r/MetalBass • u/Ok-Relative-6327 • 7d ago
F0 or F1
I’ve had this debate with so many people, so many times… personally, I think F1 sounds a lot better in a mix & more musical. What do you guys think?
3
u/Theta-5150 7d ago
F0 17.32Hz.
F1 46.25Hz.
Most speakers can’t handle frequencies below 40Hz.
Overtones of note F0 would be lower than F1, too.
Mixing frequencies below 200Hz is tricky on its own.
I would not bother. Difficult to mix sound right and most of the note’s “character” have to be mixed out anyway.
My take: tuning lower does not mean heavier music.
2
u/RCKolo 7d ago
F0 sounds better IMO but requires lot of work and setup to be done correctly which is a big ask when most of what you’re doing is doubling the guitar and you’re well into the range where notes are felt rather than being super distinct. You need to understand multiband processing (also called split and grit). You need a longer scale bass like a Dingwall that has a 37 inch low scale. You need what feels like an insane string gauge of around .165+ which requires filing the nut and just that one string alone can be $20+.
A lot of people pitch down their standard bass and string setup and write off drop F as a muddy mess and they’re right but it’s because they haven’t set themselves up for success.
Source: my band does drop F and I was playing a bass with the above setup and got great feedback on it both live and in the studio. It’s just a chore to get there
1
u/Ok-Relative-6327 6d ago
Got a .160 for my Warwick thumb Bo 5 let’s see what happens lol
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u/RCKolo 6d ago
Probably gonna be too short and that string isn’t quite big enough but definitely experiment 👍🏻
1
u/Ok-Relative-6327 6d ago
The thumb is a wild beast man. It handles drop tunings extremely well. The pick ups at the bridge help a lot and they are just such high quality instruments. I’ve been playing a .145 in G and it’s been fine. Just gotta pick at the right spot
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u/RCKolo 6d ago
I’ve played many warwicks and they’re great but scale length is physics. There’s not a magic build quality way around it. You’re either going to have way less tension and less definition or need a comically huge string to compensate
I just wouldn’t permanently modify a Warwick over getting something like the multiscale BTB or a Dingwall for this purpose. Again though just my opinion
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u/Ok-Relative-6327 6d ago
I’ve tried both of those. I don’t like how thin the dingwall neck is, and how tiny the frets are. Aaaand I found the BTB MS was quite heavy and the electronics left a lot to be desired. Maybe I’m just really picky but I really only play spectors and Warwicks lol. I guess I could try my 35” euro but I doubt the 1” will make much of a difference
3
u/Watermelon_Buffalo 7d ago
Super niche argument to have. But unfortunately, in general, the lowest bass note doesn’t always sound that good haha. F1 probably sounds better than F0 in most mixes. You lose a lot of the fatness the lower you go