Why aren't 6ers tuned in 3rds?

[-Asdfgh-]

Yeah, if you want to get away from tuning in 4th, fifths is the way to do it, really.

Flat fifths for a more jazzy sound, perhaps?

 

[Thumpin6string]

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Alternate tunings for guitar like DADGAD,

I generally have my Telecaster, EKO Ranger 6 and 12s in DADGAD, Strat and LP and two other acoustics in standard. I have not attempted to string my Strat in NST.

 

[B-Mac]

For years I've been tuning my low b to c. It was purely because it gave it a tighter/sharper sound.

As I've gotten into this habit it's occurred to me that I'd prefer a 5 string tuned up a whole step.

As D flat is usually as low as I ever go. I dislike 4's because I feel I keep running out of runway, I don't enjoy hopping up and down the neck if I don't need to.

For a while it got me thinking I need to get a 5er and figure out how to make it work when it's tuned up a whole step.

But it got me thinking, why couldn't I tune in 3rds?

I know people have done it, but I can't understand why it isn't more common.

It seems like it has that perfect mix of extended range and practicality.

You'd have a low Dflat, F followed by an A, back to a Dflat F to high A.

It's give you 5 notes of extended range, and it'd give you a whole lot of tonal qualities from 6 strings being so closely packed together.

The bigger question is why would you? There’s no benefit.

School of Rock | Beginner’s Guide to Tuning a Bass Guitar

Apparently this subject has come up before here.Tuning in THIRDs

 

[Rocket Queen]

...and I'd need to assemble the custom strings to make the tension work.

Stringjoy, or I guess in your case, Newtone, would be your huckleberry. Shouldn't be hard.

 

[HelpImaRock]

I tried that for a while 20 years ago. You have to move your hand more. It might work on a shorter scale better, and with custom strings. I'd do it again except it would be a lot of learning, and I'd need to assemble the custom strings to make the tension work.

I was looking at Stringjoy and the thickest short scale string they have is .110. That'll work for D, not sure about C or lower. If I could find a short scale flatwound set that plays like the LaBella LTFs I have now, I'd be all over it.

 

[Rocket Queen]

I kind want to experiment with a 5ths tuning, CGDA.

Obligatory plug:
The Fifths Tuning Club

 

[zubrycky]

I have a bass tuned CGDB.

 

[HelpImaRock]

Obligatory plug:
The Fifths Tuning Club

I've read it a bunch.
I think if I didn't play short scale exclusively, this could be a thing.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Stringjoy, or I guess in your case, Newtone, would be your huckleberry. Shouldn't be hard.

It was harder twenty years ago and I haven't tried to do fifths since.

 

[Rocket Queen]

I've read it a bunch.
I think if I didn't play short scale exclusively, this could be a thing.

Short scales should help. I recently commissioned a 27" piccolo bass, to be tuned in fifths, specifically to play cello music, so as to minimize the stretches. However it's tuned (in fifths), the fingering will be identical.

 

[Koshchei]

Not sure what you mean by all of this.

i.e. how does what your talking about matter if you're playing with a piano?

In a lot of ensembles, bass is the lowest instrument. If you're out of tune relative to the other instruments, you'll make the whole band sound out of tune.

Because the temperament system (12TET) that the bass is designed around prioritizes consonance between octaves and fifths above all other intervals, choosing an interval that's audibly different from the natural harmonic system is probably not going to do you any favours.

Also, the third determines the quality of each chord (its major or minor-ness), while a fourth or fifth is relatively benign by comparison. If you clam up a string in a major thirds tuning, you have a 4:7 chance of sounding really bad (only three modes can be considered major: lydian (aug4), ionian, and mixolydian (min7)).

 

[BlueTalon]

You can do anything you want with your bass. If you can get used to playing with the tuning in thirds, and it works for you, then great!

But...

It kinda reminds me of Dustin on the YouTube channel Smarter Every Day. He built a bicycle where the steering was geared backwards. You'd steer right and the bike would go left. He actually learned how to ride it that way, after months of trying. But in the process, he forgot how to ride the regular way. He had to re-teach himself how to ride a regular bike. The real value of the reverse-steering bike wasn't in riding it, it was in the pranks and dares and bets that followed.

 

[BlueTalon]

Why not have an 88 string bass tuned in half steps?

That made me laugh.

 

[micguy]

Possibly for the same reason manhole covers are round? (Hint: It doesn't matter why, it's a standard.)

Pipes (and therefore the covers for them) are often round, because that's the shape that's best for things under pressure - a cylindrical shape means the walls are in tension when the thing is pressurized - a round pipe can handle a lot of pressure without distorting with relatively thin walls. If you want your sewer pipes to always contain sewage (which seems like a reasonable goal), you make them round. The vertical part for the humans to enter is something you don't want to collapse from external pressure - the ground around the pipe trying to crush it.

 

[Guitalia]

Not so new, actually, for him.

Hideyo, Paul, and Bert (California Guitar Trio) learned 5ths tuning from Robert many years ago; that is their standard tuning.

I believe that the poster you're quoting was alluding to Fripp's having dubbed his own system "New Standard Tuning."

 

[Jeff Scott]

I believe that the poster you're quoting was alluding to Fripp's having dubbed his own system "New Standard Tuning."

Vas ees did gnu "NST"?

 

[Ostie]

I kind want to experiment with a 5ths tuning, CGDA.

Bass mandola. Or, bass tenor guitar!

I always struggled with playing melody on guitar. It’s one of the reasons I switched to bass. When I took up mandolin about ten years ago I was amazed at how intuitive the fifths tuning is. Now I play a lot of melody on mandolin.

 

[thewildest]

Double the bet and try 6ths! BG#FDBG#!!
You will feel alone for a while, no friends, nobody to share your experience with… but remember, Isaac Newton also felt alone at first.

 

[GBBSbassist]

They are, if you do it. They aren't if you don't though.