Author Topic: Tuning 5-string bass a 4th down (Read 230 times)

Bradley Young · « **Reply #15 on:** March 12, 2007, 11:39:00 AM »

Jaquo,

In addition to being a musical innovator, you're also a master of the British Understatement?

Bradley

u14steelgtr · « **Reply #16 on:** March 13, 2007, 02:49:22 PM »

I'll do a little experimenting and see what my quasi-portable rig will do justice to.

Thanks for the responses.

-- Eugene

jauqo_iiix · « **Reply #17 on:** March 14, 2007, 09:27:53 PM »

bigredbass · « **Reply #18 on:** March 15, 2007, 04:48:53 AM »

Wait a minute . . . isn't this the 'MythBusters' Brown Sound thing . . . ?

J o e y

u14steelgtr · « **Reply #19 on:** June 26, 2007, 10:12:13 PM »

It turns out that this is not that difficult a job.

The majority of the challenge was modifying the tailpiece to accept the F# string. I did cut a new nut and had to eyeball the E, and F# strings because my nut files were for smaller string gauges. For the test I used an F# E A D G tuning with no B-string.

The bad new is that the speaker in my instrument-amps were not up to the task of the low F#, G, and G#.

A good resource for folks interested in instruments of this sort is here: http://www.extendedrangebassist.com/

Regards
-- Eugene

jsaylor · « **Reply #20 on:** June 27, 2007, 09:24:36 AM »

Why would you skip the B string? That doesn't make any sense. I thought the point of extended range was to make playing easier to the sense that you don't have to move around as much.

Bradley Young · « **Reply #21 on:** June 27, 2007, 06:34:59 PM »

Jordan,

I think he just did it to see if the F# string would work at all, without modifying the whole instrument.

I'm tempted to try a set of the Warwick Dark Lords (4-string F# B E A) on my Epic.

But I'd prefer flats. Maybe I'll adapt some upright strings.

Bradley

dannobasso · « **Reply #22 on:** June 29, 2007, 07:20:54 AM »

I spoke with Senny and Warwick is sending him a bass with just that configuration. I'll get to hear how it sounds on my full cab set up. Thats a ul212-t310 rt side and elwhappo jr-low b4 left side. Granted it is portabe but vanesque not compact car portable. I fear this will open a whole new can of worms for me if I like it. Does it attract elephants or blue whales?

David Houck · « **Reply #23 on:** June 29, 2007, 10:24:35 AM »

I just accidentally started rereading the entire thread; didn't mean to do that. But one thing that just occurred to me, if you are converting an existing bass, is that in order to intonate the F# string, you may have to move, alter, or replace the bridge. On my six string, the low B is already as far back as it will go; and this suggests that intonating a low F# would require going further back than that.