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What happened to 6 strings?

#62
billy ayers said:
it's unfathomable that, once the 6 was developed fully as a production instrument, it didn't replace the 4 outright as the next step in the instrument's evolution. having the range for ALL types of music, not just the types described as 4 string-centric, is a blessing. it would be like telling piano makers to lop off that top 2 octaves because funk-comping only needs a greasy low-c octave. also, jaco died in '87, with his most important playing/composing period a few years earlier. that period was before the full development of the 6, so who of us can say whether he would've embraced it or not.. there was an interview in bass player that describes jaco really digging sting's 5-string during a backstage hang once.. so, who knows? we can only imagine what he would've accomplished on a 6 if it was available in his time, given what he did with a 4.
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Well lopping the top two octaves off the piano MAY be an option depending if YOU or a roadie is the one that has to haul it around!

And that's the point. Yes, I've got a bunch of 6 string basses. And for a while they were pretty much all I played. And I used to say, "better to have the notes and not need them than to need them and not have them".

But then my musical directions took an old school turn. I still kept playing the 6 's but found I was never (and I mean like NEVER) using the C string. So eventually I just got tired of carting the C string around. And part of that was that a 6 string bass didn't have the right look for "old school. So with no stratospheric solos, and no chords and wanting a more trad look (but not ready to give up all the advantages of a B string) I dropped back to playing my 5s.

No, I didn't sell all the 6s. No, I'll not be saying (like some of the trolls here) that nobody needs a 6. I still play them and if I NEED the upper range I'll go to them in a second. But I will admit that for me to drop back to a 4 I'd REALLY have to start to get into the purity of authentic vintage. You know where absolutely everything has to be authentic. Yeah. THEN I might go with a 4, but for a bass being what a bass should be, a 5 string really does it for me.

But if you need a 6 hey, you may even need a 7 or more! They tend to be rather wide, but for folks into chords and say covering the baritone range I can see where one of those surfboard basses might be the thing, even though I've never owned one.
 
#63
I own two sixes, a five string and nine four strings. I prefer playing my sixes over any of my other basses. I find more options playing them. When I first switched to a six, it was quite an adjustment, but I'm pretty comfortable playing one now. My five string gets played quite a bit too. In fact, the only one of my fours that I still play is my P-Bass for it's signature tone. I imagine if I could find a 6-string P-Bass, I'd most likely sell off most of my fours.
 
#66
I'm at the point in my playing that anything less than a 6 just doesn't do it for me. I could play a 4 or a 5, but I'm at my best, technically and creatively, when I have the options of a 6 laid out before me.

I find, from my experiences, that the people who play 6es and stop do so for one of two reasons:

1) They simply don't need to utilize that extra range
2) They simply don't know how to utilize it

YMMV, and I'm not saying either reason is bad, but that's how it usually seems to me.
 
#67
I just picked up a Peavey Cirrus 6'er last month. I love that bass. I also played a Fodera Emperor 6 last month which got me gassing for a 6 string in the first place. They're around but they're not very practical in the mainstream music scene. Seems like most of those guys go for Fender 4 bangers.
 
#68
Ben Lesser said:
I find, from my experiences, that the people who play 6es and stop do so for one of two reasons:

1) They simply don't need to utilize that extra range
2) They simply don't know how to utilize it
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Fair enough, but there's also:

3) They simply don't want to.

That's why many of us stop at five, it's why many stay with four.
 
#69
I have 4's 5's and a 6 and used to have a 7! Sometimes you want to do something a little different and have an idea for a part or something you would like to play. I'm a fan of the right tool for the job if the gig calls for me to stand out more and solo I bring my 6. So it really depends on the player. So many times I hear the "Jaco only needed 4" remark remember Jaco took a regular Jazz and made it into a fretless! With his talent and his way of creating music I would put $ down that if he had a 6 string he would have done amazing things with it, and still make us all feel like children!
 

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#70
Bass2Bass7 said:
I have 4's 5's and a 6 and used to have a 7! Sometimes you want to do something a little different and have an idea for a part or something you would like to play. I'm a fan of the right tool for the job if the gig calls for me to stand out more and solo I bring my 6. So it really depends on the player. So many times I hear the "Jaco only needed 4" remark remember Jaco took a regular Jazz and made it into a fretless! With his talent and his way of creating music I would put $ down that if he had a 6 string he would have done amazing things with it, and still make us all feel like children!
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Great looking 6 string jazz. I can't see what's written on the headstock...
 
#71
lousybassplayer said:
That is a good point. I hear dingwall and other novak fannedfret designs cure this, but it seems tough to find a c that doesn't sound thin and peircing unless you have a B thats muddy and not well defined. This is IME, and I have not had the fortune to play any really top notch 6ers.
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I have seven six strings that sound nothing like that. I have a eighth in progress. IMO it's not that hard to find a nice six with even string to string response, nice low B and a full sounding high C. You just have to look in the right places. For me, sixes are just easier to play.

I have:

Three Brubakers (two KXB-Custom singlecuts, one KXB-Custom singlecut fretless)
Fodera Anthony Jackson Contrabass
Innerwood
Bone Avatar
MTD 635
Brubaker JXB-6 J style in progress.

None of these have thin or piercing C's. None have muddy B's. I'd also recommend Elrick and Roscoe sixes.

I guess most people with sixes don't spend alot of time talking about them. After all, if Jaco didn't need one...
;)
 
#73
I've never been able to understand the "traditional" dogmatic thing. I do understand nostalgia for a certain artist or sound period, and maybe there are times when its appropriate to strive to copy a certain approach or sound. But the attitude of "so-and-so played a narley old Fender with foam shoved under the bridge and never cleaned his strings, and his playing is the ultimate" or "so-and-so create a whole new approach to bass by ripping out the frets on his fender bass...ergo that's what everyone should do, and bass instruments and playing style should just try to emulate that and stop there"...is utterly stupid. Thankfully Patitucci, Berlin, Clarke, Wooten, etc. didn't think that way. The purpose of being a musician should be to develop your own voice and approach to playing, not simply try to jack somebody else's tone or style. If you feel good doing it on a 6 string, then go for it. If 4 or 2 or 3 or 7 is the answer for you, then go for it. But don't limit yourself simply because some phenom player did it a certain way or, worse yet, because you feel the need to identify with the popular trend.
 
#74
younggun said:
I've never been able to understand the "traditional" dogmatic thing. I do understand nostalgia for a certain artist or sound period, and maybe there are times when its appropriate to strive to copy a certain approach or sound. But the attitude of "so-and-so played a narley old Fender with foam shoved under the bridge and never cleaned his strings, and his playing is the ultimate" or "so-and-so create a whole new approach to bass by ripping out the frets on his fender bass...ergo that's what everyone should do, and bass instruments and playing style should just try to emulate that and stop there"...is utterly stupid. Thankfully Patitucci, Berlin, Clarke, Wooten, etc. didn't think that way. The purpose of being a musician should be to develop your own voice and approach to playing, not simply try to jack somebody else's tone or style. If you feel good doing it on a 6 string, then go for it. If 4 or 2 or 3 or 7 is the answer for you, then go for it. But don't limit yourself simply because some phenom player did it a certain way or, worse yet, because you feel the need to identify with the popular trend.
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sure but that doesn't change the fact that Jaco only needed/played 4 strings...

:D
 
#75
Fuzzbass said:
Fair enough, but there's also:

3) They simply don't want to.

That's why many of us stop at five, it's why many stay with four.
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I agree, and I guess I kind of lumped that in with my first reason of not needing it. :)

I'll be the first to admit that my first six was purchased (sight unseen, at that) purely on the notion that more strings = better. It took me a couple of years of plodding around on it before I started to find my voice on the instrument and understand playing one. If I hadn't been so obsessed with looking cool, or being a virtuoso player, I probably wouldn't have ever strayed past 4 strings. I simply didn't see a need or have a knowledge of how to use anything more (and barely 4, at that).
 
#77
From what I have seen it seems like bassist that have been playing 4 or 5 for some time that decide to switch to 6 string often end up switching back to 4 or 5. I have been playing for around 8-9 years and all I have 4 6er's. I stared with 6 around the end of my 2nd year playing so I am far more familar with 6 strings than I am with anything else. I don't mind playing 4 or 5 but I am usually more comfortable with a 6. More than anything these days I am more concerned with string spacing I would rather play 4 or 5 string than a 6 with narrow spacing.
 
#78
uaudio said:
Is it just me, or are 6 strings basses 'out?' I've been around here for years as a registered user and lurker, and haven't seen much talk in the forum about them for the last year or so. I don't see them in the classifieds either. Did everyone decide in secret to stop playing and talking about them? Or is this just confirmation bias?

I used to have one, then moved on to passive Precisions. Don't see many of those with six strings. Nothing against you guys who play and love them, just wondering if others have noticed.
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Six-string players tend to be the silent type.
 
#79
Brad Johnson said:
Three Brubakers (two KXB-Custom singlecuts, one KXB-Custom singlecut fretless)
Fodera Anthony Jackson Contrabass
Innerwood
Bone Avatar
MTD 635
Brubaker JXB-6 J style in progress.

None of these have thin or piercing C's. None have muddy B's. I'd also recommend Elrick and Roscoe sixes.

I guess most people with sixes don't spend alot of time talking about them. After all, if Jaco didn't need one...
;)
Click to expand...

I think you are lying. PM me for my addy and send me that 635 and then I'll see if you are telling the truth.

Actually, I have absolutely no doubt about what you are saying, but the skill, attention to detail and precision fitting of parts on a US MTD, Fodera and Brubaker are light years beyond the Ibbys and MTD KZs I have played. The KZ I actually owned was pretty decent, but if it came within a mile of that 635 I'll eat my hat collection. LIke I said, its not something just any off the shelf bass will likely accomplish just by virtue of having a bigger neck and extra tuner.
 

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