There's nothing wrong with only playing a 5. If you always play basses with the same number of strings, you are never going to make mistakes related to switching from a 5 to a 4 or 4 to a 5.
I used to only own and play fives (though my first 6 years were on fours) and after about 10 years I realized that I hardly used the B string. Having a 5th string ads weight to the bass, increases the neck width, and it adds cost to changing strings ($5-$7 or so in the US). Also, if you like older basses (pre-1990 or so), there aren't a lot of fivers to be found, so you would need to switch back to a four if you bought one of those. I sold all of my fives last year and now have only fours in the arsenal. I've found it to be a very freeing experience the smaller neck and wide string spacing feels really fast and accessible. I still laugh to myself when people write that they are "upgrading to a 5 string bass." I guess someday guys like Stu Hamm, Jeff Berlin, and Victor Wooten will "upgrade" from their fours....
I used to only own and play fives (though my first 6 years were on fours) and after about 10 years I realized that I hardly used the B string. Having a 5th string ads weight to the bass, increases the neck width, and it adds cost to changing strings ($5-$7 or so in the US). Also, if you like older basses (pre-1990 or so), there aren't a lot of fivers to be found, so you would need to switch back to a four if you bought one of those. I sold all of my fives last year and now have only fours in the arsenal. I've found it to be a very freeing experience the smaller neck and wide string spacing feels really fast and accessible. I still laugh to myself when people write that they are "upgrading to a 5 string bass." I guess someday guys like Stu Hamm, Jeff Berlin, and Victor Wooten will "upgrade" from their fours....
