Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Poll: 4s, 5s or 6s (or more?)
- Thread starter tb-player
- Start date
I have more than twenty 4 strings. I’m old. But some of the alt music I like needs a fiver for a few songs. A buddy offered me his acoustic fiver at a great price so I bought it last year to see if I could deal with the change. It was an easy switch. I’m convinced I should add an electric fiver. And I’ve decided what I’m getting. Just need to recover from tax day.
I play both 4 and a 5. While I could play typical commercial music on a six string, to me 6 strings shine when played with almost a classical guitar style. I tried playing classical music on a guitar 60 years ago, and let say it didn’t go well. LOL!!!
I have five "fives" and two "fours".
Three of my five 5ers are fret-less.
All my basses are FSOs.
One 5 string and one 4 string have rounds.
Three of my five 5ers are fret-less.
All my basses are FSOs.
One 5 string and one 4 string have rounds.
Alternating 4 vs 5 strings just for fun is one thing. No commercial advantage unless the music is written for
5 string specifically.
I do play 5s mostly, but have recently found I can be far more aggressive and busy on a 4 string. Probably 'cuz I played them for 30 years before buying a 5er. It's just me and my muscle memory thing I guess. Just me.
But I sometimes surprise myself on a 4, when I occasionally pick one up to just jam on it.
It's a form of emotional abuse to neglect the fretless.
In all my decades of playing bass, I have spent several years on 4s, several on 5s, and even a few on a 6. I used to think 5 was my home, but the basses that truly fill me with the most joy are 4-strings with Hipshot Xtenders (for quick forays into drop D). Everything about 4s just feels and sounds like home to me. Any notes on the low B get ploppy for me and the high C string sounds thin and plinky. An open D (when the E-string is drop tuned) just sounds so good, so much better than a closed D on the B string.
A 24-fret, 34" scale, 4-string with a Hipshot Xtender is what feels just right to me. And that is what I have as my two basses. They are keepers. I can play the music I want as well as great music in a plethora of genres from Bach to Rock. If I had a regular gig in the pit band of a Broadway musical or something, yeah, I'd need a 6-string so I could quickly play all that material in all those key signatures all on one instrument. But I don't play showtunes, and whenever I want to experiment I'll play ones written for 4-string.
I like that 4s are generally lighter weight than extended range basses, less expensive to maintain, have the most string options (I have "gotta try 'em all" string-pokemon GAS and favor 45-105 nickel rounds), and are just so much fun to play and feel so snuggly in my hands. Sure, with a 5-string I get economy of motion playing many songs "across the street" than "down the road" but I find the positional shifts and occasional jumping on my 4-string loads of fun and it's no big deal.
A 24-fret, 34" scale, 4-string with a Hipshot Xtender is what feels just right to me. And that is what I have as my two basses. They are keepers. I can play the music I want as well as great music in a plethora of genres from Bach to Rock. If I had a regular gig in the pit band of a Broadway musical or something, yeah, I'd need a 6-string so I could quickly play all that material in all those key signatures all on one instrument. But I don't play showtunes, and whenever I want to experiment I'll play ones written for 4-string.
I like that 4s are generally lighter weight than extended range basses, less expensive to maintain, have the most string options (I have "gotta try 'em all" string-pokemon GAS and favor 45-105 nickel rounds), and are just so much fun to play and feel so snuggly in my hands. Sure, with a 5-string I get economy of motion playing many songs "across the street" than "down the road" but I find the positional shifts and occasional jumping on my 4-string loads of fun and it's no big deal.
Last edited:
I have three 4-string basses because I still haven't found one that has 2 strings. And I think that if I find one with 2 strings and 7 frets it would be mine!!!
4's & 5's.
Bucket list: Fretless & 6xer. We'll see.
Edit: Oof...I gotta get busy on my NS Wav.
Bucket list: Fretless & 6xer. We'll see.
Edit: Oof...I gotta get busy on my NS Wav.
Last edited:
I couldn't vote. While I own three five string basses (two fretless, one fretted) and two four string basses (one semi-hollow fretless and one EUB), and my best basses are the two fretless fives (an Alembic and a Roscoe) and the EUB (an Azola BugBass II), the vast majority of the time I practice the EUB. When I gig, I play the fretless hollow-body. The others, currently, are for fun. Couldn't figure out the right answer. I REALLY wish ALL of my basses were just four strings.... perhaps that IS the answer.
Anyone have a four string fretless Alembic or Roscoe they want to trade?
Anyone have a four string fretless Alembic or Roscoe they want to trade?
I just sold my only 5er and I am down to two basses, both 4-string. It has been SO refreshing to get back to the basics. Freeing. I don’t have any plans to add a third bass anytime soon, but I’ll probably stick with 4s for the foreseeable future.
I went from 4s to 6ers when I first saw the video for Dream Theater's Lie video. I saw Myung playing that Tung 6, had to have one. I played 6 strings for a lot of years. Then one day the High B string, as I tuned it, just started annoying me. I switched to 5s and haven't looked back.
