'm not a BEAD guy. However, my main band (Spacemetal) tunes CFBbEb, so practically there. I've been using a Spector Euro 435LX strung with the LaBella Drop Tune set (111-90-75-54) and a Dingwall Dbird (recently switched over from a Dingwall NG2) strung with a custom Kalium set (118-90-70-53). I will tell anyone that either of those basses could easily kill as a BEAD bass, and if you don't like a really big low string, the LaBella's could definitely go down another 1/2 step with ease.See

On to the reason for my post. I just started gigging with another band that plays country (George Strait, Dwight Yoakam, Clint Black, etc.). I found after quickly learning 40 songs in just over a week to be able to take over the bass spot for them and then doing the first gig this past Saturday that I literally never touched the G string on my Sadowsky 4. However, I definitely would have liked a lower D at the least. Not being a fan of 5 strings or needing that G, a BEAD 4 banger seems like the solution. I could convert one of my standard 34" basses over rather easily (candidates would be 2 US Spectors, a PJ and JJ setup respectively). However, I am a big fan of extended scale for lower tunings as you can see from my Spacemetal setup. I'm kind of curoius about the Jericho bass I've seen online. Fender style sort of fits the country "look and sound" so to speak and the price is definitely right to take a flyer on one (especially since I just bought that Dingwall and that was $$$$).
 
#275
NOLA Bass said:
Up to this point, I'm not a BEAD guy. However, my main band (Spacemetal) tunes CFBbEb, so practically there. I've been using a Spector Euro 435LX strung with the LaBella Drop Tune set (111-90-75-54) and a Dingwall Dbird (recently switched over from a Dingwall NG2) strung with a custom Kalium set (118-90-70-53). I will tell anyone that either of those basses could easily kill as a BEAD bass, and if you don't like a really big low string, the LaBella's could definitely go down another 1/2 step with ease.See

On to the reason for my post. I just started gigging with another band that plays country (George Strait, Dwight Yoakam, Clint Black, etc.). I found after quickly learning 40 songs in just over a week to be able to take over the bass spot for them and then doing the first gig this past Saturday that I literally never touched the G string on my Sadowsky 4. However, I definitely would have liked a lower D at the least. Not being a fan of 5 strings or needing that G, a BEAD 4 banger seems like the solution. I could convert one of my standard 34" basses over rather easily (candidates would be 2 US Spectors, a PJ and JJ setup respectively). However, I am a big fan of extended scale for lower tunings as you can see from my Spacemetal setup. I'm kind of curoius about the Jericho bass I've seen online. Fender style sort of fits the country "look and sound" so to speak and the price is definitely right to take a flyer on one (especially since I just bought that Dingwall and that was $$$$).
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I know nothing about them, but here are some links to previous threads about them.

Jericho Bass?

Jericho Amps???

Has anyone played a Jericho

NBD/Review: Jericho Alpha 5

Weight cut: Jericho Alpha 5

Hope this helps.
 
#276
NOLA Bass said:
I just started gigging with another band that plays country (George Strait, Dwight Yoakam, Clint Black, etc.). I found after quickly learning 40 songs in just over a week to be able to take over the bass spot for them and then doing the first gig this past Saturday that I literally never touched the G string on my Sadowsky 4. However, I definitely would have liked a lower D at the least.
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I play DGCF exclusively now - I switched when I was in a country project and needed that low "D".
 
#277
NOLA Bass said:
Up to this point, I'm not a BEAD guy. However, my main band (Spacemetal) tunes CFBbEb, so practically there. I've been using a Spector Euro 435LX strung with the LaBella Drop Tune set (111-90-75-54) and a Dingwall Dbird (recently switched over from a Dingwall NG2) strung with a custom Kalium set (118-90-70-53). I will tell anyone that either of those basses could easily kill as a BEAD bass, and if you don't like a really big low string, the LaBella's could definitely go down another 1/2 step with ease.See

On to the reason for my post. I just started gigging with another band that plays country (George Strait, Dwight Yoakam, Clint Black, etc.). I found after quickly learning 40 songs in just over a week to be able to take over the bass spot for them and then doing the first gig this past Saturday that I literally never touched the G string on my Sadowsky 4. However, I definitely would have liked a lower D at the least. Not being a fan of 5 strings or needing that G, a BEAD 4 banger seems like the solution. I could convert one of my standard 34" basses over rather easily (candidates would be 2 US Spectors, a PJ and JJ setup respectively). However, I am a big fan of extended scale for lower tunings as you can see from my Spacemetal setup. I'm kind of curoius about the Jericho bass I've seen online. Fender style sort of fits the country "look and sound" so to speak and the price is definitely right to take a flyer on one (especially since I just bought that Dingwall and that was $$$$).
Click to expand...


And here's a link that may help. Is there a 4 string B Bass?

The TB Search function is a very useful tool!
 
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