Reassessing the 6 string

[Watchootognbout]

Love the basses! also, who made your 7?

It was a Wolf WTHB-7W.
I bought it online back in 2014 from OC Guitars.
Sold it in 2017.
The only place to get them now is All In One Guitars in L.A.

 

[Samatza]

The 6 string is a cool instrument and I have one in my arsenal. I use it if I know we won't have guitar and I'll get to do some solos.
Mainly use a 4 and a 5 and fretless for some shows but I do love the 6.

 

[Les Fret]

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.

Completely agree. 6 is it for me too. Also love 4. But I somehow hate 5 string basses and never yelled with them. Because I feel either one string is missing or that is has one string too many.

I don't like basses with more than 6 strings (besides a Chapman Stick, but that's not a real bass). It's too exaggerated and abundant to me.

I am now looking for a lined fretless 6 string with smaller string spacing. Any ideas? They are really hard to find.