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7 string basses...

Whats your opinion on 7 stringed basses???

  • Crazy! I'd never play one! It 'aint even a BASS anymore!!!

    Votes: 22 19.0%

  • Hmm...

    Votes: 51 44.0%

  • Definately one for the collection but not a long-term relashionship...

    Votes: 25 21.6%

  • Main rocker baby!!!!

    Votes: 18 15.5%

  • carrots

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    116
#83
Dellers said:
To be honest I think it just gets silly when it gets past 6...I can't even play a 6 (I don't have giant hands), a 7 would be impossible. Come on, how the hell are you gonna mute all those strings? Not worth the effort IMO. You could probably use the neck as a table too. I don't see the use for a low F# (come on, it sounds like crap, and as good as nobody will hear what note you're playing anyway). A high F on the other side would be a guitar string, so you might reconsider your role...
4, 5, 6 strings --> fine
> 6 strings --> starting to get silly...And, while I usually don't care too much about visuals in general, it looks kinda weird (especially if you ask non-bassists)
Click to expand...

If I may kindly make two points:
1.) I think that guy from Coldplay (Chris whatever) plays about 3 octaves worth of notes on a piano and has a bunch of black and white real estate on both his left and right hand side, untouched, and perhaps we should be talking to him too about uses and practicality of full size pianos?
2.) I generally don't consult with non-bassists (and even with 99% of all bassists I've ever met) about what your, my, or anyone else's instruments should look like. My suggestion is that this approach would also benefit you.

You don't like/can't deal/hang with a +6 today. But who knows about tomorrow? I have small hands too. I've played a 7 comfortably. No, it wasn't an Ibanez SR pencil-neck (I mean that fondly), but it was surprisingly playable, and most importantly, I can see a MUSICAL use for such instrument above and beyond "Looky Stan! That thar bass dude's got more strings than the gee-tar player! Whooo-wee!!!"
 
#90
Just to give my 2 cents on the issue...

I think that 7 strings would be useful for certain types of music... but in reality I think that the 7th string (depending on how you tune it) is the beginning of the end of you being a "bass" player... because then your more or less just playing a harp, once you start adding guitar strings into the equation you should really think if you need that many strings... its cool to turn a few heads... but WAAAYYYY too expensive to use fulltime... 6 is plenty for me. :) Unless your Jean Baudin of course XD
 
#91
Dellers said:
To be honest I think it just gets silly when it gets past 6...I can't even play a 6 (I don't have giant hands), a 7 would be impossible. Come on, how the hell are you gonna mute all those strings? Not worth the effort IMO. You could probably use the neck as a table too.
Click to expand...

That's a silly post! Hands have nothing to do with it. But I'm not sure how to answer the poll. I just bought a used Conklin Bill Dickens signature 7 string. A while back I was playing 6 strings as main axes. I own quite a few 24 fret 6 stringers both fretted and fretless. For the right music they are a PERFECT fit. There's no problem playing that neck with a bit of practice. The extended upper range is really nice when you need it. Even the two octave range directly across the neck is wonderful. But now I'm in a 5 string mode. Mostly because the music doesn't need the upper range nor chords. So lets be clear, I'm certainly NOT going to start playing the 7 string instead of the 5 stringers. But the reason I bought the 7 string is to expand my knowledge of the upper range of bass. Especially chords that aren't muddy. For the right music my feeling is that this is going to be a significant advance over a 6 string!

But you have to understand I'm a 7 string noob. No, I haven't learned those 7 string chords yet. Much to my dismay, I try to go up to the highest ranges (F string) and suddenly I have no idea what to do! I'm trying to mute and while it's clearly possible, it's also clear I need to practice a bit. And I've even noticed the dreaded "string jump" where you suddenly get on the wrong string because you are unfamiliar with the wide neck. But this is all about ME and not about the bass!

I've just not put in the time (yet!) to learn to play this new instrument. I don't think my assessment of the value of the extended upper range for chords and solo in certain music is wrong.

So the question is how do I answer the poll? Do I think a 7 string is not really a bass? Well hardly. As a long time 6 stringer the value of extended high end is well known to me. Is it my main axe? Well no, first because I'm a 7 string noob, and second because even if I could really make the 7 strings talk I'm not playing music right now where I think it would apply. I'm not currently playing my 6ers. So that makes it certainly a proper candidate for my bass collection. But do I even know if it'd be a "long term relationship? Probably not yet! So that sort of puts me in the Hmm. Category until I finally get to where I know what 7 strings do for me. Or more importantly what I can do for them!

But I think that given my normal tendency to GAS, I'll have to go with "add to my collection"! Time will tell on the "long-term relationship"!
 
#92
motionkid said:
Just to give my 2 cents on the issue...

I think that 7 strings would be useful for certain types of music... but in reality I think that the 7th string (depending on how you tune it) is the beginning of the end of you being a "bass" player... because then your more or less just playing a harp, once you start adding guitar strings into the equation you should really think if you need that many strings...
Click to expand...

I'm not posting a reply to argue your point, but Victor Wooten made the following comment in an interview. His line remains in the back of my mind when I play. ~There comes a time when you have to ask yourself "Am I a bass player or am I a musician?"~
 
#94
bassbenj said:
That's a silly post! Hands have nothing to do with it.
Click to expand...
I'm sure a 7/8/whatever string is a good combined bass/guitar in one, but hands DO have something to do with it, if your hands are small like mine. I have yet to see another guy with hands even close to this small. I've tried a couple of 6 string basses, and I was unable to play riffs on the B string, unless I played the bass like an upright. 7+ would be impossible for me, but I know most bassists have much bigger hands than what I've got. Personally I don't need the range either (I do play the guitar as well, so I'd rather play something high on a guitar, these high F strings sounds really like a guitar anyway). For non-guitarists with big hands, and playing some very complicated music, I can see that some might want these huge instruments though.
 
#97
would you advise me to try a 6 before i go for a 7 or just go for it.
i play a guitarron but i think the string spacing is narrower than a 6?
theres a ridiculously cheap Chinese 7 on ebay but i hear they need setting up and theres no one round here i can rely on.
wanted a 6 for the past 14 years but by the time i was aware of a model i wanted they were out of production. now i finally have the dough and i'm up to date on whats around i have a right hand injury and am awaiting physio don't know when i'll play again
and if i bought one now it would be tempting fate LOL

but anyway i'm thinking when i'm ready i may aswell get a 7 instead of a 6
n/s stick looks perfect but too expensive
 
#98
I would recommend trying out stuff first, but I went for Conklin GTBD-7 so it was a safe enough bet that it would be decent, it did need a bit of fret work but other than that perfect. I could not try the bass because Ireland has a crap selection of bass oriented gear and I ended up shipping it in from Germany.
I also had a 6 string which i bloody hated action was perfect but the neck was very thick I also felt very limited on the 6 string range for some reason.
 
#99
Dellers said:
I'm sure a 7/8/whatever string is a good combined bass/guitar in one, but hands DO have something to do with it, if your hands are small like mine. I have yet to see another guy with hands even close to this small. I've tried a couple of 6 string basses, and I was unable to play riffs on the B string, unless I played the bass like an upright. 7+ would be impossible for me, but I know most bassists have much bigger hands than what I've got. Personally I don't need the range either (I do play the guitar as well, so I'd rather play something high on a guitar, these high F strings sounds really like a guitar anyway). For non-guitarists with big hands, and playing some very complicated music, I can see that some might want these huge instruments though.
Click to expand...

i doubt your hands are that much smaller than mine. hand size has nothing to do with it - it's all about technique and practice. sloppy crap technique that a lot of folks get away with on a 4 will not work on a 7. and that's a good thing to be honest.
 

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