Twigman Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 Was in the studio the other day for what i thought was going to be a mixing session. I'd left my basses at home. The studio is primarily used for electronic dance music. We decided to change a bass line so i picked up a Stingray that was in the rack at the studio. It was tuned to Eb - I asked why "Coz you know dance music: it's all on the black notes" was the reply.... Is it? really? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subdub Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 No Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameronJ Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 Oh dear... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 4 hours ago, Twigman said: ...It was tuned to Eb - I asked why "Coz you know dance music: it's all on the black notes" was the reply.... Is it? really? ? ? ? But basses can play all of the 'black notes' (sharps and flats...) anyway with standard EADG tuning, so that's not really a valid explanation as to why that bass was tuned down. A gentle bit of plonker-pulling, no..? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drTStingray Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 (edited) There's perhaps a slightly different explanation - other than guitar based music - which is often in E and A (although quite a lot of metal actually uses dropped tunings) lots of music is in keys like Eb and C often to suit keyboards, sometimes to suit singers and sometimes to suit brass instruments. They will often have lower notes than E, which may not work played on a 4 string unless you use an octaver - which sometimes have tracking problems. The whole reason 5 string basses with low B strings became popular in the 1980s was to allow bassists to play parts played on keyboards which during that era were probably as popular as guitars - in fact nicked a lot of work off both bassists and guitarists. Dance music often uses notes lower than E. So it shouldn't be a great surprise to find a Stingray tuned to Eb - they can be tuned even lower than B and still work fine. It's a standing joke amongst musicians and is referred to on this forum sometimes how guitarists seldom want to play songs like Superstition, I Wish in the proper key (Eb) or even Hard to Handle (Bb). If you have a sax player, they will give a wry smile when asked to play these songs in E or B etc ..... it generally reflects guitarists with restricted ability. Edited January 11, 2018 by drTStingray 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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