Bach in 5ths Tuning on bass?

[Rob MacKillop]

I’ve played Bach’s cello suites on guitar, baroque lute, and tenor banjo. Playing them in 5ths tuning was a revelation. I’ve never been convinced they work well in standard bass tuning. Now I’m dreaming of playing them on a fretless bass in 5ths tuning. 
 

Anyone done this? 
 

What strings to use to get the tuning? 
 

Original keys are not something Bach was too concerned with, as he changed the 5th suite from Cm to Gm when arranging it for lute. So the bass would not have to be tuned to the cello tuning of CGDA (bass to treble), as long as they are in 5ths. Any ideas? 

Edited 4 hours ago by Rob MacKillop

[nekomatic]

It's a secret (oops!) long-held ambition of mine to play these on bass one day, but setting up an instrument in 5ths specially seems a bit like cheating to me 😄

 

I guess one could play around with the D’Addario string tension calculator (there seem to be various string tension calculators online but as far as I can tell they all acknowledge D’Addario’s data), or just try some out. If you started from a standard 5-string set you could do BFCG using the B and G strings at pitch and the E and D strings respectively tuned up and down a tone, or from a 6-string set EBFC in a similar sort of way.

 

I do possess a 5-string fretless that I haven't settled on a stringing for yet, and a variety of secondhand strings, so I could have a go at some point and report back. I haven't properly started trying to learn fretless yet though, so I won't be sharing any attempts at playing Bach on it for a while…

[itu]

https://www.daddario.com/globalassets/pdfs/accessories/tension_chart_13934.pdf