What's the first 5-string recording you ever heard?

[fourfinger]

What is the first song that you recognized a 5-string bass (or extended range bass) was used?

Wikipedia states that the 5-string bass guitar was introduced in the mid 1970s, but offers no details. How far back does your memorable song go?

I recall Chris Squire using low D on the Close to the Edge album, but probably was just tuned down?

 

[Bob_Ross]

I recall Chris Squire using low D on the Close to the Edge album, but probably was just tuned down?

Correct, Squire didn't use a 5-string bass until the Big Generator album in 1987, 15 years after Close To The Edge.

I have no idea what the first 5-string bass I ever heard on a recording was.

 

[two fingers]

What is the first song that you recognized a 5-string bass (or extended range bass) was used?

Wikipedia states that the 5-string bass guitar was introduced in the mid 1970s, but offers no details. How far back does your memorable song go?

I recall Chris Squire using low D on the Close to the Edge album, but probably was just tuned down?

I'm guessing the very first 5 string basses (that weren't the Bass V) were tuned E-C, or perhaps even E-B match the guitar. They likely weren't a low B.

Just a hunch/guess.

 

[Michedelic]

I'm guessing the very first 5 string basses (that weren't the Bass V) were tuned E-C, or perhaps even E-B match the guitar. They likely weren't a low B.

Just a hunch/guess.

Jimmy Johnson, of Flim and the BB's and Allan Holdsworth, worked on the concept of the extended range 5-string bass with Alembic in the mid-70's, and consulted with GHS in the development of the low B string at that time. Before that, Anthony Jackson had Carl Thompson build a 6-string "contrabass", but it proved unsatisfactory. Neither had anything to do with the Fender V or VI, or Danelectro 6, usually used in the "tic-tack" style.

 

[Bassngtr]

LeeAnn Rimes 'One Way Ticket' probably late '90s soon after I decided to play bass and teach myself to play.

 

[Thud Staff]

First one I remember hearing and getting know it was 5 string, was 'Talk to Your Daughter' on Robben Ford's debut album.

 

[DWBass]

Jimmy Johnson, of Flim and the BB's and Allan Holdsworth, worked on the concept of the extended range 5-string bass with Alembic in the mid-70's, and consulted with GHS in the development of the low B string at that time. Before that, Anthony Jackson had Carl Thompson build a 6-string "contrabass", but it proved unsatisfactory. Neither had anything to do with the Fender V or VI, or Danelectro 6, usually used in the "tic-tack" style.

I'll piggyback on this. Flim was probably the first 5 string player I heard. First digital recording as well on the old DMP record label.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Unless there was some Anthony Jackson part in a commercial pop/R&B tune that got airplay in the late 70s/early 80s that I heard -- though was never aware of its low B string content -- then it's a safe bet that Jimmy Johnson was the first 5-string player I heard, because Flim & The BB's Tricycle album was in regular rotation circa 1983. But note, I still wasn't aware that it was a 5-string at the time.

I do distinctly remember the first time I was able to identify a 5-string bass being used on a song, just by the sound, that unique timbral difference that most (but not all) low B strings have...but I have no idea what tune it was or who the bassist was. It was a slick "Smooth Jazz" number, probably one of the Quiet Storm radio stations, while driving in the car. Late 1980s maybe?

 

[Thumper]

Interstate Love Song, maybe downtuned, but caused me to go down the 5 string rabbit hole.

 

[Lenny JG]

Primus

 

[rufus.K]

Never occurred to me to glean if it was 4 5 or 6 string. Maybe a Charlie Hunter album in the 90s because I saw it on the cover (a Novax instrument)

 

[Lo-E]

Most likely it was Jimmy Johnson for me, too, (Tricycle) although Anthony Jackson was using his prototype 6-strings from Carl Thompson and then, later, from Ken Smith and then Vinnie Fodera pretty early on and he played uncredited on SO MUCH stuff it would be hard to guess where that low B string was lurking in the late '70s and onward.

Incidentally, the 6-string from Carl Thompson was a failure because Carl couldn't find anyone to make him pickups wide enough for the string spacing Anthony wanted. He ended up using pedal steel pickups which were still too narrow to get what Jackson required. Had he wound his own p'ups
or gotten hold of someone who could custom wind what he needed we'd all have a different impression of who "invented" the six string bass and he'd have gotten a lot more credit. Water under the bridge now….

 

[Jeff Scott]

Same as with some others, probably Jimmy Johnson in the mid '80s. The first one I saw played live was when I saw The Fents at Donte's around the same period. I bought my first 5-string bass in the summer of '87 (Yamaha BX-5). BTW, I saw Flim & the BBs in '89-'90 (don't recall exactly which year) at the Wiltern theater.

 

[s_wood]

Nathan East's great bass line in the Eurythmics "Would I Lie To You," released in 1985," is the first prominent low B 5 string bass line I can remember hearing.

 

[socialleper]

You are asking a bunch of different questions here.

The first lower than Eb album was probably when I started listening to Napalm Death or Obituary. They tune to D.
Bolt Thrower tuned to A and Carcass tuned to B. That's late 80s early 90s. But I think they used 4 strings. The first time I was aware of someone using a 5 and not just a down tuned 4 was Korn in the mid 90s.

 

[J Wilson]

80's things as I remember:

Phil Collins' "Two Hears", listen to Nathan East under the choruses:


"Everyone Wants to Rule the World", probably a synth line, but easily played on low D, Tears for Fears:


The pedal point D-E, C-D-E changes under the turnarounds is GREAT on a five, "Don't You Forget About Me"


Toto, with the late Jeff and Mike Porcaro, "Pamela". The recording's in A, and the riff reaches down to the flat-3, a low C, under the verses. Probably my favorite Toto song, after "Georgy Porgy". WHAT a groove.


JT chugging along on low D on "Reach Out for the Sunrise" on a 5-string Cirrus from a Duran live date.


Finally, ALL the way down there with open Low B: The Bee Gees with one of their last records with all three brothers, "One", from a Vegas residency that was filmed. What a shame to have lost Robin and Maurice. Extra points if you woodshed the two octave figure falling off the end of the 1st bridge back into the verse. Those harmonies, they were just magic.


These were some of the records then, when fives were still coming on, that just told me, 'JW, gotta get you one'. I did.

 

[J Wilson]

Early on, I'd read interviews with Nathan East and Doug Wimbish, who both said the same thing: They felt they needed the extra deep-end room of a five to duplicate synth-bass parts back in the day.

Here's a perfect example: Swing Out Sister (I'm a huge fan) with 'Twilight World' from IT'S BETTER TO TRAVEL. Work this out in D, it's a terrific bass line(s) from a terrific record. This sort of big-band pop with modest funk and R&B influences is what the Brits do so well. Learning this will tell you if you really want a five to keep.

 

[Hutch801]

I think Korn and their unique slap bass was the first for me. They love the clank for sure. Haha

 

[arbiterusa]

1980's Civilized Evil by Jean Luc Ponty, Anthony Jackson playing on the song "Demagomania".

 

[The Owl]

It was hearing Jimmy Johnson live with the Wayne Johnson Trio that was my first exposure to a 5-string, circa early 1981. Bought the first lp afterwards