5'er History

[iriegnome]

I have a Modulus that dates to 1978. It is a non-modified 5 string all original Bassstar. I know that they were out there in the mid-70's, but it is seeming to be just a here and there. The mid-80's and later are seeming to be where they were really coming around. I know here in the upper mid-west, I did not see 5'ers until way into the late 80's and then it was only on MTV, nothing hanging in a store

[Buskman]

From the Bass Book (even though a few of you beat me to it - stupid commute home from work! ):

[khutch]

Originally Posted by jmattis

If you want to include double basses, they've been around since the 1800s.

Personally I think you have to. It is pretty silly to claim that someone "invented" the five string bass in the 20th century if they were being used in the 19th and by some reports the 18th centuries. Someone in the second half of 20th century was the first to put a fifth string on an electric bass guitar and evidently someone else was the first to make the fifth string a B instead of an E. Neither one invented the five string bass however. The one copied the five string double bass, the other modified the copy. There is no shame in either one, more often than not this is how progress is made.

Ken

[iriegnome]

Paying tribute to our Double bass counterparts, they were playing multiple string (5, 6, 7 and more) sting instruments and the 4 string was reported as the odd duck.. But, my OP was more directed to the electric bass and it's origins as a 5 string. Not much overly concerned about inventions, but who was out there making them and how early. It is odd how that Fender V is passed over because it was not great, but it was still a 5 banger.

[dewbass4]

I bought a new Peavey Foundation 5 somewhere around late 87 / early 88. US made, fairly inexpensive, 2 passive pups, wide maple fretboard. I was a well made bass, same basic body shape and control layout as the Foundation 4. I didn't own it more than a year or so, I just couldn't get comfortable with the neck. Looked like this one.

[1bassleft]

I don't know about the US, but over here the main reason cited for suddenly wanting a fiver in the 80s onwards was electropop and then dance music using synthesized bass that went below the E. Hipshot detuners got popular and someone (Wilkinson?) made an odd thing that ran a ball end B from the nut to a knurled tuner in the bridge. Not recommended for Jazz necks. Then affordable 5s started appearing.

Being a lefty, I bought a used cheapie and flipped it over. Although I hated doing that, I practically stopped using my lefty 4 immediately. That first 5, proper bridge and correct # of tuners in the headstock, also had a P-dimension nut width. As a plecker rather than a plucker, I was happy with it and my first lefty 5 (Jim Reed BE5) didn't come along until this century. The wider spacing was initially a dislike, although it's my fave bass now and I have a TBC with an even wider board that I don't really like at all. The 'ray 5 spacing is good for me.

[micgtr71]

The first one I encountered was a white Yamaha BB. Shortly thereafter I played a Hamer with incredibly thin spacing. This was in the late 80s. First decent 5 I played was a Modulus Genesis in the late 90s.

[nukes_da_bass]

I bought a used Korean Vesper around 1998- didn't want to drop a lot of
Dough on something I might not be able to learn- body and neck were Ibanez copies, cheap P/J pickups. Early in the Zeros I put ancient flats on it which sounded great. Wish I still had it!

[Avezzano]

and while now playing a fiver or switching from 5 to 4 seems as natural as changing your shirt, at the epoch I felt it were absolutely weird

1) to play a bass with an "odd" number of strings that threw away all your skills and tricks learned on the fretboard with the even plain four strings

2 listening to that resonant low B, wondering about how to mute that non played loosen booom boom.....

[Fuzzbass]

Great thread. I don't have anything to add except my own first encounter.

The first low-B fiver I saw -- back in the late 80's, as I recall -- was a fancy Tobias, owned by Scott Ambush. He and his bass were at a local music store (Veneman Music in Rockville MD). It had a dark brown neck, which may have been wenge. He could tell how curious I was, so he gave me an explanation/demo and let me play it.

It was my first encounter with an asymmetrical profile neck, and I fell in love. I still don't understand why this feature isn't more common.

Overall the bass seemed awesome, but it was my first time playing a fiver and I was concentrating too hard on playing coherently (especially with Scott watching).

[iriegnome]

Just to keep things straight, the Fender V was the first actual 5 string bass in production from 1965-1970. The first/ish Low B bass came out sometime about 1975 or so and at that time only a few botique makers had 5 string basses for sale. It kind of stayed that way until the mid-1980's or so when Yamaha (among others) started producing 5'ers and then when we get to the 90's, is about when everyone started coming out with them?? Does that sound kind of like a rough timeline for 5'ers?

[Bassmanbob]

Originally Posted by ggvicviper

I'll try to give as best a detailed history as I can. When referring to the Low B 5-string bass, I'm gonna call it the LB5 to avoid confusion among basses like the Fender Bass V. I'm also gonna stick to talking about the 5-string, not the 6.

Alemic didn't QUITE create the LB5, it was a mod done by Jimmy Johnson and GHS as mentioned earlier. It started catching on first among the NY-based custom & non-production builders, like Ken Smith (unsure of year), Spector (1979), Steinberger (1982) and their apprentice, Fodera (1983). The original Spector NS-5 in particular is a cool instrument, as its like a triple P-bass pickup workaround smush. A link: http://www.spectorguitars.com/models/brooklyn.html - it's 3rd from the bottom.

The Yamaha BB5000 (1984) was the first production LB5, I'm pretty sure. The production manufacturers that followed include (EDIT thanks to Avezzano) Ibanez (RB885, 1985), Guild (Pilot, 1986), Ernie Ball Music Man (Stingray 5, 1987), G&L (L-5000, 1988), Squier (HM-5, 1989), Heartfield (DR-5, 1989?) and I'm sure others too.

In 1990 Fender introduced the Jazz Bass Plus V, and that's around the time you would have started to see more of the LB5s in stores.

While I'm no expert on this subject, this is how I remember it. I remember first seeing LB5 basses in a small mom and pop music store in Long Island in the mid 1980s. They had a few of these beautiful basses I had never heard of, but wanted... Fodera. Some were 4s and some were 5s. I couldn't afford one at the time. They were too expensive at $1,200- 1,400! A year or two later I went back. They were running $2,200- 2,500. Oh well!

[iriegnome]

Well, let's see them.. Show your vintage 5 banger.. Let's make this more visual...
Here is mine. We have it dated to right around 1978. It is a prototype Modulus Bassstar. Neck thru and all original except the string guides

[ggvicviper]

Originally Posted by dewbass4

I bought a new Peavey Foundation 5 somewhere around late 87 / early 88. US made, fairly inexpensive, 2 passive pups, wide maple fretboard. I was a well made bass, same basic body shape and control layout as the Foundation 4. I didn't own it more than a year or so, I just couldn't get comfortable with the neck. Looked like this one.

Appended! Peavey started introducing LB5s around 1987, with both the Foundation and the Dyna Bass receiving 5-string versions.

EDIT: Modulus also appended.

[hrodbert696]

I don't have too much to add to the conversation except a comment on perception and influence; it seems like the first experiments and prototypes in 5ers (apart from the Fender from teh 60s) were in the 70s, but it's really a child of the 80s as a widely-considered option. There's an interview with Chris Squier from about 1989 or 1990 where he shows a 5er he had and explains that with all the synthesizers coming out and doing bass lines down below E, bass guitarists felt they needed something to compete and started adopting 5-strings. Hence the production models that other posters here have shown cropping up around 1984-85. In that same interview, he says he never felt completely comfortable with 5 strings so he asked Tobias to build him a 4-string bass "with extra frets" below the low E. The thing must have had a scale length around 40" or something, tuned BEAD.

[Avezzano]

with all the synthesizers coming out and doing bass lines down below E, bass guitarists felt they needed something to compete and started adopting 5-strings

yes: I remember clearly that end of seventies / first eighties the disco was growing day by day and keyboards were supposed to replace everything, eventually: from drums to flute passing on the body of the stringed instruments.

In addition the keyboards' lows were way below a standard bass E string. Also add the fact that the improvements in amplification stuff made possible to clearly and faithfully reproduce sub-low frequencies.

Survival spirit is what triggered inventiveness for both guitarists and bass players (and related manufacturers)...

P.S.: Chris Squire!!! V.

[dedpool1052]

Originally Posted by smcd

It certainly looks much better than it's 4-string relative.

the actual 4-string version was pretty much the same as the 5'er only with a shorter headstock. the 4-banger in that pic is the "shorty" version.

*edit*
Scored a cool old Ibanez, model???

[hrodbert696]

Originally Posted by Avezzano

P.S.: Chris Squire!!! V.

Ha ha OOPS! I get so used to correcting "Squire" to "Squier," I must have done it subconsciously here. Thanks for the catch.

[Clef_de_fa]

Interesting thread, I thought that after the Fender V the idea died and kind of resurected when Anthony Jackson tried to get a 6 strings from Carl Thompson then Ken Smith and then Fodera.

[klyph]

Gibson also made one in the eighties, simply called the V. It was the first fiver I saw that wasn't "boutique". I bought it on the spot because it had been hanging in the store for a year, and I think they wanted $250. This was very early 1987. It had TB plus pickups and sounded great, plus it had a nice stable neck with a thick ebony FB. It was basically a five string TB with a set neck. Unfortunately it was not the most ergonomic bass. It probably weighed twelve pounds, was neck heavy, and at 49 inches in total length was impossible to find a case for. It spent it's life in a gigbag (which it barely fit into) until I lost it in a house fire. It was a pleasure to play while sitting, and tracked well. Wish I still had it!