5 string tuning

[barry44]

hi,

first of all apologies if this is in wrong section, mods please move if need be.

i currently play a four string which i detune half a step to D#G#C#F#

There is a couple of songs which we go down a further full step on the E to C#

i have seen a 5 string bass which is really interesting me and i was wondering if C# D# G# C# F# was an acheivable tuning for a five or if it would cause problems to the bass?

does anyone tune to this?

is it achievable?

look forward to your responses.

Cheers,

Barry

[queenofthedepths]

If you could persuade the rest of the band to tune down another half step, this would be very easy - tuning a B up to C is fine (I used to do so all the time and John Myung from Dream Theater does it in As I Am, I believe)... if you're totally against that though, tuning up a whole step shouldn't be too bad - what scale length is the 5-string you're looking at? If I were you I'd also have go playing it in A# for a while - you might be surprised how much use you can get out of those extra notes!

[barry44]

i understand that it is a 34" scale.

the bass is an ibanez SRX705, i really like the 4 strings of these but they are currently like hen's teeth so i thought i could dip into the 5 string market.

What do you mean by A# tuning, would that be just tuning everything down half a step, i.e. like my current 4 string tuning?

the reason i would like the C# tuning is that the songs we play with that tuning has open strings on the C#.

[queenofthedepths]

Yeah, that's what I mean - that way you can play a perfect fourth down when the guitars are in D# - I've just remembered (you'd expect me to realise...) that my band play in those tunings as well - when the guitars tune down to dropped C# I do the same and just don't use the bottom string in those songs - I did actually used to play the lower notes on the bottom string instead (I got my first 5-string just so I could do this and quite happily played in standard tuning whilst the guitarist re-tuned from E to C to dropped D ), but if the guitarists have time to re-tune, so do we! Still, it's a good work-out to learn your material in different tunings and in different positions, so I would definitely recommend getting a 5-string if only for that reason... if you can't get used to playing like that, you may as well just re-tune when you have to (or get a Hipshot D-tuner if re-tuning is too much of a pain - it's cheaper than a new bass! But presumably not as fun )

[markytbass]

I used to tune my 4 string to D G C F then we got lower and I tuned C F A# D#. Then I gave in and bought a 5 string, I use 40-125 guage strings so I can tune to either B, C or even C#.

[The Funk]

There's the Warwick Taranis when you'd just like to tune a 4 string bass guitar like the lowest four strings of a 5 string: B, E, A, D. Doesn't seem to have taken off at all but I like the idea for some reason.

[Mr. Foxen]

I'm all about the restrung for lower tunings 4 strings. Not like I ever used the high string playing with other people anyway. Although I've been given a normal bass to fix and am loving having high strings again to play with on my own.

[cheddatom]

It seems weird to want c# AND d#, why not a# and c#? with the c# string you wont need the open d# (IMHO etc).