How long did it take you to get comfortable with a five?

[JimmyM]

Took me about 5 minutes to be able to play it without tripping up. Took me about 2 years to decide I hated it.

[Tenma4]

I think it took me a week or so to be comfortable with the B there. By then I was gigging it. I got comfortable using it fairly quickly too by practicing everything I played in 2-3 octaves. I love being able to grab a big note in a song in 3 octaves. Ah, screw the pianist. Who needs 'em? Hehe.

[soulgaard1]

I went from 4 to 6-string. Took me some time to get used to it. But at that time, my technique improved drastically - because i had to be much more aware of string damping and noteplacemen.
Eventually i went back to mainly 4-string mainly because i preferred the old fender tone.
But it really gave my technique a big boost to try the 6.

[Geezerman]

Originally Posted by daffy

It's a bit like going overseas and having to drive on the other side of the road, but a lot less messy if you make a mistake

I found it didn't take me very long to get used to having 5 strings, but it took a lot longer to actually taking advantage of them. Now I find it quite strange to have to back to a 4 (which I do reasonably often).

The nicest thing I find is that you can do 2 octave scales without having to shift position. That was the first thing I started taking advantage of. Then I started to really use the low notes in songs and it was great - you can pretty much do everything a keyboard can do. I love dropping in a great fat low C or B at the end of a tune to finish it off, and feeling the floor shake ;-)

That is my issue, Im comfortable with the string there, but I use the B as a glorified thumbrest :lol:

[IconBasser]

it took me about a week. Now it's incredibly disconcerting to play a four.

[Busker]

I'm getting it, been playing it about 8 days, and I'm trying to incorporate the B string where appropriate. Its the only bass I've taken to the last two rehearsals and the band loves it, so i guess I'm going to be a five string guy.

[stflbn]

You don't 'have' to play that low string... if you don't play it, the bass is just a 4-string.


I'm just the opposite though. I'm lost without the 5th string. Which is a much bigger problem when you try to go down for a lower string thats not there.

[Paulie Jay]

It took me a few weeks to be entirely comfortable at gigs when I changed to 5 strings. I would catch myself "counting" the strings with my fingers to make sure I was in the right place! As has been mentioned already in this thread, use the new string often and get totally familiar with what the notes are. You'll know that you've fully made the transition when you can instinctively play a low E on the 5th fret of the B string, rather than always defaulting to the open E.