Drop E on a bass?!!!!

[NSGUITAR]

Hey guys. As some of you know, I'm doing the next Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza album.


They're be bringing two 8 string guitars to the studio, but they're expecting me for a bass so they can cut on shipping costs, which is totally fine.


They typically play 6 string basses, but never use the top (smallest) string.


So, my question to you:

Their tuning is insane.. Their lowest string is tuned to an E (Yes, an octave lower than a standard guitar)... I have an ernie ball sting ray 5 string bass, but I've never tried tuning it that low.. What should I do about this as far as gauge goes/setting the bass up? I would get it professionally done, but I don't trust anybody in this town.

I've heard that they have strings that are made for F# tuning, which I believe are .175 gauge.. That sounds like it would suffice, but I'm not sure.

 

[egan.]

Ask the band what they do.
Honestly though no normal scale bass is going to support notes that low. It will make noise but not notes which maybe is what the want.
You won't be able to get a .175 through the nut and perhaps not through the bridge of your SR (which is a great bass) w/o modification. If you're asking for recommendations, I'd tune up before I'd tune the bass down in that situation. Otherwise you'll need a fifty dollar set of strings, a file, a truss rod wrench and perhaps a drill just to find out whether it's going to work.

 

[amarshism]

Congrats. Just got their last record. Enjoyed it.

 

[NSGUITAR]

Ask the band what they do.
Honestly though no normal scale bass is going to support notes that low. It will make noise but not notes which maybe is what the want.
You won't be able to get a .175 through the nut and perhaps not through the bridge of your SR (which is a great bass) w/o modification. If you're asking for recommendations, I'd tune up before I'd tune the bass down in that situation. Otherwise you'll need a fifty dollar set of strings, a file, a truss rod wrench and perhaps a drill just to find out whether it's going to work.

Thanks dude!

According to them, their bass usually sounds like absolute crap, so. haha

But there was also mention of just tracking bass with guitar, and pitch shifting it down an octave.. But with my experience, that's never been a good idea.. It never sounds good enough. There's no attack, unless I'm just doing it wrong.

 

[Erik Monsonis]

Make it standard bass E, that will equal their guitars. Just process the bass like a bass and the guitars like guitars... that should be fine.

 

[LeSedna]

Is n't that meshuggah who is tuned so low that the bassist tunes up to the same note as the guitars ?

Maybe they should do that, at least on the album record. The bass will not be so low, but it will maybe sound better like that, and the basist won't be too disoriented since the bass will be a normal tuned bass, and you may consider boosting the low end with some bass enhancer, or you could run a subtle track with an octaver to the very low E or a synth programmed in parallel. If they tabbed to guitar pro, it can be very easy to do (just duplicate the bass midi, downtune an octave lower, export, done)

I'm sure these solutions can sound good, better than an dropped E tuned bass.

 

[NSGUITAR]

Standard tuning+Octaver duplicated track. NICE! This sounds pretty damn perfect. Thanks guys.

 

[koalamo]

You could do that Joey sine wave thing

 

[amarshism]

We've been messing around with 8s in Eaeadgbe and the bass is aeadg. It sounds far fuller in a as the bass is a full octave below but when you go lower and the bass plays in the same register it feels empty. Perhaps if you cued a lower octave sequenced track to fill out the low end it could work?

 

[TheDriller]

You could do that Joey sine wave thing

I love how every production technique in the history of recorded music is now referred to as "The Joey X Thing".

 

[Joshua Wickman]

Are they using the low E just for open notes?

I had a band in this tunning and instead of tunning the bass up to standard E we just went with drop G# (I think that was the next sting after the low E) and then when the guitar played the open low E the bass would just hit that note fretted some place. Worked out great.

 

[koalamo]

I love how every production technique in the history of recorded music is now referred to as "The Joey X Thing".

Woah man I was being helpful I could care less who started it or whatever that was just the first time I ever heard of it being used