There was a day when I worked with no more than four strings. That’s right. Not five… certainly not six… only four.

As a bassist I have always been partial to playing the four string bass. However, I love the warmth of the low B-string.

I knew early on that I would not be a marvelous bassist like a Victor Wooten or John Patitucci (mostly due to my lack of discipline.) So I decided to become an extremely resourceful four string player.

One of the approaches to becoming more resourceful was attempting to play in certain drop tunings. I would frequently drop to Eb, D or Db/C#. Usually I would do this manually with the tuner.

When I started playing more frequently on the paid stage, I decided to put a device on my bass called an Xtender. The product is made by a company called Hipshot Products, Inc. It allows you to tune your lowest string to two note. Then with the flip of a switch you can drop down or come back up… it’s a really incredible tool.

Enjoy!