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16 mm string spacing

#21
JMDT said:
:eyebrow::eyebrow::eyebrow::eyebrow::eyebrow:

So what is it you prefer about 19mm spacing? Do you have longer fingers or slap much? I wasn't blessed with long enough fingers to make it the extra ~ half inch comfortably.
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Honestly? My fingers aren't that big, they just get cramped up in such a tiny space. For whatever reason ( :confused: ) , tight spacing makes my right-hand fingers hurt, in a kind of carpal-tunnel-y, numb-tingling sort of way.

When I first got a tight-spaced fiver, I thought it was great! I could play faster and cleaner, because there was less "slop" between the strings. But eventually, my RH fingers started hurting. As soon as I went back to 19mm, the pain disappeared (took a few days, though). When I try tight spacing again, the pain comes back.

I don't really slap on a fiver, I prefer to slap on a four – so while I'm sure slap might be easier on a 19mm, that wasn't part of the consideration for me.

I'm glad narrow works for some of you folks, but for me it's just painful – literally.
 
#23
I have a 16mm 5 string, and an 18mm 4 string. I compared them just now, and I can't imagine having 18mm spacing on a 5, let alone 19mm! I tried a 5 string Lakland that had really wide spacing, and I just couldn't cope with it - I found it really uncomfortable. I have fairly small hands though.
 
#24
Happynoj said:
I have a 16mm 5 string, and an 18mm 4 string. I compared them just now, and I can't imagine having 18mm spacing on a 5, let alone 19mm! I tried a 5 string Lakland that had really wide spacing, and I just couldn't cope with it - I found it really uncomfortable. I have fairly small hands though.
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I couldn't do much with the Laklands either. Probably the most uncomfortable neck I've played on.
 
#27
I think Steinbergers had 16mm spacing, as well as G&L's first 5 string bass. Both were discontinued...just sayin' :)

Personally I prefer 19mm spacing, just like on a normal 4 string. I can get by with 18mm, but anything less than that is unplayable for me.
 
#29
jibreel said:
I am going to mod on of my Turner basses to 14.5 :hiding: :rollno:

Converting a 5 string to 6 strings.

I will add the tuner and mod the bridge. Mike Lull will install the new nut

I will post when the work is done.
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Please do! Ive always wanted to do exactly this to my 5er, because i play with a pick so big spacing is not neccesary. Now that i think about it, i wonder why most manufacturers dont make a guitar-spaced 5 or 6? they have all sorts of other niche things. :confused:
 
#30
OOZMAN said:
Now that i think about it, i wonder why most manufacturers dont make a guitar-spaced 5 or 6? they have all sorts of other niche things. :confused:
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There have been guitar spaced 6 string basses since Danelectro made one in the 1950s (although they are tuned E-E, like a guitar an octave down instead of BEADGC). In the '60s Fender made the Bass VI, which is the same.

Today there are a number of companies that make them. I have a Schecter Hellcat VI, which has the same string spacing as a Les Paiul guitar (it uses a Tune-a-Matic bridge like a Les Paul, with the saddles cut for bigger strings). Agile also makes a couple of them, as do a number of other companies.

There is a club here for them:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/short-scale-six-string-club-original-six-string-basses-391343/

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/sh...lub-part-2-original-six-string-basses-599414/

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/sh...lub-part-3-original-six-string-basses-658449/

image-18.jpg
 
#31
JMDT said:
:eyebrow::eyebrow::eyebrow::eyebrow::eyebrow:

So what is it you prefer about 19mm spacing? Do you have longer fingers or slap much? I wasn't blessed with long enough fingers to make it the extra ~ half inch comfortably.
Click to expand...

I have Burger King hands and 19mm spacing is way too awkward for me also. My friend has a beautiful custom Ramirez 5er and it was impossible for me to play it.
 
#32
Happynoj said:
I have a 16mm 5 string, and an 18mm 4 string. I compared them just now, and I can't imagine having 18mm spacing on a 5, let alone 19mm! I tried a 5 string Lakland that had really wide spacing, and I just couldn't cope with it - I found it really uncomfortable. I have fairly small hands though.
Click to expand...

I think the narrow spacing is becoming MOSTLY standard. And it's a shame. I wanted a five string because I started writing on keyboard and strayed left of the E. But when I went around checking out fivers, all I could find were narrow spaced. And I think they were mostly the same narrow spacing. The EBMM Sting Ray 5, the Fender Jazz 5, and all the Ibanezes at my local GC wereway too small. I think those were all 16mm's. Actually I thought they were 14mm's and that Fender standard spacing for a four string was 16mm.

I bought a Lakland 55-02d and love it. I thought it was 16mm. But it sounds from here like it might be 19mm. Regardless, I prefer the wide spacing because I've played four sting Fenders since 1979 and my hands think that is how far apart the strings should be.

Now I have to either measure or look it up.
 
#34
My old Washburn 5 has 16mm spacing. I do kinda prefer 19mm if the neck is shallow (for the lack of the proper term) But if it is a baseball bat like the Washburn 16mm is plenty. I played one of those Squier Delux Jazz V strings with no pickguard and that is the 19mm neck that I am talking about loving for being shallow
 
#35
Bard2dbone said:
I have orangutan hands, so the narrow spacing is uncomfortable for me. That and thirty-odd years of mucle memory saying "NO! NOT LIKE THAT!" when I try to play a narrow fiver.
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You have opposable thumbs?:D I had a Schecter that had too tight spacing and I couldn't play for any amount of time without cramping up too. It felt more like a guitard even though it was nice sounding.
 
#38
mmbongo said:
I still find it very strange that they would say 19mm is comfortable or odd, seeing as how 99% of 4 stringers are 19mm or wider!
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True, but you add two more strings to a bass at 19mm and it becomes unwieldy.

I play standard spaced 4 strings, 5 strings with everything from 16mm to 19mm, and six strings with 16.5mm.

I can't imagine playing any of my 6 string basses with 19mm spacing, but I'm sure I could do it. I just prefer 16.5 on 6 string basses. 19mm would be a long reach for the C string since I play with my thumb anchored on the pickup, and would be completely unnecessary for me.
 

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