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Tuning for a six string bass?

#9
If we could wrap our heads around the G string next to a B string we'd be able to play guitar.

Same interval between all the strings and everything stays the same all the way up and down the neck. I might not be able to tell you right away what the note is, because I'm in new territory, but a pattern will sound like I expect it to.

There is some variety but for the most part: BEADGC.
 
#11
jwbassman said:
"Standard" would be BEADGC
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For most people, that's the end of it. It gives you an extra low string and an extra high string to work with. That said, if you can find the right strings and the right bass (both of which will be a bit spendy) I personally think that F#BEADG is more useful to a working bassist. You are hired to play low notes in most bands, so a) the C string in standard tuning doesn't get used nearly as much as the other 5 and actually serves to move them further away from you fingers. Also b) as with the low B, while you may not spend a ton of time onstage thundering away in the lowest notes of its range, having an F# means that you have more low range notes available to you further up the neck without shifting position. That's useful even on vanilla cover gigs.

Just my $.02.
 
#12
I've owned my 6-String Warwick for a little over a week now (tuned standard BEADGC). I've noticed a few things about my playing. Even though I have the full 6-string range at my disposal, I'm still spending 90% of the time playing the EADG strings. The other thing, and maybe this will come with a little more time, I find myself holding back when popping the C-string because I'm worried that I'll break it. Can it take the same abuse as the rest of the string set?
 
#13
TolerancEJ said:
I've owned my 6-String Warwick for a little over a week now (tuned standard BEADGC). I've noticed a few things about my playing. Even though I have the full 6-string range at my disposal, I'm still spending 90% of the time playing the EADG strings. The other thing, and maybe this will come with a little more time, I find myself holding back when popping the C-string because I'm worried that I'll break it. Can it take the same abuse as the rest of the string set?
Click to expand...

I've never broken a C string, but I use a .032 gauge.
 
#15
Note to the thread starter way up there...
One consideration about going six string is muting. You will need to be able to stop the other strings from singing along when you play or else it sounds muddy. This is true for any instrument, but is a bit more involved on 6 string bass.
 
#16
groooooove said:
why B on top?

guitars are like that so they can bar a fret and get that major third from the G-B strings, for bar chords.

basses (IMO, at least) work best tuned in 4ths, no matter how many strings they have.
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Some of us bassists like to do major 3rd thing too. And you get the option of playing 3rds in harmonics as well.

There's no heaven-decreed reason why a bass needs to be in 4ths only, and I can't honestly see any reason to believe they necessarily "work" better (whatever that might mean) in 4ths.

I tune my 6 string BEADGB and have done ever since I started playing one. (Admittedly, I did start out playing guitar.) For me, in addition to the familiarity, something just feels "wrong" about the lowest and highest strings being only a half step apart (albeit in different registers) rather than some less dissonant interval. If you look at the history of 6 string instruments (like guitar, lute, vihuela, viola da gamba) over the past few centuries in Western music, you'll find that most incorporated some kind of irregularity in the tuning (like the major 3rd among all the 4ths), and my belief is that that was in part to avoid that kind of B-C clash. But I freely concede that's only my guess.

Undoubtedly, however, BEADGC is more standard for 6 string electric bass today. Though Tim Bogert, for one, tunes his 6 the same way I tune mine (which I didn't know when I started doing it!).

YMMV and all that.
 
#17
I been playing 6's for most of my bass playing "career" and I have never broken a string. I've had them go dead or get nasty but never broke 'em so feel free to dig in if you feel like it.

In my experience the coolest thing about playing a 6 is the ability to do chordal tapping while maintaining a bass line. For example I played in a quasi fusion/rock trio for a bit and when the guitarist would shift from doing chordal work and switch to a lead I could use my right hand (non fretting hand) to tap out 2 and 3 note versions of the chords while still playing a bass line with my left hand. The song stays full that way.
 

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