Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
What the heck? 14 strings
- Thread starter Dusty G
- Start date
- Status
(sarcasm level: 6)I can't personally cope with any more than 4, but I offer all the support I can to Dusty to finishing this wonderful project.
See it for what it is: fun.
See it for what it is: fun.
i can just bout handle 5, but at least he has frets on it! i saw a fretless 10 string the other day! mental!
Amen!
I'll be at GC waiting for the Squier version. (j/k. I wish Dusty the best with this.)
true, but people also thought that BetaMax was the way of the future.
and that Nintendo's Virtual Boy was a good investment....
:scowl: fool me once...
he might have had an accident.... that beast might have fell on him..... or eaten him alive!! 
I"M COMING DUSTY!!!!
on second thought, he might be finished and just hasn't put it down yet
I"M COMING DUSTY!!!!
on second thought, he might be finished and just hasn't put it down yet
It can be done: G#C#F#BEADGCFBbEbAbDb, strings for G#00 and Db5 are being developed now.
Also it looks like 15 strings may be possible with a fanned fretboard and a super thin top string.
IMO, the major difference here is that Dusty is not trying to reinvent the P-Bass or anything else catered for the masses; he's pushing at the boundaries of what can be done. I think few serious ERB players will try to tell you that their particular weapon of choice is the 'next big thing/wave of the future'...
although I would certailnly own a DustyG sig Squier 14.
I think Dustys got a shot with existing strings.
I did this to-scale chart overlaying Dustys multi-scales with the existing tuning on Yves Carbonnes 34 12 string.
(Great therapy while nursing a head cold)
It shows where the notes on the 34 wind up on the multi-scale. I rounded up/down to the nearest fret.
Unless I screwed up, it looks like if you tune the top six strings a Maj7 above guitar,
you wind up only a half-tone beyond the D-nat.
That's where Yves existing high Gflat string sits (on 22).
It would whole tone shy if you want raise the pitch so that all the open strings to better coincide with other basses/guitars.
You would have to find 12 gauges that work between the low and high strings rather than the ten on YCs.
Even so, it seems that usable gauges should be out there.
I did this to-scale chart overlaying Dustys multi-scales with the existing tuning on Yves Carbonnes 34 12 string.
(Great therapy while nursing a head cold)
It shows where the notes on the 34 wind up on the multi-scale. I rounded up/down to the nearest fret.
Unless I screwed up, it looks like if you tune the top six strings a Maj7 above guitar,
you wind up only a half-tone beyond the D-nat.
That's where Yves existing high Gflat string sits (on 22).
It would whole tone shy if you want raise the pitch so that all the open strings to better coincide with other basses/guitars.
You would have to find 12 gauges that work between the low and high strings rather than the ten on YCs.
Even so, it seems that usable gauges should be out there.
my question is... isn't there too few notes to tune every string separately? it seems to me that in a western 12-tone scale there is only a need for 12 strings at the most. yes i know, they can be overlapped, but still, even tuned in 4ths you would only need 12 strings before you started repeating.
now using an alternate temperament to tune the strings... thats a different story!
now using an alternate temperament to tune the strings... thats a different story!
If we go down that line we only use 12 notes so we only need 1 string and 12 frets. (or vice versa)
Why have more than 4 frets because everything after that is repeating?
Or a piano with any more than 12 keys?
It's about increasing the overall range which means using many octaves.
SDB Guitars
Commercial User
Ripper -
14 strings tuned to 4ths would render an instrument that would rival a piano for range. On many of the strings, you might not even use above the 7th fret, but that's not the point. The point is that you *have* the notes. Standard bas is tuned one octave below standard guitar.
If he tunes from in 4ths starting with C#0 (17.32Hz), then 14 strings would take him up through Gb5 (739.99Hz - one full step above standard guitar "E" string - easily doable with standard strings, and emminently useful)... he's still just 1.5 octaves above Middle C on a piano (C4 - 261.63Hz). Assuming 24 frets, that is a max note of Gb7 (2959.96Hz).
The maximum note/range on a 24-fret electric guitar tuned to standard tuning is E7 (2637.02Hz). This sounds like it would truly be an instrument on which you could do it all... Keep the bottom end, play guitar-like riffs, chords, etc. Very useful, IMO.
RLK -
with fanned fret, you don't move the tuning over as your scale length changes. You still generally tune in 4ths exactly like you would with standard "single-scale" setup.
14 strings tuned to 4ths would render an instrument that would rival a piano for range. On many of the strings, you might not even use above the 7th fret, but that's not the point. The point is that you *have* the notes. Standard bas is tuned one octave below standard guitar.
If he tunes from in 4ths starting with C#0 (17.32Hz), then 14 strings would take him up through Gb5 (739.99Hz - one full step above standard guitar "E" string - easily doable with standard strings, and emminently useful)... he's still just 1.5 octaves above Middle C on a piano (C4 - 261.63Hz). Assuming 24 frets, that is a max note of Gb7 (2959.96Hz).
The maximum note/range on a 24-fret electric guitar tuned to standard tuning is E7 (2637.02Hz). This sounds like it would truly be an instrument on which you could do it all... Keep the bottom end, play guitar-like riffs, chords, etc. Very useful, IMO.
RLK -
with fanned fret, you don't move the tuning over as your scale length changes. You still generally tune in 4ths exactly like you would with standard "single-scale" setup.
Are you saying guitars move their tuning? that guitars are not tuned to a "standard single-scale"?
Im just showing a guitar-like 1/2 step drop in 2 spots that seem spread
out enough to maintain practical fingering/chording/phrasing.
(Kind of funny using terms like "practical" and "standard setup" for such an unusual instrument)
Some folks (not me)think all 4ths is not proper a scaling approach,
just ERB players' way of not bothering with guitar tuned fingering.
There are bass 7s being tuned; Root-4-4-4-4-M3-4.
There are guitarist tuning 8 stringers; Root-4-4-4-4-M3-4-4.
In the tuning I show, you could (harmonically) apporach strings 9-14 like a six string guitar.
You could approach strings 4-10 like a seven string guitar.
Plus there would still be a lot of all-4th territory in strings 1-8 and 9-12.
Who knows, someone approaching all those strings and frets might enjoy a little harmonic "zoning".
If you want to play chords with open strings, you need to tune like a guitar. It would be a major pain to have a C and F as the top two strings on a guitar if you are banging out an open E power chord! I think it limits what you would do on a bass harmonically also.
I haven't played a 6 string (or high C five) bass enough to decide which way I would tune, but I've been playing guitar as long as I've been playing bass, so I'd probably have that M3 shift. It also makes for some interesting sounding runs.
I think your tuning idea looks pretty good.
As a side note, anyone here tried tuning in 5ths (a.k.a. Robert Fripp's New Standard Tuning)? It's quite strange. I set a guitar up in that tuning for a while to check it out. It required a bit too much relearning than I felt like devoting to it at the time, but it sure sounds good when the LCG play it.
- Status
