Going back to four strings?

[MNAirHead]

One of my main gig basses is BEAD.. once we learn to spectrum sonic space of a 5er.. makes the high G silly.

 

[Greevus]

Man I am going through the 5 vs BEAD vs standard 4 string currently! I was SO excited when I got my first 5 and thought I would never look back. Didn't take long before I slapped the BEADs on my 4s. Now I am missing the lighter strings. I LOVE tuning in B though. It really is a freaking pain. I feel so much more 'at home' on the four strings. The only thing is the deepness of the B string. I am battling which tuning I want to use right now. I wrote the entire set of my band's songs on the 4s. We started in D and when I got the 5, it was B tuning all the way. I made my guitar playing brother buy heavy strings and converted him to B. Now he wants to stay. Figures right? Bottom line is that 4s will always be here. No doubt about it.

 

[HMZ]

I have play 4 strings for many years. I love the idea of a 5 string and I do have one. Its a Yamaha TRB 1005 and it sounds great. I just haven't used it with the band yet. I just feel more comfortable on my fours. Its funny I can play the 5 string sitting down but when i use it with a strap standing up I get lost on it. I think I'll take it to rehearsal this week and see how it goes.

 

[Baird6869]

At one point I owned 2 6ers, 3 4 strings and 5 5ers. Now I own 2 5ers and 10+ 4 strings.

I like 5ers, but 99% of what I can play can be done on a 4 banger. I rarely play 5ers any more.

 

[bassist4dalord]

My main bass is a Squier Affinity Jazz V. I love having the B, for woship tunes and stuff. I play praise and worship almost exclusively now, and I have found that quite often, a keyboard will be trying to play in my range. That's when I drop down below my E and just rock. It's great.

 

[mcm]

thats the only way imo.

 

[spade2you]

I'll probably keep a 5 string though: some killer songs I play bass for go below D and I'm not sure a hipshot would handle dropping to C - anyone tried that?

Hipshot tuners have a pretty decent range of travel, although it's hard to say if you'd like the tone of a given string 2 steps flat. That's a pretty significant drop in tension from E to C.

 

[Bassliner]

I've played a 5 string exclusively for about 4 years, untill I managed to scrap enough money together and find my 'ideal' vintage jazz.
I still use the 5er from time to time, when the situation calls for that low B (or high C) but I do prefer my two 4 strings.

 

[Jazz Ad]

I use a 5 stringer, it's efficient and practical but not half as fun to play as a 4 stringer.
If I have the choice I will use 4 strings.

 

[Commreman]

After playing 5 strings exclusively for 5 years, tendinitis surgery in January sent me back to 4 strings this year.

At first, I was apprehensive, but I am really glad that I made the switch back. In fact, I went ALL the way back, from high tech active 5 strings (Valenti, Carvin, etc.) to simple passive 4 string Fenders. While I loved my 5's, there is something very organic and pure about switching back to 20 fret 4 string passives, and it was more challenging at first than I thought it would be. I have really enjoyed this, and it looks like I'm going to stay with the 4's for some time to come.

 

[Debased]

Why settle for this:

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When you can have this?

I haven't owned a four string for almost thirty years. The very thought of giving up the full-range (six-string) bass's expressiveness, versatility, chordal possibilities and smooth, effortless position-playing and returning to a clunky truncated-range anachronism is anathema to me.

Like Anthony Jackson, I think the electric bass guitar should have started out with six-strings from the gitgo.

 

[dkelley]

I've played every combination of strings I could find in my local brick and mortar store bass collections, 4, 5 6, 8 (never get anything more exciting than those around here locally, but it's plenty).

I learned on a precision 4 string in the 80s, then I went through a period where I rented a different bass every week in my last couple of years in high school, so I had everything like 5 string fretless steinbergers with a high C to fat ass gibson rippers to 4003s to 6 string warwicks (which were fairly new on the scene back then if memory serves) and so on.

I never was satisfied and still never am satisfied today.

But I'm currently back to all 4 strings. I DO miss the low b, but the funny thing is that I REALLY PLAY BETTER ON A 4 STRING. And despite my best intentions and decades of playing, I still play better on relatively light flexible strings.

I will never every be happy. Best rock tone I ever heard was (I know, I know) Gene Simmons Gibson basses. Then when a friend bought a gibson ripper at the ripe old age of 14 and let me play it often I learned how the pickup settings worked and found that same damned sound. I have NEVER replicated that tone with anything other than a gibson 2 humbucking bass with the rotary pickup toggle switch.

But I hate playing those things, I just can't play fast on them, nothing like the preceision I learned on.

My favorite setup is a good hipshot on a good 4 string bass these days. gives me the speed, comfort, tone and low range I really use most of the time and I never second guess myself about which string I'm playing, I just forget everything and live in the music on a 4 string.

Ideally I will hopefully, one day, have a multihead bass that covers my desires, but there would be so many necks on the thing to cover it all that I doubt it would be too playable:
- 4 string fretted with hipshot
- 4 string fretless with hipshot
- 4 string piccolo fretted with a whammy (is there such a thing as a piccolo fretless?)
- 8 string fretted

oh yea, all of that and light weight, easy to play, and well balanced.

ahem. yea, it'll happen... suuuuuuuuuuure. but it's my dream bass, what can I say?



cheers,
Don

 

[dkelley]

Like Anthony Jackson, I think the electric bass guitar should have started out with six-strings from the gitgo.

It did, didn't it? (tic tac bass)