Is there any reason why a 5 string bass should not be tuned to standard E with an added high B string rather than going lower on the heaviest string?

I'm having to replace my buddies tuning machines (they needed it anyway so its all good) because in the course of setting his bass up one of them broke from the tension. He likes and is used to this tuning, however he broke a string on a different 5 string bass the other night using this setup. It seems to me that its happening too much because the instrument isn't meant to handle the tuning.

I've got his replacement machines in front of me, but I wanted to find out before we have to go through this all over again.

(this is in guitars because nobody reads the bass forums )

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A six string bass is usually tuned to BEADGC, I can't see there being a problem with tuning a 5 string like you said, as it would be a half step lower on the highest string. He might be using too heavy a gauge for the high B.

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Cool. I bet he's using the wrong strings for that tuning - also explains why the other bass string broke when he tuned it up to E standard.

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Yup, get the guage right and you shouldn't have any problems

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If someone is breaking bass strings, then they certainly have them too tight. A string's pitch (or fundamental frequency to use a more proper term) is determined by three characteristics.

1. Length
2. Mass
3. Tension

Length is linear, meaning that you need just 1/2 the length for twice the pitch.

Tension (newtons) and Mass per unit length (kilograms per meter) are logarithmic, meaning that the pitch increase requires exponentially more.

As an example, two strings with the same length, tension, mass per unit length:
String 1 is tuned to 200 Hz, and String 2 is tuned to 200 Hz. Lets say we want string 2 to be 100 Hz, but we can only adjust the mass per unit length of the string. We will need to increase this by four to achieve 1/2 the pitch. If we were only able to adjust tension, then ipso facto we'd need 1/4 the tension.

Frequency is equal to the square root of tension over mass.

So, when we have an instrument like the guitar or bass, we have 4-6 strings, all of the same length, and we want them all to be roughly the same tension. The variable then we use, is mass per unit length, or gauge. You'll see that gauge rises exponentially to a certain degree. Because of real world constraints (uneven exertion on the next causing twisting, and the fact that the low E would be eight times the size of the high E) a compromise is made in which the gauges get a bit heavier as the string gets higher.

The strings of a guitar and bass are as follows (Note - Freq - Gauge):

Guitar, 24.75"
E - 329.6 - 10
B - 246.9 - 13
G - 195.9 - 17
D - 146.8 - 26
A - 110 - 36
E - 82.4 - 46

Bass, 34"
G - 97.9 - 45
D - 73.4 - 65
A - 55 - 80
E - 41.2 - 100
B - 30.8 - 145

As you can see, the gauge (mass per unit length) of the string is roughly exponentially related to the pitch. The bass and guitar have different general gauges of strings, so they can be compared a bit easier. A Bass's G string is .45, while a guitar's G is .17. If the guitar's scale were as long as the bass's, the G string would be .11 gauge. The low E of a bass is ten times as large as the high E on a guitar, which is 3 octaves higher. If the guitar's were as long as the bass's, the gauge would need to be .06, 16 times smaller.

So, to get on to your question, you can see that a string needs to have 4x the tension for one octave of pitch increase. If your friend tunes up a 4th, he would need 1.7 times as much tension, which will surely destroy the neck, the strings, and perhaps his fingers. The best option has already been stated, get 6 string bass strings, and just use the top 5.

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Thanks for explaining all that, definitely need to get the right strings for him. I'm surprised his neck isn't destroyed after doing this for so long.

He's had problems with this in the past too, in terms of broken tuners. Its strange that someone can play for 8 years and not know basic stuff about their instrument like how to tune it and what strings to use.

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