Tune down pedal V Capo V 2nd Bass

[Mr Sausage]

Hi Everyone

I currently play in a guitar duo, mainly The Who, Stones, Bowie etc. At the moment I mainly play tuned down to Eb and use a 2nd bass in standard tuning for about 5 of the songs. We try to keep the songs we play in standard grouped together to avoid too many guitar changes .

Could I use a capo on my Eb tuned bass to give me a standard tuning ? or alternatively a tune up pedal? This would allow us to mix up the songs a bit more.

I realize I could play the songs I play in standard on the tuned down bass but they all include open strings , hence the reason I've stuck with a 2nd bass.

 

[mattbass6945]

I think a capo would work fine. I've personally not tried it, but I've seen others do it. I always had a second bass, but that can cause other issues. Volume/eq difference, time delays, etc

 

[Swimming Bird]

I've used a 6-string guitar capo effectively on 4-string bass. IMO the main issue is fit with the neck shape / fretboard radius.

 

[J Posega]

My first choice is always going to be second bass in the right tuning. Next choice would be to tune my primary bass to Eb and then use a capo. Last choice is to use a pitch shifter to take the bass up that semitone, but I'd be worried that there would be some cognitive issues where my body says that this "feels" like Eb but it comes out of the speaker as E.

 

[Mr Sausage]

My first choice is always going to be second bass in the right tuning. Next choice would be to tune my primary bass to Eb and then use a capo. Last choice is to use a pitch shifter to take the bass up that semitone, but I'd be worried that there would be some cognitive issues where my body says that this "feels" like Eb but it comes out of the speaker as E.

Yeah , I like having the two guitars but as Mattbass6945 said above , its a nuisance changing over the guitars and the volume/eq difference can also be a bit problematic.
I haven't really seen a decent tune up pedal, so I think for the small price , a capo may be worth a try.

 

[el murdoque]

The standard answer would be 'Get a 5 string and play it all on one bass'.

If you just need to reach the Eb, a Hipshot Dtuner could be used as well.

I've tried a capo once, it was a rather big and sturdy version, which worked fine on my 5 string.

The Digitech Drop pedal gets good results without taking away too much tone.

 

[Mr Sausage]

I mainly play the one tuned down to Eb so not too sure the digitech drop would help as I don't think it tunes up and I'd rather not play too many songs through a pedal so wouldn't want to play standard and through that.

Don't think the Mrs. would welcome another guitar so I'll refrain from buying a 5 string

 

[bassbrad]

Capos work fine on bass, I regularly use one on my lo B five string for different tunings. I do also have a bass specifically for drop D and Dadgad.