Why play a four string?

[Rod Jay]

I've been playing my Modulus Quantum V since I bought it in 1987! It was one of the first ones off the assembly line! I wear an XL glove so nothing smaller than a P Bass or Tele Bass for me within the Fender realm and I own several vintage ones! I still love all of my four strings including 3 vintage Höfners!

 

[Sascha Erni]

I prefer 4 to 5 strings because, for me, it’s the best balance between weight and ergonomics. I’ve never seriously considered a 5er, but 6ers look appealing to me, from a concept POV. Main reason I see for basses with more than four strings is less position movement, so I figure you could just as well go all the way, i.e. get a 6er or even 7er.

I do play my 4 stringers in various tunings, though. EADG most of the time, DADG about 20 % (e.g. for all those Eb songs out there), sometimes open tunings. I used to play CGDA for many years in more jazz-y environments, but haven’t done so in the past 3-5 years. Perhaps I should give it a shot again.

All in all, “4 or 5 (or 6)?”, it’s a trade-off question for me. Weight vs/ convenience vs/ fingerboard ergonomics vs/ flexibility. 4 string basses suit me the best right now. 5 string basses simply don’t appeal to me. There might be one or two 6ers in my future, though. Reasoning being, if you feel you need more range via a bigger and heavier instrument, at least go all-in.

 

[Kams]

John Wick only needed four

 

[Suntory]

5 is 2 too many.

 

[claudel]

Options for 3 stringers seems to be woefully limited.

 

[tvbop]

As a part time cello player a basic P bass wearing dead chromes is for me, perfection. Im getting thud central and it works with everything.

 

[dune]

thud central

I'm not a flats guy nor a dead strings guy, but I still love "thud central".

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

Bass started as a four strings instrument .. the question, if any, should be “why playing a 5 strings bass”?
Not considering 6 strings basses here .. they are .. peculiar instruments for peculiar needs.
A 5-stringers with a standard BEADG tuning (my poor hears) has got notes that I can’t discern, whatever it is even a super-hyped and ultra-expensive Alleva Coppolo (uuuhh the Alleva fans, what will they be saying? ) .. don’t need it frankly speaking .. I wouldn’t know how to play it moreover with my small hands .. 4 strings is what you need !

 

[selowitch]

A four-string usually is lighter than a fiver, has a narrower neck, and a smaller overall footprint. I admit the added low B string is nice, but I can usually live without it.

 

[5StringBlues]

John Wick only needed four

His playing is as one note as his acting.

 

[Pier_]

it probably depends on the single player experience.

for my entire life I've mostly played 4 strings, tried the 5 for a while but didn't get me, so I went back to only 4. then I tried a 6-string bass, and found it easier to play than a 5-string, because I could clearly have the "4-string-bass" in the center of the freboard, and adding two strings at the edges was, for me, easier to visualize.
I played the 6-string for a couple of years, leaving the 4 in the cases, but being mostly a Precision guy I couldn't find a "simple 6 string" with a passive split coil pickup, and gradually re-introduced the 4, until I found out that for me, for what I play and how I play, lower and higher strings aren't necessary; they can be useful, but not necessary, and so I put the 6 in the case and rarely used it, until I found out that using it only few times wasn't a thing, because I lost the "muscular memory" to play it with ease.

now I only have 4 strings basses, I never go below the E (sometimes a D, but I have a bass with the D-tuner) and that's it.