Guitar tuning on a bass?

glw · Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:03 pm Post subject: Guitar tuning on a bass?

OK, this may sound like sacrilege to some of you, but my philosophy when it comes to music is that there are no rules.

Has anyone ever tried tuning a bass to DGBE, i.e. like the first 4 (highest) strings of a guitar rather than the four lowest? Or like a baritone ukulele an octave down.

I quite fancy giving it a whirl on my old short-scale bass. I wonder what gauge strings I should use.

1bassleft · Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:05 am Post subject:

I haven't, because it'd just be too weird for me. Assuming you mean to keep it high (as in starting with the D as it is on the 3rd string of a bass, rather than dropping the D below the E, G below the A etc) I'd get a set of 6-string bass strings:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Trace-Elliot-Strings-for-5-or-6-string-Bass-Guitars_W0QQitemZ200071582723QQihZ010QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(you can get cheaper but TE strings are quite good) and add a heavyish E from a lead guitar set. And a new nut. And some finger plasters Laughing

glw · Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:32 am Post subject:

Ah, damn! The nut. I'd forgotten about that.

1bassleft · Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:07 am Post subject:

At least the grooves on the nut will be too deep, better than too shallow. In my sloppy experience of converting righties, a box of Bryant + May and a razor is a quick fix if you can't be arsed with filing corian. The only thing that worries me is of you want to go baritone and play lots of chords. Those roundwounds could hurt but finding a set of flats with a 25 and an 11 or 12 could be a real task. Sounds interesting though; love to hear what happens.

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