I'm looking for a 4-string bass that can be downtuned to (max.) B without having to buy a 5-string bass, if this is possible. Has anyone ever tried doing this?

What brands of bass guitars do you suggest?

What gauge would I have to use and what adjustments have to be made to the bridge/action, if any.

Thanks!

I won't suggest specific brands, but your best bet would be to go with an longer scale and ideally string through.

They have ESP's that have the range of a 5 string (B E A D)(I know the G is missing). Cort is a badass brand. . . My bassist plays a Cort 5 string and it sounds like a dream. A longer scale would be better and heaver size strings but just make sure you adjust your truss with it. . . don't want to ruin a perfectly good bass.

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Yes, I own a ashton 4-string but it's only downtuned to standard D so I haven't needed to do anything to it since I bought it.

There are more and more basses being made that are called "Baritone" basses. These are made to be tuned B-E-A-D. ESP make one, (LTD, so it's the cheaper version) that is amazing. I've seen several other brands, though, so as it becomes more popular to play down-tuned like that, more and more versions will become available.

Cheers.

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I downtune my thumb bass to C tuning sometimes, because some of my bands songs are in that tuning, look for a thicker gauge like 0.45 - .105, it helps if your going to be at a lower tuning.

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My EB Sterling bass downtunes to D standard fine with just 45-100 gauge and that's not exactly a metal bass, so I guess you'd be ok with most quality basses.

Thanks for the replies, guys.

I'm actually a guitarist and you know guitars can be downtuned and the springs at the back loosened. Bass guitars have fixed bridges so there's no springs at the back, right?

In other words, with a bass guitar you just tune down and use thicker gauges, right? And of course you move the saddles back or whatever et cetera.

The biggest problem with downtuning a normal 4 string is your going to get a lot of flop, and a lot of clank. Raise your action to deal with this, but you might not like the higher action.

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I've tuned my Yamaha and my Ibanez down to Bb for Cannibal Corpse. =P

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I hate the effects of downtuning(lower tension), so I'm going to buy heavier gauge strings for my main bass. Hopefully I won't havo to adjust the truss rod.

I think I'll just (save and) buy a 5-string bass since I will be sticking to B tuning for a long time and I want the notes to be heard and minimum fretbuzzing and clanking.

Still lots of bands like Carcass, for example used to downtune their 4-string bass guitars to B. Or even Mortician's Will Rahmer tunes his bass even lower than B. The result of course sounds like a coffee machine gone wrong hehe but if he's happy what the hell. I think he still uses a 4-string, not sure. If he does, he could at least get a 5-string bass and downtune that!

Try using heavy guaged strings. Like D'aquestrio .050-.110 or GHS .050-.115>particularly if your going for anything in drop A range. If you don't want all the noise of the strings rattling off the fret board.

How much are the...
D'aquestrio .050-.110's ?
GHS .050-.115's?

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Currently, my E string is tuned down to low B, and my low B is at G#. (standard C# tuning, and dropped from there.) I found that by adjusting my action, using a heavier guage string, and tweaking my truss rods (yeah, there's 2 truss rods in my neck...) it raised my action to the point of feeling normal.

If you really want to drop that low, either read up on setting the neck/action up, or pay a pro some bucks to set it for you. That should eliminate the "flopping" of the strings that is so prevalent when you tune down that much.

Cheers.

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D'aquestrio are $15 dollars and there good strings for the money.
GHS .050-.115 Heavy Bass Boomers are $25, and in my opinion are some of the best heavy guaged strings out there.

I'm in drop C at the moment. (Learning all of Metallica's St. Anger album)

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Hmmm...Bob Rock's basslines are....interesting...I suppose. I wouldn't bother with Metallica's shit after Master of Puppets just on principle alone, though. That, however, it just my opinion.

Cheers.

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You've confused me here. Why tune your E down 5 semitones but your B down only 3 semitones. This would mean fret 3 on your lowest string gives the same note as your open second-lowest string (in this case a "B).

Or you you mean that your low B is tuned down to F#?

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It's more a matter of in standard tuning (4th's apart) it'd be right for the A. But then we drop tune the E. I still use it alot, but mostly for octaves and shit off my A string. Also, I use it to climb up to my E string (actual note of B) using the 0-1-2 frets to the E string.

Sounds confusing, yeah, but it actually makes it quite easy to play certain stuff where as when I tried tuning my low B a 4th below my E string, I had to re-learn 1/2 the stuff we were doing, so I changed back. (yeah, I know, I'm one fucked-up dood. lol)

Cheers.

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Haha, St. Anger actually isn't as bad as its mad out to be. It obviously isn't Master or Lightning, but Anger is better than Load/ReLoad. Give it a listen. I recommend Invisible Kid or The Unnamed Feeling or Frantic.

I've also recently got S & M, and that kicks all kinds of ass.

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I get it now. That's rather odd. I guess it's doable but the only thing I don't like about having a string dropped a step (here your C# tuned down to B) is that if you're playing in the first four frets and you want to play an F, you have to move up to the 6th fret of the E (dropped down to B) string. Just like when you drop D a normal bass you need to hit the 6th fret if you want a G#.

This is even more screwed up: I once jammed with a guitar player that had all his strings in standard tuning except the E, which was a semitone down. He would then play tritone chords by playing a fret on the E and the same fret on the A. Why did he do this? Well, he thought he was dropped D so he thought he was playing power chords
I guess he didn't realize he was out of tune because he had full distortion through a shitty amp and he was probably pretty new at guitar (though his tremolo picking was pretty good). Boy that sure sounded cool though. I can see a new breed of death metal coming out that tunes this way and that uses tritione chords as their main chord. What's so great about it is that it only takes one finger to play the chord, so you can get some ultra dissonant riffs by using say, the open, the first fret, the 3rd fret and the 4th fret chords, so that you can pick extremely fast since you don't need to move your hand.
Lol, if I was any good with a pick I'd try it out on bass. (that's one of the advantages of pick on bass, you can play chords much faster).

I've never tuned my four string lower than C#, and I have never played seriously (as in for more than half an hour) on my five string while tuned lower than a semitone.

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The other reason I tune it this way is we still have a few songs off the first 2 CD's that we play live, and they were all written in standard tuning. Whenever we play them, instead of playing off the open E for riffing, I'll play off the 5th on my B instead. I find the tone and "playability" (is that even a word???) to be much superior. In mid-set, I can retune my E-string in about 5 seconds, but to start retuning 1/3 of my strings...well, you get the point.

Cheers.

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the lowest i like to tune is dgcf on a four string and adgcf on a five

Yeah, me too. If I wanted to tune to B, I would get a 5-string bass. I wouldn't detune a 5-string, though. Guitars and basses tuned lower than B are a bit too extreme for my tastes hehe. The Finnish Death Metal band Demilich tuned to A, though and it sounded cool, while other bands like Malignancy and Mortician tune even lower!

Low tuning doesn't equal heavy though. Don't forget that.

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No, Malignancy tune to A.

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I rarely downtune anymore..or the rare time I do I'd only go down a half or whole step. I'll probably never tune my bass to B again until I get a 5 string, I find it fairly unnecessary for the shit I play. STANDARD FOR LIFE!!

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dude st. anger sucks, it doesnt even compare to kill em all, ride, or master( especially that) there are way better modern thrash bands than metallica, but their old stuff was great load wasnt that bad if you can stand blues metal.