Five string spacing 18mm, 19mm, 17mm whats your preference?

[brendanbassist]

16.7mm. And I'm 6'4", 210lbs

[two fingers]

19mm My Fender Roscoe Beck sig and Ibanez BTB are both 19's. Buy I am a very physical player. That extra room for my right hand is nice.

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by Doug Parent

Fender V's have always been 18mm except for that signature model that Munji has, forget the name. Passive, two double single coils in the jazz position? Why can't I think of it ??????

Roscoe Beck. N/C.

[Doug Parent]

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

Roscoe Beck. N/C.

cheers Hows the weather back home?

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by Doug Parent

cheers Hows the weather back home?

Still kinda hot - around 80 today at the coast. Matt Baylow said it's going to heat up again, but the next few days look like they're going to hover around 80 again, according to TWC. Lows in the mid-60s. How about back there?

[peledog]

Originally Posted by DiabolicLow B

18mm is perfect.

+1

[Schlyder]

15mm on my 5string... my 6string is 16mm

[bootsox]

20mm and I have tiny baby hands

[cnltb]

I'm on 20mm on my main bass.
Works for me.

[bzmnt]

When I bought my first 5-stringer almost 10 years ago, I thought that the narrower the spacing, the faster I could play. Because speed was so important

My main bass was a warwick corvette, with, I guess, 16.5mm spacing. It was a nice bass. I moved quickly to 6-string basses and played a John Myung sig Yamaha, which had quite similar narrow spacing. Then, for some reason I started to think about wider spacings and with the help of a 18mm Yamaha TRB bass have since moved to only 19mm spacing basses. I have two four-string basses and two 6-string basses, all with 19mm spacing. Not only it helps switching between basses but nowadays I feel it is the only and best choice for me. There's more room to play and different techniques are easier to apply. Although I could slap fine with the Warwick. And actually I can play faster with 19mm spacing than with 16.5mm. I do have pretty big hands, but I think big hands are more of a benefit with super long scale than wider string spacing.

It is very sad that almost all entry-level 5ers and 6ers are so narrow spaced. I think the companies haven't thought about that so much.

[Jenra]

17.5 - really cute! although i have big spider'ish hands long thin fingers

[DaveAceofBass]

I have all three. My Hamer fretless is 17, my Sadowsky modern is 18, and the rest are 19. I find fretless can be narrower if you don't intend to slap. I also find that 18 is wide enough to slap comfortably and have a neck that's not so huge, and 19 makes for a chunkier neck but can still be very playable. Hipshot A-style bridges come in 18.5, which I had once on a custom I sold. I'd say that's probably been my favorite neck width.

[DaveAceofBass]

One other thing: the nut width is crucial. My favorite basses have a 1.75" nut (My Kinal and my Sadowsky). The Kinal in my avatar has a narrow nut and a 19mm spacing, big taper. That's my favorite neck right now, but I still think the 18.5 would be better with less taper.

[topcat2069]

Whatever the Bridge (& nut) on a G&L 5er is......

[phillybass101]

I forget if I posted to this thread. I like 19 MM as I slap. This space also allows me to dig in and play very syncopated lines with my right hand. Jaco called it cuttin notes. It's a syncopated, percolatin type of style. Check out Doug Johns.

[Doug Parent]

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

Still kinda hot - around 80 today at the coast. Matt Baylow said it's going to heat up again, but the next few days look like they're going to hover around 80 again, according to TWC. Lows in the mid-60s. How about back there?

I think 18MM is the great middle ground.

Cooling off in the 50's and 60's. I'm digging it!

[hgiles]

So, a narrower spacing is advantageous to chording and wider spacing for slap? Generally speaking of course...

[Means2nEnd]

Can't decide I love them all. My Streamer 1 is 20 mm but I have it adjusted to 19 mm and it's great and the rest of my Wicks are 17 mm they feel great too but I play differently on my SS1 because of the spacing I feel less cramped.

My Warrior is 18.5 mm and I think that's for me my all around favorite.

[lomo]

Originally Posted by Grateful

19mm - preferred.

18mm - tolerable

anything below 18mm - Just can't do it. Cramp city.

+1

[Chef]

While it's not 'cramp city' for me, I certainly much prefer 19, or 18.

This is one reason I don't own a G&L or Music Man.