Talk:Bass guitar tuning

Pitch at 97.999 Hz
Are you kidding? Cema (talk) 06:48, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Alternate tunings
The section on alternate tunings reads like it was written by a metal player. While drop-D is the most common alternate bass tuning, there are myriad other tunings than EADG that are used for harmonic and/or chordal expedience, rather than "getting low" to compete with drop-D tuned guitars. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.94.3.16 (talk) 06:46, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Correct notation
Why is the notation being constantly changed to E2 A2 D3 G3? 41.204 Hz corresponds to E1, take a look at Scientific pitch notation before claiming that the information in the article is incorrect! HotXRock (talk) 20:36, 5 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Because that's correct. E1 is a full octave below the E string on a bass guitar. 72.21.198.64 (talk) 19:01, 11 February 2014 (UTC)


 * The pitch is E1 A1 etc. This was already correct. My assumption is that people changing it do not understand that the bass guitar is a transposing instrument. Dinobass (talk) 02:24, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Added a note that the bass guitar is a transposing instrument, and a citation. In Scientific pitch notation the strings on a 4-string bass from lowest to highest are E1 A1 D2 G2 --Paspung (talk) 18:51, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

Subcontrabass
Why does "subcontrabass guitar" redirect to this article? Tubularbells1993 (talk) 23:57, 3 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Interesting. I note that http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/history/wiki.php?title=Contrabass reads in part While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchestral string family, tuned lower than the cello), many other instruments in the contrabass register exist. As the standard bass guitar is tuned identically to the double bass that could mean that the bass guitar is a contrabass guitar. Perhaps a section redirect would make it clearer. Andrewa (talk) 03:34, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Merge or expand
As it is, this is a pointless article; either it should be merged with guitar tuning, or someone should actually put in some tunings other than standard, considering that must be evident from the bass guitar article. Epigrammed (talk) 22:14, 21 November 2010 (UTC)


 * Far better to expand it. See The Online Encyclopedia of Tunings/Bass guitar tunings for what I know of them so far. Andrewa (talk) 03:11, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Move reverted
This article was moved without discussion from Bass guitar tuning to Bass-guitar tuning with the edit summary WP:MOS. However the MOS doesn't seem to provide any justification for it. So I've moved it back. Suggest raising an RM per WP:BRD if anyone wants to pursue the matter. Andrewa (talk) 03:42, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

merge it
What to do with this "article": Sorry to ramble, but it reminds me of other sub-stub pages, so I'm trying to shape a precedent. Weeb Dingle (talk) 18:11, 10 March 2019 (UTC)
 * 1) The purpose is fundamentally how to tune your bass, so it begins on shaky ground. The previous (2003) suggestion to "improve it by expanding it" is therefore entirely wrong-headed as the only way I can see to get bigger is to delve deeper into that "how to" stuff.
 * 2) If it were to somehow persist, it would more appropriately be folded into Guitar tunings (which has already strayed far into "how to" territory).
 * 3) However, seeing as everything here is thoroughly beaten to death in Bass guitar, the case can readily be made that Bass guitar tuning deserves speedy deletion.
 * 4) Though I don't support it, an alternative would be to severely edit Bass guitar to remove fancruft and jargon, then port almost all of the Tuning content here, leaving the Strings content
 * 5) The chart (which is now practically all the content) is actually quite nice, though it would benefit from sourcing, particularly for the "variant" tunings.

This is definitely The Move imho 24.45.251.134 (talk) 21:43, 13 April 2019 (UTC)

I added several techniques and links on how to tune a bass as a starting point, per your suggestions @Weeb Dingle. Let me know what you think... --Paspung (talk) 18:48, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

Tuned down to C
FWIW, if anyone cares: Sharlee D'Angelo has stated in interviews that he uses his bass "tuned to C". (Source: https://www.bassplayer.com/artists/sharlee-dangelo-of-arch-enemy) Ibanez ships his "SDB3" Iceman Signature Bass factory tuned to C-F-Bb-Eb. (Source: https://www.ibanez.com/eu/products/detail/sdb3_03.html) You could think of this as four half-steps down, but it's probably more useful to see it as half a step up from the B-E-A-D part of a 5-string bass in standard tuning. --BjKa (talk) 14:25, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Fourths/fifths
The article used to say that basses are tuned in fourths. It was then "corrected" to fifths, and I just changed it back.

If E is the low string, then E to A is a fourth; A to D is a fourth; D to G is a fourth.

Even after the "correction", the article said that the bass guitar's standard tuning matches that of a double bass. Cross reference the article on the double bass: "The double bass is the only modern bowed string instrument that is tuned in fourths (like a viol), rather than fifths".

You can also look for other sources, eg. this ("The standard tuning for a 4 string bass is E, A, D, G (the same as the four lowest strings on the guitar but one octave lower). The bass strings are tuned in fourths.")

174.82.153.86 (talk)

Tree — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:900:4300:3820:8462:EFAF:2EFC:9C72 (talk) 00:06, 27 December 2023 (UTC)