bass tunings

[Rainer Straschill <moinsound@googlemail.com>]

About all the things regarding odd bass tunings:

I have two bass guitars which I keep in an odd tuning - which I like
to call "inverted lute tuning".
One is a Tune Gap 6 six-string, and it's tuned 'A-E-B-f#-d'-a'.
The other one is a Hohner B2AF (the Steinberger clone) fretless, tuned 
D-A-f-c'

The trick here is that you have an inverted lute tuning on the (upper)
four strings, which works well with chords.

As for strings: for the four-string, it was rather simple: use a set
for a five-string and leave out one string.
For the six-string, I worked around the issue of the upper two strings
by using strings for a baritone guitar, which are long enough and your
run-of-the-mill set contains the right gauges.

As others mentioned, there is a good chance that the setup of your
bass needs to be adjusted, possibly rather dramatically. However, it
worked fine for me to do it myself, so no need to go to the luthier of
your choice or local guitar god (unless you want to).

For those of you familiar with my catalogue, both instruments are used
on my "SAUBER!" and "Neinnein auf dem kleinen Weg" albums, and the
six-string is on some tracks of "kybermusik: Quelques Papiers D'Abord"
(on the "The Milkey Way" suite) - http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/7494

Yours,

            Rainer