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The Modified BEAD 4 String Bass Club

I’m back to BEAD again. I had a nice visit with standard EADG on my Schecter with some Rotosound Billy Sheehan BS66 SS rounds and some RS77 Jazz Flatwounds. I’ve been listening to one of my favorite bands a lot lately (Alter Bridge featuring Brian Marshall on bass) and decided I wanted a low B again.

So today I picked up a 45-130 set of Rotosound Swing Bass SS strings and promptly discarded of the 45. I’ll gradually work on the setup this week and then play it Sunday morning at church.

I’ve had a number for years as I’ve been an on again/off again participant. Thanks!
 
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I’m back to BEAD again. I had a nice visit with standard EADG on my Schecter with some Rotosound Billy Sheehan BS66 SS rounds and some RS77 Jazz Flatwounds. I’ve been listening to one of my favorite bands a lot lately (Alter Bridge featuring Brian Marshall on bass) and decided I wanted a low B again.

So today I picked up a 45-130 set of Rotosound Swing Bass SS strings and promptly discarded of the 45. I’ll gradually work on the setup this week and then play it Sunday morning at church.

I’ve had a number for years as I’ve been an on again/off again participant. Thanks!
A wise decision he he.
 
I’m back to BEAD again. I had a nice visit with standard EADG on my Schecter with some Rotosound Billy Sheehan BS66 SS rounds and some RS77 Jazz Flatwounds. I’ve been listening to one of my favorite bands a lot lately (Alter Bridge featuring Brian Marshall on bass) and decided I wanted a low B again.

So today I picked up a 45-130 set of Rotosound Swing Bass SS strings and promptly discarded of the 45. I’ll gradually work on the setup this week and then play it Sunday morning at church.

I’ve had a number for years as I’ve been an on again/off again participant. Thanks!

Nice!

I'll be interested in how that setup works in your worship band!

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I’ve used it to great effect at church tuned BEAD at various times over the years. It’s such a natural tuning (especially on my 24-fret Schecter) because I almost never use the G-string on it.

Ditto... I've used BEAD only in our worship band since January. We play a lot of songs in D and Eb. The B string resonates nicely below the keys in our set up and just works nicely.

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Ditto... I've used BEAD only in our worship band since January. We play a lot of songs in D and Eb. The B string resonates nicely below the keys in our set up and just works nicely.

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Welcome a new Club number! :woot:

#105 @joeLowB

;) BEAD is great for transposing for lower voices, for sure :cool:

I'll be monitoring to add more members as they post here. If I skipped anyone, please let me know. There's still a few numbers left for even more members! :smug:

And, you can find the entire BEAD Membership list on the BEAD Club Wiki page. :thumbsup:
.
 
Welcome a new Club number! :woot:

#105 @joeLowB

;) BEAD is great for transposing for lower voices, for sure :cool:

I'll be monitoring to add more members as they post here. If I skipped anyone, please let me know. There's still a few numbers left for even more members! :smug:

And, you can find the entire BEAD Membership list on the BEAD Club Wiki page. :thumbsup:
.

Thank you! I'm honored! #105, it is!

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At our last church, I often wanted a B string, but the one 5-string bass I tried extensively (and a couple of others I dallied with) didn't give my left hand joy (in fact, they gave it misery). So I started converting my oldest, least played bass to BEAD as a test run ... and we moved to a new church where the songs and keys chosen almost never need anything below the low D. My other basses are all tuned DGCF. The pickups on the BEAD bass OK but not wonderful - especially on the lower notes - so I have new pickups on order. Whether I convert all my basses to BEAD later or just swap remains to be seen. I do occasionally wander waaaay up the neck on the G string so we'll see. But I'm happy to have the BEAD in my arsenal.

I'd be happy to have a number, too!

And G-Dog, there's a tag issue after the numbers.
 
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Reactions: joeLowB
At our last church, I often wanted a B string, but the one 5-string bass I tried extensively (and a couple of others I dallied with) didn't give my left hand joy (in fact, they gave it misery). So I started converting my oldest, least played bass to BEAD as a test run ... and we moved to a new church where the songs and keys chosen almost never need anything below the low D. My other basses are all tuned DGCF. The pickups on the BEAD bass OK but not wonderful - especially on the lower notes - so I have new pickups on order. Whether I convert all my basses to BEAD later or just swap remains to be seen. I do occasionally wander waaaay up the neck on the G string so we'll see. But I'm happy to have the BEAD in my arsenal.

I'd be happy to have a number, too!

And G-Dog, there's a tag issue after the numbers.

Ha, that happens. Some weeks, I'll only use the B string a couple of times... usually fitting in a 5th below the root because it's so easy.

Other weeks, like this one, I'm banging on the B all the time. We have one song that leans heavily on the Eb. Another is in D and that low octave really provides the sonic foundation.

Good luck working through it!

.
 
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At our last church, I often wanted a B string, but the one 5-string bass I tried extensively (and a couple of others I dallied with) didn't give my left hand joy (in fact, they gave it misery). So I started converting my oldest, least played bass to BEAD as a test run ... and we moved to a new church where the songs and keys chosen almost never need anything below the low D. My other basses are all tuned DGCF. The pickups on the BEAD bass OK but not wonderful - especially on the lower notes - so I have new pickups on order. Whether I convert all my basses to BEAD later or just swap remains to be seen. I do occasionally wander waaaay up the neck on the G string so we'll see. But I'm happy to have the BEAD in my arsenal.

I'd be happy to have a number, too!

And G-Dog, there's a tag issue after the numbers.

Welcome a new Club number! :woot:

#106 @Miles_ONeal

:) I started BEAD in a modern country cover band, Miley. Then I got heavy into contemporary Christian in church and went to all BEAD.! Well, top 3 basses, anyway :cool:

I'll be monitoring to add more members as they post here. If I skipped anyone, please let me know. There's still a few numbers left for even more members! :smug:

And, you can find the entire BEAD Club Membership list on the BEAD Club Wiki page. :thumbsup:
.
 
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Well folks I did it. I've been lurking here for quite some time, so first off, thank you all for the information that I needed to go through with it.
So I knew I wanted a low B string in my arsenal, but wasn't really prepared to do the mod to my only bass, a Fender MiM P/J. I decided that I'd keep an eye for a good deal on either a 5 string or a 4 string that would be a good candidate for BEAD. Eventually a Squier Paranormal '54 Jazz showed up on the Fb MP so I kept an eye on it and when they dropped the price to $150 (?!) I jumped on it. Ordered a nut from Graph tech, got my hands on an Ernie Ball 5 string set and went to work. I think I may do some more work on the nut and there's a weird overtone on the B that I need to figure out, otherwise I've spent the last couple hours unleashing the thunder and I'm loving it!
 

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Well folks I did it. I've been lurking here for quite some time, so first off, thank you all for the information that I needed to go through with it.
So I knew I wanted a low B string in my arsenal, but wasn't really prepared to do the mod to my only bass, a Fender MiM P/J. I decided that I'd keep an eye for a good deal on either a 5 string or a 4 string that would be a good candidate for BEAD. Eventually a Squier Paranormal '54 Jazz showed up on the Fb MP so I kept an eye on it and when they dropped the price to $150 (?!) I jumped on it. Ordered a nut from Graph tech, got my hands on an Ernie Ball 5 string set and went to work. I think I may do some more work on the nut and there's a weird overtone on the B that I need to figure out, otherwise I've spent the last couple hours unleashing the thunder and I'm loving it!
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/st...nes-inharmonics-causes-solutions-help.884883/

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/is-there-a-cure-for-weird-b-string-overtones.389983/

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/weird-woofiness-on-b-string.1581620/
 
Last edited:
Well folks I did it. I've been lurking here for quite some time, so first off, thank you all for the information that I needed to go through with it.
So I knew I wanted a low B string in my arsenal, but wasn't really prepared to do the mod to my only bass, a Fender MiM P/J. I decided that I'd keep an eye for a good deal on either a 5 string or a 4 string that would be a good candidate for BEAD. Eventually a Squier Paranormal '54 Jazz showed up on the Fb MP so I kept an eye on it and when they dropped the price to $150 (?!) I jumped on it. Ordered a nut from Graph tech, got my hands on an Ernie Ball 5 string set and went to work. I think I may do some more work on the nut and there's a weird overtone on the B that I need to figure out, otherwise I've spent the last couple hours unleashing the thunder and I'm loving it!

Ok! That's a good plan to learn.

It can take a while to get the B to play nicely with E, A and D. You have some good resources listed above.

Ditto on the pickup spacing.

Also, your amp has an effect on the sound.

Good luck!
 
Ok! That's a good plan to learn.

It can take a while to get the B to play nicely with E, A and D. You have some good resources listed above.

Ditto on the pickup spacing.

Also, your amp has an effect on the sound.

Good luck!
I'll give those links a read and start troubleshooting. So far I have only played it through an HX Stomp XL with headphones and I ran it through a patch with zero effects or amp sims and the sound was still there.
Thanks for the reply!