Help me find a 5-string

[Bass Man Dan]

Michael Kelly Custom Element 5. I bought one last year, my only complaint is it's not light. Sound, playability are all great. 35" scale, 18mm spacing. I'm not a big jazz bass guy, but this one's a keeper for me!

 

[Lackey]

Wait - what basses did you play that made you not like 34" scale? There's a lot of great 34" B strings. In fact, all my B strings are 34" and less... my TRB is absolutely thunderous and super snappy. As is the Kiesel / Carvin.

Find a Carvin, Yamaha BB or TRB, before you shut them down...

Otherwise, Lakland Skyline, or MTD imports would be great too, but pricier. Probably Sire and others, but I have no experience. Never loved Ibanez BTBs myself...

 

[SunByrne]

Wait - what basses did you play that made you not like 34" scale?

A Peavey Fury, an Ibanez SRsomething, and a J from the Fender/Squier family... can't remember if it was a MIM Fender or a Squier. The 35" was a cheap Schecter that was otherwise underwhelming, but had a solid B. Seemed like the extra tension from the longer scale helped.

But yes, totally legit that maybe I just didn't play the right 34" scale 5er. I already have a Yamaha BB734a that I love, so perhaps I should look at a TRBX.

I kind of like the Michael Kelly suggestion because they're crazy cheap...

On the other hand, I also like the idea of owning a Lakland (or an MTD), as everyone seems to love them. The issue there is budget.

 

[SunByrne]

Another vote for Lakland Skyline. I ventured into the jungle that is Craigslist recently and came away with a 55-01 for $650.

Yeah, I would snap that up in a second. Doesn't look like I'm that lucky right now, but I'll keep an eye out.

 

[spatters]

A Peavey Fury, an Ibanez SRsomething, and a J from the Fender/Squier family... can't remember if it was a MIM Fender or a Squier. The 35" was a cheap Schecter that was otherwise underwhelming, but had a solid B. Seemed like the extra tension from the longer scale helped.

But yes, totally legit that maybe I just didn't play the right 34" scale 5er. I already have a Yamaha BB734a that I love, so perhaps I should look at a TRBX.

You could also be evaluating the strings, not the bass itself.

Low B strings are triple wound, not double wound like E-A-D (G is often single wound), and thus they are far more likely to be dead or bunk. In my experience, even from respected string manufacturers, the low B is audibly deader than the other strings on a significant percentage of 5 string sets.

I believe this because I've had basses with a dead low B come alive after buying new strings, and I've had basses with a great low B die after changing strings. Sometimes I have to go through a couple sets before I find a good low B.

 

[SunByrne]

You could also be evaluating the strings, not the bass itself.

Certainly possible.

However, it seems unlikely that's the whole story. I played 5 basses, 2 35" and 3 34". I liked the Bs better on both the 35"s. If it's all strings and not scale length, the probability of that outcome is 10%. Not conclusive, but certainly suggestive. I'll be the first to agree that a larger sample would be better—I guess I'll have to go play more 5s!