4 to 5...5 to 6...Does It Ever End?

[smtp4me]

i'm still on 4. i could play some gigs with 3 and a few tunes with 2. regressed? luddite?



sounds like it! do what you want and don't look back! good luck!

I'm right there with you. Been playing bass for 45 years - and never owned/played more than 4 strings. Don't need it, don't want it. And more power to the players that do.

 

[retslock]

I’ve thought about 6 strings too but really, I’m not going to use the higher register enough to justify it. If I did it would almost certainly be tuned with a 3rd between the second and third strings to enable the chord fingering I already know from playing guitar.

 

[Les Fret]

Ok granted there are some orchestras playing five strings but they are not the norm. Anyway forget all that . You dissing P basses? Go away and come back when uve had a think and done some research. Oh, and get off my lawn too!...... hahaha

I was just joking. I have had a few P ‘s myself. Not anymore. Everyone is doing that. I like them but it’s not for me.

 

[Andy Marshman]

if you want a change of pace, check out ukulele basses - they come fretted and un-fretted. It could be another new departure for you. Likely a whole lot less expensive than 5 and 6 stringers too.
I'm a 4 string guy for life and I'm happy that way.

 

[primusfan1989]

For me I went from 4 to 5 to 6....and then back to a passive 4 string because I don't really need anything more for what Im doing

 

[Hummergeist]

You're curious, you're on a journey, you're an explorer. All is valid, all is good.

 

[lordradish]

As one who hasn't owned a 4 in 20 years, mostly plays 5's and has been also playing 6's in the last few years, I have zero desire for any more strings after that. Both kinds fill all of my needs. You may love your six, but you may also find plenty of situations where the 5 does just fine, unless you're playing a lot of chords or solos. I play my 6's A LOT. But I'm glad I still have my 5's.

 

[RGerhart]

Tempting, but I think 6 is the magic number for me and it would have to be a G. Gould. The neck is like no other. I have a baritone guitar for higher notes if it becomes a deadly press for things marginally bass-like...of course, I say that never having played a 7 string...

5s and 6s are great, but a 7? It's a whole different ball game. It's like the neck width and maneuvering around it are exponentially more difficult than moving from a 5 to a 6.

 

[Ethereal Thorn]

5s and 6s are great, but a 7? It's a whole different ball game. It's like the neck width and maneuvering around it are exponentially more difficult than moving from a 5 to a 6.

Depends on your hands and how wide the spacing is on the 7. My Conklin fits my hand like a glove but I'm sure there's others that may be a stretch

 

[coyote1]

In my time doing this, I’ve had a handful of 4 strings, two 5 strings, a 6 string… and one 7 string. That Conklin7 was a blast; it played and sounded amazing. But while I played it fine I could not really do it justice. So out it went. And since that time, the stable has gradually diminished.

So it does end. But that end point is different for everyone.

 

[Naturekev]

I love how you youngins think "the more strings, the harder it is to play".

In my experience, the opposite is true. I found it much easier to play with the extra string of the five-string. It makes it easier for me to transpose, and it's physically easier for me to play certain things higher up the neck, fretting the low "E" and going from there. I even use the low "B" and "C" (sparingly) in some of our originals. I will also end a song with a single low "B" in a cover if the song ends on that note.

I have settled on five-string basses. I had a six, but I've only ever played one song, (a cover), where I could have used that high "C" string. I had already sold the six by the time we played that song, so I made do with a five.

 

[Rabidhamster]

When I began playing bass, it was an el-cheapo Jay Turser 4 string P-clone that I picked up for $100. The pickguard was so warped that it touched the underside of the orange, fuzzy strings, not so gently, but the neck was dead straight. I gave it love. I cut the pickguard down so it just covered the essentials, cleaned up the electronic, gave it the first setup that it never received and gigged it for a decade without issue. I started pining for a 5 and decided to go with something special. I moved to the desert and the Turser was highly responsive to the radical changes in humidity and temperature which can occur daily. I felt bad for the truss rod, because it was being adjustment more and more frequently to compensate. I decided that a graphite neck bass would take a lot of variables out the equation and after finding out that Modulus has tanked, did my research and found out that Geoff Gould was still making basses. I tracked down a GGi-5 and bought it from the Bass Place online. I was not disappointed.

The Turser ended up going from presumed backup that never got played, to parts that never got used to yard art. The 5 became my main bass and it felt like home. 4's were no longer appealing to me. I played that 5 for close to a decade and loved every minute of it. Then the bug hit: I wanted to try fretless and I wanted to try that fretless as a 6. I had Geoff build a GGi-6 fretless for me and again was not disappointed. I love it. When I play, it feels like home, but part of me also enjoys playing fretted instruments. So...the idea of a fretted GGi-6 to compliment my fretless 6 emerged.

All of a sudden, I am starting to look at the 5 in the same way I looked at the 4, excepting that the GGi-5 is a desirable commodity and the Turser 4 was musical firewood. I am beginning to feel that the Rainbow Trout GGi-5 may have to go to make room for a new bass with another string. The Trout and I have had good times together. It has seen a truss rod upgrade. I have had a hand surgery. We are both improved, but I think I am hearing the call of something new. I am not usually one to have a stable of redundant things. To have a bass sit un-played seems criminal, especially when it is something so very sweet, but I am hearing the call of a fretted 6 companion to the fretless and I don't think there is any going back.

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Is it time to say goodbye?

It sounds like if you sold that bass and replaced it with one of the same finish w an extra string you’d never even miss this one

 

[RodneyM]

In my experience, the opposite is true. I found it much easier to play with the extra string of the five-string. It makes it easier for me to transpose, and it's physically easier for me to play certain things higher up the neck, fretting the low "E" and going from there. I even use the low "B" and "C" (sparingly) in some of our originals. I will also end a song with a single low "B" in a cover if the song ends on that note.

I have settled on five-string basses. I had a six, but I've only ever played one song, (a cover), where I could have used that high "C" string. I had already sold the six by the time we played that song, so I made do with a five.

Yup, the symmetry of the instrument explodes with extra strings. You can do a challenging reading gig in one position! Learning the fretboard up and down the neck is more challenging than up and down the strings, IMO, and the potential for expressive playing is better as well.

 

[StuBass88]

For me, I've played bass for over 20 years now and all that time I've went back and forth between 4 and 5 string. At the weekend I took delivery of my first 6 string (Gear4Music Chicago 6 string) and I have to say, I can see 6 string becoming my main thing. I love the added range and given that I play in a Jazz band and write Prog Metal on the side, it suits my needs perfectly!

 

[Discount Bassy]

It sounds like if you sold that bass and replaced it with one of the same finish w an extra string you’d never even miss this one

My original thought was to have another Trout made, but after seeing the finish on my fretless six in Velvet Green, I want something very similar in grain pattern in a darker purple (or maybe orange...or blue).
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[BioDriver]

IME I went from 4 to 5 to 4 to 5 to 4 to 6 to 4 shortscale to 6 shortscale back to 4.