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Tight Fivers (5 String Bass Spacing)
- Thread starter Low End Theorem
- Start date
Washburn Mercury series basses, and probably most older Washburns in general. They sound great too.
My Schecter Stiletto Custom 5 is 15mm. I've had it for 11 years now, and it's still kicking strong. Haven't found a 5 string I like better.
J Ferro makes really nice basses with tight spacing - good prices too.
As mentioned twice above, the G&L L-5000 would be perfect. It was G&Ls first excursion into 5 strings and was made on their 4 string necks. I owned one briefly until I realized it had the same width neck as my El Toro. Hard to find and sometimes expensive because only around 500 were made.
16.5mm is about as tight as I have seen, due to the limitations imposed by available bridges. I have the Gerald Veasley sig, and that spacing is TIGHT. No thumping/plucking will be happening on that bass, but it is SO nice to play fingerstyle.
I had a Roscoe SKB 5 custom built, and 16.5mm was as tight as they could do with the Hipshot bridge options.
Westone Spectrum V bass. It was my first five string in the late 80's. Great Matsumoku built bass from Japan with very narrow string spacing. So narrow that I was able to put a pair of EMG SS pickups from a destroyed Steinberger bass in it and it worked great. Not sure of the string spacing, but the SS pickups had a little over 2.00 inch (50mm) wide string sensing distance. I have seen a few of them for sale online in the $250-400 price range. The stock pickups were actually good sounding pickups, i was just on an EMG kick at that time.
Cort A5. My BL has one I've played with some. Took me awhile to get used to the tight spacing (don't know the measurement sorry, but it seems pretty damn tight to me anyway). Amazingly good sounds (his has Bartolini pups and preamp, Hipshot tuners & bridge etc), very attractive wood, and can be had in the $500 - 600 range.
Check the 80s-90s USA Peavey 5 strings, particularly foundation and the like. They are very tight spaced 5's, great build, rock solid tone.
Ibby's would be my 2nd choice.
Ibby's would be my 2nd choice.
Pretty sure all warwicks with the 3d bridge you can adjust spacing between 14 or 15mm all the way up to 19 or 20mm . I’m on my fifth Warwick. With my Warwick I use various finger techniques including slapping and tapping, and never play them with a pick. Not against playing with a pick. Several of my favorite bassist do play with a pick injust learned fingerstyle first and I suck so bad at it it’s frustrating to practice to get better with one lol.
I wish I knew that they could be adjusted that much! I didn't know they could go up to 20mm. 17.5 or 18 would've been great for me. Ah well
I can’t tell you how wide for sure because I’ve never tried going that wide which is why I guessed between 19 and 20. I like about 16-17mm. But yeah they saddles move in both directions. If you slide the b string Saddle up 3mm and slide the g string saddle down 3mm you’ve increased the spacing between the low b and g strings by 6 mm. Then you have to adjust the a and d strings to be spaced even which reduces the string spacing a little. The A string there’s really no reason to not have it dead center.I wish I knew that they could be adjusted that much! I didn't know they could go up to 20mm. 17.5 or 18 would've been great for me. Ah well
Most Ibanez SR’s are 16.5mm and very comfortable to play.
A lot of Warwick’s, the thumbs, corvettes, streamers are 16.5mm
The Ibanez Gerard Veasley Signature is 14mm but a 6 string.
You can always go the custom route. I got a 6 string bass built with 14mm spacing that I absolutely love.
A lot of Warwick’s, the thumbs, corvettes, streamers are 16.5mm
The Ibanez Gerard Veasley Signature is 14mm but a 6 string.
You can always go the custom route. I got a 6 string bass built with 14mm spacing that I absolutely love.
My Ibanez ATK305 is 16.5mm. I personally wouldn’t want any tighter, but that’s just me. There’s a used one for $299 on GC.com right now.
I just sold an RB885 and it was around 14-15mm spacing. I'm used to 18mm on my 6 string (see avatar) and 5 string fretless, but I found the narrow spacing on the Roadstar to be surprisingly pleasant to play. Great sounding too.
A couple of folks have already mentioned it, but the G&L L-5000 is a great bass for those who like tight spacing. IIRC the spacing on it is 15.875 mm, and it sounds like a hot, aggressive P-bass.
