Alternate Tuning

By: James Duclos

Glancing at the phrase “Alternate Tuning,” you are probably picturing a guitar with some crazy open Em tuning. Instead, alternate tunings give guitar players a way to reach notes that they normally could not. Alternate tunings on a bass guitar are less common but still just as practical. There are many reasons to use alternate tunings and a few tips that can help out when you are using them.

The most common reason to play in an alternate tuning is to make it possible to reach larger intervals between two strings. A major 6th is a 5-fret stretch. On a bass guitar, that length is fairly extreme and inconvenient. You could try skipping a string to play the note, but that is just as inconvenient at times. To make this particular stretch simpler, we can us alternate tunings. Let’s use the following example; say you are on a G and you want to reach up to the E on the A string. If you tune your E string down a whole step to a D, then you can reach that major 6th interval in only a 3-fret stretch. Tuning down and around will provide an easy way to reach those awkward intervals but can also cause some confusion if you are not careful.

When you tune your E string down to a D, you obviously now have a D string, which means the rest of your notes are all jumbled as well. Now the 3rd fret –instead of being a G –is an F, and the low F is an Eb. All the frets on that string are a whole note lower than what they would be using standard tuning. The mental strain of alternate tunings aside, they can also stress out your bass guitar.

When you lower a string, you are making it longer, which means it will have less tension. Less tension on one string means that there is more tension on the others, and we know that the tighter a string, the higher its pitch. Because of this string issue, you should be careful when detuning; make sure that you are not using alternate tunings to a point where there is significantly more tension on one side of your neck than the other. If you find yourself tuning up often, you may want to invest in smaller strings. Smaller strings require less tension to reach those higher tones. Likewise, larger strings have more tension when they are tuned down to lower tones.

Some bass players use a tenor tuning, which is almost as though they chopped off their E string and put a higher string after the G string. Victor Wooten uses a tuning of A D G C (right) in which he uses lighter gauged strings. If you were to use regular bass strings and tune them up this far, you would either break a string or put tremendous pressure on the neck of your guitar.

Generally speaking, there is no right or wrong alternate tuning. Be free and experiment, but be conscious of how much tension is on your neck and strings so they do not warp or break.

Happy tuning!