tune B string to D/E

[chriscrob]

I play an American Deluxe P Bass and I love tension a whole lot.

I am playing in an emo-revival-ish band that has a few moments/songs that are pretty much pop-punk. Fast, picked passages where I'm going to be excited and digging i. I'm going to have to be in at least drop D, and the singers would prefer to play a few songs in drop Db. I currently have the heavier Rotosound 55s on it. I LOVE the A string, but I cant stand the sound I'm getting from my E string---especially in drop D. It's bad enough that in one passage that goes from B->A->G, I won't play the better sounding B/A on the A string because of the huge drop off in tone when I get to the G. I'm also in a 50s revival-swing band? where I'm playing with fingers and standard tuning...no problems with the E string then.

I have a circle K .142 B on another bass, just to see if it would work I tightened it up to D. It felt really good and sounded a 1,000 times better than it does at B. Does anyone uptune a B string to E? Would the tension damage the neck? I would obviously try to find a smaller B string if I were going to attempt this full time.

 

[bassist4dalord]

I play an American Deluxe P Bass and I love tension a whole lot.

I am playing in an emo-revival-ish band that has a few moments/songs that are pretty much pop-punk. Fast, picked passages where I'm going to be excited and digging i. I'm going to have to be in at least drop D, and the singers would prefer to play a few songs in drop Db. I currently have the heavier Rotosound 55s on it. I LOVE the A string, but I cant stand the sound I'm getting from my E string---especially in drop D. It's bad enough that in one passage that goes from B->A->G, I won't play the better sounding B/A on the A string because of the huge drop off in tone when I get to the G. I'm also in a 50s revival-swing band? where I'm playing with fingers and standard tuning...no problems with the E string then.

I have a circle K .142 B on another bass, just to see if it would work I tightened it up to D. It felt really good and sounded a 1,000 times better than it does at B. Does anyone uptune a B string to E? Would the tension damage the neck? I would obviously try to find a smaller B string if I were going to attempt this full time.

I can't even imagine that. I'm picturing it destroying the neck/truss rod, if you were to follow suit and uptune an E to A, an A to D, and a D to G.

 

[MonetBass]

I can't even imagine that. I'm picturing it destroying the neck/truss rod, if you were to follow suit and uptune an E to A, an A to D, and a D to G.

This. Your bass neck isn't designed for that much tension. Try some different strings, sticking with the heavier guage, and see if those work better in drop D.

Whatever you do, DON'T tune a B string up to D or E.

 

[khutch]

Yeah, a 0.142 should be at 60 lbs when tuned to a D. Some standard strings sets will have strings at 55 lbs but I would try to avoid going higher than that. If you need to run one string at 60 I would try to keep the others a little low so that the total tension on the neck is about the same as a standard string set would give you. Personally I think that switching between D and B would work fairly well with a 0.136 or 0.130 string. Going E to B will be tougher so you might have to run 60 pounds on the E to get a B that won't be total flop city. Just be sure the keep the total neck tension reasonable if you decide to do that.

Ken

 

[ixlramp]

Whatever you do, DON'T tune a B string up to D or E.

Well as khutch said, a .142 at D has 60 pounds of tension, to put it in perspective a so called "medium" 105 85 70 50 set has a .070 D at 60 pounds. So individually that's fine, it's the total tension you should keep an eye on, don't let it exceed the total of a heavy EADG set. A 110-55 set has an average of 57 pounds per string.
You can use the D'Addario or CKS tension charts to design your sets or check total tension:
http://www.daddario.com/upload/tension_chart_13934.pdf
Since you want to tighten up the low strings without overtightening the high ones you need a tension balanced set. 50 pounds on each string will be fine.