Tuning a bass guitar to be a 4-string baritone

[Cobalt Blue]

Is it possible to use baritone strings on a bass guitar and tune up to A?

[poolshark]

The nut slots would be far too large, and attempting 'normal' chords on a 34" scale would be almost unmanageable. It could be done, but it'd probably be more work than it's worth.

[jrockbridge]

I don't know anything about baritone guitars. In fact, I don't know how they are tuned. But, maybe if you got lighter bass strings, you could accomplish the tuning you want.

 

I own a 6-string bass and decided that rather than tuning it B to B or some other slack option, I wanted to tune either E to E, or E flat to E flat, like a typical 6 string guitar. I figured that if I got light enough bass strings, I should be able to accomplish tuning up to higher pitch.

 

I looked up string sets online to try to help me guess at the best gauge. I ended up ordering individual bass string straight from the D'addario website. The price was surprisingly reasonable for bass strings. I had to do a setup with truss rod tweaks, but ended up tuning Eb to Eb. I'm really happy with the result. It's pretty wild to be able to play guitar chords on my bass.

[*BLEEP*]

Just re-string it with what are essentially the upper 4 strings (in pitch) from a standard 6-string bass string set. Then, tune those 4 lighter gauge strings to a A-D-G-B or A-D-G-Ab tuning.

[jrockbridge]

P.S.

 

Here's how I figured out the string gauge to use for my bass tuning. I looked up multiple 6-string bass sets online. Based on the most common tunings used for 6 string bass, I figured my 6th string needed to be close to the gauge of a 4th string in a typical 6-string bass set (to tune E flat to E flat). Hopefully, you can do something similar.

 

By the way, the nut slots worked fine with the smaller strings in my case. Slots tend to get narrower toward the bottom, so the smaller strings fit tight within the slots.

[211dave112]

its called a piccolo bass,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccolo_bass

 

ljwKdwuCniQ

(i think in this video he's actually higher than a baritone, but it gives you an idea, just experiment with string gaugues and it's possible and quite a cool sound)

 

works well with shorts scale basses.

 

edit: the more i read it seems a piccolo is "usually" tuned an octave above a reg bass, but I guess that shows that the range of tuning you can use is really quite wide, with your ideal being somewhere in the middle of piccolo and reg bass so with the right gauge, you'l be fine. I also have a feeling that some old danelectro basses came set up this way, although thats a foggy memory form something i read ages ago!

[Poltergeist]

there are bass strings for that purpose. ask some luthier to make you a costum nut, should be cheap.

 

by the way, the people who said chords on a bass would be unmanageable, are totally wrong. i play chords in my 4 and 5 string basses, i have two 34 scales and a 35 scale.

[bluffalo]

that guys pants are like robin hoods tights.

[poolshark]

 

there are bass strings for that purpose. ask some luthier to make you a costum nut, should be cheap. by the way, the people who said chords on a bass would be unmanageable, are totally wrong. i play chords in my 4 and 5 string basses, i have two 34 scales and a 35 scale.

 

 

If you can barre a normal F major on a bass, you're a better man than I - not that I'd discount the possibility. Aside from the logistics of the thing, I think my main gripe would be only having a baritone's 4 bass strings; I always thought the point of a baritone was to play shimmery, full guitar chords tuned two/three and a half steps down.

[Cobalt Blue]

Thanks to all.