The first 5-string?

[Greevus]

I remember John Paul Jones playing a Fender V back in the early 70s I think. More like a baritone guitar to me. Thank god they put the B string on them.

 

[WRXbase]

I have a 1998 copy of David Gross' "6-String Bassics" book that says, "14 years ago ... was a strange looking bass with six strings! ..."

 

[StephenR]

Here are a couple of shots of my 1978 Alembic Series I five-string. This was my first five-string and I have owned it since 1984-1985. As you can see the neck is indeed very narrow. When I got this bass it was very difficult to find B strings (or five-string basses period, not sure I ever saw one in a store). I used to go out to the D'Addario factory on Long Island and buy single .145 gauge strings by the box (the only way they would sell them). The strings were like telephone poles and didn't sit on the bass very well. It took a long time before the various manufacturers sorted out how to properly space the strings on multi-string basses. A lot of the earlier five-strings were more like four-string basses with an extra string slapped on. My second five-string was a 1988 Modulus Quantum with neck through body, it had a wider neck but still not all that wide compared to the instruments available today. I still feel that the early Quantum basses were the break through design in neck technology that paved the way for today's multi-string basses.

SR

http://www.stephenramirez.com/images/alembic%20front.jpg

http://www.stephenramirez.com/images/alembic%20full.jpg

 

[mkrtu9]

With all due respect, I believe that this is incorrect. Fodera did not even exist in 1975. Anthony Jackson's first and second 6 string basses were made by Carl Thompson. Then he had a couple made by Ken Smith and Vinny Fodera, who was working for Ken Smith at the time, actually made the 4th one and when he left to start his own company (1982 or 1983?) Anthony Jackson followed him and has collaborated with him ever since.

The first 5 string bass was played by Jimmy Johnson. He ordered a 5 string bass from Alembic. They were offering basses tuned EADGC and he altered it to BEADG. This was around 1976 or so.

I learned all this from the book "How The Fender Bass Changed The World" by Jim Roberts but I'm going on memory so there may be some slight errors regarding dates.

Beats me.. I was going by the website I quoted... guess we can sew Google for giving that info out

 

[Trubz]

that's got the weirdest scale length... only 15 frets?!?

16 frets, but still that's weird

 

[heroincredible]

16 frets, but still that's weird

...yea, except it has 15 frets.

 

[BassikLee]

Scale length of the first Fender Bass 5 has NOTHING at all to do with scale length. As an extreme example, a 35" scale fretless has no frets at all, while a gibson scale gtr (24.75") might have 24 or more....

 

[lousybassplayer]

^that is a good point.

 

[mynan]

When did MusicMan start? They were the first mass-produced (BEADG) bass that I ever saw a picture of (Tony Levin) in the mid-late 80's.

The Stingray5 came out in 1987.

 

[lug]

First one I actually remember is used by Papa Bear. Tony Levin is definitely using a 5 string on Peter Gabriel II exp the song Exposure. Released in 78.
Linky with sound clip (8th song down):
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I remember thinking *** IS THAT!

 

[Shreba]

I supposedly ordered the first Alembic 5 string in about 1973 according to the letter that came with the bass. When I ordered it they sent me a multi page order form specifying all the woods, dimensions, etc. I remember telling them I wanted a higher string with the same spacing as my 63 jazz bass but just extended one more string. I sent them the form with $900 and I was to pay $600 on completion. It took 6 months!! And when it finally came they never mentioned the money but had a nice letter saying it was there first 5 string they had made and wanted to know if I liked it.
It was stolen a year later and I never got it back but I did file it with the Houston police dept.
It had a birds eye maple top and zebra wood back and my friend who did lights for Frank Zappa called me several years later saying he thought he saw on the wall in a California music store.
Actually I never liked it...the spacing was too narrow and it sounded to sterile to me, I was use to old Fenders and was playing a 55’ tele bass that was found at a garage sale for $200 in the original leather bag!
Ah the good old days!!