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Who needs five strings??!

#65
I enjoy 4 strings solely for the physical ease in playing them.

One can do without a LOW B- I'd rather NOT have a low B than a bad one. If I ever buy another 4 string it will be for nostalgia or an exact purpose.

Would love a 35" scale fretless four tuned low C# G# C# F# for Indian-Classical fusion and Music Man for power thumping... but circumstances have me with two 6 strings (fretted/fretless Geckos- woo hoo!) that cover enough sonic spectrum to get me fired from ANY gig!
 
#66
joel406 said:
The search continues.
Click to expand...
I absolutely LOVE my Cort Curbow five string. Bring up the subject and people are going to start pitching bass guitars that cost (literally!) 10 times as much money! I don't need a boutique bass, I need one that I can play. Seriously, if you're in the market for an affordable 5 string, go find a Cort Curbow...and bring your strap. It wasn't designed to play sitting on your knee.
 
#72
FrankLowend said:
Why not use a Hipshot drop D instead?
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I did exactly that for years, but changed over completely around 1999 or so and have never looked back. No more fiddling around with tuning, no more changing of common scale/chord patterns etc, extra range down to the B. Having tried both ways extensively, there is no comparison for me.
 
#73
FishDub said:
some Latin and merengue and omg
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umm...ok

BENJAMIN-BARBA-1.jpg


lemon-meringue-pie-2.jpg
 
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#75
I know bass players that have a bass for both BEAD and standard tuning because they dont care for more than 4 strings, they are all very talented vetran players. I understand the ergonomics of the 5 and 6 string bass, but before the 1980's when these instruments became commercially available to anyone that wanted one your choice was mostly the tried and true 4 banger. A lot of great music was produced with these plain jane instruments for years but it must have been a real hardship on those players till the more logical addition of extra strings came along, I just dont know how they managed all those years ;) poor bastards suffered along and made the best of it I guess:D
 
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#77
morgansterne said:
try playing "the house is a-rockin" in B on a four, then try it again on a five and get back to me.

If you like tuning B-e-a-d, try playing "all right now" (andy fraser R.I.P.) on it.
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I believe the SRV song to which you refer is in the key of B IIRC. I dont remember it being any sort of burden on a 4 string. Playing the free tune on a BEAD strung bass doesnt make much sense to me, it wouldnt sound to good
 
#78
Yeah I think house is rockin is normally in B, but I couldn't remember for sure. I was always trying to do that really busy riff in it and I couldn't hack it on the four. With a five string you can start the riff on the E string and just move the pattern down to the B string for the riff in E and f#. By the end of the song the guitar player and I had severely cramped fingers either way, but I couldn't play it at all on a four unless I really simplified what I was playing.
The bridge part of the free tune goes up to the D two octaves above the D string. You can't play it on a b e a d bass unless it was twenty four frets.
 

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