Four to Five, how long to adapt?

[Ric5]

I have just got a second-hand Ibanez SR305EB.

Clearly, it'll take more than just 2 days to adapt to 5 strings -- 2 weeks? 2 months? I hope it's not 2 years (or never).
Especially tricky is when I have to use the G string -- it seems like a string too many.
It also seems easier to play fingerstyle than with a pick.

How long did it take you to adapt?

It takes each person a different amount of time. At first you will grab the wrong string sometimes. Stay with it and eventually the 4 string will seem wrong.

 

[Mayo Fan]

I found playing 5 strings was relatively easy if you start by using the B string as a thumb rest. From that perspective all the other strings are unchanged. For me it gets tricky with 6 strings, that messes up my muscle memory. Though I never committed to 6, only gigged it once for fun on a loaner and never tried again.

 

[themickster]

I have just got a second-hand Ibanez SR305EB.

Clearly, it'll take more than just 2 days to adapt to 5 strings -- 2 weeks? 2 months? I hope it's not 2 years (or never).
Especially tricky is when I have to use the G string -- it seems like a string too many.
It also seems easier to play fingerstyle than with a pick.

How long did it take you to adapt?

The hardest bit will be learning songs anew, to play some notes on the low B. You've bought yourself a lovely bass to play and look at.

 

[Spectre Gunner]

Took me about four months but I didn’t play it every day either. Once I finally got my right hand in sync with my left I then discovered I really had to work much harder on my string muting technique. Once I got the hang of it I could I had many more fretboard possibilities and that’s the real value of a 5’vr.

However, I didn’t stay with it because I had some nice fours laying around that took up my attention. But I was better on the fours after my five string experience, especially with my muting technique.

Before putting in some time on a 5 I had a habit of always anchoring my thumb on the pickup. The 5 forced me learn floating thumb muting. I’m a better player now and I’m freed up to pluck down by the bridge or anywhere up the neck.

Another 5 is in my future but I’m keeping all my 4’s.

 

[mr_musica]

Like Mr. Bull said in Peppa Pig "It'll take as much time as it must take..." (sorry if it's not literal, I see Peppa Pigit in spanish hehehe)

Just play live with it, it'll get you accustomed faster than rehearsing at home in a "controlled environment"...

I'll give you two tips that worked for me, but first of all, knowing how to "get out of trouble" when you make a mistake or get lost in a song, is something that your brain will work out on its own.

I started playing from the 5th fret up, thinking I had the same 4 string bass... it ended up quite confusing...
I tried to ignore the B string and played like I had a 4 string and just using a low octave for D, C or B after plucking them in the A string... most people will tell you that it is a total waste of a string, but you gotta start with something...

Just think that you must do your next gig with the 5-er and do it... You'll see that you can get to 6-8 years and still getting confused from time to time :'D

At some point you'll go back to the 4 string and feel the same after being accustomed to the 5... but try to let it rest for a year or so.

 

[badinage]

Everybody's obviously different. I'd go back to four mid-rehearsal if I was drinking so my brain could resume autopilot. Oops. I DO remember a "breakthrough" that was such a flip of an internal switch that I looked at a calendar: Seven weeks. That's what it took for me for my brain to quit being confused/mis-oriented to think I was maybe one string away from where I wasn't. Or was.

Thinking about floating thumbs and such was a waste of time and unnecessary for me, actually a detrimental distraction I'd say. I don't see why one more string requires making a science-project out of muting. Guitars, mandolins, pedal and lap-steels have more strings and people somehow cope and have been since long before YouTube.

 

[Rib 13]

To reiterate a lot of responses: everyone is different......I go back n forth between 4 and 5 with just a few minutes of re-acclimation and readjustments

 

[el murdoque]

Hard to say. Depends if you are a pattern player or a note player. Pattern player is 1, 4, 5, 2. Note player is G, C, D, A. I am a pattern player and have no issue going between the. 2.

When I was transitioning from 4 to 5, I was a pattern player. It took me about a week and never gave me any trouble. I felt like I was a born 5 string player that made the error of starting on a 4. It helped that I was just two years in and that I hated my first bass - which was, in hindsight, not very good. This was followed by a brief period of 18 or 19 years in which I played a 5 exclusively. I became a note player.
This made transitioning from 5 to 4 incredibly difficult for me. Playing a 4 felt like transposing a song on the fly.
Whenever I let my mind wander, I would fret the wrong notes.
Nowadays, I play 6 or 4 strings and that transition is much easier. I have no Idea why.

If you want to explore 5 strings, you have to invest some time. As it was suggested multiple times already, the best way is to lock up all four stringed basses and play 5 strings exclusively until muscle memory has adjusted and you mind has settled in to the fret board.

When you're playing, not paying attention to the upcoming chord change and nearly miss it, but in the last split second, with a shock, you realize the error you're heading towards. The quickest of glances shows you the letter C. All you can do is try and fret the root quick enough so it sounds like you landed on the 1. When your hand shoots for the 3rd fret on the A string, you're home on a 5.
If you play a G, you're still thinking 4.

 

[Acoop]

Not all five-strings are the same so don't expect to find yours on the first go. ... Try lots, even expensive ones you can't afford. ... It has just as much to do with your hand and the shape of the neck as it does to you making the switch to a five. ... The more naturally it fits into your hand the easier it will be.

 

[Gizmot]

Getting used to a 5 took me a while. The physical part was easy - dealing with the additional neck width, the position of the strings, etc. What took a lot longer is not having to think about every note I was going to play and how I was going to push the beat. With a 4 all of those things were automatic- not so with a 5. It probably took me 4 - 6 months to really get comfortable.

 

[Jay2U]

Takes just one gig with a major blunder.

 

[rtav]

Not a 4 to 5 convert but a 4 to 6. I played 4s for 35 years and then switched to 6s 10 years ago.

I still forget the B string isn’t an E, the E isn’t an A… especially on songs i played for decades (literally every Rush song from Fly by Night through MP). The other day i started goofing around on a Spirit of Radio and called the E the wrong string.

As I was typing this I realized that all that means is Im just a very very verrrrry sllllllooooow learner. That took awhile for me to figure out.

 

[Katoosie]

3 days max!

 

[DrBnz]

Once I learned the new / added notes of the fretboard, it went pretty quick. It was just another string after that and the only adaptation now comes from getting re-aquainted with the string spacing. So..... roughly 2 weeks - initially..... Roughly 2 minutes - now a days

 

[whero]

It was a bit weird for me. It's hard to explain, and maybe it doesn't even make much sense. But it was like on a 4-string, my fretting hand was playing from the G up and my plucking hand was playing from the E down. Years of playing had formed a link in my brain that the first string on the left hand matched the fourth string on the right hand. So on the 5er I'd fret on the G but pluck the D, or pluck the B but fret on the E.

I would say that it took me about three weeks of practising exclusively on the 5er before the new 5-string link in my brain felt natural and I wasn't forcing myself to remember the extra string, and then another couple of weeks before I was confident enough to play the 5 live in front of an audience.

 

[swink]

Rest your right thumb on the E string as if you're playing a 4-string and make that position the center of the universe where you always come back to. the side of your thumb will dampen the B string while not active as a little surplus.

 

[JPaulGeddy]

Not sure why it's even a big deal... I had to use another guy's 5er at a gig, zero issue. Then stayed 5er for like 10 years, now back to 4s mostly (brief dalliance on 6s).

At first, just use it as a thumb rest. Still just 4 strings to deal with. And for pete's sake, don't ALWAYS go to the lower notes. Stay musical. The best part of a 5 string isn't the lower notes, it's being able to position in different places. i.e., staying up in the middle of the neck instead of having to jump down to the nut.

 

[bucephylus]

I have just got a second-hand Ibanez SR305EB.

Clearly, it'll take more than just 2 days to adapt to 5 strings -- 2 weeks? 2 months? I hope it's not 2 years (or never).
Especially tricky is when I have to use the G string -- it seems like a string too many.
It also seems easier to play fingerstyle than with a pick.

How long did it take you to adapt?

The answer to this depends to some extent on the various right hand techniques you use / don’t use. The main challenge for me 30 years ago was damping the B string, which tends to resonate if unchecked.

“Floating” the side of the right thumb across the B and E strings works pretty well for many pizz parts; though there are some of the more rapid low parts where this can be problematic as well.

Other right hand techniques where “floating” the thumb does not work are slapping and plectrum parts.

I have to additionally mute the B string with the tip of my left hand middle finger, as needed, to make all the different techniques available. Getting both floating thumb and left hand middle finger muting working in partnership where you aren’t thinking about it and it doesn’t interfere with left hand fingering takes some gig time. Depending on how often you are gigging, maybe even a couple of years before it all comes together. GL; Patience and Persistence.

 

[lordradish]

I have just got a second-hand Ibanez SR305EB.

Clearly, it'll take more than just 2 days to adapt to 5 strings -- 2 weeks? 2 months? I hope it's not 2 years (or never).
Especially tricky is when I have to use the G string -- it seems like a string too many.
It also seems easier to play fingerstyle than with a pick.

How long did it take you to adapt?

It's so long ago, I don't remember specifics, but I don't remember it taking too long. I feel like it'd be much more of an adjustment for me to go back to a four now, which feels totally alien to me.

 

[bigdaddybass12]

When I was transitioning from 4 to 5, I was a pattern player. It took me about a week and never gave me any trouble. I felt like I was a born 5 string player that made the error of starting on a 4. It helped that I was just two years in and that I hated my first bass - which was, in hindsight, not very good. This was followed by a brief period of 18 or 19 years in which I played a 5 exclusively. I became a note player.
This made transitioning from 5 to 4 incredibly difficult for me. Playing a 4 felt like transposing a song on the fly.
Whenever I let my mind wander, I would fret the wrong notes.
Nowadays, I play 6 or 4 strings and that transition is much easier. I have no Idea why.

If you want to explore 5 strings, you have to invest some time. As it was suggested multiple times already, the best way is to lock up all four stringed basses and play 5 strings exclusively until muscle memory has adjusted and you mind has settled in to the fret board.

When you're playing, not paying attention to the upcoming chord change and nearly miss it, but in the last split second, with a shock, you realize the error you're heading towards. The quickest of glances shows you the letter C. All you can do is try and fret the root quick enough so it sounds like you landed on the 1. When your hand shoots for the 3rd fret on the A string, you're home on a 5.
If you play a G, you're still thinking 4.

I started on a 4, changed to 5, sold my 4’s. Years passed I picked this low key mainly acoustic gig at a small dive, a 4 would fit perfect. So back to 4’s. Still have my 5. One thing I do, when I play a 4, my thumb is on the rest or pickup, when playing my 5, thumb is on the 5th string. That makes playing hand position the same.