Tuning opinions

[christhammer666]

Hey guys
I'm in a doom band and we tune drop c so strings are c,g,c,f
We play a lot of notes up by the 10th and 12th frets.
When I use a five I tune the b up to c and the rest is in standard
My question is,to my ears the c sounds better on an e string tuned standard on the 8th fret rather then detuned to c on the 12th. It's the same over the neck really

Is this because the notes sound better with strings that have more tension ie more clarity
Thoughts ?
Sorry to ramble

[CamdenRob]

You have a several choices as to where to play the same note It's a great feature of our instrument... I use different fretboard positions depending on what tone I'm going for. For example I might play an open A in riffy bass intro to a rock tune and I might play the A as the 10th fret of the B string in a soft blues tune. It's good to have the choice of timbre, use what you think sounds good

Also when I used to play metal with guitars tuned to drop C i'd play a five string tuned C,F,A#,D#,G#.. never found the need to drop tune on bass really, it threw all my scale patterns out...

Edited April 1, 2015 by CamdenRob

[BassBus]

When you play C at 8th you have a longer string than you have playing at 12th. That gives you a greater length for the string to vibrate which equals a different tone. This is why I use a high C string on fivers. A G played at 7th on C string to my ear sounds clearer than that same note played on G string at 12th.

[EliasMooseblaster]

Correct me if I'm wrong - not owning a 5-string and all - but weren't the 35" (and longer) scale lengths introduced as a way of putting extra tension into the B-string to make it vibrate properly? If so, you might be thinking along the right lines!