Tuning down to e-flat or D. kill my neck?

[bouncy555]

Hello there

I just had one quick question for ya

I have an 1970's fender bass. And I was wondering if tuning it down from concert pitch to e-flat and back up again once each night would hurt the neck in anyway? We play usually two nights a week.

We want to try tuning down for our last set.

Because my voice is getting tired at the end of the night after 4 hours. And it means that we could still play songs that are vocally really high at the end of the night
It could be called cheating. But ah well. the audience isn't gonna care.
As long as it still rocks.

Thanks allot and help would be awsum!

Kind Regards

John Murray

New Zealand

 

[user3653753]

John,

tuning a half step shouldn't hurt the next that much. those 70's fender are a solid bass and I've dropped and damaged several of them and they still seem to roll on without any problems.

I'm not really a luthier though. So if you wanted a serious answer about the bass and what it will do to it by tuning down, you should ask the same question in the luthiers corner.

Easy,

Janek

 

[Dave Martin]

You should be fine with that practice - when it's appropriate on a session, I'll drop tune not only my fenders, but also 6 string basses and my double bass (Now that I think about, I think one of the P basses is still tuned down from a session on Friday). Typically, I'll do it when I want to have open strings to match a guitar riff or lick, and they're drop tuned. Or if it's at the end of a long day and the song calls for a slapping rockabilly bass line in A flat.


Oh, one thing - I have better luck with heavier strings when re-runing a step down - .095's and .100's get a little floppy when tuned to a low D.