The Nut on Hippy's 5 Strings

[Nothinggod]

I just thought of something you could definitly help me with there, Hippy. I know that you have at least some of your 5 strings tuned E A D G C. I am thinking I might buy a 5 string and do the same thing to tide me over until I have the resources to have my "dreambass" (a 3 octave range fretless singlecourse 8 string) made, and since my objective is to have more range into the top end it seems like the logical thing to do. What I am wondering is whether you have the nut adjusted or customised or do you just leave the 'stock' nut as it is?

 

[MaskedJackal]

Steve's mentioned that his 5'ers have all come stock- complete with B-G tunings. He made no neck adjustments, and threw out the B, added the high C, put them on and called it good. I don't think he ever uses B strings.The nut slots give much lower action because they were made for thicker strings originally and that's a huge part of his clicky sound.

 

[HippieOfDoom]

You nailed it Asa...!
Not really much to add to that. Except I do use low B strings. Me and Darren have written a few songs tuned down on the new album; Out For Blood, Down, No More and Crazy. So when he goes for his baritone guitar, I grab one that is strung up BEADG (plus we're a half step down from that).

I don't know if it's the right thing to do stringing up the five string bass that was set up for BEADG and just going right to EADGC, but so far on all the basses I have it's worked fine and even going back down to the low B tuning still feels fine. So I go with it. Until I have a problem with the nut and string heigth I will continue interchanging the string guages.
SDG

 

[MaskedJackal]

You nailed it Asa...!

Thanks, Steve-o!

Not really much to add to that. Except I do use low B strings. Me and Darren have written a few songs tuned down on the new album; Out For Blood, Down, No More and Crazy.

Yeah, I'll be honest... I can't stand "Down." Then again, I'm sure you, Darren and Jon are tired of people wanting you to keep writing the fastest thrash parts possible.

 

[NicholasDWolfwood]

For some reason I love the lyrics on Down, even though at times the riffing seems kinda nu-metallish.

As far as the nut issue, honestly it doesn't really matter as far as I can tell - I've had my bass strung EADGC with the nut it came with for the last ~6 months and there's nothing wrong with it.

People suggest to get a new nut, most likely because of the lower action issue; as long as you like that clickity clack (in some cases I do and in some I don't), it's not necessary to replace the nut.

 

[Nothinggod]

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm not really all that decided on what I might do at this stage. I am thinking I might get the nut customised just to keep the sound more consistent. I don't really think I will miss the low B all that much and I will probably have a hipshot for lower notes. I use a 110 gauge E string anyway.

 

[Where She Wept]

You nailed it Asa...!
Not really much to add to that. Except I do use low B strings. Me and Darren have written a few songs tuned down on the new album; Out For Blood, Down, No More and Crazy. So when he goes for his baritone guitar, I grab one that is strung up BEADG (plus we're a half step down from that).

I don't know if it's the right thing to do stringing up the five string bass that was set up for BEADG and just going right to EADGC, but so far on all the basses I have it's worked fine and even going back down to the low B tuning still feels fine. So I go with it. Until I have a problem with the nut and string heigth I will continue interchanging the string guages.
SDG

Damn, the stings must be tight tuned up that high! that doesn't damage the neck?

 

[NicholasDWolfwood]

As far as I know, on the 5-strings tuned EADGC, Steve uses the 5 highest strings from a 6-string set (well, I think he uses a 4-string set + a high C, but still) instead of tuning up a normal 5-string set meant for BEADG. Obviously correct me if I'm wrong Steve.

 

[soulburn3]

Going to be converting my five string Ibanez Soundgear to EADGC tuning this weekend, hope to hell that it works!

 

[Neverpurified]

I got an Ibanez SRX 705, and I tune it D-G-C-F-Bb, just slap on some lighter strings and adjust the neck a little bit, and you'll be all set. I'm using a set that's 30-50-70-90-110 i believe