Detuning and retuning

[niceguyhomer]

I did something I said I'd never do again and joined a classic rock band.

They detune half a step which I genuinely don't understand why and it pisses me off but.... because I don't fully know the songs yet, I kinda learn/play them on the hoof watching the guitarists hands.

Which means I have to detune too.

My question is, will it cause any long term issues with my neck detuning and then retuning after the gig / rehearsal?

[martthebass]

I occasionally detune to eb - seems to be a necessity if the band's playing Lizzy. But I usually do it with my Status - seems to be immune to the process. If I were to be doing it all the time I'd probably tune one bass to eb and leave it that way.

[stinson]

I've had to tune a whole step down due to singers vocals for about a year now. Hated it to start with but kind of got used to it. I always tune back up after practice/gigs and it doesn't seem to affect the neck on my mid 70's Precision and Squier Jazz.

[Lozz196]

Thing is, a lot of those songs were recorded by bands who tuned down that half-step, so they don`t sound right when pitched that little bit higher. I was in a classic rock band doing those sort of songs and I stayed in correct tuning, but just played them all a step down - aside from when I needed an Eb, that had to go higher up.

[thodrik]

Half - step down won't damage anything. Might wear your strings out more quickly though if you are constantly tuning them to different tunings.. I would just tune down. Classic rock uses a lot open E/E-flat notes. To my ears it wouldn't sound right if instead of a low open Eflat for a classic Hendrix/Thin Lizzy song I hear fret 6 on an A string.

Black Sabbath were sometimes tuning to C sharp back then so just be thankful your new band aren't playing some of that if you dislike detuning!

To be honest though I find the difference from E to Eflat pretty minimal, so it annoys me when I see bands take ages to retune a semitone down, play one song, then retune a semi-tone up.

[gary mac]

The classic rock band I was in did the same.

None of my bassses suffered.

Just found it a bit of a pain when learning stuff at home, playing along to cd's etc. I ended up always having two basses in the lounge one tuned to Eb the other to E.

So, on the plus side it could be an excuse, if you need one, to buy an additional bass to save you all that tedious retuning

[niceguyhomer]

I like your thinking Gary

[dudewheresmybass]

In two of my bands ( one classic rock/ metal, and the other more what I would class as classic pub rock) everything is in eb, mainly due to pitching vocals.
Consequently I have 4 basses tuned at eb permanently, while the others are at standard.

[chrisba]

Drop tuning my P-bass to D seems to upset the intonation slightly. Not enough to stop me doing it for one song though.

[BigRedX]

My classic rock covers band does all the stuff that's tuned down on the recordings in pitched up a semi-tone. Other than the first time we did a Thin Lizzy song at rehearsal and they hadn't told me this, it sounds fine (our singer also has the range for it not to matter). If we did play some of the songs a semi-tone down from standard tuning, I'd use a separate bass with the appropriate strings and set up to give the same feel as the bass I used for standard tuning.

[MoonBassAlpha]

[quote name='dudewheresmybass' timestamp='1360224966' post='1966851']
In two of my bands ( one classic rock/ metal, and the other more what I would class as classic pub rock) everything is in eb, mainly due to pitching vocals.
Consequently I have 4 basses tuned at eb permanently, while the others are at standard.
[/quote]
Really? They can't sing a semitone higher?

[Adrenochrome]

[quote name='thodrik' timestamp='1360187539' post='1966521']
Black Sabbath were sometimes tuning to C sharp back then so just be thankful your new band aren't playing some of that if you dislike detuning!
[/quote]

AFAIK Geezer rarely played that low though, songs like Children Of The Grave has the riff starting up on the A string while the guitar is open E (C# really).

[grunge666]

I'm lousy at transposing so use 3 basses live - one in pitch (G&L L2000) - one DGCF (Spector - which i also drop to flat for one track!) and one CFEbBb (Precision - QOTSA & Rob Zombie). It's quicker to change than retune and I love my open strings.
Could probably do it all on a 5er but, 4 stings are what I like. I use heavier strings on the dropped ones - the action is sweet with a bit of Truss rod tweaking
We group tunings together so get a good run of songs before a change over and works OK (I think!).

Edited February 7, 2013 by grunge666

[chrismuzz]

I've got a 6 string tuned to A, a 5 string tuned to B, a 4 string tuned to Eb (which gets put in drop C# fairly often), and another 4 string in C. That covers all bas(s)es for the moment

[Cosmo Valdemar]

[quote name='Adrenochrome' timestamp='1360243803' post='1967243']
AFAIK Geezer rarely played that low though, songs like Children Of The Grave has the riff starting up on the A string while the guitar is open E (C# really).
[/quote]

Geezer would always match whatever tuning Iommi was in - so from Master of Reality to Sabotage he was tuned to C#, F#, B, E. It's not always obvious as a lot of the riffs would still be in E, only played higher up the neck.

[thodrik]

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1360248559' post='1967350']
Geezer would always match whatever tuning Iommi was in - so from Master of Reality to Sabotage he was tuned to C#, F#, B, E. It's not always obvious as a lot of the riffs would still be in E, only played higher up the neck.
[/quote]

Pretty much this.

[wally8]

Ive recently joined a band and the tuning is all over the place. A lot of the grunge stuff like chains etc is already in Eb so the guitarists has decided to play all standard tuned songs in Eb. We then do a couple of tunes like sad but true in D (D, G, C, F). then we do a few sabbath numbers in C#. Then there are the drop D numbers, another tuning.

quite a lot for a simple bass player

[niceguyhomer]

[sup]Inbound Squier CV Precision - problem sorted [/sup]

[wally8]

Ive got 3 decent basses but the issue i have are different volumes swapping the basses. My MM is active and hot, the P bass and Jazz being passive are obviously quieter but are defo different to each other. My amp has the trusty 10 dB +/- which helps but its not exact.

Good luck with the tuning

[Lord Sausage]

just get it set up in e flat

[4 Strings]

Makes no difference to anything on the bass. Got hip shots on two basses, both work fine, certainly won't be causing any problems to the neck. There are so many different strings on the market with widely different tensions that detuning a semi-tone will be small fry.

If things change at all just adjust the truss rod to compensate, but I doubt even that will be necessary.

(I know Rics made a truss rod modification to allow more reliable use of roundwounds back in the day, but they're a bit odd anyway!)

[KevB]

Yeah, I was in a band a few years back that insisted on detuning half a step on all strings, dodgy singer/guitarist/flaky bandleader person. Got so fed up of detuning/retuning to go from learning material from original artists (hardly any of which were detuned except SRV) that I just kept my gigging bass permanently detuned and another in normal tuning for home practice/other bands. Was quite relieved to be sacked after 6 months frankly.

Edited February 8, 2013 by KevB