String order - why?

[thodrik]

One of my favourite players (Scott Reeder) plays left handed with a right handed bass simply turned the other way round. I heard that Hendrix could play bass like this too.

It can certainly be done but does it really matter? Like 'why do we always open the top of a tin of beans/soup etc rather than the bottom?' Surely we should just open the bottom of the can instead as it would save us the effort of turning the can upside down in order to empty the contents? Either way the content is going to be largely the same.

[paul_c2]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1480276340' post='3183044']
Stick a violin or viola under your chin. Which way are the strings? Turn the violin round so it's a guitar or double bass, the strings have to be in the same position or your fingering all goes to pot.
[/quote]

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Its clumsy to try to define the strings as going left-right on violin/viola/guitar/bass guitar, and if you take the position of the cello/double bass strings as the player sees them, then its rightmost string=lowest string.

[TimR]

[quote name='paul_c2' timestamp='1480277285' post='3183053']


I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Its clumsy to try to define the strings as going left-right on violin/viola/guitar/bass guitar, and if you take the position of the cello/double bass strings as the player sees them, then its rightmost string=lowest string.
[/quote]

You can't have the strings opposite on a cello and bass to how they are on a violin and viola. It would be impossible to move from one instrument to the other.

Sometime around 1600, everything was standardised. Cellos and basses are just bigger versions of violas and violins. If you can play one you can play the other.

They could equally have standardised the other way round. But they didn't.

When I turn my head to look at the headstock and fretboard on my bass; the E string is on the left and the G is on the right.

.

Edited November 27, 2016 by TimR

[Myke]

[quote name='NickA' timestamp='1480247968' post='3182736']
[i]"It doesn't matter because bassists shouldn't be playing above the fifth fret on the two low strings anyway 'lol'. ????????????[/i]

Try playing the header of Donna Lee (or pretty much any other Jazz tune) without doing that!! there are a lot of nice chords and harmonics up there too. Used to be said that you only get a good bass tone using as much string length as possible .. so it sort of depends on your priorities. :-)
[/quote]

Just a heads up. 'Lol' means Laugh out Loud. He was joking!

I can't remember his real name but Dood is a very, very accomplished player

[stingrayPete1977]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1480282139' post='3183098']


You can't have the strings opposite on a cello and bass to how they are on a violin and viola. It would be impossible to move from one instrument to the other.

Sometime around 1600, everything was standardised. Cellos and basses are just bigger versions of violas and violins. If you can play one you can play the other.

They could equally have standardised the other way round. But they didn't.

When I turn my head to look at the headstock and fretboard on my bass; the E string is on the left and the G is on the right.

.
[/quote]

So you play a double bass and cello looking down the neck from behind but a violin/viola looking up the neck so in the words of our own blue, I'm calling shenanigans

I can play double bass with a bow (well in a fashion), I can't just play a violin.

The fact it's tuned the opposite way with the thin string being the E and the fattest being the G wouldn't make life easy either!

[paul_c2]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1480282139' post='3183098']
You can't have the strings opposite on a cello and bass to how they are on a violin and viola. It would be impossible to move from one instrument to the other.

Sometime around 1600, everything was standardised. Cellos and basses are just bigger versions of violas and violins. If you can play one you can play the other.

They could equally have standardised the other way round. But they didn't.

When I turn my head to look at the headstock and fretboard on my bass; the E string is on the left and the G is on the right.

.
[/quote]

They're not opposite, I think you're just getting confused as to what "left" and "right" is, because they are not well defined because when you look at an instrument from different angles, it could be interpreted differently. If you are turning your head to look at the bass during playing it, its an odd position/posture you've found youself in if you can see the E string on the left!!!

[TimR]

Yes. They're a bit tricky in that respect but you get used to it. The other thing with a violin is you don't play 'one finger one fret', I know they don't have frets but you don't finger chromatically like you do on a bass or a guitar. Some fingers are placed close to each other some with gaps for the notes not being played in the scale.

Does that make sense?

[TimR]

[quote name='paul_c2' timestamp='1480283581' post='3183123']


They're not opposite, I think you're just getting confused as to what "left" and "right" is, because they are not well defined because when you look at an instrument from different angles, it could be interpreted differently. If you are turning your head to look at the bass during playing it, its an odd position/posture you've found youself in if you can see the E string on the left!!!
[/quote]

No it's not. If I look at the fingerboard at the nut the E is on the left the G is on the right.

[stingrayPete1977]

'Most' upright players don't play a finger per note either Tim There's actually a topic in the DB forum at the moment, I've started using my upright technique on electric, which isn't good but it's a lot easier than trying to fudge elec technique onto a DB

[TimR]

I suspect that has a lot more to do with the length of the fretboard.

[darkandrew]

If it's a convention that the strings go sequentially low to high, then why don't ukuleles follow the same rules?

[TimR]

[quote name='darkandrew' timestamp='1480285435' post='3183144']
If it's a convention that the strings go sequentially low to high, then why don't ukuleles follow the same rules?
[/quote]

According to Wikipedia they do.

The only exception is the bass ukulele that uses re-entrant tuning with the bottom string tuned up an octave to avoid the problems you get with a low G while still maintaining the ability to play close harmony chords.

.

Edited November 27, 2016 by TimR

[darkandrew]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1480286060' post='3183148']


According to Wikipedia they do.

The only exception is the bass ukulele that uses re-entrant tuning with the bottom string tuned up an octave to avoid the problems you get with a low G while still maintaining the ability to play close harmony chords.

.
[/quote]

I'd always thought, maybe wrongly in that case, that ukele tuning was non incremental. I guess that's why I don't play a ukele!

[xgsjx]

Strangely enough, the tuning of a ukulele is the same intervals as the top 4 strings as a guitar (though like having a capo on the 5th fret), but the 1st string being an octave higher.
So if you can play the 6 string that isn't a bass, then you should find the ukulele fairly straightforward.

On that note, I'm gonna have a quick blast on mine just now.

[fretmeister]

If this topic bakes your noodle, wait until you start thinking why transposing instruments haven't just renamed the keys to be in the "right" place...

[SpondonBassed]

[quote name='darkandrew' timestamp='1480287640' post='3183162']
I'd always thought, maybe wrongly in that case, that ukele tuning was non incremental. I guess that's why I don't play a ukele!
[/quote]

GCEA is the standard tuning for a ukulele with the G being in the octave above the rest. The note run on the open strings IS sequential if you ignore the fact that the fourth string is an octave higher in pitch than you'd perhaps expect. When the instrument is strummed you get that undefinable tonal quality that only a uke in standard tuning has.

For the OP, this would perhaps be of interest.

My mate prefers to use a low G on his latest build, a baritone uke. It now sounds like a really mellow classical guitar.

[T-Bay]

Whilst I have a vague idea of other instruments I am pretty ignorant as to the history of their development, hence the question. So all the debate is interesting to me. I hadn't come across the Uke stringing but have had a look and it is fascinating to see the difference.

[Dad3353]

So which way is a harp strung..?

[T-Bay]

Depends which way you look at it ;-)

[ras52]

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1480339262' post='3183453']
So which way is a harp strung..?
[/quote]

I don't know, but it stays sharp to the bottom of the glass.

[tony_m]

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1480340180' post='3183468']
I don't know, but it stays sharp to the bottom of the glass.
[/quote]

And that will probably only make sense to those of us of a "certain age"...

[tauzero]

[quote name='josie' timestamp='1480194571' post='3182485']
Yes, the whole family is consistent. It did take me a long time to get used to the fact that the string "below" the one you're on is "below" in tone and therefore "above" on the fretboard!
[/quote]

The original guitarist in the current band used to refer to "up" and "down" in the opposite direction to pitch, both across and along the fretboard - so the 12th fret would be "down" from the 11th fret, and the B string would be "down" from the G string. Perhaps true in relativistic terms (if one slopes the guitar with the headstock upwards) but very confusing.

[DBerriff]

Your fingers approach the finger board from a particular side. That is the side where the high notes are otherwise you would be stretching across the fingerboard to play the highest notes. It is the same with all orchestral instruments. Guitar and electric bass follow suit.

[stingrayPete1977]

Then you still have to reach the bow over for bass and cello but not for violin as the bow is reversed but the left hand isn't.

I suspect the earliest version of the violin family was made roughly how it is now and with the strings in the order they are as that was what worked best, after that they just built bigger versions of the violin.

[leschirons]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1480272346' post='3183010']


I'll think you'll find he's pulling your leg mate, Dood has many basses with many many strings!
[/quote]

And he might be from Norfolk so could have more fingers than the rest of us to play them with.