Tune 5 String Bass

[Zacharie Brodhacker]

Oneof the first things that string musicians must learn is how to properly tune their instrument. Although you probably know the basics, tuning your double bass can be a little tricky. Since its proportions are rather large, each string influences the others. Plus, the tuning is different from other string instruments, employing fourths rather than fifths.

Knowing how to tune your double bass requires three things: learning the process, constant practice, and patience. Essentially, you should check your bass for tune every time you play, so getting the practice pretty much takes care of itself. Learning the process is a simple matter of education and training, along with knowing a few tips to make it easier for beginning students. Gaining patience can be the trickiest part, and it largely depends on your own determination.

You can purchase digital tuners that clip onto the bridge of your double bass. As a tool, it is an excellent, inexpensive investment. The tuner reads the vibrations of the instrument to deliver very accurate results.

Start with the open G and pluck the string. Remember, like all string instruments, you want to work (if possible) up towards the correct pitch rather than loosening the string. Because the strings are under pressure, gradually increasing the tension on the string is more stable than releasing it.

In situations where you need to be able to go back and forth between standard tuning for a bass guitar and drop tunings, drop D tuners are especially useful. These bass tuners allow you to change the tuning on the fly without having to use a tuner.

I wanna buy a bass to record stuff, but I have a very limited budget. Basically, I'm buying a used 4 string bass which should amount to somewhere between 100-150$ (or Euros cos I live in Europe). Anyway, I was wondering:

My guitar is a 6 string tuned to A# (which is basically 2 tones lower than standard for every string except the lowest one, which is set to 3 tones lower. So the low E becomes A# and the high E is a C). Which means that I'd need to tune my bass the same way. The question is: is it viable on a 4 string bass? Do they have special strings for this type of thing, because the standard ones are probably gonna feel like spaghetti. Is it gonna sound decent?

I guess I would use the bottom four strings of a 5 string set so you don't lose the tension. Be careful at the nut because the strings may be bigger than your slots. File them a bit bigger if need be.

As other people have said, bigger gauge strings and just be careful about fitting them. You'll probably have to compress/overdrive the bass to get it to actually sit nicely but it should be fine. Stick mainly to the neck pickup to get as much of the fundamental tone as you can.

Better to use the bridge pickup as well for definition and put the sound where the rig can use it. The second harmonic (first octave up) will sit well withing most rig's capacities anfd will carry better.

This is just a personal pet peeve of mine, but I assume you mean you want to tune your bass the same way. There is no reason whatsoever the guitar tuning you indicate would necessitate a non-traditional bass tuning.

I just bought a 5-string bass (Epiphone Thunderbird Pro 5), and thought it would be fun to use for the few custom songs that use a tuning involving a B or lower for bass. However, I ran into a few issues.

I know Rocksmith only "supports" a 4 string bass; at least in the sense that if you are in the bass path it will only show 4 strings (red, yellow, blue, orange). Can't get it to display a 5th string, although I suppose it MIGHT be possible to use the lead or rhythm path and just tell it that you are using a "guitar" in a custom, really low tuning. But that would show 6 strings instead of 5. Anyway, that isn't too important.

Standard 5-string bass tuning is BEADG. I know that customs can be created with a bass arrangement set to tunings like BEAD or even lower. So, if a song intended for a 5-string bass uses that low B but doesn't have any notes on the G string (or if they can be transcribed to higher frets on the D), it seems like it SHOULD work. For a BEAD(G) tuning song, you'd just mentally shift the "red" string to the B, yellow for E, etc. Then for a song in standard tuning, you'd just skip the low B and shift back to red being E, etc.

When I plug in my bass and try to play a custom in BEAD, I notice that there seems to be a threshold/limit built into Rocksmith's detection system set exactly at the frequency of that low B string. If I am slightly sharp from B, it shows up on the tuner and will display down to roughly 4 cents sharp. If I tune down any lower than that, the meter starts to flake out and bounce around all over the place -- like it knows that it is hearing *something*, but it just can't quite figure out the frequency.

I have been unable to get the game to pass the tuning stage at the start of a song in BEAD without switching to a guitar and using bass emulation. If I try to tune down from slightly sharp, it isn't stable or close enough for the game to think that it is in tune. If I tune the string to perfect B (or any lower) using a chromatic or other software tuner, the game just gets fully confused and has no idea what it is hearing.

Ahh, thanks for that info. Good to know that there is a workaround; I figured there might be some way to trick the game into going for it. I will look at some of the links in that thread and try them out. Thanks much!

Rocksmith coded in a hard cap for the lowest note that could be tuned as a B1 in A=440Hz, the exact lowest note of a 5 string bass. So, you can approach that note, but when you actually reach it that hard cap in software tells it that "that can't be right", and it just sorta gives up. However, there is no hard cap to the skew value for songs that are "slightly" sharp or flat of A=440Hz.

So, the workaround is to write the custom song in an alternate tuning that is "slightly" flat of standard A=440Hz... A whole octave lower than A=440Hz. So, you tell Rocksmith that A=220Hz. That makes a "standard" 220Hz A3 into a 440Hz A4, as far as Rocksmith is concerned. And more importantly for us, it turns a B1 (the lowest note of a 5-string bass in standard tuning) into a B2, which is "above" the hard cap in software of a B1.

Actually a genius solution to that annoying software cap... Slips my mind who came up with that, but they deserve big credit for an unorthodox solution to the silly and pointless software cap. In my experience, custom songs written using that workaround tune and detect that B1 completely fine. Even some stuff that drops that low B to an A still detects it fine using the workaround. Hence my description of it as pointless -- why have the cap there if the note detection is still working fine? But in any case, any custom songs made with that workaround will tune and detect things fine. Should be plenty to choose from in Ignition.

Folks. Does anybody know why 6-string bass tuning is B-E-A-D-G-C but guitar tuning is E-A-D-G-B-E ?

What is the history or theory behind the difference? My googling skills falls short and could not find any resources that cover this. Thank you for your help.

The bass is tuned in 4ths. The lower four strings on a guitar are also tuned in fourths, with G-B being a third, and then B-E being a 4th again. My understanding is this is purely for chord fingering convenience.

If you like the 6 string guitar tune with one octave lower you can get the Squier vintage modified bass VI. Not the string spacing I like but sure is interesting.

--squier-classic-vibe-bass-vi-3-tone-sunburst

Yes to this.

And because the roles are different and we bass players get so dialed in to our lovely and unchanging tuning-in-fourths pattern, it makes more sense to keep the pattern the same and add more strings than have to relearn all the fingerings for that one string tuned differently.

When I was in the pep band many years ago playing guitar, the bass player told me he did the same thing deliberately. I didn't really challenge him, but I've never done the same even after picking up the bass. Does it somehow give the horns more latitude to be slightly flat, or something? Or is it just superstitious baloney?

The tuning is better and the tone is more pure which makes me think he used his Rickenbacker for this song. The D string is a little flat in relation to the others but aside from that the bass is pretty much in tune.

In conclusion I know pianos use stretch tuning, where the octaves are tunes at intervals slightly larger than an octave so the low end is a bit flat and the high end is a bit sharp. The reason for this is the unique characteristics of that instrument. It would be pretty difficult to emulate that on a bass. Maybe a bass can be tuned a few cents flat overall to try and match the low end of the piano, say if they are going to be playing unison lines but not just the E string IMO.

The range of the bass never necessitates this tuning complication well known from piano tuning. The "hair" would end up so thin, for a bass, so as to have no effect whatsoever and I have never seen anyone to do this as an explicit tuning step. But it may be implicit in our tuning methods.

I don't find the idea entirely absurd for a fretless plucked instrument with an extra low (and relatively short) lowest string. Am I calling the E string relatively short? Yes I am, it's meant relatively to its thickness. There are two ways to make a string sound extra low. Either you make the string longer, but then the bassists need to grow orchestral player's big hands and perhaps even make uncomfortable detours into their C extensions. Or you alter the weight/stiffness ratio but that makes the string relatively thicker, which is the same thing as making it "relatively shorter".

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