This is a valid reason to play a five, I think.
Played with some guys who covered a lot of Zeppelin, and I used to play "The Ocean" verse parts down there, just like Tesla's cover of that song. It had a similar effect on bandmates as yours did. ;-)
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Aversion to five strings: actual dislike, or unfamiliarity?
- Thread starter MacaroniShrek
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This is a valid reason to play a five, I think.
Played with some guys who covered a lot of Zeppelin, and I used to play "The Ocean" verse parts down there, just like Tesla's cover of that song. It had a similar effect on bandmates as yours did. ;-)
My experience... 5 years exclusively using a 4-string, decades with just a 5, and the past 7 years I've played both (but almost exclusively the 5 when playing live).
I barely remember the transition to 5 all those years ago but I'm sure it was awkward for a while. I bought a used Stingray 5 so that helped, I'm sure; I was driven to bond with that thing, playing a 5 in general, and it was fun plus it looked so cool...
A bigger challenge was picking up a 4-string again back around 2015. Super awkward with lots of missed notes and wrong registers! But now I'm fine going between the two, though a thinner 4-string neck like an Ibanez SR feels like playing a toothpick. I play the 5s live for the extra range but the 4s are fun to just pick up and play when I have a bass line idea going through my head. (I leave a couple around the house for that reason.)
I'd recommend a thin/modern C or D profile neck along with 18-19mm spacing. Most of my basses fall in that range. (Also try a Stingray 5 with 17.5 spacing, if you can - the neck is sweet and probably my favorite!)
I barely remember the transition to 5 all those years ago but I'm sure it was awkward for a while. I bought a used Stingray 5 so that helped, I'm sure; I was driven to bond with that thing, playing a 5 in general, and it was fun plus it looked so cool...
A bigger challenge was picking up a 4-string again back around 2015. Super awkward with lots of missed notes and wrong registers! But now I'm fine going between the two, though a thinner 4-string neck like an Ibanez SR feels like playing a toothpick. I play the 5s live for the extra range but the 4s are fun to just pick up and play when I have a bass line idea going through my head. (I leave a couple around the house for that reason.)
I'd recommend a thin/modern C or D profile neck along with 18-19mm spacing. Most of my basses fall in that range. (Also try a Stingray 5 with 17.5 spacing, if you can - the neck is sweet and probably my favorite!)
Personally? It's not so much that I "dislike" them, as it is that 1) for several reasons, they're too hard for me to play, and 2) they don't really serve any useful purpose - for ME. But, that doesn't mean they wouldn't work for you - or even be something that you find you actually need. I can't play 6 string basses, either; and, something like a 12 string guitar? That little adventure lasted about 30 seconds; that guitar is just a wall hanger, now... Some 6 string guitars are playable - more or less - but, 4 string basses have worked just fine for 50+ years now. I can still play them - if the neck is fairly narrow and thin - and for the music I like to play? They're more than sufficient...
I wonder if back in 1890 people knew it would take three-quarters of a century and a Warren Beatty / Faye Dunaway movie to settle the four-string / five-string debate over at TalkBanjo.
I'm going through the opposite dilemma now. I've recently picked up a Fender AM Pro II Jazz for the classic rock band I'm playing with. But I've only played fivers for the past 12 years. Another band I'm interested in wants a 5 string player. So I'm trying to figure out the best way to go back and forth. The five feels very wide after playing the 4 and unless I really focus I'm messing up on the E and A strings.
Some players adjust to 5 strings easier than others. For me it took time but the challenge was not going to deter me. Now that's all I play.
The American Deluxe Precision I had was 19mm spacing and a very good bass. For me that made the neck too wide. Great if you slap but I don't anymore so it's gone and I have a few that have narrower spacing. Like anything in music, if you want good results you have to put the work in and give yourself time to find out if 5 strings is really your thing or not.
I found a way around the symmetry aspect was to consider the A string as the centre of the neck/fretboard. That way you have symmetry. It made a difference to how my brain coped with the extra string.
An importantpoint that rarely comes up in these discussions. After spending a couple of years on the money frets, I can find the notes I need to play most songs in any position. Sometimes have to choose the position wisely to play some riffs. But a 5, with 2 octaves to each position, let's me learn 1 octave exercises and phrases around the clock. Across the whole position. Knowledge I can easily use on a 4 string, but struggle to learn on one.
Enough reason for me to always keep a 4 string bass around at least for practice purposes if I ever decided to go back to 4s exclusively.
I've always played 5s (apart from my very first), started with a nieve belief that more strings was better when I was younger and then just what I'd become accustomed to. I rarely use the B string tbh though so it's just an extra string to worry about muting.
I've only ever owned 3 basses though. I am however waiting on a new 4 string to be delivered though which I'm super excited for. I find the B super useful for metal but that's about it, I think I'd rather just have a bass with BEAD and one with EADG rather than 5 strings if I could go back in time.
I've only ever owned 3 basses though. I am however waiting on a new 4 string to be delivered though which I'm super excited for. I find the B super useful for metal but that's about it, I think I'd rather just have a bass with BEAD and one with EADG rather than 5 strings if I could go back in time.
Thank you for taking the time and effort to respond Sam, I truly appreciate it.
Now I love my Ibanez BTB6 (double cut) but wouldn't consider it for a traditional country gig for looks alone. However, I don't see why a traditional looking 5 string P or J (or clone) would be out of place aesthetically. Almost no one would notice as it just looks like a Fender - beyond row 3 in the audience I doubt any non muso would be able to count the strings unless they were doing so intentionally.
If I were you and trying to break in, I'd be doing exactly what you are to play and look exactly how the people paying want you to.
Again, thanks for taking the time and you're booked solid for the next couple of decades.
I dig that people hear with their eyes as I have a lot of experience with that in another area of audio I've been involved in for decades.
Now I love my Ibanez BTB6 (double cut) but wouldn't consider it for a traditional country gig for looks alone. However, I don't see why a traditional looking 5 string P or J (or clone) would be out of place aesthetically. Almost no one would notice as it just looks like a Fender - beyond row 3 in the audience I doubt any non muso would be able to count the strings unless they were doing so intentionally.
I get this, and hear the difference in studio, but from an audience perspective, no one will tell even many pro musos. I dig the professionalism aspect in being consistent from studio to stage.
Not if he was playing what he was supposed to. Now if it were a 9 string fanned fret in lurid colours and all pointy, then that would be an aesthetic issue, not necessarily a performance one. My longest term band were very professional in how we performed, looked and presented. If the guitarist had been carjacked outside the venue, had all his gear taken and all he'd been able to get was the 9s FF, the BL would have pointed it out and made a joke that he forgot tonight wasn't his hair metal revival band gig, people would have laughed and moved on, so long as he played what was expected. Or he could have explained what happened and how the guitarist was able to borrow this strange thing, but wanted to make sure everyone had a great time; crowds eat this up.
OK, but I personally have never seen that. That goes to professionalism, not the instrument.
If I were you and trying to break in, I'd be doing exactly what you are to play and look exactly how the people paying want you to.
Again, thanks for taking the time and you're booked solid for the next couple of decades.
Hard to explain really to those who play five strings but a four string P bass to me just feels so balanced...in feel, playability and overal hutz par. Sure there's moments when I could do with a lower note but in the overal picture nobodys gonna notice if I have to play Eb up on the A string.
In fact Im so old school I dont even want to "cut thru the mix".....Im happy to just sit underneath the fireworks and lay the foundation.
In fact Im so old school I dont even want to "cut thru the mix".....Im happy to just sit underneath the fireworks and lay the foundation.
My experience with 5 strings didn't go as planned at all: I had played 4-string Ibanez SRs for 15 years and started looking for a 5 string to use it for soloing with a high C (or even, high B).
However, I ended up buying an Ibanez BTB, which has absolutely nothing in common with my SR, but the different width and spacing felt great in a 5-string setting. To add to that, I really liked the low B it came with, so no high C or B for the moment.
I would say test them with an open mind and see. Maybe, even think of it as a different type of instrument. You might end up surprised.
However, I ended up buying an Ibanez BTB, which has absolutely nothing in common with my SR, but the different width and spacing felt great in a 5-string setting. To add to that, I really liked the low B it came with, so no high C or B for the moment.
I would say test them with an open mind and see. Maybe, even think of it as a different type of instrument. You might end up surprised.
For me (even though I have a 5 string in my profile pic) I never seem to get along with 5 string basses. I've had nice ones and trashy ones and none of them have ever stuck around. I even strung up a 4 string BEAD and that didn't last long either. I don't really have a need for one with most of the music that I play.
I had the same reaction from the drummer when I got my first 5er. He said he could feel the bass coming through the stool.
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Deleted member 368008
Guest
One thing that irked me, or that ...it slowly dawned on me with some 5 strings, was their ramp uphill of string gauge. When fretting at the first few frets, the top side of the string gauge went too much uphill, like a ramp, even if the neck had severe radius. This is oftly remedied and mitigated enough with ..radius, but I couldn't get my head or fingers around it. Ha ha. I thought there must be a way of slanting the fretboard first, you have to keep the same distance from underneath the strings down to top of the fret, but I figured that would only ever work for one specific gauge of strings. But with 4 strings the "ramp" up from towards the high g-string to e-string, or on a BEAD tuned bass from D to low B the "hill" isn't as severe and steep.
Of course, it was exacerbated on a neck with flatter radius, and some with old time radius it was lesser. And the dampening of the low B which must be carried out with muting with at least three fingers on the right picking/plucking hand. Otherwise if one uses just one finger on B, the harmonic mode gets heard...and results in no muting at all and stray notes....
Musically I detected that - and it is the same now on the BEAD strung 4 string bass I have - the lowest of lower notes (this applies to any instrument too, even synths) seems to sounds best on slow ballads and sparser arrangements. Not fast fusion/funk or high energy rockers. You might end the song on the lowest one when it rings out, but I think the lower 5 notes beneath "regular" E benefits from being whole notes. Think church organ.
It takes too long to establish the frequency so to speak. You have to wait for the strings sustain.
If they're too short they just pops out like some percussive thud from the drum kit. And we have the drummer for that anyways. When I just started out on this BEAD 4 string, people in the band told me I played too low. I was taking too much advantage of that low space in my playing, although not that many people ever heard the notes due to constraints in PA and own bass rig. It was more tight if I proceeded to play like a regular bass and use the other strings more. Or played at a different "box" up there on the neck so the low B string got hit, but at 5-7 frets and above. It is EASIER to stop a regular low E on a 5 string (or BEAD) when playing the E on 5th fret. You can just release the finger from the fret, which you can't do on a regular tuned 4 string bass. There's definitely a benefit there. Open string low E is a tad limited, with only plucking hand dampening.
- - - - - - -
I played the slow blues tune "Tin Pan Alley" by Robert Geddins but SRV style, the other week at a live gig. It is in their dropped tuning Eb, but ends up seen as played in C, but in reality in B. So I just decided to play it like it was on a regular tuned bass with the B in the normal octave range, and just waited (testing my patience a lot) to play the long slow low B at the very ending note. Sooo much more dramatic effect, as I didn't play it on anything else during the whole gig. Less low is more sometimes...
Of course, it was exacerbated on a neck with flatter radius, and some with old time radius it was lesser. And the dampening of the low B which must be carried out with muting with at least three fingers on the right picking/plucking hand. Otherwise if one uses just one finger on B, the harmonic mode gets heard...and results in no muting at all and stray notes....
Musically I detected that - and it is the same now on the BEAD strung 4 string bass I have - the lowest of lower notes (this applies to any instrument too, even synths) seems to sounds best on slow ballads and sparser arrangements. Not fast fusion/funk or high energy rockers. You might end the song on the lowest one when it rings out, but I think the lower 5 notes beneath "regular" E benefits from being whole notes. Think church organ.
It takes too long to establish the frequency so to speak. You have to wait for the strings sustain.
If they're too short they just pops out like some percussive thud from the drum kit. And we have the drummer for that anyways. When I just started out on this BEAD 4 string, people in the band told me I played too low. I was taking too much advantage of that low space in my playing, although not that many people ever heard the notes due to constraints in PA and own bass rig. It was more tight if I proceeded to play like a regular bass and use the other strings more. Or played at a different "box" up there on the neck so the low B string got hit, but at 5-7 frets and above. It is EASIER to stop a regular low E on a 5 string (or BEAD) when playing the E on 5th fret. You can just release the finger from the fret, which you can't do on a regular tuned 4 string bass. There's definitely a benefit there. Open string low E is a tad limited, with only plucking hand dampening.
- - - - - - -
I played the slow blues tune "Tin Pan Alley" by Robert Geddins but SRV style, the other week at a live gig. It is in their dropped tuning Eb, but ends up seen as played in C, but in reality in B. So I just decided to play it like it was on a regular tuned bass with the B in the normal octave range, and just waited (testing my patience a lot) to play the long slow low B at the very ending note. Sooo much more dramatic effect, as I didn't play it on anything else during the whole gig. Less low is more sometimes...
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Deleted member 368008
Guest
I have always wondered why some studios, bands and sessions calls for "bring your 5 string bass". If I brought my 4 string BEAD it didn't work out ... for them. Is it "for your eyes only" ? Or is it like the old days when Herbie Flowers played his iconic bass intro to Lou Reeds "Walk On The Wild Side" got more pay if he played one track with upright bass and the other track with electric bass? 
Like, if your bass has one more string it's 2 dollars more per hour?
Like, if your bass has one more string it's 2 dollars more per hour?
I really enjoyed my 5 when I played it all the time but I haven't used it for over a decade. It just sits there, mocking me.
