586
by skoz_Archive
tmidgett wrote:Riff Magnum wrote:tmidgett wrote:Riff Magnum wrote:I assumed my tech would have to cut a new nut and move the bridge saddles. I just see all these heavy bands playing regular guitars in dropped tunings and it sounds great but any time i've ever tried it, it sounds super floppy. Dude from Mutoid Man comes to mind immediately.I made a TB Standard into a baritone tuned to A (the A on a bass) and played it for like ten years. Not metal, and I really wanted low end, so I used an 0.80 for the low A I think. The low A was fidgeted with considerably to get it intonated up and down the neck. Always very slightly wonky on that one string. Had to fret lightly and bend those notes a tiny bit on certain parts. But it was a pretty clean sound and had to work as bass in that implementation.Stephen in Sunn plays a Standard tuned to A. Sounds great. He uses flatwounds--only guitar he plays that has them, I think. Dunno why, maybe to keep string noise down?I don't know about Stephen for sure, but Greg in Sunn (also tuned to A, also regular scale length) uses a pretty heavy pick but doesn't play super hard most of the time. He told me he hasn't changed his strings on his LP gold top for a year...sounds great.I tuned my Wedge bass down for Sunn to A E A D, with the lower A an octave below the A string on a regular bass. It's just a metal 5-string without the deedly string basically. And whatever the scale length is, it's pretty normal. The fattest string is 0.140. Plays in tune, sounds sweet, but I got to work the shit out of that one string when I replace it--stretch it forever, then seat it real good by pushing down on it right in front of the bridge saddle, which is temporarily a barrel type to get the intonation right. Had to drill out the hole for the string a tiny bit too (shh don't tell anyone).What gauges were you using tuning down to A?For bari? I think I went to 0.95 on the A. And i think the rest were the bottom 5 strings in the LaBella bari set.But you could just do the LaBella bari set. It would be a little floppier but totally good and preferable for a lot of people.Just strings sells an Ernie Ball .90 guitar string but you may have to slightly drill out the hole as Tim mentioned.