What's the problem with 24-fret basses?

[blastoff]

there is a difference in sound for sure. when you pluck and mute the string, it hits that last fret and has a little click sound thats part of the tone of the instrument. no matter what fret you play on a string, that little click is the same. the more frets, the higher the click

 

[JimmyM]

Not really. It doesn't mean literally that anything above the 5th fret is useless. What it means is, the money for bassists in bands are guys who actually play BASS, not the guys who think they are guitarists and go noodling all over the place. Beatles, Zeppelin, U2, Pink Floyd, AC/DC....the guys who were most successful and made tens of millions did it by holding down the bottom end, not trying to solo and wow everyone like they are Jaco.

Show up to most auditions with a 6 string, 24 fret bass and start noodling away and stepping on the guitar frequencies and you'll likely be shown the door within minutes. So that phrase is basically saying know your role and hold down the bottom end, that's where the money is. If you want to be Jaco or Wooten, go solo or start your own jazz fusion group and make peanuts.

Tell you what, though...when the Stones were looking for a new bassist, Keith Richards said, "It's not a virtuoso gig but we wanted someone who could really play." And that's why the two main contenders were Doug Wimbish and Darryl Jones. And AC/DC could have made do with Mark Evans, their original bassist, who could play simply but couldn't do much else at the time, but when they replaced him, they got Cliff Williams, who has recorded evidence of him being a pretty darn good bass player when it comes to playing past the 5th fret in his previous bands. And to be honest, it's rare I find a bass player who has good grooving and holding down the bottom skills and doesn't have skills doing other things. And Victor Wooten may not have Cliff money but he's way more rich than most of us.

 

[higain617]

They make sense if you solo. I do on occasion in my proggier band, so the extra frets help.

 

[dalkowski]

My only problem with 24-fret basses is that they have 17 too many frets for me.

 

[db59]

It goes to 24..not 23

 

[Rabidhamster]

20 voices yell "Theres no money at that end of the fretboard ANYWAY!!"\

but not mine, because having 24 frets is neat.

 

[GIBrat51]

The problem? Well... and this is for ME; and in my limited, left handed experience with them:
One, they all seem to be short scales - like these - which means that the upper frets are awfully close together. So close together, in fact, that my stubby troglodyte fingers can't really fret just one.. And, two? Even on these basses, they're not exactly easy to reach... I suppose I could add problem #3, but it really isn't a "problem", per se. Those frets are simply useless AFAIC, 'cause 99.5% of the time, I never get above the 12th fret when playing what I like to play. And I don't have to play anything I don't like, so... And, yeah, I know there are long scale basses with 24 frets. Very few of them are lefties, though. Besides, my bass herd is essentially complete, and I'm not about to buy another bass just because it has way too many frets...

 

[Ric5]

Don't post much, but I've noticed some level of disdain for 24-fret basses, not just on this forum. What's the problem here? Is it not objectively better to have more frets to work with, why the hate for 24-frets, you can objectively do less with 20 frets

Because freaking Leo Fender made basses with 20 frets and 4 strings and tort …

 

[bearfoot]

Not really. It doesn't mean literally that anything above the 5th fret is useless. What it means is, the money for bassists in bands are guys who actually play BASS, not the guys who think they are guitarists and go noodling all over the place. Beatles, Zeppelin, U2, Pink Floyd, AC/DC....the guys who were most successful and made tens of millions did it by holding down the bottom end, not trying to solo and wow everyone like they are Jaco.

Show up to most auditions with a 6 string, 24 fret bass and start noodling away and stepping on the guitar frequencies and you'll likely be shown the door within minutes. So that phrase is basically saying know your role and hold down the bottom end, that's where the money is. If you want to be Jaco or Wooten, go solo or start your own jazz fusion group and make peanuts.

Sounds like false dichotomies. Jaco and Wooten "noodle all over the place" and don't hold down the bottom end, somehow. I guess I'll just have to unhear all those killer grooves they've played in multiple ensemble settings throughout their careers. They have only noodled and trilled high notes, but McCartney, one of the most innovative and influential of bassists, known for composing cello-like lines on bass, we'll just ignore all of that and say Paul was just holding down the root and fifth, or "the bottom end" -

I agree that a bassist must be able to play bassy, while not necessarily exclusively so - but the fret thing always seems to be used as an excuse and apathy towards using the whole fingerboard that I think should not be encouraged.
The opposite is far closer to the truth. There is no $ below the 5th fret, because basic competence with the full fingerboard is more likely to mean you can make some money with your bass and/or music.
I can take the implied meaning as well, but I'm not sure that is universally recognized, and the comments in such threads don't bear out that it is. Maybe the saying should be something more along the lines of "No matter what fret you're on, you're on the first five frets."

 

[konfyouzd]

You need the 6th fret to get a Db

Not if you tune down half a step

 

[Killed_by_Death]

A Rickenbacker wouldn't sound the same if they had 24 frets, because the neck pickup is butted up against the neck & in the position where the 24th fret would be.

 

[IamGroot]

I don't have a problem with 2-octave necks but I do have a problem with some implementations. For example, my Warwick Corvette has a 2-octave neck, but the lower cutaway/horn design makes access above 21 pretty much impossible without drastic changes in hand position...
View attachment 3464544

21 frets? 24 frets?
No, zero frets, zero fret lines. Muy macho!

 

[bolophonic]

Don't post much, but I've noticed some level of disdain for 24-fret basses, not just on this forum. What's the problem here? Is it not objectively better to have more frets to work with, why the hate for 24-frets, you can objectively do less with 20 frets

Other than the fact that 90% of them wind up looking like a sperm whale, I think my lack of interest stems from the fact that the people who NEED 24 frets use them to play treble, not bass.

 

[Treebeard]

I bought a Yamaha BB404 specifically because it was the cheapest J-J 24-fretter. Also it has a cutout so you can actually get to all the frets.

 

[mbell75]

Sounds like false dichotomies. Jaco and Wooten "noodle all over the place" and don't hold down the bottom end, somehow. I guess I'll just have to unhear all those killer grooves they've played in multiple ensemble settings throughout their careers. They have only noodled and trilled high notes, but McCartney, one of the most innovative and influential of bassists, known for composing cello-like lines on bass, we'll just ignore all of that and say Paul was just holding down the root and fifth, or "the bottom end" -

I agree that a bassist must be able to play bassy, while not necessarily exclusively so - but the fret thing always seems to be used as an excuse and apathy towards using the whole fingerboard that I think should not be encouraged.
The opposite is far closer to the truth. There is no $ below the 5th fret, because basic competence with the full fingerboard is more likely to mean you can make some money with your bass and/or music.
I can take the implied meaning as well, but I'm not sure that is universally recognized, and the comments in such threads don't bear out that it is. Maybe the saying should be something more along the lines of "No matter what fret you're on, you're on the first five frets."

Good points but getting below the 5th fret also starts wandering into guitar territory, and nothing will drive a producer (and bandmates) more crazy than a bassist who starts stepping all over the guitar parts. When I play guitar in one of my projects, our bass player sometimes wants to grab upper register notes too often and it starts clashing with the guitar and turning to mush sound wise or it gets lost and you can’t hear his bass.

Yes, of course there are times when you want to grab a few notes in the upper registers but I think the best bassists make their living and spend most their time down low. Just my opinion and what I’ve noticed.

 

[deernaes]

Nothing...

 

[deernaes]

Thay being said, the "Get off my lawn!" crowd can get stirred up about pretty much anything.

Ha!

 

[bearfoot]

Yes, of course there are times when you want to grab a few notes in the upper registers but I think the best bassists make their living and spend most their time down low. Just my opinion and what I’ve noticed.

I tend to observe the same players as being all over the first 12 frets frequently, and most often hanging out between 3 and 9 or so, using the lowest octave as much as an accent as the default it will be in other songs. And many of them will often play much higher. It seems to me the middle octave is about as often the "center" of basslines as is the lowest octave.
I guess the mixing thing depends somewhat on genre? Because in my experience, the thing to do is tame the low end of the guitars to make way for the bass, because bass. As well as low drums. I like my guitar low strings defined and growly but not all that bassy.

 

[MeLikeBass]

Have one bass out of the many that has 24 frets. When I play it, I don't visit them often except to say hi and let them know how cool it is to have em around. Then I get back to the business of learning or practicing songs.

 

[jackn1202]

I don’t hear a lot of people complaining, though I don’t see so many of ‘em. I’m not too big a fan of ‘em myself for the most part, though I’m not against ‘em. I’m not a huge fan of what it does to the looks usually. The ones that are cut so that you can use them look kinda lame to me, and the ones that look good usually aren’t cut to where you can use the high frets. So it’s not much of a bonus in my book. Other people like ‘em ¯\_(ツ)_/¯