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any other girls besides me?

#44
Well, right now my budget is 0-300. Because that's how much money I have saved with no current income. But currently, I'm looking at two used 4 stringers. The five will come when I improve my playing. There's an Ibanez EXB404 and a Schecter Raiden Special 4 string with the Music Man type pickups I've been looking for. Both well with in my budget. Which one should I choose?
 
#45
If you have the opportunity to try them both, I would do that first.

Personally, the EXB404 is what I would do, 'cause you'd have a P/J bass, which is very versatile. My first bass was a Yamaha RBX270L (yes, I'm a lefty too!) and that P/J pickup configuration gives you a whole lot of possible tones, given that you can pan between those pickups and can play with the tone control for even more possibilities.
I don't know the Schecter, but it seems more modern to me, which isn't a bad thing, but I just happen to have great memories of my first bass. They do get good comments on here, though.
 
#47
That's why I always say "try before you buy" (unfortunately, we lefties often don't have that luxury). Sometimes, there are even differences between basses of the same model of the same brand.
As for me, I did like my former-SR5's neck much better than my former-TRB-II's. The TRB was, apart from being 35" scale with a 20" radius and 1-7/8" at the nut, rather flat front to back. I found the SR5's neck fit much nicer in my hand. My hand just fit around it. With the TRB-II, there was always a gap between my hand palm and the back of the neck at some point. But, in the end it's of course a combination of al those factors.
 
#49
Peavey Millennium 5 basses have pretty narrow necks for 5ers, and come pretty cheap used when you can find 'em.
More narrow than my Rick basses, and just as thin front to back.
Mine (passive Indonesian BXP5) is also my lightest bass at 8.61 lbs, balances nicely, no neck dive.
 
#52
Musicfreak1988 said:
With the TRB-II, there was always a gap between my hand palm and the back of the neck at some point.
Click to expand...

OT

With all due respect, "palming" the back of the neck is terrible technique. Almost as bad as wrapping one's thumb around the top side of the fretboard. Please don't tell me you do that too, do you?

IMO, these are shortcuts most often used by guitarists - who can more easily get away with using bad technique, since they play a smaller instrument that has more physical room for error. It makes me cringe every time I see someone play like that! :atoz:

/OT

MM
 
#54
MysticMichael said:
OT

With all due respect, "palming" the back of the neck is terrible technique. Almost as bad as wrapping one's thumb around the top side of the fretboard. Please don't tell me you do that too, do you?

IMO, these are shortcuts most often used by guitarists - who can more easily get away with using bad technique, since they play a smaller instrument that has more physical room for error. It makes me cringe every time I see someone play like that! :atoz:

/OT

MM
Click to expand...

Hi,

I don't do palming like you describe it actually. I just set my thumb against the back of the neck (like everyone does (?)). My teacher would be horrified if he saw me do it.
I do use it sometimes in solo pieces at the end, to play an extra fundamental (wrapping my thumb around the fretboard, which automatically results in a little bit 'palming').

I do feel I described what I actually meant to say about the TRB-II quite wrong, but I couldn't / can't find the words to say what I actually didn't like about that neck... It just felt so flat, almost like a plank.
Maybe my hands were too small back then and who knows, maybe I wouldn't have any problems with it now...
 
#57
I can't play a 4 very well anymore, because there are more options on the 5 and I use them. You could get most of the way there by stringing your 4 BEAD. As for a new 5, you really need to play a bass to know if you like it. You may find it difficult to do, being a lefty, so I would lean toward BEAD tuning on your 4. The 5 is a different animal, and if you had started on one, it would not be an issue. It plays different. Find one that SOUNDS good, and adapt your playing style. Just in case you decide to dump the 5, buy a cheap one! SX basses get much love around here, and they are really affordable.
 
#58
The number of strings doesn't directly impact the playability of the neck. The physical factors would be more nut width, neck contour (how the back of the neck is carved), string length, string spacing at nut and bridge, how you position the bass relative to your body, and in the higher positions how the neck meets the back of the body and how the body is carved to accommodate access there.

Hopefully you're not playing the thing down at your knees like I see in some photos. Look at a guy like Patitucci to see what a good bass positioning looks like; it may be higher than what you are used to seeing, but provides excellent and comfortable LH fingering (IMO):
Spain - YouTube

Also, he is playing a 6-string in this video and the width of the neck relative to his hand size in the upper fret positions is unlikely to be any better than yours on a 5-string.

You should be able to find four, five and even six string instruments that can work for you.

It is interesting that you mention reach across the neck at frets 15 and above as the issue you're having with the 5-string. I would think that if you were playing a five string you wouldn't be playing notes on the E and B strings up in those fret positions very often. The string length is getting kind of short for those thick strings and the notes would probably sound better fingered elsewhere on the fretboard. But that said, I would think you wouldn't be playing those notes in those locations very often, if at all. (Notice Patitucci's solo starting at 3:57 and look at the strings he uses in the higher positions, and when the bass line descends he goes down the neck not across it.)

Do you have playability issues up at the nut as well, or really only down around frets 15-22?

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Jim



BassPlayer95 said:
Seriously! All I see on here is men. Also, I really want a 5 string bass. But my hands have enough trouble fitting around my 4 string once I get to, like, the 15th fret. What do you guys or girls say? Should I, once my playing improves, eventually get a fiver?
Click to expand...
 
#60
Than again, Maybe the five string is just not gonna work for you, and theres nothing wrong with that either, fact is, your only giving up a handful of notes and you can always install a drop D tuner on your 4 string. I use to do Drop D tuning on the E string ages ago because I thought it sounded cool, long before they had a mechanical device to make it a quicker change. Keep in mind how much great music was made with the 4 string bass (electric and acoustic upright) ratio wise it leans considerably more to the 4 string. OR consider this, just convert one of your four strings to a BEAD tuning, If your looking for that real low end your not gonna miss that G string anyway.
 

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