The Five Fret Prison---who knew?

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Most of my basses and all my guitars have a C#.
My first bass with a D was a Kubicki and now one of my 5s has a D. My P basses don’t have a D but my J does.

I glue the bottom half of a capo at the octave so I can’t play above the 12. “The BL” made me do it.

Fire the BL

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

More like five frets of heaven. Open strings are more than ok. If you can go no frets, that's even better.

Open strings suck. That's why they invented the zero fret

 

[timmus]

My first band as a bass player had a BL that kept telling me there's no money to made above the 7th fret on bass....or was it the 5th fret. I don't actually remember...LOL.

Regardless, I didn't last long with them.

 

[TerribleTim68]

That's why I just play open strings. Any good metal band you can just write everything in an open string key and then you don't have issues with fretting or too big of a stretch to the next note. Kip Winger built a career out of it, so that's what I'm sticking with.

 

[SharpCat]

I guess you haven’t yet discovered the simple solution- just add an extra two frets between E-F & B-C. Done! They were hiding in plain sight all along.

TWO frets? E-kindasharp and F-kindaflat? I play those all the time with no extra frets.

 

[Plain Old Barry]

40 minutes! I've been at it for 50 years and still can't find that darn Cb and E#.

I dunno dude, they're there!

 

[Auspuff]

Saw this on Facebook today:

View attachment 5144912

I've got an easier solution...get a Bass VI for another twelve notes on the B and C strings! You can get all the way to the A on the 14th fret of the G string at the 5th fret of the high E.

Man, go to jail for playing like Jaco, go to jail for only playing on the first five frets, get the electric chair for playing chords, I just can't win. I'm going to take up the kazoo.

View attachment 5144938

40 minutes! I've been at it for 50 years and still can't find that darn Cb and E#.

FOOTNOTE:
The Fender Bass V of the 1960s was designed with a high C string (tuned EADGC). The fifth fret of the C would get you to the F that's on the 10th fret of the G string. Since you had that C string, Fender threw away the upper 5 frets...it's only got 15 frets but you can still hit that high Eb except now it's on the highest fret of the C string

View attachment 5144950

Go fretless, and be free of speed bumps, forever.

The entire fretboard will become your kingdom, with no limitations.

 

[tpaul]

I find a spend a lot of time between frets 3 and 10.

Seems like a pretty low-security prison.

 

[DaveParker39]

I hate when I get arrested for playing on the 6th fret

 

[salmon256]

Man, go to jail for playing like Jaco, go to jail for only playing on the first five frets, get the electric chair for playing chords, I just can't win. I'm going to take up the kazoo.

 

[CryingBass]

 

[mdlewis]

I kinda get this…when I’m sight reading charts I tend to take notes on the lower frets. When playing from memory or improvising, it’s a completely different story and the whole neck feels available.

 

[Nev375]

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

If you are going to have to do the time you might as well do the crime.

 

[nnnnnn]

I tried SBL for one year but I just found all this kind of stuff really patronising.

I watched a few of the videos a few years ago, and found them not overly helpful because they did not include any written music (not tabs or bass clef), it was just Scott explaining verbally how to play a bass line or exercise by describing which finger to put on which fret in which order. It was an agonizingly slow way to get through the notes, and not conducive to memorising anything.

 

[Auer]

Youtubers under constant pressure to stay relevant and pay the bills will pretty much say any poopie in order to get the clicks.

IDGAF.

 

[Passinwind]

My super secret guide to bass playing happiness:

1) Ignore clickbait.

2) Profit!

 

[JimmyM]

I, too, like to pretend there is an global conspiracy against playing what we like.

I was going to post but I could never top this one.

 

[BassJuju]

What to do with my 3 octave fingerboards?!

 

[jtg]

Open strings suck. That's why they invented the zero fret

Zero fret is cool. I just like the notes that leave a hand free for my beer.

 

[Pilgrim]

I have many failings as a bass player, and a preference for the bottom 5 frets is one of them.

In the words of Lone Waddy in The Outlaw Josey Wales, I shall "endeavor to persevere."