It is routine that some will argue the point that an electric bass only needs 4 strings and no more than that.<\/p>\n
What does a 4-string player do to hit the lower notes of a 5-string? Tune from EADG to BEAD.<\/p>\n
Not so much problems but rather minor inconveniences.<\/p>\n
The “floppy 4”<\/strong><\/p>\n The 3, 2 and 1 usually have no issues being tuned down, but that darned 4 can be a problem. The cure for this is switching to a D’Addario Balanced Tension set, or alternatively use flatwound strings as they have greater tension compared to roundwound and can handle BEAD tuning easily on a standard long scale bass.<\/p>\n Not sure which strings to get? We have a good selection<\/a>.<\/p>\n Having to readjust the truss rod (maybe)<\/strong><\/p>\n The loss of tension across the board by tuning down from EADG to BEAD may require a truss rod adjustment to compensate for it. How will you know if you need the adjustment? If you encounter fret buzz that wasn’t there before after having your bass in BEAD tuning for a few hours, the neck has bowed slightly from where it was in EADG. You can either tune back up to EADG and wait for the wood to adjust again, or perform a small truss rod adjustment.<\/p>\n Note: You may not have to do this at all.<\/em> Some necks can go from EADG to BEAD and play just the same with no new fret buzz, while others bow slightly and do need an adjustment. The only way you will know if yours requires rod adjustment or not when detuning to BEAD is to just do it and see what happens.<\/p>\n This is where the argument for a 5-string bass comes in.<\/p>\n A 5-string player never has to switch basses to go from EADG to BEAD since everything is already present on the instrument.<\/p>\n A 4-string player however will either have to detune or pick up a separate 4-string that’s already tuned to BEAD.<\/p>\n If you are a dedicated 4-string player that just can’t get comfortable with the 5 no matter what, but at the same time really like the BEAD tuning on occasion, then yes it might be a good idea to have a dedicated BEAD-tuned 4-string.<\/p>\n The main advantage of having a 4-string with dedicated BEAD tuning is that it will sound and feel right whenever you pick it up. The saddles, truss rod and string tension will be correct because all the setup has already been done, by you, to be BEAD-specific.<\/p>\n There’s obviously nothing wrong with EADG tuning, but playing in BEAD does sound really good from time to time.<\/p>\n Have you tried BEAD tuning on your 4-string?<\/strong><\/p>\n How was your experience? Good? Great? Bad? Awful? Make sure to state the make\/model of your bass in your comment so others know what works on which bass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is routine that some will argue the point that an electric bass only needs 4 strings and no more than that. What does a 4-string player do to hit the lower notes of a 5-string? Tune from EADG to BEAD. Are there are potential problems with BEAD tuning on a 4-string? Not so much … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":8136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Should you have a separate 4-string bass just for BEAD?<\/h3>\n
BEAD tuning sounds good, and you should try it<\/h3>\n