5 String Bass in a band with altered tunings

[nasum]

So this band I'm working with does a lot of weird tunings, sometimes down to a Drop C, sometimes this weird thing in G that doesn't even make sense to me and so on.

Would it make more sense to come up with a compensated tuning so that I can use a capo or to actually tune like a guitar and tune up a half step on the B to get the C and then tune the rest of the bass into some weird amalgamation of three half steps higher, or just drop the B to an A and capo the 3rd fret?

 

Doesn't the guy from Mudvayne play his bass in a normal tuning even though the guitar is in some totally messed up tuning?

[i_wanna_les_paul]

As for capo-ing, it depends if you need to have open, droning notes. Personally, unless I don't need those sorts of sounds, I don't use a capo, just tune differently and compensate through practice.

 

If it were me, I'd tune the B to an A if that's the lowest note I needed and then just play, changing the fingerings as needed.

 

$.02

 

Dustin

[Hotblack]

 

As for capo-ing, it depends if you need to have open, droning notes. Personally, unless I don't need those sorts of sounds, I don't use a capo, just tune differently and compensate through practice. If it were me, I'd tune the B to an A if that's the lowest note I needed and then just play, changing the fingerings as needed.

 

 

+1

[jewbles]

 

Doesn't the guy from Mudvayne play his bass in a normal tuning even though the guitar is in some totally messed up tuning?

 

 

i don't know mudvayne, but john myung of dream theater uses standard tuning on his 6 string while petrucci (guitar player) does some interesting tunings. occasionally myung tunes his b to a c, but that's all.

[brake]

You're a bass player, you should know your chords. What tuning the guitarist is in should make little difference

[bassgirl9]

 

Would it make more sense to come up with a compensated tuning so that I can use a capo or to actually tune like a guitar and tune up a half step on the B to get the C and then tune the rest of the bass into some weird amalgamation of three half steps higher, or just drop the B to an A and capo the 3rd fret?

 

 

It doesn't make any sense to do that. Guitar players use altered tunings to make their life easier when playing tricky chords. All you need to know is what chord they're playing and come up with your own thing. If the guys are playing a C chord, you play a C. If they're playing a Gsus2, you play a G. Then pedal, walk, slap and groove at will.

[Grumpy_Polecat]

Put your fingers where the notes already are. That's about all there is to it.

[knuckle_head]

Ry(an)know tunes his basses to A I believe

[Droplaw621]

 

Ry(an)know tunes his basses to A I believe

 

 

No he tunes in GCGCF

[been_effected]

 

It doesn't make any sense to do that. Guitar players use altered tunings to make their life easier when playing tricky chords. All you need to know is what chord they're playing and come up with your own thing. If the guys are playing a C chord, you play a C. If they're playing a Gsus2, you play a G. Then pedal, walk, slap and groove at will.

 

 

nice and easy to say, but what if you're mirroring the guitarists riff (and not chords) and the riff is based on a lot of open notes? in that case you do need to do some sort of tuning change...

[One Bad Monkey]

 

nice and easy to say, but what if you're mirroring the guitarists riff (and not chords) and the riff is based on a lot of open notes? in that case you do need to do some sort of tuning change...

 

 

Not always. If you are proficient and comfortable with the fretboard, figuring out a riff that your guitarist is doing in altered tunings is not a hard thing at all. I've done it plenty of times, and while sometimes it does have a stretch in there, it works fine.

[nasum]

 

nice and easy to say, but what if you're mirroring the guitarists riff (and not chords) and the riff is based on a lot of open notes? in that case you do need to do some sort of tuning change...

 

 

This is precisely the issue at hand. It's a prog-metal band that has a few songs tuned to Drop-C where if I mirror the guitar part (which at times needs be done) I have to do some fairly inhuman things to keep up with fast single note patterns. I'm to the point now where I can't play a four string bass anymore and if I forget about my B and just tune CGCF with the other four strings I don't like how floppy the other strings get. On the other hand tuning to "Drop-A" and then capoing the third fret takes away the use of the formerly low B string as a pedal/counter type of device and just becomes a floppy low note that doesn't cut very well in a mix.

 

Maybe I should just convince them to stick with standard and Drop-D tunings now that they have a bass player and don't need super detuned guitars to compensate for having no low end.

[nasum]

 

No he tunes in GCGCF

 

 

 

I was messing with that tuning last night and found it to be way too sluggish for my playing.

[bassgirl9]

Not always. If you are proficient and comfortable with the fretboard, figuring out a riff that your guitarist is doing in altered tunings is not a hard thing at all. I've done it plenty of times, and while sometimes it does have a stretch in there, it works fine.