Death Core bass in F#

[Doctor J]

3 hours ago, Russ said:

Agree with everyone here who points out that there's absolutely no need to tune down that low. There's no audio equipment short of an actual PA system with subs that can reproduce a 23.1Hz fundamental - all you'll end up hearing is the first harmonic anyway. 

 

For instance, if you want to talk heavy, D!ck Lofgren from Meshuggah plays in the same octave as the guitars - their lowest notes are A or A# so just a step or half-step down from the regular low B. Just EQ it nice and low with a bump in the low mids. 

 

Having spent years in a band who had a few songs in dropped G, there is a massive difference between playing the real low note and playing tuned an octave up. You definitely get meat in the low note, whether the fundamental is strong or not. Meshuggah have a very specialised sound, built on tightness for syncopation and what they do works for them, but the OP might be playing something with a bit of space where not having the lows would leave the sound quite thin and very unsuitable for what his band does. It's down to the music style.

[Dood]

On 15/03/2022 at 22:00, Doctor J said:

D'Addario do a .147 string. That'll do it. Tune all the way down. Chuck that and the heaviest three strings from a heavy 4-string set onto that Precision and you'll be just fine.

 

Pedals and other electric gimmickry can find it hard to track downtuned basses accurately.

 

D'Addario also do a 170, which I would much prefer to drop on a 34" scale to get some tension back - or, as I had to do before anyone in the UK was making a 170, (well over ten years ago now) Newtone Strings custom made me a 145 with a custom core to get the tension up. 

 

On 16/03/2022 at 10:53, Rich said:

Paging the @Doodster.

 

On 16/03/2022 at 11:04, MacDaddy said:

 

That was my first thought! 😆

 

Thank you for the tags, I am not sure why I didn't get a notification. Drop tuning this low on a standard scale length on a bass that isn't really up to it, can be problematic at best and a PITA at worse. I watched one of my students do all manner of upgrades to his Ibanez bass and was still rewarded with being left wanting. My Shuker basses on the other hand help to focus on the frequencies that matter should I need to drop low. (My 7 sting is an F#'er and is currently dressed with a 190 gauge string that will give me enough to go down to E0.)

 

It's like having a bass with a great sounding B string. Some, no matter what you try, just won't "do" a good B. I have a £200 5 string here that has a wicked sounding B string! 

 

The statement "why would you do this, you can't hear it" I feel is based around experiences failing to get the tuning to work or a misunderstanding of how it works in reality. Yes, everyone chimes in and says that the fundamental frequency of that F# is 23.12hz - and 90% of bass speaker cabinets on the market cant deal with that fundamental and plenty of amplifiers are HPF'd long before this anyway. BUT!!! - It isn't the fundamental you're needing to focus your attention on, it's the harmonics of the note, 46hz, 92hz, 184hz etc. 

Anyone who has heard isolated (mixed) stems on a recording will know that generally speaking, the lows that deep have been carved away anyway. It still sounds deep and brutal though. Your ear fills in the rest. ...and you definitely don't wanna be driving those kinda frequencies hard on stage with your own personal sub either. FOH engineers will not love you!

 

 

[Dood]

2 hours ago, three said:

Quite an interesting, sometimes fractious thread here - more about amplification than strings but some informative contributions:

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/whats-the-secret-to-have-a-decent-sound-of-a-low-f-string.1156517/?amp=1433525564

 

I read the first couple of pages and gave up. Even on a standard tuned four string bass, we're still not hearing the fundamental frequency with any sort of energy. It's interesting that most of the comments have seemingly not recognised that a note produced by a bass guitar isn't just one centre  frequency alone. The rich harmonics, over tones produced by the vibrating string and electronics is a full range signal easily reaching up in to the treble ranges of our hearing. Even with a 24dB/Oct HPF at 200hz, you can still absolutely discern the sound of a bass guitar  

[Owen]

I tune a 36" Overwater neck through 6 string to F#. This is my second try at it (don't ask). The first OW 6 to F# was better. Regrets? I have a few.

 

However, it works and serves the purpose I want. It melts my head when I am reading, but that is my problem not yours. Get Mr Newtone to wind you some strings and see what happens.