Up Tuning Your Instruments

[Sophii]

Who here breaks from the norm of tuning down their instruments to obtain a heavier or unique sound?

I have recently experimented with tuning my bass up a whole step to F# B E A to emulate an 8 string guitar.

However, my strings wont stay in tune so I just keep it on E standard and capo the second fret, which works in a weird, industrial sounding way.

 

[elohimeth]

I have never done this when it comes to writing music, I usually drop but not so much (I never went below c# standard), however I did have to tune my bass up when playing Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden as the song is in drop d#. I'm not that much into alternate tunings anyway, but your approach is definitely interesting!

 

[Sophii]

Yeah! When it comes to alternate tuning, my ideas heavily stem from Soundgarden techniques.

I bare myself a lot with these type of things.

That and I wanna break the norm from the 8 string guitars.

 

[elohimeth]

break the norm? do you mean that you have an 8-string guitar and want to experiment with some weird tunings on it, or that you want to be innovative without following the fashion of playing an 8-string?

 

[Sophii]

Sorry, what I meant was - break the norm of modern metal bands that use 8 string guitars, BY using a bass as an alternative. There is only a handful of bands that have done this, but not enough to make it a documentation.

I don't necessarily care for modern prog rock/metal, but I can assure you I really like the open explosive tones they have. (i.e. Meshuggah, Deftones, Vildhjarta are some of the few I really like that utilize 8 string guitars, but can be performed on bass.)

 

[elohimeth]

aaaa now I understand. that's a pretty interesting thing to do. btw, what string gauge do you use for these tunings? I'm asking because my strings on my bass can barely go a half step up from standard without becoming as rigid as a metal pole and breaking haha

 

[Sophii]

I just capo the 2nd fret. I dont get a lot of bending possibilities but it works.

What I may do a pull a Stephen Carpenter from Deftones. What he did for the song Needles and Pins, he used a 5 string bass tuned B F# B E A. This was before he used an 8 string, back in like 2003. He used lighter gauges for the F# B E A but I don't recall what gauges.

 

[Sophii]

Actually, I have the bottom 4 strings of a 5 string set tuned to Standard E LOL. its causing neck warping so I'm gonna loosen the tunings and fix the neck. Probably go down to Drop C or something. I dunno. As soon as I get a 5er again the OG idea is on.

 

[elohimeth]

wish you luck. it's nicer with a bass because you can get to make the sounds of a guitar without losing as much low end due to the thicker strings. I'm not that familiar with Deftones so I didn't know that he used a bass on that one. I think it would be fun to see a band with basses only but one having the traditional bass role and tuning and the other playing solos and riffs haha

 

[Sophii]

There is! Kind of. Prior to 1994, the post-punk/industrial rock band Cop Shoot Cop utilized this technique. Devin Townsend gave them praise and covered one of their songs.

And the Experimental sludge band Shrüm utilized this before their pead bassist died in 1995 in a car accident. He was the bassist in Acid Bath too.