tenor bass?

[jedmatic]

this past summer i got an old tenor guitar on eBay for like $80. The Saga of the Tenor Guitar is its own story, one that's still too painful to tell, but I found I really liked having the strings tuned in fifths.... it was nice to be forced to rethink how to play the instrument.

 

Anyway, it got me thinking about an Electric Cello Guitar, or a Tenor Bass, whichever you prefer. I suppose Cello Guitar doesn't sound as badass as Bass Guitar, and so Tenor Bass sounds better. After some mostly fruitless searching, I saw that some folks had taken a Samick MCR1 Mini Corsair (due to its short scale length) and had it set up and strung in fifths, tenor style (CGDA, low to high).

 

Has anyone tried anything like this? Any experience with the Samick Mini Corsair? They're available all over online for less than $200, but that still too much to spend on a lark like this without knowing more about it.

[Big Red 67]

I had a Fender once that I tuned ADGC. I miss it,, but didn't use it enough to keep it.

[Catlin]

Vic Wooten has his solo bass tuned ADGC, calling it a tenor. I have tried it on a fretless and it seems to work out fine.

[Afro_Man]

I had a 3/4 size bass that i tuned that way, it sounded ok, but the bass was terrible and i sold it on ebay shortly after (and a week later it was back on).

I like the idea and i think it should sound good, what strings would you use? Normal gauge or thinner gauge or buy a 5 string set that includes a 'C' and don't use the 'E'?

N x

[Max Valentino]

I have used "tenor tuning" (ADGC) for some of my solo bass stuff. To some extent I really liked it (chords rang nicely all over the neck and the problem of mudiness esp. when stacking looped parts was non-existent...and of course the melodic voice was quite sweet). But, I found that using this setup (and it does--most of the time-- requite replacing the nut to compensate for lighter strings (I used TI Acousticores on my semi-acoustic), just did not feel right on a standard 34" scale. The C string would feel tight and sound a bit choked up top. I have found this same anomally to occur with 35" (or longer) scale lengths: the added scale really helps the low strings but somehow chokes the tone of the higher strings (of course, this is the premise behind the Novax fanned fret system...based upon the differeing scale lengths of piano strings..). ANd that is one reason I prefer a 34" scale even for a five string (one of the best tones, across all strings, I ever experienced was with a Fodera Matt Garrison Model which is a 33" scale bass.)

 

I have a 32" Dean Performer ABG which I have setup in Tenor tuning, and it sounds and feels great....albeit the Dean is a very cheap bass and in no way feels, or sounds, as good as my other ABGs (or other basses). It sits in my living room and is used for writing, fun "down-time" playing and entertaining the kids. (even tho I replaced the hideous Shadow piezo system with a Fishman, it still is not, to my ears, a gigable bass.)

 

I think a shorter scale bass, 32" or less, will work best for tenor bass setup.

I have thought of picking up one of those cheap Gretsch Elecro-matic basses for doing just this.

 

On the other hand, I recently read (or re-read) an old interview with Edgar Meyer where he discussed his "solo tuning" for URB. I have been fascinated with how he can get such and nimble and glorious tone from a rather large, cumbersome and difficult instrument (oh, but then again, he IS Edgar Meyer....). His solo tuning is EBEA; which is like a drop D tuning raised a whole step. I found this tuning provides a familar feel (tension wise), and maintains the fourths based tuning patterns (save for the Dropped low string, which could be raised to F#), and provides the clarity of the higher "tenor" tuning.

Of course, using string with a low tension is required (again, I am using TI Acousticores which are indeed very low tension and can handle the raise in pitch without either breaking or tweaking out the neck.). For an electric bass, something like TI Jazz Rounds should do the trick.

 

Max