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The best 34" 5-string bass?
- Thread starter KingRazor
- Start date
Well of course we've all been round and round on this before, so it's pretty well-worn ground at this point.
My personal experience with long-term ownership of 5+'s is with these to the best of my recollection:
- Washburn bolt-on 6 (bought new for $600)
- gibson Tobias 6 FL with the 5 piece neck (thru, bought used, but was semi-boutique when new, about $3500 MSRP IIRC)
- G&L L2500 FL (tho only owned it about a month before it was stolen)
- Carvin BB76 FL (bought new for about $1300).
These are all 34" scale instruments. The B was no better or worse than any of the other strings on any of these basses. Variation between the basses was the same with the B as with any of the other strings on them.
In short, none have (or had) bad B's that I could tell or were really standouts in terms of how the B sounded. I always found the quality of the B to be down in the noise of other factors on all of them (as I said, setup and technique being the main ones).
As for the OP's question, I can unreservedly recommend the Carvin 5 or 6's as a good sub-$1500 option with a B string. It's a great bass with a fine sounding B (like most anything else); the 5 can be bought with minimal options for around $1200, the 6 for around $1300. So it's definitely within the OP's budget. Carvin makes a 35" scale too, tho I havn't played one. I would think it would have a fine B as well.
LS
Forgive me if I go too far with this Spade, but I think the position that Spade and I hold is that many high quality basses are readily available in the boutique classification with B strings that, IN OUR EXPERIENCE, are superior to most of what is available new and under $2K. This is not to say that the B strings on these new basses are horrible, its just that they do not live up to the B strings we have played on higher end instruments.
I am of the mindset that it is worth investigating the used market of boutique/ high end instruments because there are incredible deals available, especially in the Classifieds forum. If the OP or anyone else chooses to disregard this advice, then so be it.
I am of the mindset that it is worth investigating the used market of boutique/ high end instruments because there are incredible deals available, especially in the Classifieds forum. If the OP or anyone else chooses to disregard this advice, then so be it.
Well you can probably guess my response to this
. Namely, you'd really have to demonstrate this to convince me. I don't doubt that there are boutiques that sound better than cheaper mass production basses _overall_, but you'd have your work cut out for you to convince me their _B strings_ are better (relative to that bass). I've borrowed and played several true boutiques (an Alembic 6 and a Ken Smith 5'er and a bunch of different Pedullas) and didn't notice the B's were substantially better on those.
You and Spade would, of course, rightly criticize my judgment there as not being informed from a long-term ownership perspective so that I grant.
But the cheaper ones I've owned along with the semi-boutique (my gibson tobias 6 which was also thankfully stolen out of my apt last year, may it R.I.P.) didn't tell me much of a story about variations in the quality of the B.
So if anything, I suspect the differences with the B are quite subtle and noisy, and not of the magnitude typically claimed by boutique advocates. But again, that's not the most informed opinion on TB either, so you have to apply that weighting to my report also.
LS
It is ok to disagree. People sometimes forget this. Everyone has an opinion.
I refer you to the current tonewood threads for the debate on that point. It's all being hashed out over there still so I won't introduce it here again unnecessarily.
LS
The fact of the matter is, 99.5% of the time I play this bass, it is at home in my room. If a bass doesn't meet my standards when I'm sitting alone in my bedroom, I'm not going to consider it gig worthy.
Gigging and playing bass professionally may very well be something for me in the future, but it's not something I do right now. Right now, I just play for personal enjoyment. I want a bass that I will enjoy playing.
The bass I currently own is the only bass I've ever owned (though, I have only been playing for about 2 years). It is a fantastic bass in regards to playability and comfort. It looks pretty nice too. It's sound is pretty mediocre, but that's mainly due to the pickups and preamp, things that are pretty easily replaced.
My problem with my bass is the low B string. Every other string on this bass plays great, no rattling, no buzz, no unwanted noise. The B actually isn't too bad either, but I have to play it completely different than every other string to make it sound good. I have to feather it, I have to play it at the correct angle, I have to play it at the right place on the string. Why? Why do I have to give special attention to this string to prevent rattling when I don't have to with any of the other strings?
I've tried multiple strings, tapered and non-tapered and of various gauges and to some extent, they all rattle. It's not just while fretting an note, either. The biggest problem is how much it rattles when I play an open string.
It is because of all this that I have often seriously questioned the need for a 5-string bass. If the B is just going to suck, why get 5 strings? At times I've even questioned the need for anything below standard tuning.
But my time on talk bass has taught me a few things. People have made a lot of good points about the advantages of having that low B string. So I've persevered.
Thank you for the suggestions so far, everyone. The overwhelming response seems to be that Ernie Ball Music Man basses have excellent Low B strings, I may have to give them another try.
After reading this thread though, I've decided to do something. Next week I plan on taking my bass over to my local tech and explaining how I feel about my bass and its inadequacies regarding the low B and seeing what he can do about it, we'll see where that goes.
I'm very happy with my Zon Sonus. I frankly don't see what the big deal is with 35" scale basses - I've owed them and just find them to be heavier, which is never good.
Both, really. I play unplugged more than not and the problem is more annoying and more evedent when unplugged, but still there and still noticeable when plugged in.
Wow... intense.
When I see a post like this, it makes think of concert violinists and the thousands upon thousands of dollars they spend on an instrument. $5k really isn't a crazy investment at all if you're a serious musician... we're extremely lucky to be in the camp where you can buy a high quality instrument for under $2k at all...
Personally, I'm not trying to convince you to buy an expensive instrument, I'm saying if you're serious about music, don't look at the price tag when you're picking an instrument... I worked 6-7 days a week for 3 months to afford my "boutique" instrument... consider saving if you want something really really high quality.
I suppose as a clarification, it's not spending $$$ that makes my definition of a great low B, but what is done. Without too much modding, higher witness points shouldn't be too difficult on a larger production scale. The extremely rigid construction might take a lot of R&D to make them great and still economical. Given that most production instruments are about quick turnover, doubtful that a lot of these things would be done.
If I spend that kind of money, it has to have more than just a good low-b. That bass had better be darn near perfect. Especially when I can start getting into custom territory once I move past the $2k mark.
I'm not going to say I have it especially hard or anything money wise, I know plenty of people on this forum have much less spending money than I do.
But I am a college student working a job where I don't make much more than minimum wage. I can't even afford to move out of my mom's house yet because rent at almost any apartment would be about equal to my entire monthly income. I'm paying for school completely out of pocket and after that I still have to pay for food and transportation. I'm rarely left with a whole lot of money to spend on my hobbies.
This sounds word-for-word like my college days. Keep working, it will get better eventually.
I'll repeat what I said in post #44: a new Carvin SB5000 starts at only $950, is 34" and has a great B string. Also, the Sadowsky Metro in the classifieds is well worth considering, definitely worth going $150 over budget. I OWN both these models so I speak from experience.
Has anyone mentioned the Dingwall Combustion? I don't know what they go for but I think they're in the OP's price range.
This sounds word-for-word like my college days. Keep working, it will get better eventually.
Until you get married.
By then I'd better be making a lot more money than this...Until you get married.
Back on topic: I'm wondering if maybe the nut on my bass isn't cutting it. I'm considering buying a Graphtech XL nut to replace it. I'll wait until I get a diagnosis from my local tech before I spend any money.
