Using mandolin know-how to play bass?

[Nately120]

Maybe this has been asked before, maybe I'm nuts but I play mandolin right handed (even though I'm left handed) and was wondering if the tuning of a bass is the mandolin upside down, can I get a lefty bass and turn it upside down so I can play it right handed with a mandolin tuning.

[billkilpatrick]

check out elizabeth cotten:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OMSYzFdloqY

... and her "cotten picking".

mandolin tuning is in 5ths (5 steps between one string and another) - guitars are in 4ths. i would guess that a bass, tuned GDAE, would be under tremendous tension- leading to a warped neck, pdq.

[man dough nollij]

That's the trick. GDAE is fifths, but EADG is fourths. I would think that knowing your way around a fifths-tuned fret board would do you no good in navigating the inverse fourths-tuned bass scale.

If you turned an EADG bass upside down, it would be nothing like a mandolin. It would be a freaky, different beast. I think. Yep. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[Aran]

this is interesting!!!!

I got a double bass 3 weeks ago and trying to get my head/fingers around it....

Reckon it's a totally different kettle of fish so far.

[Patrick Killeen]

You can just about get away with the "4ths as upside down 5ths" approach if you're strumming the bottom (in pitch) four strings of a guitar, bt once you start seperating out the notes (if you try playing a melody, scale or bassline) it all falls apart.

The problem is that when you change strings the notes jump into the wrong octave, and you end up going up when you want to go down and vice versa.

Patrick

[Steve L]

Knowing where the notes are is the least of good bass playing.

[Tim2723]

Yes, you run the risk of severe damage to the instrument, assuming you can do it at all.

[billkilpatrick]

nate - if you've got one handy and would like some idea of what a bass would sound like with mando-tuning, try it on a baritone ukulele.

vai piano ...

[Steve L]

I don't think he's talking about changing the string tension or tuning. I think he's just wondering if he gets a left handed bass and flips it over so that the high string (G) is on top if he can use his knowledge of the mandolin to get around on the bass. I actually knew a very good bass player who played this way. He was left handed and picked up a right handed instrument and just went with it. But at some point, he made a choice to become a bass player. Playing bass is a whole different orientation to music and a discipline unto itself.

[Nately120]

Let's see, I took a diagram of a mandolin fretboard and placed it next to a digram of a bass fretboard that I mirrored and it looks like they match up (to me). Like I said I would be playing a left handed bass right handed to give it the EADG layout of a mandolin.

http://a938.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/18/l_582bc3ef14b997c790ded150e03ee169.jpg

[cbarry]

According to Wikipedia:
A small number of bass players tune their strings in fifths, like a cello but an octave lower (C-G-D-A low to high). This tuning was used by the jazz player Red Mitchell and is increasingly used by classical players, notably the Canadian bassist Joel Quarrington.
Chuck

[John Flynn]

I played in a church group once where the bass player was trained as a cello player. He had his bass tuned C-G-D-A. He had a custom neck made for his electric bass, it was shorter and thinner, and ordered custom string sets, although that may not be absolutely necessary. Man, the guy sounded great, though!

I suppose you could just get a mando-cello also.

[hattio]

I play both bass and mandolin, and I think you would be better off just buying a righty and learning. First, it's going to be a lot cheaper and easier to sell if you don't like it. More importantly, you won't be going down in pitch when going up in string. In order to make it actually sound like most people play bass, you would have to really do some refiguring. I think it would be easier just to learn to play bass.
The basics of playing bass aren't that hard anyway (as someone said, knowing where to put your fingers is the least of it). Beyond the basics, you're going to have to woodshed no matter how your bass was set up.

[Bob Wiegers]

Let's see, I took a diagram of a mandolin fretboard and placed it next to a digram of a bass fretboard that I mirrored and it looks like they match up (to me). #Like I said I would be playing a left handed bass right handed to give it the EADG layout of a mandolin.
yes, it's backwards AND upside-down. no sweat! :-) in reality it wouldnt make a whole lotta sense, so just learn bass. it's fun! it's easy! it's a gateway drug to guitar!

oh and I too am lefty but play righty. started on bass. mando is more fun. dont think of being lefty as a disadvantage...on the contrary, in fact.

[howbahmando]

if you want to experiment with diferent tunings why not get an electric bass? much easier to restring, and also way easier to sell on once you're done experimenting (ever try to pack an upright bass for shipping?)

[jaydee]

Are we talking about a bass guitar, or a double bass? Lefty double basses are hard to come by, and they are almost never good instruments. While the strings have the same note names "E", "A", "D", "G"; these notes occur in DIFFERENT OCTAVES on the bass and the mandolin. What I mean is that the "E" on a bass is the lowest note, the "A" string next to it occurs a perfect fourth higher. On a mandolin, the "E" course is the highest in pitch, the "A" course next to it is LOWER IN PITCH. If you're talking about stringing it with a high "E" string and a low "G" you'll be hard-pressed to find strings in the correct gauges.

The conventions of bass tuning have not come about by accident. I suspect that the further away from them you get, the more problems you'll have playing the instrument and getting it to do it's job. If you just dive into it you'll get the hang of it before you know it.

Best of luck.

[Greg H.]

I think there's some misunderstanding of the question here. Nately120 isn't talking about changing the tuning of the bass, but rather--because he is left handed--taking a right handed bass and playing it left handed. I think it's an interesting idea, but it could be a problem in that all of your scales would be going in the opposite direction. Nonetheless. . . . . . http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[Jim MacDaniel]

Let's see, I took a diagram of a mandolin fretboard and placed it next to a digram of a bass fretboard that I mirrored and it looks like they match up (to me). #Like I said I would be playing a left handed bass right handed to give it the EADG layout of a mandolin.

http://a938.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/18/l_582bc3ef14b997c790ded150e03ee169.jpg
When comparing your charts, keep in mind that the move from G to D on the mandolin is UP one fifth, while the move from G to D on the bass is DOWN one fourth -- so utilizing a reversed mandolin "scale pattern" on a bass would yield a totally different series of notes. (IMO, it would be far easier just to think of the bass fretboard in terms of what it is, 4 strings tuned in fourths -- which is what I did in reverse when I switched from bass to mandolin.)

[UnityGain]

All this confusion assumes your going to be playing complex melody type lines on the bass. #And, isnt that what we allways complain about bass player doing?

Lets face it, for the majority of bass playing, you really dont need to know where that many notes are. #If you just play the root note of a chord with good timing and control, people will be happy. #Bass playing is much much more about timing and feel than notes.

If your really worried, get an electric and play around. #I doubt that it will be all that confusing after a week or so of trying.

Edit: I am so redundant. But I guess it drives home the point.

[Gutbucket]

Let's see, I took a diagram of a mandolin fretboard and placed it next to a digram of a bass fretboard that I mirrored and it looks like they match up (to me). #Like I said I would be playing a left handed bass right handed to give it the EADG layout of a mandolin.

http://a938.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/18/l_582bc3ef14b997c790ded150e03ee169.jpg
When comparing your charts, keep in mind that the move from G to D on the mandolin is UP one fifth, while the move from G to D on the bass is DOWN one fourth -- so utilizing a reversed mandolin "scale pattern" on a bass would yield a totally different series of notes. (IMO, it would be far easier just to think of the bass fretboard in terms of what it is, 4 strings tuned in fourths -- which is what I did in reverse when I switched from bass to mandolin.)
Wow! That whole diagram makes my pumpkin head hurt! At Augusta Bluegrass week this year, Ira Gittlin made all the class instructers get up and play their instruments left handed to get the idea of how a beginner feels. Niles Hokkenan re-learned mandolin for the same reason. #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[Steve Ostrander]

You could be the Jimi Hendrix of bass players! Set it on fire and play with your teeth!

But not at the same time, that would be foolhardy.

[fred d]

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif Whats the problem I do it all the time since the bass is played on the root and 5 and I seldom play above the 5 fret and since the bass is a rythem instrument and supose to set the pace of the song I'm left handed and play baanjo mandolin ukulele right and the bass left I think it sounds good with my wife's marimba http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif