By Michael Manring

Of all the techniques I've experimented with over the years, altered tunings are definitely one of my favorites. Although they've become popular with metal players in recent years, there are so many possibilities offered by changing the tuning of the bass, I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually catch on with all kinds of musicians.

I've been working with unusual tunings for many years. In the 1970's I started using simple re-tunings -- Drop D, Drop C, etc., which just involve lowering the E string. These are handy because the extra low notes offer a nice bottom end, similar to the low range of a 5-string. When I was growing up, 5 and 6-string basses were quite rare so for me this was a good way to get access to those powerful low tones. I noticed several other interesting qualities these tunings had and this led me to start experimenting a bit more. I was lucky enough to meet the late great fingerstyle guitarist Michael Hedges in 1979, when he was still a music student and I was doing pick-up gigs around the Baltimore-Washington D.C. area. Michael and I shared lots of ideas about music and he was absolutely fearless with his approach to altered tunings on the acoustic guitar. We worked together for many years and Michael's adventurousness inspired me to experiment even further. The more I work with different tunings the more material I find and I doubt that I'll ever exhaust the creative possibilities they offer.

I've used many different tunings on all of my solo CDs and on quite a few of the recordings I've done as a session musician as well. I'm not sure how many tunings I've experimented with over the years -- certainly hundreds. This sometimes brings up the question, "how many tunings are possible on a bass?" I look at it this way: I find that my E string sounds good tuned anywhere from at least B below standard low E to F#, a whole step above standard. This means that the effective range of this string is at least 8 notes (B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F and F#). Since I can tune all 4 strings over roughly the same range, the number of possible tunings for this bass is 8x8x8x8 = 4,096! Of course I don't have an exhaustive understanding of all these 4,096 tunings -- quite the contrary. I doubt that I've even tried half of them. But with all these tunings to choose from it does seem a little odd for all of us to only ever use one!

While it may be a little scary to change the tuning of your bass at first, there are several advantages that altered tunings offer that make it more than worthwhile. And remember, if things get too weird you can always go back to standard! As I mentioned earlier, altered tunings are an effective way to increase the range of the bass. This is a nice method of getting the low notes of a 5-string bass without having to learn to adapt your technique; by tuning higher you can increase your range upward as well. Since changing the tuning of a string alters its tension, it affects the way the string vibrates. This different vibration pattern suggests a new emotional color for the string and each tuning has its own set of tensions, colors and its own voice. It's a little hard to describe in words but I would say that tighter strings give a feeling of control, precision or a sense of urgency, while looser strings suggest openness, power or unruliness. These different string tensions are a great way to increase your tonal palette.

By using altered tunings you also open up new fingering possibilities. This is especially effective for chords. Voicings that are very difficult or even impossible in standard tuning can be quite comfortable in an altered tuning. I like this quality of altered tunings a lot because I can use an atypical chord voicing without having to strain too much physically. This is important because I feel it allows me to concentrate less on the technical aspects of the music and more on expressive aspects such as tone, dynamics, touch and phrasing. However, new fingering options aren't just useful for chords. I find that I "think" differently in different tunings and I often use a new tuning as a source for inspiration to come up with more creative bass lines.

Altered tunings also open a whole new world of harmonics. While bass harmonics are a gorgeous and very useful sound, the limited number of really clear harmonics available in standard tuning sometimes creates a tendency to overuse the same options to the point of cliché. Changing tuning makes available new sets of harmomics, allowing for a much broader variety to choose from.

When you think about it, there's no reason a bass necessarily has to be tuned EADG (or BEADG or BEADGC) all the time. Bass guitar is actually superbly receptive to altered tunings -- more so even than acoustic guitar which has a relatively delicate structure that can actually be damaged by the tensions of high tunings. Zon basses are especially useful for experiments with altered tuning. The necks of the Sonus and Legacy series instruments are made of a specially formulated composite material that won't twist or warp like wood, even with very high tension or uneven tension tunings. Composite necks aren't susceptible to changes in humidity either, which means that they remain stable and their tone remains clear through weather and climate changes. The hi-end electronics, wide frequency response and hand-crafted workmanship of Zon basses make them able to convey every tonal and harmonic nuance that altered tunings have to offer. So why not give altered tunings a try? You can get started by just fooling around. Try detuning one of your strings until it sounds good to you and then tune your other strings to pitches that seem complementary. Listen to the quality of the tuning and see if it suggests anything -- a particular emotion, a line, a color or even a whole composition. You certainly don't have to detune all your strings from standard if you don't want to.

There is enormous untapped creative potential in tunings that only involve changing one or two strings. Of course, you can get a lot more technical about it if you like. Applying some basic math to the parameters of altered tunings will show all kinds of possibilities that might not occur to you otherwise. I sometimes like to calculate the harmonics available in a set of tunings to allow me to choose one that will help me play more harmonics in a particular key or to play a certain phrase all in harmonics.

As you can see, altered tunings are a fresh concept that open up new realms of possibility and expression. Regardless of the kind of music you play, changing the tuning of a few strings now and again gives you access to sounds that can give your music greater depth and individuality. The only limits are your imagination.