Why do you play fours?

[kinopah]

I played 5-string (e-c, 24 fret) for about 20 years before switching to a 4-string jazz bass. Went from Fenders to EBMM's and now mainly playing a Fodera, but all with the same range.

Personally, I found that most of the players I most admired and wanted to sound like were able to make the 4-string model work, so I probably could too. I realized that not all of my solos need to get into the ultra-high register to be heard or to fit well. My hands negotiate the neck vertically just as well as horizontally. I do sometimes miss the high c for chords, but I just seem to make better choices within the harmonic "limitations" of 4 strings/22 frets, and it's not worth the trade-off. I have fewer notes, but I know em all a bit better.

 

[Plutonium244]

....
All that said I am intrigued by 5’ers and I keep checking them out when I go in to music stores. But I am equally intrigued by a 33” scale 5’er with a high C. So even if I were to commit the money to buying one I am not sure what I would get, or if I wouldn’t just go right to a 6 string.

Although I am a "four" guy for the most part and do own a B-G five string, I am very much enjoying my recently acquired Ibanez BTB33, which is just such a 33" E-C tuned 5-string bass as you describe; it's about my favorite to play right now, though I am still bringing the four to most gigs.

I like it because I can still do my mental "E is the low string" mental reference, and it has a lot of melodic and harmonic possibilities which I am kinda into right now. I find that a reg'lar B-G fiver is good tonally for more high-volume-type and rock/vintage type things, but I am playing a lot of quieter gigs, and jazzier things, where the fat deep tone of a five is not needed or ideal; and IMO best B-string reproductions requires some volume/power behind it or it'll sound somewhat anemic.

A 6-string would give me the same melody/harmony options as the E-C while still giving me the low B when needed-- but I find 6-string necks to be cumbersome esp. for muting (though I have one of those too-- which isn't getting played a lot right now).

Back to my point: you might like an E-C 33" scale five-string; I believe there is currently an Ibaniez BTB33 Volo, like mine, in the classifieds right now.

 

[pbassnut]

My philosophy is ... "four strings - one for each brain cell".

Seriously though, I started playing in 1973 and got very comfortable playing four string basses for quite a few years before five string basses started showing up on the market. I've played mostly roots music and four string Fender Ps and Js have always fit the bill perfectly for what I was doing so I never saw a need to learn to play five string. I will say this ... every now and then when faced with playing in E flat and unable to go low like I want to, I can see the beauty of a five string.

 

[fretlessguy]

Reasons I mainly play fours:
1. They are what I learned on.
2. I am more comfortable reading music on a four.
3. For most music styles I play a four fits better.
4. Strings are more easily found locally for a four. String sets are less expensive as well.
5. My hands have arthritis in them and fours are an easier stretch.

 

[blowinblue]

Because I invested my hard-earned money in a 'standard four-string bass'.

M. M.

 

[leegreenman]

I like both, and bounce back and forth between my 4s and 5s. While I occasionally use the lower notes, the main advantage is the ability to play "horizontally".

 

[GrapeBass]

Buy a Chapman Stick, then you'se got something.

Stick Enterprises - Home of the Chapman Stick

 

[MCS4]

The main reason is comfort/ergonomics. I have enough muscle and joint issues that I sometimes need to drop down from my main four stringer to an extremely light 4-string with low action (my reduced-scale Zon VB-4), and even than can still occasionally have trouble, so extra strings is not worth the extra physical strain.

 

[Slevage]

Only for slap ( which I’m not great at).

Fewer targets to hit.
Fewer strings to mute

 

[lowfreqgeek]

I absolutely play more than 4 strings, but I have more 4-string basses than anything else (I think).

I play mine because each has a certain sound that I just can't get in any 5+ string bass I've ever played. And vise versa. They're tools and sometimes they're the perfect tool for the job.

 

[DukeCC]

I play 4s because that's what I started on, and it's really all that is needed.
I planned on learning the 5 once I learned the 4. Then I realized after 40 years that I was running out of time. So I went ahead and got a 5. I am enjoying learning it. I will get back to the 4 when I'm not playing so much country. But I know there's no way I can learn them both with the scant 30 years or so I may have left. Selah.

 

[jaymelewis]

For the most part the range of a 4 string bass is all you need (90% of the time, maybe?). Excluding metal, very rarely do you need a low Eb or D, and the low C and B are really just for powerful moments IMO - which is very context dependent. So really, a 4 string bass should do the job most of the time.

But not always

 

[bassestkkm]

Because I enjoy the feel and haven't yet justified having more strings, though I'm getting to the point where I might get a 5

 

[ajkula66]

It comes down to comfort, as far as I'm concerned.

I've owned several nice 5-stringers during the early 90s, and never got comfortable with any of them. The spacing was either too narrow or too wide for my hand and I ended up giving up on the concept altogether.

If I ever bumped into one that felt "just right" I would probably go ahead and buy it, but I'm not actively looking for such an instrument. One of my 4s is tuned BEAD and serves me extremely well for those rare occasions when I need the extra depth of the B string.

My $0.02 only...

 

[skwee]

Because you only need four strings to rock!

My reasoning besides that is weight, too-tight string spacing on a five, and that I only play about five songs out of hundreds with even the need for a low D.

 

[inanimate_carb]

Because many of the people that hire me laugh at boutique instruments and 5 string basses.

 

[MotorCityMinion]

For the next guy that mentions Leo, who by the way did not play a bass or guitar, ya, I read it on the internet.

"In the 1930s, musician and inventor Paul Tutmarc from Seattle, Washington, who was manufacturing lap steel guitars, developed the first electric string bass in its modern form, a fretted instrument designed to be played horizontally. The 1935 sales catalog for Tutmarc's electronic musical instrument company, Audiovox, featured his "Model 736 Bass Fiddle", a four-stringed, solid-bodied, fretted electric bass instrument with a 30 1⁄2-inch (775-millimetre) scale length.[8] The adoption of a guitar's body shape made the instrument easier to hold and transport than any of the existing stringed bass instruments. The addition of frets enabled bassists to play in tune more easily than on fretless acoustic or electric upright basses. Around 100 of these instruments were made during this period.[9]

Around 1947, Tutmarc's son, Bud, began marketing a similar bass under the Serenader brand name, prominently advertised in the nationally distributed L. D. Heater Music Company wholesale jobber catalogue of 1948. However, the Tutmarc family inventions did not achieve market success."

 

[jumbodbassman]

works for all my bass heros...

 

[metron]

I think I'm a little more sensitive to wider necks so I stick with 4 strings. I want a 5 but I need to find a neck profile that I can get along with.

 

[groove pump]

I like having two extra strings. We play lots of KISS and AC/DC covers so I really only need two strings - an open E and A string.

Shuh-ZAY-um!!

Until I get off my duff and build my own 3-string, my 4's will have to do. Carry on...