I am thinking of converting my Brown Bass to cover songs that use drop tuning. If anyone has done this what issues did you run into? In particular I am concerned about the B string nut to tuner distance and string angle off the nut.
Keith
I had Alembic do it to my 83 Spoiler when it was sent for refinish. After a while I strung it back to normal with no issues.
There really shouldn't be any issue, but you can try it out before enlarging your slots (replacing the nut and saddles). Just change out the current E string for a B and see how it fits in the tuner. Yeah, the setup won't be right, it wont be intonated, but you will be able to see first hand if it's a doable option on your bass. And you can preview the open string tone !
Thanks for the responses.
I generally don't play the open B and typically stay on the D or above. I mainly use the Orion 5 for times when the guitarist tunes down to Eb or D. I find it easier to just transpose than to retune. It's also fun to confuse the guitar player when they look over to see where my hands are on the neck. ;-)
I was conversing with Harry a bit and got to thinking. I am planning on using a .130 for the B which is what I use on the Orion. While it won't be optimal I thought of taking the B string saddle from my Orion 5 and using it's nut leaving the G string hanging over the edge. I haven't measured the nut spacings yet to see if they are close enough to do this. If things don't measure up I will try your suggestion Mica.
Keith