I’ve got a new Sire Z7 fretless on the way. When it arrives, I plan to try out either it, or my fretless P-Bass tuned BEAD (more likely the P-bass). Give me guidance on doing that properly.
I want to test it out how I like BEAD tuning as cheaply and easily as practical.
I’m thinking the process would be:
Remove nut from bass. Keep it as a backup to easily switch back.
Get a new nut that fits. Have a tech file to to proper string width and depth.
Pull the flatwounds off my 5-string and put those on.
If you’ve already got a fiver, can i ask what the difference is between that and BEAD? Besides the lack of G string, of course. (This isn’t snark, I’m genuinely curious about BEAD vs. 5 string)
The bass getting converted to BEAD would be fretless. The 5-string is fretted.
I’m not wild about the 5 string anyway. The spacing throws me off. It’s fine if I’m just staying between 2 strings, but I often get lost between strings when making an octave jump.
The stuff I want to play that low on, I’d prefer to play fretless. When the new bass comes in, I’ll have two fretless basses, and can convert one to BEAD.
I’d just file the existing nut. I mean, if you hate it and want to go back to EADG, it’s not like you’d have no bass to play on until you can get your hands on a new nut.
You could use your existing strings as files, if they were roundwound. With flats, that won’t work. But maybe you can put some sandpaper underneath the flats and file that way.
