3 string bass

[wellREDman]

Thought I'd share this recent project     

one of my students is a young lad  who has muscular dystrophy. He has been playing a barred  open tuned guitar for a while and has a wicked sense of rhythm. But he wanted to play bass, and specifically wanted to play funk. Unfortunately his left hand is neither strong nor dexterous enough for him to use anything other than bar with his index finger (using his middle finger for extra strength)

So i came up with this, the DDD bass, using the 3/4 scale Samick that I had  repaired the snapped neck on.

it works well, he can do the octave pop and generally funk out on it, his right hand is much more dexterous and he can do double fingering and has even started to slap

its tuned D1 D2 D3 , we tried DAD for the fifth, but he prefers it like this

obviously Ive had a go  and its definitely the oddest tuning I have ever played on, but its actually a real bag of fun

[nofi]

you are a good man.

[Rob]

you are a good man.

YES

[Alanko]

That is a fantastic gesture. Nice work!

[Dave W]

If it works for him, that's all that matters.

[Stjofön Big]

You're a role model for every teacher. Really nice done of you!

[dadagoboi]

you are a good man.

!!!

[uwe]

Very lovely of you.



So the two other D strings are an octave higher (but of the same octave to each other) or is the "high" D (where the G string would normally be) even two octaves higher than the 'low" D because it is the same octave as the low D on a 5-string?

[wellREDman]

yes the low  D string is a low B from a 5 string set (125 I think) , the  miiddle D is an E string and the highest one is a regular D string so its D in  three octaves D1 D2 D3 on a tuner, or maybe D0 D1 D2 I forget which, he tunes it himself these days. 

[gearHed289]

Very nice. I hope he enjoys the bass.

[uwe]

Not very many bassists can play three different octaves at once unless it's in E! This kid is now really octave versatile.