I actually agree with you Andy. I tried SB8 tuning on my 10 string and quickly realized what I was missing and went back to traditional Stick tuning (MR) with inverted 5ths bass tuning. BUT BEING a professional bass player (on the weekends) I wanted my 4ths too hense the addition of the NS Stick. So now I have both ... what more could a person ask for?

I'm still three months out from getting my Stick, but in doing some experimentation on guitars and basses I think I'm starting to get the light bulb moment for inverted fifths tuning. I've always wondered why the hell you wouldn't want to use the same tuning that everyone is used to even if you just invert the strings. Wouldn't that make sense? Not really.

Here's my thinking:

1) One thing I picked up in Greg's beginner's seminar is that instead of getting the power to hit the notes from your fingers, you should get the energy from your arms. So to get that, you need back and forth motion of the notes on the fingerboard. On a "normal" bass, many of the bass idioms are played with very little back and forth motion on the fingerboard. That's because you're plucking with your right hand and just fingering with left. So the more you play with the left hand just moving across the strings in the same position, the easier it is to play. Take for example the R, 3, 5, 6, 8, 6, 5, 3 pattern from many jazz standards. Or R, 8, 5, m7, R, R, 5, m7 from rock tunes like Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" (yeah, yeah, I know it's cheesy). These are easy to play in 4ths tuning when you're plucking with one hand and fretting with the other. Now on a Stick, if it were tuned in 4ths, you would have little of the "back and forth" energy that helps in playing by one handed tapping.

2) Of course the frequencies are lower for bass and spreading the notes out in chording gives you more open voicing.

It's still going to be a major adjustment when my Stick comes in, but now I think I get it enough to not fight the effort that will go into the transition.

Three months to go.... can't wait!!!

I'm confused! I really want to get 5th a fair hearing, but sat here making bum notes and drawing circles on fretboard diagrams playing parts in the songs I love for guitar & bass just is too hard.
I know the stick is not a bass, but being that I'm the only one in the band who actually has those low notes (besides the keyboard player, but I'd rather not sound like 80's pop all the time... ) I guess its my responsibility to fill that range. We'll see how things go and I'll just keep playing around.

Theres always DBR tuning as a means of learning inverted 5ths bass tuning and also keeping "normal" 4ths bass tuning on one instrument so you can cover your gig. Have you considered this? If you don't know about it read about it on the SE site.

Generally speaking, I think that people's perception of the Stick often changes dramatically once they actually start playing it, and not just regarding the functionality of the tuning. It's been said before, but for anyone who is primarily interested in transferring fingering patterns from bass, the SB8 and NS instruments offer that familiarity.
Also keep in mind that musical knowledge, listening skills and other things that connect to make you a unique musician don't have to follow the constraints of memorised scale patterns on a fretboard. I only started making some real progress as a Stick player once I decided that the past "doesn't matter".

Cheers,
Andy

I agree however the past does matter if it's the present! If you want to transfer your bass guitar work directly to the stick so you can play cover music wih the Stick in a working band it matters. That was my situation and that's why I eventually bought an NS Stick. Bought the NS for the band ... kept the Stick for me.

Thanks again for all the great input.

Well in the end i've decided to go good old MR 5ths/4ths because as some people have said, dissecting the stick from a distance is very different from playing one. over the last few years of thinking about it, i've setup my guitar and bass in straight 4ths and done a lot of thinking but now that the stick arrived it doesn't (the 5th/4th tuning) seem so crazy even for a devoted guitarist. Conceptualizing is different to playing so it seems.

The main point for me was that if I was simply going to play one note bass lines then it couldn't be [i]that[i]hard to play single notes in fifths tuning and if i wanted to chord, well then that was also available. I think the inverted 4ths is also cool but probably not on my ten string... Ideally on a 12- 14 string plank with 6-8 bass string to cover the whole range!?

The crossed/uncrossed issue also feels different in person. Whilst I still think uncrossed has definite merits, I think moreso for parallel 4ths tuning like a phalanx, where more horizontal playing and traditional techniques will be integrated. For the time being the crossed feels pretty ok and i figure if i really want to play low melody and high bass then a quick change to uncrossed ala Kurosawa may be in order for the passage.

Anyway, thats the status quo for now for this beginner... Man if so much has changed in perception after owning the instrument for two weeks i can't imagine the insight after playing for many years as some here have...

Yes, cheers guys for all your advice!

I'm not decided yet, I think that a SB8 would probably suit me better than a regular stick for the ideas that I have. But budget is the defining point, and my thinking was any stick is better than no stick for practicing and getting used to, anyway it'll take quite a while for me to get comfortable enough to jam for a full practice session on it, let alone gigging which seems to be full of similar improvisation. ...probably about the same length of time to save up for a brand new instrument, but in the meantime here's to #1241 in classic tuning!