Originally posted by Lovebown
More strings don't make you a better player, and I really can't think of any kind of music that would need to go lower than D or C, but hey if you want to play a 5-string , do so!
I guess I'm just not "openminded" enough so you probably shouldn't listen to me.
Bleh.
/lovebown
Well - you don;t seem to read other people's posts - I explained quite carefully what it's not about lower notes but rather - tone, two octave scales, transposing etc - and you just seem to have ignored this - so I suppose you could call this - not being open minded enough!
And I meant to say "shorter decay" not less...
"Actually, I play Jazz and find the 5 string particularly useful for many reasons and wouldn't go back to a 4 again - I have played 5s and 6s for Jazz.
Quite often in Jazz you are looking for a "darker" sound with less decay - more like an upright bass. Now if you play lines around the 12th fret on the B and E strings, you can get much closer to this sound. Especially if you play with thumb and plam muting. Playing the same lines close to the nut - nearly all bass guitars sound too "twangy" and bright, but playing the B string high up the neck is a much warmer sound.
The other thing in Jazz is that you are usually looking at playing in 2 octaves and frequently transposing lines - witha 4 string you run out of options very quickly, whereas with a 5 or 6 with 24 frets, you can make shifts and still have 2 octave sto play with. So if the singer wants you to change the key it's much easier.
Thirdly in Jazz - a lot of standards are in the "flat" keys, so you find yourself playing F and Eb roots a lot - now on a 4-string you basically end up with only 1 position for this, but on a 5 you can shift and start you lines from 6th fret on the B string - otherwise every F is at the 1st fret on the E string and thsi can lead to fatigue and cramps in your wrist on long gigs!
I could probably think of other reasons, but these are the main ones and if I didn't have logical reasons for playing 5 or 6, then I would play a 4, but there are many advantages so I don't ! "
