BASS TUNING HELP! 6 String content!

[SlipknotKoRnfan]

So my bass player just acquired an SR 506 6 string bass, which is beautiful, but our band has now come to a roadblock. Originally we played 5 string basses and 7 string guitars tuned to drop A flat, now our guitar player just bought an 8 string guitar, tuned to F, and our bass player got the 6 string bass. half of our band wants to keep the bass in the same tuning and have the guitar tuned F Ab Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb, and the other half wants the bass tuned an octave LOWER than the 8 string to a low F, just like how After the Burial does it. The bass player is leaning towards keeping it in A flat.

Anyone have experience with this? Ive hear that having a super low F on your bass is hard to get to sound clear and also requires modification of the bass, as well as crazy tweaking of your equipment to get it to sound right. Lee Foral from After the Burial said himself in this interview that it was an "interesting experience" trying to get his bass setup for the tuning and finding strings that worked, as well as playing the damn thing haha.

What do you guys think we should do? Have the bass play the low F stuff in the same octave as the guitars? Or an octave below? THANKS!!

**Equipment: Ampeg SVT 3 Pro bass head, Ibanez SR 506 bass, BOSS ODB-3 Bass Overdrive pedal, BOSS NS-2 noise gate.

 

[ZEBOV]

If I were the bassist in your band (and I dominantly play bass and drums) I would tune the bass down to F. You already have songs in Ab and will at least be experimenting with low F. When experimenting with F, I would have the bass tuned to F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb, and when playing your "older" songs, he could drop the Bb string down to Ab. Same thing goes for the 8 string guitars. F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb when playing in F; F Ab Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb when playing in Ab.
Does everyone still have their 7 string guitars and 5 string bass?

The bass would need very little in the way of modifications. The nut would simply need to be filed. If the bassist uses Circle K strings, the bridge won't need to be filed.
The 8 string guitar could also be tuned up a little bit. Perhaps tuning everything to Ab standard and drop Gb would help make things a little easier, or drop Ab and drop Gb.

 

[Durero]

Make sure your bassist tries a set of Circle K strings designed for even tension at the low F tuning. They might never go back

 

[Phalanx]

The restriction isn't so much on the bass but the amp. Most amps suck at amplifying such low notes (and it must be emphasised just how low an F1 is). When recording there's lots you can do to get it sounding good but live, you need a really really good amp to do it (or else it just sounds empty).

I'm pretty sure Meshuggah's bassist just sucked it up and uptunes his E string to an F - and they sound pretty damn good.

 

[TemjinStrife]

Unless you want to spend a LOT on amplification (especially speakers and some big power) I'd recommend tuning up. Otherwise you're just not going to get a lot of volume out of that low F.

 

[Tarantino_Jr]

The restriction isn't so much on the bass but the amp. Most amps suck at amplifying such low notes (and it must be emphasised just how low an F1 is). When recording there's lots you can do to get it sounding good but live, you need a really really good amp to do it (or else it just sounds empty).

I'm pretty sure Meshuggah's bassist just sucked it up and uptunes his E string to an F - and they sound pretty damn good.

Lovgren actually uses Bb-F-Bb-Eb-Ab.

I'd certainly go for a low F, but that's the bassist's choice

 

[ixlramp]

If the bassist decides to go octave down F Circle K Strings are the ones to try, they've been blowing people away with their clarity and flexibility. Go for gauge .190 or smaller since these have only 3 layers of wrap wire (while some brands of B string have 4!) increasing flexibility and clarity.
They have single strings at no cost penalty too so you can create an equal tension set for any weird tuning Circle K Strings - Single Strings - All tensions,scales, gauges
Tension chart for designing sets here http://circlekstrings.com/CKSIMAGES/CircleKtensionChart.pdf
Drop tune sets here Circle K Strings - Standard Drop-tuned 6 Strings these have equal tension strings in a drop tuning ('drop' as in 5th 4th 4th 4th 4th low to high).

For Ab, from experience i recommend a larger gauge than .145 for better tone and playability, a .145 is borderline unusable at Ab, especially on 34" scale. Circle K have gauges .150 .158 .166 (extra light to medium tension for Ab)

It's very difficult to reproduce the fundamental at 22Hz, but since most of the tone and energy of a basses sound is in the higher harmonics concentrate on those instead

 

[Necris]

I've used basses tuned with a low F# and if I were your bassist I'd personally be against going for a low F# from a strictly financial perspective. Having just bought a brand new bass I wouldn't enjoy having to take it in to get the nut filed out to accommodate bigger strings and then have to completely overhaul my rig to reproduce the low F# at adequate volumes afterward.
There's nothing wrong with having him play in the same octave as the guitars at certain parts, I personally thought it sounded more full than F# an octave below when I had an 8 string guitar.

 

[TomAwesome]

Leave the bass tuning alone, and tune the F on the guitars down to Eb. When the guitars are playing in your old Ab range, the bassist can play as usual. When you're on the bottom strings, the bassist can ignore his bottom string and play in unison with the guitars.

 

[Bronzehydra]

I Would DEFINITELY keep the bass in its normal tuning. I have a 6'er, and one of my guitarists bought an 8 string. And we originally planned to have all the guitarists get 8 strings and I would tune down an octave to ultra low F, but decided against it because that low F is nearly inaudible. You can't really articulate notes that are that low. All of our songs are written in drop A, so what my guitarist did was he made it so his guitar is tuned: A-E-A-D-G-b-e-f# (We tried a super high A with a .007 on his 28.65" scale and it snapped haha) , and its awesome-sauce. He can do all these weird spacey chords. So yeah, my advice would be keep the tuning.

 

[Tarantino_Jr]

Man I have another idea... You can tune the bass to F-Bb-F-Bb-Eb-Ab.
That way you'll be able to use a low F and the "standard" F.