Long time lurker, first time poster on any message board...
While my bass was at my luthier to get its' fingerboard dressed and tuning machines replaced, I talked with them about converting my bass into a five string.
You might ask "Why?!!!" I first learned to play on a five string upright, and even though I'm comfortable on the four, it feels like something is missing. When the extended range has been required, I would either drop tune the E string a step or tune in fifths a la Red Mitchell--I wish I was half the player he was...
So what I was hoping was that we could have a discussion about the pros and cons of such a conversion to 5 strings, and/or the techniques used. Since every bass is unique there probably is no one definite answer. It always depends. I think that is one of the reasons that basses are so much fun...and occasionally heartache. A mixture of fear and excitement of how it will turn out.
In the next few days, I will decide whether or not to have the work done. And if you're interested, I'll keep you posted. But your ideas, suggestions, and experience is what I need so that I understand the full range of possibilities of what I'm getting into.
The questions that are on my mind are:
(1) Does the top of the bass need to be removed to strengthen/reinforce the inside of the bass to accomodate the extra string tension? My number one fear is the bass imploding on itself.
(2) What do you think this will do to the sound of the bass? In particular will it brighten or darken the sound, increase or reduce sustain? Will it make the bass thuddy?
(3) Aside from replacing the fingerboard, nut, bridge, tailpiece, and filling/redrilling the pegbox...is there anything else I am overlooking? Are there any other questions I should be asking?
By now if you've read this far you'd like to know something about my bass. So here we go!
--"Antonius Stradivarius... ... ... ... Made in Bohemia" Darn!!!
--It is a mystery bass of sorts, though not as awe inspiring as Ken's, still turns a few heads now and then. The "makers" signature is in terrible handwriting...Pfzrempnetskiy, or somthing that looks like that.
--Flat back, "3/4 size", a thick and strong neck, shoulders that allow easy access to thumb position but isn't heavily sloped, lower and upper bout are proportional to each other (Sorry I don't have measurements and it's at the luthier)
Wear and Tear:
No cracks in the face or back. The most striking visual feature is that the face has an unusually high number of verticle wood growth lines to it, over 300 lines IIRC.
The are a few cracks (repaired) where the center bout meets the lower bout. My guess is It looks like these are due to expansion/contraction over the years, they are very small. There is also 2 repaired cracks (each 6-7 inches long) on the bottom of the bass running from near the endpin outward to the lower bout. These cracks probably happened from bumping the endpin into things. All cracks existed and were already repaired when I got the bass 6 years ago, and the luthier signed his name in pencil on the inside of the bass.
Hardware:
Wood peg tyrolean tuners, maple bridge with aluminum adjusters, ebony tailpiece with coathanger wire
Sound:
What drew me to this bass was its' sound. It is a dark, warm sound when bowed and with above average volume. When heard acoustically, the pizz can be outright haunting. When It is amplified, it can be a bit heavy on fundemental and light on overtones though, so eq is always a bit tricky when I play with a big band--on the other hand, it is nice in a combo or orchestral setting. My goal in sound/playability is to emphasize low tension, long sustain, and warm non-thuddy tone in jazz, and good volume and bow/string response in orchestra.
How I use it:
I use two different setups. My jazz setup is Tomastik Spirocore Weich at the lowest possible action before buzzing occurs. For my orchestral setup I raise my action considerably and put on my one and only set of eudoxas, which work well with my darker sounding bass. Right now I am on the jazz setup about 80% of the time and on the eudoxas 20%.
So is this a crazy idea, or not?
Thanks,
Ryan
While my bass was at my luthier to get its' fingerboard dressed and tuning machines replaced, I talked with them about converting my bass into a five string.
You might ask "Why?!!!" I first learned to play on a five string upright, and even though I'm comfortable on the four, it feels like something is missing. When the extended range has been required, I would either drop tune the E string a step or tune in fifths a la Red Mitchell--I wish I was half the player he was...
So what I was hoping was that we could have a discussion about the pros and cons of such a conversion to 5 strings, and/or the techniques used. Since every bass is unique there probably is no one definite answer. It always depends. I think that is one of the reasons that basses are so much fun...and occasionally heartache. A mixture of fear and excitement of how it will turn out.
In the next few days, I will decide whether or not to have the work done. And if you're interested, I'll keep you posted. But your ideas, suggestions, and experience is what I need so that I understand the full range of possibilities of what I'm getting into.
The questions that are on my mind are:
(1) Does the top of the bass need to be removed to strengthen/reinforce the inside of the bass to accomodate the extra string tension? My number one fear is the bass imploding on itself.
(2) What do you think this will do to the sound of the bass? In particular will it brighten or darken the sound, increase or reduce sustain? Will it make the bass thuddy?
(3) Aside from replacing the fingerboard, nut, bridge, tailpiece, and filling/redrilling the pegbox...is there anything else I am overlooking? Are there any other questions I should be asking?
By now if you've read this far you'd like to know something about my bass. So here we go!
--"Antonius Stradivarius... ... ... ... Made in Bohemia" Darn!!!
--It is a mystery bass of sorts, though not as awe inspiring as Ken's, still turns a few heads now and then. The "makers" signature is in terrible handwriting...Pfzrempnetskiy, or somthing that looks like that.
--Flat back, "3/4 size", a thick and strong neck, shoulders that allow easy access to thumb position but isn't heavily sloped, lower and upper bout are proportional to each other (Sorry I don't have measurements and it's at the luthier)
Wear and Tear:
No cracks in the face or back. The most striking visual feature is that the face has an unusually high number of verticle wood growth lines to it, over 300 lines IIRC.
The are a few cracks (repaired) where the center bout meets the lower bout. My guess is It looks like these are due to expansion/contraction over the years, they are very small. There is also 2 repaired cracks (each 6-7 inches long) on the bottom of the bass running from near the endpin outward to the lower bout. These cracks probably happened from bumping the endpin into things. All cracks existed and were already repaired when I got the bass 6 years ago, and the luthier signed his name in pencil on the inside of the bass.
Hardware:
Wood peg tyrolean tuners, maple bridge with aluminum adjusters, ebony tailpiece with coathanger wire
Sound:
What drew me to this bass was its' sound. It is a dark, warm sound when bowed and with above average volume. When heard acoustically, the pizz can be outright haunting. When It is amplified, it can be a bit heavy on fundemental and light on overtones though, so eq is always a bit tricky when I play with a big band--on the other hand, it is nice in a combo or orchestral setting. My goal in sound/playability is to emphasize low tension, long sustain, and warm non-thuddy tone in jazz, and good volume and bow/string response in orchestra.
How I use it:
I use two different setups. My jazz setup is Tomastik Spirocore Weich at the lowest possible action before buzzing occurs. For my orchestral setup I raise my action considerably and put on my one and only set of eudoxas, which work well with my darker sounding bass. Right now I am on the jazz setup about 80% of the time and on the eudoxas 20%.
So is this a crazy idea, or not?
Thanks,
Ryan
