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For me, 5 and 6 string basses are useful as a lead indicator when attending gigs. It works like this: Arrive at pub Observe 5 or 6-er on instrument stand Observe man standing apart from others, a grave expression on his face and a pork-pie hat on his head Access memory banks, recall slot: 'immobile player, excessively busy bass lines' Leave pub, go to off-license, buy pack of 8 Ace, sit on park bench

Just picked up this bad boy in exchange for a surprisingly modest amount of wonga. Intended for general messing around and possible modding. Just given the bass a good clean and a new set of strings. Neck is a lovely satin finish with a vintage tint.

John Glascock with Jethro Tull. I was picking up on some bits of his bass lines long before I even thought of playing bass myself.

No, music isn't a competition. More strings makes different music.

Go up to the Bass and say, " I think you need to go, it isn't you, it's me, I don't love you, in fact i've never loved you'.

@visog, as someone who plays only 6+ string basses, I must ask you - why even ask this question? What concern is it of yours to assume there's no merit in having any more strings just because you don't play anything past 4 strings? That's akin to saying 'I don't understand why you don't like mustard, I like mustard therefore surely everyone else must like it too'. People are different, choice is a beautiful thing. I enjoy playing 6+ string basses because a 4 string simply can't do what I enjoy playing. Extended chords and tap style is far more conducive to a 6 than it is to a 4. And yes, I'm sure there's plenty of 'tappers' who make do with 4 strings, there's also some cyclists that prefer a unicycle. At the end of the day, you might no be able to see past 4 strings, that doesn't mean we all have to be so closed minded! This is always an utterly moot arguement whenever someone has raised it. Do your own thing, I'll do mine, and let's be happy that we're both happy with our choices!

Quite right. And I would extend that. What good was the modern motor car? I mean, we could get round just fine in a car from the 1960s couldn't we? I mean they don't do any more than they used to? And the colour television set, the programs aren't any better these days are they? But to be fair, the 4 string bass made a drastic decline in music quality. I mean there haven't been many beethovens and Tchaikovskys since we had the electric bass have there? No, its all 'she loves me, yeh, yeh yeh' and boom boom boom. And hey you kids, get off my lawn!! ah.. bring back national service, that will learn them!

Let me preface by saying: I've grown up playing upright bass (with classical and some jazz influences). So 4 has been the norm forever for me, since I was 10-11 years old. Since I took up electric, after having a try with a 4, I've always gone directly for 6 strings since. Compared to upright they're so much easier to play, I don't see reason not to have those two extra string possibilities available to me, at the cost of having a fretboard not even half the width of an upright one I don't care if I see somebody come out with a 9 string bass. I don't care if they proceed to spend the evening only playing root-five on E and A, I don't care if they spend the evening doing chordal harmonic work. As long as the music is good and they are comfortable and happy playing it No, and we don't have to. Aside of being a pretty silly assumption to make (how 'much' better musical quality or bass playing per-string we should get? What's the "get good cost" of adding any string more than the 4 you already have? Have you earned your 4 already then, or should you be better off playing a 2 strings bass? ) It's literally the same instrument sonically, if you use the same notes as a four stringer. Nobody of those amazing musicians is what I'd consider 'mainstream'. The thing is, you're very likely to have heard someone play a 5 or 6 in some actual mainstream record without even realising it (because they're not using the extended range if not needed). In my example here, the job could have been done with a 4, obviously. Who cares? Again, they're doing the same exact job and can sound identical. Obviously more strings do not make better music. I can make better music with two beaten up pans and my fists, than a Steinwey piano with 88 keys that nobody's playing. It's just logic and common sense. Or, I could sit down at the piano, and rock a 30 min set with two chords and two notes. Or, I could sit down at the piano, and rock a 30 min set while going through all of Beethoven symphonies, sped up thrice just because I'm bored. The instrument doesn't define the music. Play what makes you feel good and enjoy. If you like playing in a bluegrass band with a metal pointy 31 strings bass, as long as everyone in the band agrees, have at it! Just don't ruin the songs by starting going ham on the instrument! (Which is something lots of 4 strings players are culprit of too...so again, poor number of strings. What has it done to you?) Edit: The end of my point being, where has it brought us? To different tonal palettes in some parts of music (like with the people you mentioned) and in the future, who knows who/what else!

Decided to route the spring cavity a little deeper today, and while I had the router out I decided to add a little touch to (hopefully) make the trem installation look a little bit factory spec and less DIY Taking the time to cut a custom plate and countersink it seemed like a good use of my day off. I officially love my router. It's a wonderful bit of kit and I'm very happy with the investment. It cuts through wood like butter, and it's incredibly important to give every cut a huge amount of thought and attention. Painting hopefully should be done in a week or so, then comes the fun bit!

@LukeFRC, I think it was, asked what I was going to build with my new vice so I thought I'd start a little thread with my projects in, luthierie or otherwise, more otherwise I'm afraid. I present to you my first piece, I call it Rebate with Pocket, Plane on Wood (2020). It's just me playing with a rebate and router plane really.

Coming out in a few weeks, anyone else seen them? Look awesome! I've got one pre-ordered, it's rare I buy things nowadays, but couldn't stop myself!

I think this threads gone on too long.

This is absolutely true - in fact this is largely the reason for 5 string basses becoming popular - there was a time in the early 80s when bassists and especially drummers were running very scared that keyboards and drum machines were taking a lot of the work. (Producers loved drum machines as many live drummers were unable to avoid plastering fills everywhere - whilst many got replaced in semi pro bands for the same reason and the fact many social clubs got noise detectors which many drummers were incapable of not setting off, cutting off the electricity and wrecking the guitarist's expensive valves - plus one less person to share the fee with 😏) 5 strings have been ideal for that keyboard based work from the 80s and 90s and even up to date, much theatre music is written with 5 string in mind. So maybe 5 string basses helped to repell the keyboard onslaught in the 80s. It's only in the last 20-25 yrs that 4 string basses have become universally popular again, in some ways eventually regressing to where bass was in the late 60s!! Bass actually became a sexy instrument in the later 70s - Jaco/Stanley and others!! Definitely horses for courses - I'm happy to use a 5 string on any gig - they help with their 2 octaves over 5 frets ability - plus being the brass section's friend by being able to agree on playing a number of Stevie Wonder songs in the correct key (Eb), rather than the guitarist's favourite - E (which prevents proper bass voicing on a 4 string unless it's down tuned!!). I'd say it's given us a lot of flexibility where required or desired. I wouldn't be without one (or a 4 string; or a fretless....) 😄

Dear Friends, hope you’re all doing fine! During this difficult period, I was still working on my new Bridge. Today a picked up a new version with brass evo-cams.... You can check out the difference between the classic style bridge created in the 50’s & the evolution.... If interested for a new challenge , don’t hesitate to contact me. By the way many thanks to Alain Zenner for the manufacturing of the new EVO-4 Bass bridge !

Yesterday, sand down with 600 grit, fill a few dinks, then primer, then find more and more tiny dinks to fill, ended up with almost a whole can of primer going on, then smoothed off with 600 grit. Then a final coat this morning, followed by a Speed Awareness Course on Zoom 🙄 This is white, honest! later today, about 5 or 6 coats of Daphne Blue, although my phone seems to want to shift it towards @Teebs green... it is a lovely blue in reality! Tomorrow the gloss lacquer! Already put a couple of coats of gloss on the headstock, and decals. The area around the truss rod is a bit poor. Might try staining it dark brown...

Love it.

Needs more cowbell.

I love the way the paradigm of modernist aesthetics are contrasted against the warmth of the wooden Material chosen, and with the hand made construction that recalls the ideals of William Morris’ manifesto and the craft heritage you recall of of your ancestors

More sanding and now time to shape the neck. Shinto time again!! Started off by taking a bit off the back of the neck with a router then fitted it back to the body and sanded the join. Started the rough sanding of the volute It does make it much easier to say 'Here's one I made earlier' and take all measurements from that. The new one has a slightly longer lower horn to help it balance on the leg a little better. It's not a lot bigger but from what I can tell so far it will make a difference. Back to more shaping and sanding!! Cheers!!

Right, Fender give me a job NOW!! Half asleep from teething baby this morning I thought what if.... Fender need to make a paranormal series bass where the body is TORT and the pickguard is sunburst. A P bass body with a single J pickup in a white pup cover in the P position and the crappy white plastic knobs they used in the 80s for a while, gold hardware, upside down headstock, fretless all maple neck, only available left handed. The most divisive instrument they can make. They can call it the "Furk You" bass.

Well, today was surgery day. I have a big old hole in my bass now. The little nibble on the top right is leftover from the old bridges ground wire, not a router disaster So far I don't think I've destroyed/ ruined/ killed anything, but won't know for sure for a while yet.

I've dreamt of having a bass with a tremolo since I saw Les Claypool as a teenager. Obviously they don't show up often and I've never had much money, so never had a chance to even play one. However, after seeing a NOS scuffed up HipShot on eBay in the USA while drunk on my birthday, that dream has been kicked into gear. Lucky for me, and the budget, I have all the parts of an abandoned P bass project- super light swamp ash body, Mitey Mite neck with Schaller BM4 light tuners and (somewhere...) a black 3 ply scratch plate. Body is barely finished in dusky pink milk paint and due finishing post routing. Might stick with dusky pink and get a gold anodised pick guard, but I have other things to think about first.... This is my new bridge. Despite initial efforts, just pushing it into/ taping it to the body yielded poor results. I think I'm going to have to make an actual hole for it. To this end, I have bought a Triton JOF001 plunge router and a good template cutting bit. I have never used a router. I'm sure it'll be fine.... Stay tuned for disaster. Any advice/ thoughts/ prayers are welcomed. Anyone with tremolo experience please speak up if you feel you have any guiding words.

So we're ~60 years into the electric bass as a four-string and as of the '80s we acquired five and six strings. Subsequently we got sevens and further extended range basses. Do we have a commensurate jump in musical quality or bass playing as a result? I'm struggling to manifest many examples: Anthony Jackson and John Patitucci spring to mind. Gary Willis and Hadrien Feraud rock a five but their output is hardly mainstream. My prog' heroes are four-stringers by and large with Squire dipping into fives and sixes for his less inspirational 90s and 00s output. Just sayin'. Views and counter-examples welcome but I'm calling it: more strings does not make better music! (Sorry if I'm late to this party.)

This was a massive tune in 1991, best played loud

Glad to see you finally making a stand. Now what are you going to put on it?

I imagine every expensive new bass I buy will turn me into a better player. Mind you, I also buy some cheap stuff just for the fun of it. Every bass offers something, none of them do everything. I agree with the OP's sentiments, but I reckon some of the enjoyment I've had over the years from guitar and bass has been tied up with acquisition of gear, swapping, part-ex etc. I'm a hobbyist. My trade is photography (40 years), and as a professional my attitude to gear is quite different. You buy robust equipment and keep using it until it can't earn you any more money. I'm still using studio flash gear made in the early 1980s (it doesn't actually get better with age). I regularly find myself standing next to amateurs using far more expensive gear than me. It doesn't worry me any more than it would my professional-guitarist mate who only plays Squiers. Hobbyists drive the market, whether it's cameras or guitars. Imagine a world where we all stuck with the first adequate bass we owned. Some of the prestige bass makers would still be working from their sheds.

You must be a very proud father...😉😉

There you go.

😀 That said, a question like this will bring them out. Who knows, maybe a better question would have been: "Name some music with odd time signatures and long, multi-part songs that draw on many musical styles, with lyrics about fairies and gnomes or Tolkien, and preferably played by a band whose keyboard player wears a long goldy-silvery cape. NB NO PROG!" 😁

Surf green is by far the coolest colour. 😎

I am really enjoying this pedal. It's bumped my ThorpyFX Fat General off my board. The FG will probably end up on my guitar board. Or I might move it on and have a look at the Keeley one as well. Damn you Al! This is your fault!

I saw Magma last year, and they played Hhai/Zombies after the hour-long opening number (a medley of the greatest hits of the Theusz Hamthaak trilogy). Incredible, and transcendant and cathartic as you say.

Always been well into Herbie Hancock's funky stuff. If this doesn't get your foot a 'tappin' well...

Im one of these. I only play 5 strings, and I mostly (live) play in a cover band covering songs that people played on 4 string basses (and a few 5 string songs). I could take another 2 basses along to do e flat and drop d songs too, but find it easier with 1, especially when some of those songs dont have gaps between them. And frankly some of the other songs are just easier on a 5, and I am terribly lazy (and would have to relearn them).

There are certain musicians who make full use of extended range instruments and where it's completely incorporated into the music they produce, so a four string wouldn't work at all - Steve Lawson and Dylan Desmond of Bell Witch are two that jump to mind. Six and seven string bassists respectively, their music would be impossible on a four string. Then there are guys like me, who're exclusively five string players, who's heroes are almost all four string players, but do so as a way to make "normal" bass playing easier. The point is, I am a five string bassist, I play better on a five, am more inspired by a five and find it easier to transpose keys on a five - leading to more work. So from my purely subjective viewpoint, yes, extended range basses have lead to better music.

So finally had some time tonight. - Sanded the body ready for routing - Created some bookmatched bits (needs to be thicknessed) - Cut a recess for the back veneer - Then fully sanded the neck/headstock

I get it about the Boss OC2... but it was not always easy to control in a live situation... bad acoustics, etc... I used the EBS Octabass for years... & loved it.... but more recently needed something with a smaller footprint... for a tiny, live work board... & to cram as much as needed on it, I looked for a smaller alternative... The Markbass Raw series octaver... got my attention from this video: MarkBass Raw Octaver He's a bit of an android... but get to the sound demos & they are interesting! I bought one... & I'm pretty happy with it on my board... It's always subjective when it comes to sound.... but Worth a look.....

Nothing here?

Hi all! First post, so forgive me for jumping straight in here, but Oteil Burbridge on this is everything I aspire to be as a bassist. Check out "Uptight" - makes me my happiest every time! He's great on everything, as is everyone on this record; https://open.spotify.com/album/2U7PtD3lqcSSVSZ4g875ki?si=1jGQsfCMSsmiWVuv--zFCg

I'll go for some more obvious ones and say John Entwistle - Live at Leeds Roger Glover - Made in Japan Glenn Hughes - Made in Europe