Fitting a D-Tuner to a 5 string

[donut]

Has anyone tried fitting a D-Tuner to the 4th (E) string of a 5-string bass? Is there room?

[JackLondon]

What is the purpose of a D-tuner if you have a 5 string?

[donut]

Would be nice for playing stuff in Drop D without the awkward fingering and different tone of a non-open string you'd get on a standard tuned 5-string.

Or using it as a drone note while playing something higher up the neck. I know, you could tap it instead but it doesn't sound the same.

[BottomEndian]

[quote name='donut' post='697596' date='Dec 31 2009, 09:26 PM']Has anyone tried fitting a D-Tuner to the 4th (E) string of a 5-string bass? Is there room?[/quote]
Probably not enough room for the lever to swing, but you never know. What's the bass?

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

[quote name='donut' post='697596' date='Dec 31 2009, 09:26 PM']Has anyone tried fitting a D-Tuner to the 4th (E) string of a 5-string bass?[/quote]
I seriously doubt it

[quote name='donut' post='697596' date='Dec 31 2009, 09:26 PM']Is there room?[/quote]
Only one way to find out

[donut]

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='697631' date='Dec 31 2009, 11:26 PM']Probably not enough room for the lever to swing, but you never know. What's the bass?[/quote]

I don't own a 5-string at the moment, I was just wondering if anyone had successfully managed to do it and on which bass as that could influence my decision when I come to buy one. Looking at the back of a lot of bass headstocks there doesn't appear to be any room.

Oh well. Thanks for your replies everyone.

[velvetkevorkian]

I'm pretty sure it has been done (someone on TB did it a la Michael Manring) but it either needed a custom headstock or custom detuners- can't recall which.

Having done some searching on TB it seems its certainly possible in theory and has been done in practice- the determining factor is how much space there is on the back of the headstock between the tuners; people have tried it on some basses (jazz type) and there wasn't enough space.

[dub]

Doesn't really sound worth it. Play an D harmonic on the 12th fret on the D string then an E harmonic on the 5th fret of the E string and detune until the you hear the beats stop, watch how far the machine head rotates while listening and practice that a few times and you'll be able to do it just as fast. Tune back to E harmonics on fret 7 A string, 5 E string.

Edited January 6, 2010 by dub

[Plux_the_Duck]

Or tune back using the harmonic on fret 7 (on the A string) and fret 12 (on the E) - I find this "more" in tune than the above method for tuning up.

But that is personal preference, so please no one have a go at me