Note: the following is TIUI (total idiot uninformed opinion).

Alternate tunings are commonly used on most stringed instruments, but moving more than a note or two can affect the "sound quality." The general rule of thumb for steel strings is that string tension needs to be near 80% of yield in order for the string to "ring" properly. If you lower the pitch more than a couple of notes, the string gets "floppy," and if you raise it more than a couple it breaks.

The instruments tuned in fifths are typically the "4-stringers," and re-tuning in fourths drastically reduces the "range." The four available fingers can only reach about a fifth up on a string without shifting positions. One string can play the notes in a span of a fifth, and the next note comes on the next string, so that all of the notes are available.

Unfortunately, an instrument tuned in fifths has great difficulty playing full chords in normal inversions so if you want chords, you tune the strings in fourths and add a couple of strings to get the range back - i.e., you use a guitar instead of a fiddle.

Since the base-line instrument normally plays "one-noters," tuning in fifths is okay, although - if you're a guitarist - you have to relearn where the notes are.

In principal, you could "re-string" and make very large changes in individual string pitch without sacrificing sound quality, but just retuning (without new strings) is likely to make some of the strings pretty "flabby" or break some other one(s).

Someone with some real experience at it will be able to give you the benefit of what they "know for sure," but the above is the "basic" theory of it.

John