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Is it "cooler" to play a 4 string bass?

#241
I'm not cool. BUT, I do get comments sometimes, like "great bass playing, cool to see a guy getting it done on a 4 string!" Of course, I just had the 4 that day and probably brought a 5 the week after.

I saw a trend in the 90s of cats going to 5's. Back then, I felt like I was "different" for hanging on to my 4. Since I'm 20 years behind the times, I got my first 5 in 2015. Now, I'm noticing a trend back towards 4's, whereas I thought in 1995 that by the time 2018 rolled around everyone would be playing a 5 and 4's would become antiquated. I do have a knack for predicting the future, but in my case the opposite thing I predict always happens!
 
#242
Korladis said:
There really isn't. The chances of needing the top few notes on the G in the same song that you need the lowest on the B are slim.

Hence why I own EADG and BEAD tuned 4s.
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True, somewhat rare, but I did manage run across it today in the worship package at church. But I think you make a point with having two different basses. It seems to me however, it’s easier to negotiate 5 strings than to switch basses between songs.

The other thing is, if you happen to play with horns, you are not playing in open keys a lot, and if you are sight reading doing anything sophisticated like extended scales with accidentals, you’re subjecting yourself to a lot of mental gymnastics changing tuning.

I’d be lying if I said I haven’t strongly considered the BEAD alternative tuning, in fact, I played my 4 string with a drop D exclusively for 7 years. It took effect a long time after 40 some years of playing conventional tuning to master it. The switch back to conventional tuning adding a 5th string was nightmare, but I got there. At my age, my brain might fry (although some folks swear it is already) subjecting it to another alternative tuning.

Have a good one.
 
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#245
You know what, I'm getting really fed up with the ''duhh..this person only needed four strings" comments that are overplayed on TalkBass and are frankly, inconsequential to anything apart from showing off a person's superiority complex.

So fn what? Good for them. I'm not _insert famous bassist here_ and I'm more tonally diverse for it.
 
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#246
Mantis Tobaggan said:
Plus I like adding a little slide and hitting certain notes high on the E.
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Which you can do just as well/easily on a 5 string. Anything you can do on a 4 you can do on a 5. Plus I can go LOWER and I do believe me. Play what you prefer but neither is better or worse. They just have to suit your particular needs and if they do then end of story.
 
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#247
retslock said:
Which you can do just as well/easily on a 5 string. Anything you can do on a 4 you can do on a 5. Plus I can go LOWER and I do believe me. Play what you prefer but neither is better or worse. They just have to suit your particular needs and if they do then end of story.
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If not, dare I say, *easier*. Pretty much every 5 I have ever played gets really smooth beyond the 12th.
 
#252
Why should you care? As long as you get the sound you need just go for what you think is best.

Last week I played at a blues session and a guitar player mumbled a sarcastic "5 strings, no frets". That attitude stopped once he had played a song with me.
 
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#254
bootsie.jpg
None of us will ever be this cool no matter what bass we play.
 
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#260
stefancaunter said:
limitations are good, they force you to work with what you have and your creativity and ability becomes evident
this is why i like 4s
cool is being able to wear a nice jacket...
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Indeed. Sometimes limitations can be good. On my band's first album, we sorta forced ourselves to write different lines from each other by all being in different tunings. One guitarist/keyboardist, was in E standard, another was in B standard, and another was in drop G#. My bass was tuned BEAD, so I couldn't just do the same thing as the lowest guitarist but an octave down, causing me to write some unusual bass lines that I wouldn't have otherwise written.

donotfret said:
Why should you care? As long as you get the sound you need just go for what you think is best.

Last week I played at a blues session and a guitar player mumbled a sarcastic "5 strings, no frets". That attitude stopped once he had played a song with me.
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I would think a fretless would sound really good for blues. Less fret clank, more thick thump.

John Le Guyader said:
View attachment 3046460 None of us will ever be this cool no matter what bass we play:
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True. Bootsy is cooler than all of us.

Solude said:
Not true for me. On a 5 I can't reach the B string with my pinky :p
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Yep. This is the case for me, too.

Frenchy-Lefty said:
I started a similar thread 2 years ago noticing less and less young players using 5 string basses and that 5 string users were more and more middle-age dudes. I was told I was the biggest moron on this forum. I am glad I am not the only one.
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TB is mainly older players. I've noticed way fewer 5-strings in the local metal and rock scene for a decade now. I guess with a wide variety of string gauges available for relatively affordable prices, a 5-string for lower notes is increasingly seen as unnecessary.
 
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