Who plays tenor and/or piccolo bass?

[Baloney Balderdash]

I made a thread a while ago for discussing alternate up-tunings of bass guitars, including piccolo and tenor bass tuning that didn't went that far and kind of died out early, but I am hoping being a bit more specific and having this thread being specifically of the two most common up-tunings might fare a little better.

 

 

Just to be sure people know what I am talking about:

 

Piccolo bass tuning, is a bass that is tuned an octave higher than a normal bass, that is as the four lower strings of a guitar tuned in regular E standard tuning.

 

And tenor bass tuning, which among others Victor Wooten, but especially Stanley Clarke is making wide use of, is a bass tuned like the 4 upper string of a 6 string bass in regular B standard tuning, that is A standard tuning.

 

And of course strung accordingly.

 

 

Personally I have grown really fond of tenor bass tuning, and currently my just 28.6" scale Ibanez Mikro Bass, which is my main bass, is strung up with Elixir Nanoweb guitar strings of the gauges .068 - .052 - .038 - .028, and tuned this way, in A standard tuning.

 

Here it is, "Dud Bottomfeeder" :

 

 

And for those who think piccolo and tenor bass are oxymorons, well, technically they are of course, but non the less first of all these are actually well established terms, and also rather than being named after their tonal frequency range, think of it as named after the respective instruments instead, that is a bass guitar tuned to piccolo tuning, and as a bass guitar tuned as a bass tenor guitar, or as a combination of a tenor guitar (that is the 4 string guitars, usually tuned in 5th, and higher than a regular guitar) and a bass guitar.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_guitar_tuning

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenor_guitar

 

A bass in these tunings works best approached like a hybrid of a bass and a guitar, opening up for new perspectives of thinking and playing bass guitar, and obviously a whole new tonal range.

 

A piccolo bass doesn't sound like a 4 string guitar, and a tenor bass doesn't sound like a 4 string baritone guitar, they got their own flavor, and works best played as their respectively entirely own individual instruments.

 

In many ways though a piccolo bass and a tenor bass have more in common with a tenor guitar than a regular guitar or a regular baritone guitar.

 

 

Edited February 8 by Baloney Balderdash
Wrong gauge listed for low A string corrected: .068. not .080.

[Lfalex v1.1]

To clarify;

 

A,D,G,C.

 

Right?

 

I had a Stingray 5 fretless (why, oh why did I sell it?) tuned E-C. That was great. 

 

Never had tried stringing a bass as a piccolo, though. 

Does one simply use strings of approximately ½ the gauge you'd usually use- something like 50,40,30,20 ?

Edited October 30, 2023 by Lfalex v1.1

[Waddo Soqable]

I have messed with this kind of thing and it's quite interesting, the nearest I've got going at the moment is one of the Bass Vl 's I have, it's tuned to what you'd call A standard, the same relative pitches as a guitar but down A to A so about half way. Works well imho. 

Wheter this counts or you're just talking 4 bangers? 

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 30/10/2023 at 19:19, Lfalex v1.1 said:

To clarify;

 

A,D,G,C.

 

Right?

 

I had a Stingray 5 fretless (why, oh why did I sell it?) tuned E-C. That was great. 

 

Never had tried stringing a bass as a piccolo, though. 

Does one simply use strings of approximately ½ the gauge you'd usually use- something like 50,40,30,20 ?

 

A - D - G - C, yes.

 

String gauge and tension is completely up to personal preferences, you can buy separate single stings and compose your own set, using something like this string tension calculator as a guide: https://wahiduddin.net/calc/calc_guitar_tension_from_size.htm 

 

I personally prefer an approximate close to perfectly balanced and relatively low tension set of strings.

 

Though several string manufactures does actually sell specific piccolo tuning string sets, a few even specific tenor bass tuning string sets.

 

Also a 5 string E to C tuning is categorized as tenor bass tuning as well.

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Baloney Balderdash]

3 hours ago, Waddo Soqable said:

I have messed with this kind of thing and it's quite interesting, the nearest I've got going at the moment is one of the Bass Vl 's I have, it's tuned to what you'd call A standard, the same relative pitches as a guitar but down A to A so about half way. Works well imho. 

Wheter this counts or you're just talking 4 bangers? 

Well, that would technically make it a baritone guitar (baritone guitars pretty much being defined by usually 27" to 30" scale length guitars, typically tuned in either B or A standard tuning, though 27" or 28" scale length tuned in B standard tuning is the most common).

 

Also it is not just me who call it standard tuning, it is pretty much a standardized (no pun intended) term.

 

Edited October 30, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Waddo Soqable]

1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Well, that would technically make it a baritone guitar (baritone guitars pretty much being defined by usually 27" to 30" scale length guitars typically tuned in either B or A standard tuning, though 27" or 28" scale length tuned in B standard tuning is the most common).

 

Also it is not just me who call it standard tuning, it is pretty much a standardized (no pun intended) term.

 

Likely a bit of a grey area, this is 30" scale and envisaged as a Bass Vl, but tuned as above on thinner strings, many of these things kind of "meet in the middle" somewhere.. I liked a long scale 4 string tuned up too btw, though don't have one set up like that now. 

Conversely I've also got a big bodied acoustic guitar that I've made into a 4 string (narrowed the neck down etc) and tuned down with B being the lowest note, I'd kind of thought of that as a sort of "tenor guitar" but it's likely a bit low tuned for that, plus it's got a full length neck unlike many tenors that are somewhat shorter. 

[Rich]

I'm sure this thread can do without smartass answers (now removed) to questions that weren't actually asked.

[itu]

One bassist extraordinaire that plays piccolo basses (among everything else) is Brian Bromberg.

 

I tried a piccolo set in a Kramer Ferrington, and it was actually pretty decent, but so high I sold the bass to a g-word & bass player.

[ossyrocks]

My only experience of piccolo bass has been when used as a complimentary instrument to standard bass, like this one:

 

[BetaFunk]

On 30/10/2023 at 18:15, Baloney Balderdash said:

Piccolo bass tuning, is a bass that is tuned an octave higher than a normal bass, that is as the four lower strings of a guitar tuned in regular E standard tuning.

I have this Boomslang Liberator Nano which is Piccolo tuned EADG, has a 22.5" scale with 75, 55, 35, 25 gauge Rotosound strings

[Ross Finnie]

I used to do a similar thing with an old Squier Bronco, in a setup which I affectionately nicknamed the Barry Tone. Can't remember exactly which tuning I settled on in the end, but it was achieved by buying a bunch of single strings in weird gauges to try and approximate a guitar-like sound for a muppet like me who couldn't actually play a guitar. In the end though, it was just a bit awkward and I reverted back to a regular 30" EADG short scale bass setup instead.

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 30/11/2023 at 19:23, Ross Finnie said:

I used to do a similar thing with an old Squier Bronco, in a setup which I affectionately nicknamed the Barry Tone. Can't remember exactly which tuning I settled on in the end, but it was achieved by buying a bunch of single strings in weird gauges to try and approximate a guitar-like sound for a muppet like me who couldn't actually play a guitar. In the end though, it was just a bit awkward and I reverted back to a regular 30" EADG short scale bass setup instead.

Well, I am actually pretty good at playing regular 6 string guitar.

 

I think the secret of making a tenor bass (or piccolo bass for that matter) work well is to realize that it is neither a bass or a guitar (playing it like either is naturally always going to end up as an awkward compromise to the real deal), but rather an unique instrument in it's own regard that requires it's own unique approach to playing, and therefor also opens up for some entirely new perspectives and possibilities for creating music with/for it.

 

Edited January 21 by Baloney Balderdash

[DDR]

Hello

 

Any chance of some string set suggestions for piccolo bass creation?

 

I’m buying a short scale Cort tomorrow (junior) and want to set it up for this...

 

Thank you!

 

[itu]

Check D'Addario EXL280.

 

https://www.thomann.de/gb/daddario_exl280.htm

[BigRedX]

I used to own this:

 

 

Manne Mandobass. 26.5" scale, tuned the same as the lowest 4 strings on a guitar.

 

Used a couple of times in the studio to produce faux 8-string bass parts by double-tracking with the normal bass part. However I would throw in the occasional non-octave note just to keep things musically interesting.

 

However it didn't really offer anything that I couldn't do just as well on a standard guitar, so it got sold when I had my big instrument clear out some years ago.

[Baloney Balderdash]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

I used to own this:

 

 

Manne Mandobass. 26.5" scale, tuned the same as the lowest 4 strings on a guitar.

 

Used a couple of times in the studio to produce faux 8-string bass parts by double-tracking with the normal bass part. However I would throw in the occasional non-octave note just to keep things musically interesting.

 

However it didn't really offer anything that I couldn't do just as well on a standard guitar, so it got sold when I had my big instrument clear out some years ago.

That looks gorgeous.

 

I'd probably had it tuned to C standard tuning, and used it as a tenor baritone guitar.

 

Edited February 3 by Baloney Balderdash

[Rib13Bass]

I did it a long time ago and will probably try it again sometime in the future just for laughs, yuks, and giggles

[DDR]

On 03/02/2024 at 14:33, itu said:

Check D'Addario EXL280.

 

https://www.thomann.de/gb/daddario_exl280.htm

do these fit on a longscale bass or does it have to be a shortscale? Has anyone tried this on a longscale?

 

thank you! 

[itu]

Kramer Ferrington has a 34" scale, i.e. the string set fits short and long scales.

[borntohang]

For a while I used a Squier Jaguar SS tuned ADGC using the lowest three strings off a standard set and then either a G or B from a Bass VI set which I think was a 030 or something. We did a lot of tunes in G so I tended to drop the A a tone to get the low G. Worked nicely for clangy post-punk stuff but not something I'd choose for a band that I wasn't specifically writing in that tuning.

 

I tried it in piccolo for a bit using a mix of the rest of the VI strings, but that didn't last long.

[meterman]

I’ve got a 25.5” scale P bass copy but I’ve never tried stringing it with anything other than regular strings in regular tuning. Might have to have a go and see if I like it in a higher tuning. This thread has definitely got me thinking about it.

[Baloney Balderdash]

And by the way, I got a 5 string Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro Bass  as well, also 28.6" scale length, which I have strung with Elixir Nanoweb guitar strings as well, of the gauges .080 - .062 - .046 - .036 - .026, and tuned to G standard tuning, that is the 3 half steps above the upper 5 strings of a 6 string bass in regular B standard tuning.

 

Never really played it much, cause I didn't like the tone that the 2 stock J pickups gave me, trying to wire them both in series, directly to the output jack socket, to remedy it, which did help some, but still it didn't quite sound right.

 

That is until I discovered that the neck pickup was faulty, having a really weak magnetic field at the lower strings part, which messed with the tone.

 

So I disconnected the neck pickup, and instead wired the bridge pickup directly to the output jack socket, and now the bass actually sounds pretty awesome, really resonant and clear, with exceptional sustain.

 

And it's a quite growly beast, whereas my 4 strung Mikro is more of a snappy beast.

 

Though I do plan to swap that stock bridge J pickup for a Gemini Pickups Mountain Lightning J bridge pickup at some point : https://www.geminipickups.co.uk/bass/jazz-bass/mountain-lightning

 

It also had perfectly leveled frets right from factory. 

 

Here it is, Poplar body, Maple neck, with a Jatoba fretboard (this is an old picture, the fretboard has turned less red, to a darker and more brown hue since, as Jatoba tends to do over time), named "Mr. Growley - The Noodlemancer" :

Edited February 23 by Baloney Balderdash

[DDR]

 

 

Hey piccolo fam

I was hoping not to have to buy another bass to join in the piccolo club and i am super happy i could put them on my modded tele without any setting up. It’s got quite a few very usable sounds for my productions so i’m well happy! Hope everyone is well!

[Mykesbass]

@Baloney BalderdashPiccolo means small so you're OK on that one not being an oxymoron. Had you said soprano then the grammar police would certainly have you bang to rights.