"The Jazz Bass is horrible for G0 no matter how big the strings get"
If you’ve been following, You know that I’m currently working with only two rental guitars, but I’m working on two different projects with significantly different tunings. Those guitars are the Classic Vibe Bass VI at 30” in scale and the Classic Vibe Jazz Bass at 34” in scale.
These guitars are perfect for WTLNDS. They are very close to the configurations that I typically use for the project, with the only glaring difference being pickups. But with WTLNDS being a project with pretty gross tone, I knew that It would all work just fine.
For Foreigns, the other project that I’m tinkering with, the Bass VI is only a quarter inch longer in scale than what I typically use. That being the Gretsch Jet Baritone at 29.75” in scale. The only worries I had going into using the Bass VI was the longer reach and if the wound portion of the lighter strings needed to hit the higher tuning, would reach the nut. Ya see, the Bass VI has a pretty significant run of sting behind the bridge out to the trem. I’d never set this specific guitar up this way before, so I just didn’t know.
Luckily, the guitar set up with the new strings really well. The action is phenomenal and the guitar sound rad with light strings in a higher tuning. Especially for mid-gain stuff. The single coils really shine there. The only outstanding concern is the bridge. Strangely, the bridge is designed in such a way that it can freely rock back and forth with the only thing keeping it in place being the string tension. I’ve discovered a fix for that, but as of yet, have not resolved it. Thankfully the bridge seems to be staying put. Fingers crossed!
Using the Jazz Bass for Foreigns is VERY different than using the Dingwall. The Dingwall is 37” in scale and the Jazz Bass is 34”. The Dingwall does G0 Standard ok-ish. It requires giant strings, but it works decently enough. The Jazz Bass is horrible for G0 no matter how big the strings get. The thing is, that neither of the two Foreigns tunes I’m going to be working on require that low G0. One tune is in the key of C and the other is in G, but the tune in G is a more mellow kind of thing.
So I thought “what about Drop C1?”. Drop C gives you an open C1 and and open G1, which is perfect for what I want to work on. The BIG save here is that I can just tune the bass down with the stock gauge of strings. Only the one, lowest string is going down 2 steps. The rest are only dropping 1 step. EASY!
Early testing is saying that everything is going to work great. The only thing is that a string change is required on the guitar to go between G1 and E1. So I need to maximize my effort on each project and not bounce around. In the end, It would be great to just have my guitars and not have to hack it together, but it’s rad to know how well this is working. Additionally, I am loving the single coils for the Foreigns mid-gain sound, and also loving the Jazz Bass tone overall.