I am about to buy my first bass.

Neither is best, just different.

There's generally 2 schools of thought on this.

1. Might as well start on a 5 from the start.
2. You're better off learning on a 4.

So, you see, what we think doesn't really matter.

I will, however, give you MY opinion.

Get a 6!

 

"sometimes in life you just gotta say what the fu_k"
the dude from risky buisiness

 

I'd get my bass at the moment,

it's a peavey milestone 3 and it rocks, really light, looks brilliant and sounds cool.

it cost me £130 brand new.

I like 4 strings better than anything, i'm uncomfortable with large fretboards.

thats my oppinion anyway.

- Russ

 

Off to Basses.

 

Hey bfusion,
Welcome to TB, man. I know this sounds redundant, and if there aren't many stores in your area it's a real hassle, but spend several hours playing both. There are narrow neck 5's and wide neck 4's. Pick the one that fits you the best and don't worry about how many strings are on it. If the bass you get is comfortable to YOU, you'll play the thing. Let us know what you get.
Doc

 

Welcome to TB

first off
A good beginner bass is a washburn xb-100
runs bout 260$. Its a 4 string and sounds pretty good. I cant help w/ a five string though

and one otehr thing
if you ever ask for a tab on here things will get REALLY ugly (jus a heads up)

 

well if you want to play 5, go Ibanez since you're new at the instrument. Ibanez make really comfortable necks that make the adjustment from 4 to 5 really easy...I've had two 5 string Ibanez basses and loved the playability on them. That's my 2 bits on 5 strings cuz I don't know much about 4 cuz I started on 5. You might want to take into consideration of what style you're interesting playing...that can be a huge factor in your choice!
Again, this is all just MY opinion. Good luck and happy shopping!

 

Why don't you be like John Turner and jus tstart out on a 7? What do you have to lose.. maybe you might need to work out a little bit because thos e7 stringers are pretty freaking heavy. But yeah, try to start on multi strings.. i Tried on a 4 and I can only stick to a 4. I never good experiences with 4 strings so.

Good luck to you

DM

 

That's basically saying to get a 4 because a 6 just adds 2 high strings instead of the 5th low B string.

I really depends on what music you like to play, punkers mainly play 4s while the Nu Metal guys play 5s. Get my drift?

 

4-String: EADG
5-String: BEADG
6-String: BEADGC
7-String: F#BEADGC or BEADGCF or BEADGbE

 

yeah a 6 string bass does not add 2 higher strings.. only one C string... but anyway
I say get a 4... I won't say spend several hours playing some basses because if you are a beginner, you won't know exactly what you are looking for...take someone along with you that knows something about basses.. that would be a good help... don't let the people working there take advantage of you, you can most of the time get something for less than what they are selling it for

 

You sure? I thought a 6 string was considered a baritone guitar and had strings EADGCF.

 

No, a baritone guitar is somewhere between a bass and a guitar. AFAIK, it's tuned EADGBE, but an octave lower. I'm probably wrong.

 

A standard 4 string bass guitar, as created by Leo Fender is EADG, same as the lowest 4 strings on a guitar, but an octave lower.

The 6 string bass guitar, like the Danelectro Tic Tac bass and the Fender Bass VI, EADGBE, same as a guitar, but an octave down.

The Baritone guitar, invented by Danelectro, is tuned ADGCEA, the lowest 4 strings are the same range as the 4 highest strings of the modern 6 string bass guitar, or contrabass guitar as envisioned and invented by Anthony Jackson, with help from the luthiers Carl Thompson, Vinnie Fodera and Ken Smith.

The Contrabass guitar is commonly tuned BEADGC, although people have tuned the top 2 strings 1/2 step flat, BEADF#Bb in the interest of making use of guitar style chord voicings, as well as other tunings. The 5 string contrabass is also kind of a bastard child of the 6 string contrabass, although 5's have been around about as long.

And then there are 7, 8 and 9 stringers(and 10's, although they are pretty rare).

Most people would tune a 7 string BEADGCF, or to make use of guitar voicings, BEADGBE. If you have the $$$ for the equipment to reproduce extreme low frequencies, you can tune it F#BEADGC.

Most people who can afford custom 8 and 9 string basses can afford the expensive equipment to reproduce the low F#, and the most common tuning for these are F#BEADGCF and F#BEADGCFBb, although I am sure that people have tried many other tunings with these beasts as well.

 

Wait a min Em-Bel, so is your Cirrus 6(or a Warwick Corvette 6, etc) a Contrabass, as it is tuned BEADGC?

And go to www.guitar.com, watch the interview with Daron Malakian of System Of A Down. He has an Ibanez Iceman, which he says is a baritone guitar. It is identical in shape to a normal Iceman, but he says he uses the thickest strings of a 7 string set on it. I don't get the discrepancies. I thought a baritone might have been tuned differently, as I've seen one-finger guitar power chords played on em. Never seen or heard of a guitar tuned EADGBe, but an octave lower than a regular guitar.

I notice how the baritone has the 2nd string tuned a third away from the 3rd string, like the high B of a guitar is a third from the G string.

 

Going to play bass eh?

What a loser.

 

I wish that I could find the url for the page that I posted the last time someone asked these questions. I had to reload my PC and forgot to save my bookmarks. DOH!

A Baritone guitar is indeed tuned a 4th lower than a regular guitar, the first 6 string bass guitar was a Danelectro made in 1956 and designed to be played with a pick, had really tight string spacing and a short scale and was tuned EADGBE, just like a guitar, only one octave lower(it was designed for guitarists who doubled on bass), and yes, my Peavey Cirrus Custom is a 6 string Contrabass guitar, as are almost all current production 6 stringers, but they have become so much more common than the original 6 string bass guitar that most people call them a 6 string bass. It's less cumbersome than Contrabass Guitar.