Mandolin Tuning On A Bass Guitar

[pettyman]

Hi

I don't know where else to post this!

I've been chatting to a mate about music recently and he wants to start bass and we got onto the subject of tunings. We ended up wondering whether you could tune the bass guitar to mandolin tuning - GDAE instead of the usual EADG!

Anyone know?

Matt

[jaydee]

I think it's not a great idea, it could potentially do serious damge to the neck, fifths tuning is one thing, but try viola (mandola) tuning CGDA. I don't know for sure if that could work, but it would require much less tension on the neck than GDAE. It could make it really hard to get around on the bass or it could work well. That depends on the player I guess.
Good Luck!

[Dan'l Terry]

Simple answer is NO. Jaydee's right. It'll break, crack or warp the neck and the tension would be so high as to make playing it very uncomfortable. A shorter neck would be necessary to do it and there would then be the complication of getting strings that fit and worked with the tuning scale.

[Eugene]

Of course, as all have wisely implied above, you shouldn't do this with a standard bass guitar string set, but one could assemble a finer set for tuning in fifths that would have no different tension than a standard set in fourths...but why? #The reaches at that scale length would be cumbersome. #That said, there was a 19th-c. bass virtuoso, Giovanni Bottesini, who did use a smallish 3-string bass tuned in fifths: G'-D-A. #Coincidentally, he is getting a little discussion in the classical section right now. #Add an e to Bottesini's tuning, and there you have it. #Jazz players sometimes tune their basses in fiths, an octave below cello: C'-G'-D-A. #The Wikipedia entry is decent (e.g., that's where I learned of jazzers in fifths), but is quite a bit deficient in its description of the romantic virtuoso tradition on three strings in fifths.

To avoid confusion, you might want to specify range in discussing your tunings: e.g., standard bass tuning in fourths is E'-A'-D-G, and in fifths--as you are speculating--would be G'-D-A-e (assuming the low G' is to be a minor third above standard).

[Hal Loflin]

However...If a right handed player played a left handed bass right handed would it not be tuned in fifths (EADG)? I have seen left handed bass players playing a right handed bass up-side-down...

I also saw one of the most amazing sights at a festival...a young man of probably 13 or 14 was playing mandolin with a friend who played guitar left handed. After several songs they traded instruments and the kid turned the guitar upside down and wore it out playing the top four strings that are tuned EADG on the guitar.

[Mike Crocker]

As if the reach in fourths wasn't enough? Mooh.