What do you in particularly like about playing 5 string basses?

[pbass2]

If I'm doing a session I always take a P bass with flats and a 5 with rounds. I set the P bass up even if I'm not using it, there is something about producers and engineers seeing a P bass on a session that gives them comfort. Yes, it weird.

Not weird, a real thing, part of the job to show up with tools you expect the employer wants available for the work (plenty of TB threads about that topic of course!...). Lately I've been bringing 4 basses--a P (either flats or old rounds), a shorty hollowbody w flats and...two different sounding five strings - one has flats and one with rounds. The fiver with the flats gets a ton of use. I do thumpy retro vibes with it, dubby stuff, Americana/country, etc all with the ability to get to those low notes if needed and also get those fat tones up the neck on the low strings. I love it. Even now, there's still that stigma out there for a lot of folks where when they think "five string" they assume they're gonna hear a "modern active coffee table" sound. I have won over quite a few of these people with a passive fiver with flats. Surprised them, actually. Plus, my five strings are passive and look like FSOs, so that doesn't hurt either.

 

[MrLenny1]

Ending a tune with a slide down to Low C.

 

[MCS4]

As someone who has been detuning four strings to one degree or another for decades, the extra low notes themselves are not particularly special to me as a benefit of five strings. Instead, for me the main benefit of a standard-tuned five string is being able to expand the notes and patterns I know for a standard-tuned four string and be able to more easily apply them in keys that can be awkward on a four string without needing to jump to the higher register. Perhaps ironically, I feel like I would probably use a five string even more for music that revolved around walking bass lines and other traditional bass parts as compared to stuff like some rock/metal that might make more explicit use of extra low notes.

 

[Lo-E]

I like having the low notes when needed, I like that some patterns are easier to play across the fretboard. And I like that I don't have to detune or swap basses for different keys like Eb or D. I love both 4s and 5s pretty much equally, and I feel equally at home playing either one (but that took a long time), so for me it really depends on the gig/material.

Thanks @Cleezmo for typing out everything I was going to.

 

[pbass2]

As someone who has been detuning four strings to one degree or another for decades, the extra low notes themselves are not particularly special to me as a benefit of five strings. Instead, for me the main benefit of a standard-tuned five string is being able to expand the notes and patterns I know for a standard-tuned four string and be able to more easily apply them in keys that can be awkward on a four string without needing to jump to the higher register. Perhaps ironically, I feel like I would probably use a five string even more for music that revolved around walking bass lines and other traditional bass parts as compared to stuff like some rock/metal that might make more explicit use of extra low notes.

Totally. I play in one scenario where there's lots of walking and going for an upright-ish vibe (palm mute or foam mute, plucking up by the neck, that whole thang). The extra low notes below E rarely get used, they don't sound right for much of it. But on the fiver I not only can navigate those parts in different ways, I can also get more of that sound, playing higher up the neck where on a four I'd be be stuck down by the nut for the lowest notes.

 

[Thunderthumbs73]

I think what I love most about playing a 5 string bass is that, at least to me, navigating on the fretboard seems much more logical, like in particular how 3 octaves exactly mirrors 3 frets apart, 3 strings down, across the fretboard, and how triad harmonies mirrors in octaves 3 frets apart, 3 strings down, across the board.

There's just a very logical mathematical symmetry to navigating on the fretboard of a 5 string bass, that isn't present on a 4 string, or 6 string bass for that matters, to the same degree, like as if a 4 string bass has one too few strings and a 6 string one too many.

Apparently I am not the only one who have made this observation about 5 string instruments in particular, though this is a guitar, and not tuned in all fourths standard tuning, like I, and most others would tune their 5 string basses*), I have heard Jacob Collier mention something similar about his custom 5 string guitars, concerning the logical mathematical symmetry of having exactly 5 strings, and in particular when utilizing triads a lot.

Chords and scales just seems to make more sense on a 5 string bass, at least for me.


*) For what it is worth, while I do tune in standard all fourth tuning, my main 5 string bass is tuned in G# standard tuning (that is as in one half step bellow the upper 4 strings of 6 string bass in regular B standard tuning, plus a high E), so I do utilize chords a lot more than the average bass player, and a playing style that is more of a crossover between traditional bass and traditional guitar playing style.

For me, nothing mathematical or physical. I simply:
1.) Need to play songs properly and "like the record" as modern music of all kinds increasingly requires a low B string to be correctly, and
2.) People playing E Flat tuned guitars and standard E guitars- I don't worry about it, and play a standard tuning 5 string and play what needs to be played.

That's it.

 

[meisi]

You can play the low notes and/or the high notes without moving too much.

4 string is a lot of movement by comparison.

4strings I’d look at what the guitarist is doing and do the same positioning. On 5stirngs your brain changes and just says “what notes are they playing” and pick a position that makes sense for the tune.

As mentioned it’s a game changer when everyone is dropping D or changing guitars for Eb tuning and you’re just sitting happy waiting for the next tune.

 

[Bass1447]

After longer than I will admit I switched to 5 string. It just makes sense. That neck feels better. Balance is better. Having the 2-octave option was electrifying. When I was a 4 string player I thought P-Bass's had fat necks. Not anymore. In fact, if I pick up a 4 I feel like I'm gonna break the damn thing. After 15+ years of 5 string playing I have come to the conclusion 5 string is what bass was supposed to be. Give me a .130 B string and I'm there.

Said it before.

4 string bass isn't real bass.

 

[Fuzzbass]

I was initially attracted to five string for the lower range: I kept having to detune my fours to various notes below low E. The Hipshot D-Tuner/Xtender is an excellent device, but I sometimes needed low Eb, D, Db, and even C.

So after years of deliberation I bought a fiver in Y2K. Once I became accustomed to it I realized that the greater advantage to BEADG was the extended range in every fingering position. It's a mistake to think of a fiver as "four plus one". Guess what: the low B can be played above the 5th fret! In fact the low B can be played up to the 12th fret, or even higher on a well-built, well-intonated instrument.

Despite having average-sized hands, I get around well on wide-spaced 5 string (I don't care for narrow spaced fivers such as the Music Man SR5). I have played a few six strings, but they are too awkward for me: either string spacing is too narrow, or the fretboard too wide. Five string is Goldilocks for me.

 

[ezstep]

I bit the bullet and got my first fiver back in '92. I have owned a few more since, but I still have that one. Due to my age (sigh), I just purchased a Sire U5, short scale four string. So I am relearning getting comfortable with sliding my wrist up a couple of frets or down a couple of frets to catch a lower octave. The fours sometimes need a lot of arm movement that the fives do not require.

Church music? Fiver all day long and twice on....err.....

 

[pbass2]

2.) People playing E Flat tuned guitars and standard E guitars- I don't worry about it, and play a standard tuning 5 string and play what needs to be played.

And this is more and more common it seems. I keep ending up doing gigs or recording with songwriters who are either guitarists who tune down to Eb, or are keyboard players who seem to love playing in Db(that's kind of a weird one to me...). You're gonna want the low octave of those notes available. With four bangers I'd have to have basses set up specifically for that--I'm very adamant how how my basses play--string tension, etc. What a pain that would be. And I have Hipshots on a couple 4 strings. It's not a compete solution (and the slacker tension bugs me when it's dropped). Also added bonus with the fiver is it keeps you on your toes, when the guitarist is calling out "G" and what he's really playing is an F#.

 

[Drifter8230]

There'd be no way in hell I'd ever be able to play Hammer Smashed Face without the low B-string. Not having to move my fretting hand up and down the neck makes it possible for me to play parts that otherwise would be damn near-impossible for me to play

 

[2thAche]

Low B and the novelty of playing lower notes in higher positions. Otherwise it's just a fat neck with string spacing that I don't enjoy.

 

[mikeGJ]

I’m primarily an upright player, so I feel as if I should play a four, if possible.

On a fiver, I love the ability to play at and above the fifth fret, which makes it easier to accommodate and adjust to
the whims of vocalists or whatever is thrown the music stand.

 

[Sam Evans]

... or are keyboard players who seem to love playing in Db(that's kind of a weird one to me...).

Lots of black keys, easy to play even when it's dark on stage.

 

[thmsjordan]

1. Transposing when you need to is a lot easier on a 5 string IMHO. In Jazz situations this comes up with some frequency.
2. Playing across the neck rather than up and down when there are wide interval leaps is nice to have, when that sort of thing comes up.
2. More and more music is being recorded on 5 string and it makes it easier to play the lines exactly as recorded.
3. When playing pre-5 string tunes, it makes a nice place to wedge a carrot or two for breaks.

 

[HelpImaRock]

Nah. I'll just play a 4 tuned down.

And yes, I've been obsessing about 5 string basses. I'm trying to talk myself out of one.

 

[Iridescentone]

I like that they're easier to play than a 4, less effort required.
I like the extra horsepower of the fretted B notes.

Bonus: I like that guitar players at jams are less likely to pick up my fiver and try to "show" me what to play.

 

[DrBnz]

4 string / 5 string / 6 string.... the same thing just continuing on. Its not a big deal really, is it?

 

[pbass2]

Nah. I'll just play a 4 tuned down.

And yes, I've been obsessing about 5 string basses. I'm trying to talk myself out of one.

Come to the dark side. I had a few different fivers on and off since the 90's but never really used them much, just kept one around at times if I "needed it". I also went through a long phase of being a five-string hater--y'know, "those notes don't sound right", "I'll just use a synth", yadda yadda, the usual stuff, having never really put in the time with one. Jumped back in this year and now I have two, rounds and flats and it's all I want to play (unless I'm working for a five string hater!). The hassle of downtuning and the slack tension, the halfway-there solution of a Hipshot Xtender, no more for me.