Why "Low B?"

[superheavyfunk]

I started writing a post about why we call it a "Low B" string, when we don't give the 'E,' 'A,' or any other strings such a qualifier. I was thinking that "We don't even have a "High B" string," when I realized that some folks actually might tune their six-string basses with a "High B," for whatever crazy reason (I'd go with a "C" string, myself).

So I guess now I have a secondary question: How many of you 6-string players tune your highest string to a 'B' instead of a 'C?' And why?

And just in case my rambling threw you off the scent, my original question was "Why do we tend to call it a "Low B," and not just the 'B' string?

My eyes hurt... Screens are bright

 

[Stumbo]

To Low B or not to Low B, that is the question.

 

[NullPorch]

I know some bassist tune their c to a b to match guitar tuning. I believe the bassist from Avatar does this if I remember right. Couldn't tell you if it's because they're guitarists playing bass or just to cycle back to their bottom string instead of having a high string that's half a step off from their bottom.

Frankly I don't even use a b string on guitar.

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Speaking as someone who’s played 5+ strings since the mid 90s, the vast majority of guitarists I’ve run into have no idea what your fifth string is. Just saying “B” wasn’t enough as they’d usually try to relate it to their own instrument and think it was a B above your G string. It’s almost comical how it still happens after all these years and with how mainstream 5-strings have become.

 

[basst scho]

My eyes hurt... Screens are bright

this site has the option to turn the background black

as for the question, don´t know

i call it b-string (mostly b-saite, as its in my language)

 

[Kamatori]

We're all playing a game of "How low can you go". Saying "Low B" emphasizes that it's not just any old B, it's a low down B.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

I tune 1/2 down. So mine's A#.
On a 4 i often drop to D

 

[tlc1976]

It's the low string because it's lower than the traditional E/A/D/G set, and its open note is B. So it is a low B string. After all the Fender Bass V went higher instead of lower (to C but could have been tuned to B). That was the first.

Which might explain why, despite how long the low B string has been popular, the amount of people who still consider a 5 string with a low B a newfangled piece of equipment.

 

[RickyT]

I think it's a Low B because a "B" would be the 2nd Fret A string, 7th Fret E string, so anything lower than that would be the Low B.
I tune my 6 string F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb just to confuse any guitar players I play with

 

[JGbassman]

Why not?

 

[Spectrum]

Because "low B" sounds more br00tal! than just "B"?

 

[P_Robyn]

Because "low B" sounds more br00tal! than just "B"?

Or maybe 'low b' is short for 'low bottomy' . . . .

 

[P. Aaron]

B as in Baptist Church low?

 

[Aberdumbie]

Played for forty years and only recently investigated a five string. I asked the very same question as I studied this unfamiliar bass in my hands. The fellow looked at me and said, "It's low B.. As in BOOM"..... Made sense to me anyway.

 

[Jeff Scott]

...I realized that some folks actually might tune their six-string basses with a "High B," for whatever crazy reason...

I take it you have never heard about the Fender Bass VI, then?

 

[Stumbo]

I take it you have never heard about the Fender Bass VI, then?

Didn't Jack Bruce play one?

 

[Jeff Scott]

Yes he did.

 

[two fingers]

Speaking as someone who’s played 5+ strings since the mid 90s, the vast majority of guitarists I’ve run into have no idea what your fifth string is. Just saying “B” wasn’t enough as they’d usually try to relate it to their own instrument and think it was a B above your G string. It’s almost comical how it still happens after all these years and with how mainstream 5-strings have become.

This. The phrase is not for us. "Low B" is for everyone else.

 

[Nephilymbass]

I started writing a post about why we call it a "Low B" string, when we don't give the 'E,' 'A,' or any other strings such a qualifier. I was thinking that "We don't even have a "High B" string," when I realized that some folks actually might tune their six-string basses with a "High B," for whatever crazy reason (I'd go with a "C" string, myself).

So I guess now I have a secondary question: How many of you 6-string players tune your highest string to a 'B' instead of a 'C?' And why?

And just in case my rambling threw you off the scent, my original question was "Why do we tend to call it a "Low B," and not just the 'B' string?

My eyes hurt... Screens are bright

I call it low b because standard tuning for guitar has a b string. 7 string guitars tuned standard actually have 2. And the B for bass is lower

 

[HaphAsSard]

I take it you have never heard about the Fender Bass VI, then?

+1, ...plus, to preempt any possible objection as to the bassness of the Bass VI, there are folks who own sixers of the now-conventional kind (long-scale, wide string spacing) and tune them E-to-e. Abraham Laboriel, for one, tunes his six-stringer(s) thusly, I'm written.