Reassessing the 6 string

[IamGroot]

I have owned a 6 string for decades, but at heart I am a 4 string traditionalist.

Six strings never seemed as intuitively comfortable as a 4 or 5 and muting and string spacing were an issue. For chords, I grab a guitar or keyboard.

The last two years I have dug into guitar and sax solos on the bass. The 4 with 24 frets will cover a lot of the territory,, but often way up in the neck where access is hard.

The 6 solved that. I got home today and retrieved my 6 string out of the closet.
Pure joy playing the high register stuff and covering more stuff in one position.

Your thoughts on the 6?

 

[Epitaph04]

I like it.

 

[eastcoasteddie]

They don't agree with me...I tried...I really did. 5 for me...

 

[juggahnaught]

Love them. Love them to the point that it's hard to go back to anything less.

 

[Whippet]

I love my 6 strings. No need to move around the neck, and believe it or not, people with small hands who aren't 6'4'' can really benefit from the extra 2 strings.

In fact I regret I didn't start out on a seven string. Skip the 5, forget the 6, just get to the bottom of the line. All my future basses will either be a 6 or a 7 string.

 

[Nashrakh]

I'm a total convert. In a pinch, I could go back to 5 but 6 is where it's at.

Muting is tricky indeed, but the advantages are obvious - I play a lot of music that requires a wide range, music that has me reading through all of it, and music that either lets me stretch out or take a solo.

The six is perfectly intuitive for that. Reading without a lot of shifting was the biggest selling point for me. Despite having small hands with stubby fingers, I found that getting around on the 'aircraft carrier' is easier than expected. In fact, going back to four makes it seem like I'm holding a pencil. Thus I don't really get all the discussions about nut width or neck thickness...

By the way, I thought people would give me carp for showing up with a six. Like they're expecting me to be a flashy player that wanks all the time - but far from it. So far, everyone loved it immediately and they were quickly warmed up to the concept - my big band's music director actually tries to incorporate the wider range in our arrangements...

The six does give the impression of me being far more skilled than I actually am, though.

 

[Jazz Ad]

I owned up to 7.
Very often I will appreciate 5 but never really needed or even enjoyed more.
At some point if I have more strings available all I do is noodling around, adding zero musicality.
I'd probably be able to get by with 3 strings BEA.

 

[Element Zero]

Someday I'll own an F#-G tuned 6, but for now, a standard tuned 5 with 19mm spacing fits me like a glove.

 

[IamGroot]

Clarifying,

a 4 works for me for the traditional bass role. And I can do Charlie Parker and Charlie Christian usually with a 4. Jaco copped a lot of the Bird, btw.

The 5 covers the occasional notes lower than E. Someday I may incorporate the 5 high up the neck like Feraud does.

The 6 allows me to cover my jazz idols like Michael Brecker and Wes Montgomery. Not terribly well right now, but that will come with time. I am currently not playing with anybody due to my day job, but some day.....

 

[rtav]

Played 4s for 34 years.

Switched to a 6 that felt and sounded awesome - that was 8 years ago.

Not going back to the unnecessary limits of a 4, ever.

 

[chris_b]

Your thoughts on the 6?

If you are a keen soloist then a 6 might have benefits. I'm at the opposite end of the scale (rhythm and groove) so a 5er was the best "next step" for me.

 

[IamGroot]

I didnt get many gigs as a soloist, even with a small jazz combo format.

Holding down the low end is priority #1 for me. The soloist thing will probably stay in the bedroom.

 

[UntitledUser]

I have owned a 6 string for decades, but at heart I am a 4 string traditionalist.
CUT
Your thoughts on the 6?

For solo project or when you don't need to follow and mimic the fingering of a "complex/tricky" guitar riff written on the guitar, you can try also the "All Fifths (7semitones per string)" tuning on the 4bass, instead of All Fourth(5 semitones per string).
It expands the range of tuning, so the 4bass gets a similar high range of 6bass.
I can learn how to transcribe music on it just using a printed scheme with note positions.

Pay attention to strings set; you should probably buy singles.
E1-B1-F#2-C#3 with Rounds the gauge is acceptable with [105 - 75 - 50 - 35/32]
(with flats subtract 05 for each string since they have more tension]

 

[Tekkers]

A six-string is the definitive electric bass, in my opinion.
All of the extra range is useful and adds value; you can play with guitarists in altered tunings without needing to retune yourself, you have easy access to an Eb, there's more scope to play inverted arpeggios or have your lowest note something other than the tonic.
With the high string you've got the ability to double lines in the guitar range, you can hit partial chords or arpeggios dead easy, there's lead playing or melodic lines if you do that. Plus the whole thing puts three octaves under your fingers without needing to shift hand position, which is probably the biggest advantage.

Anything more than six is an extra but isn't strictly necessary; the added range of a seven- or eight-string bass adds a lot more options and you can do a lot of cool stuff with it (I play an eight so I speak from my own experience) but it starts requiring different techniques and approaches at that point.

Six is a logical development of the electric bass, people have their fours and fives but I'm my own view and based on my own experience, a six does all the essentials, whereas a four only covers most of them.

Each six also comes with a built-in four-string, so there's really no downside.

 

[IamGroot]

For solo project or when you don't need to follow and mimic the fingering of a "complex/tricky" guitar riff written on the guitar, you can try also the "All Fifths (7semitones per string)" tuning on the 4bass, instead of All Fourth(5 semitones per string).
It expands the range of tuning, so the 4bass gets a similar high range of 6bass.
I can learn how to transcribe music on it just using a printed scheme with note positions.

Pay attention to strings set; you should probably buy singles.
E1-B1-F#2-C#3 with Rounds the gauge is acceptable with [105 - 75 - 50 - 35/32]
(with flats subtract 05 for each string since they have more tension]

I would be scared to try that on the bass for fear of crippling myself, although i am increasingly using Jaco 5 fret sttetches.

Quartulli? plays DB in 5ths and i studied with one of his students but didnt take the plunge.

Also, i am OCD about 4ths. I limit my time on guitar to avoid corrupting my fingering.

 

[UntitledUser]

I would be scared to try that on the bass for fear of crippling myself, although i am increasingly using Jaco 5 fret sttetches.
Quartulli? plays DB in 5ths and i studied with one of his students but didnt take the plunge.
Also, i am OCD about 4ths. I limit my time on guitar to avoid corrupting my fingering.

If you don't use the guitar for open chords, but use it the "rock" way (just powerchords, riffs, or single notes; no open-chords)
You can tune your guitar in all-fourths like the bass, so you don't spoil your fingering.
The standard set of string usually holds it without problems and the neck would not have to be adjusted, in the end is only shifting only a pair of strings just 1 semitone up.

 

[Turxile]

I like 6 string basses, I have 2. I have a strong preference for narrow string spacing though, at both the nut and the bridge.
The C string is handy for chords, double stops, fills, and solos of course.
I don't use the B string as much.

 

[Dincrest]

6-strings are cool. And they're becoming far more common. Several extreme metal bands I've been listening to recently (Rivers of Nihil, Tessitura, Archspire) utilize 6-string bass to great effect.

I have a 6-string and it's one of the best instruments I've ever owned. Thing's a straight up monster and is the only 6er whose neck I've gotten along with. It's also the only EMG equipped bass I've loved the tone of. I'm typically more of a Duncan guy. It's a uniquely spec'd instrument and I've never played anything like it.

It's a big boy, though; weighs 12.5 pounds, so I can't shoulder it for more than an hour. I named it Incredible Hulk because it's a big, green(ish), bruiser that would probably still stay in tune after smashing skulls at a Bob's Country Bunker gig. It was a serendipitous find. Still, though it is fun to have around, I hardly play it.

5-string is home for me, though.

 

[Wasnex]

I have owned a 6 string for decades, but at heart I am a 4 string traditionalist.

Six strings never seemed as intuitively comfortable as a 4 or 5 and muting and string spacing were an issue. For chords, I grab a guitar or keyboard.

The last two years I have dug into guitar and sax solos on the bass. The 4 with 24 frets will cover a lot of the territory,, but often way up in the neck where access is hard.

The 6 solved that. I got home today and retrieved my 6 string out of the closet.
Pure joy playing the high register stuff and covering more stuff in one position.

Your thoughts on the 6?

Yamaha TRB6P has been my #1 since about 95. I still have 4- and 5-strings in my collection, but I pretty much learned OFPF on six and have adopted lots of shifts that won't work without the extra strings. So I could play a 4- or 5-string, but the 6-string is home.

A good deal of my work was playing Real Book tunes in a jazz combo where I was expected to solo frequently. The C gives me a wider variety of timbre to work with, and also extends the range without having to play so high on the neck. I rarely play above the 12th fret, so I don't really know that part of the fingerboard all that well. Also I find that there are technical challenges with playing much above the 12th fret.

For most pop music I don't use the C string very much. The exception is country. I ran a country band for a couple of years and found there were quite a few fills that were high enough to sound great on the C string.

The only instrument I ever had the military buy me was a US series NS Design 6-string EUB. It sounded absolutely nothing like a string bass, but I miss it's unique voice. The B-string was especially monstrous as it developed a much stronger fundamental due to the longer scale of the instrument. The current EU series is supposed to be made to the same spec. I won and paid for one off Ebay, and the seller told me it was damaged when he took it for packing ...yeah right . Maybe someday another one will pop up, but I am not going to pay six grand .

 

[Watchootognbout]

I picked up the six back in 2007.
It's great for two handed tapping.
Fleshing out chords for compositions.
Fretting across,rather then up the neck.