Defo

6 hours ago, Max Normal said:

I have also been playing 35 years and switched last year with no problems at all. Now I feel restricted on a 4 string. I remember trying to swtich to a 5 many years ago though and really struggling with it, so I wonder if it's got something to do with how individual bassists perceive the fretboard and strings? 

If you consider that people use both visual references and memory of hand and finger position, I wonder if different players use more of one type of perception than the other and this makes a difference to switching to different scales and ranges? 

I'm very visual and I can switch between short, long and extended range basses (and 6-string guitars) with no problem. I can play well enough, but I'm one of those people who is always looking at the fretboard unfortunately.

That's a really interesting perspective, I think you're probably right. I always look at the fretboard as well but I think that's the reason I can't do 5 strings, I just think maybe more along the fretboard than across, does that make sense?

9 hours ago, tauzero said:

I properly switched ten years ago or so, after I'd been playing for 35 years.

You are one of the lucky ones

Stunning quality those Mayonaisses 

'ow much?

19 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

I played 70s rock in the 70s, and 60s rock in the 60s for that matter. I have no interest in trying to get the same tone I had then. We bass players were constantly changing amps and speakers as new tech became available, and there was no such thing as gear nostalgia. I finally settled in with my current rig twelve years ago. It does everything I want it to, so I'm done with the hunt for tone nirvana. Even though my tone now bears little resemblance to what it was in 1965 or 1975 it's not the least bit out of place when I play songs from those days. It's better.

Great post, it's no surprise bass players are supplied with such incredible tone options these days, we've been crying out for it for decades and every decade gets better. 

14 hours ago, bubinga5 said:

I would say they were playing a Fender 5 string.

Technique has got to have a lot to do with it. Most of us will have played 4 strings for our first 5-10 years and by that stage the damage is done - maybe some of us won't ever suit 5s (me included)

12 hours ago, timplog said:

another Lag

found in seattle US a few years ago

nicely built should've kept it but didn't get on with 5 strings at the time 

cheers

Thanks for that, brings back a few memories.

The Warwick

I figure a 2 x 10, but why not a 15". Unfashionable I know but....

Don't like it personally but Aguilar stuff is made for this circumstance 

Nay, nay and thrice nay. Gave up a few months ago after years of different 5ers. Had to say goodbye to a beautiful Stingray but it just doesn't happen for me :( 

I don't mind a bit of weight and I'm 48. Love slinging on my Ibanez Musician. 

13 hours ago, donkelley said:

Wow, where do I start?

~~~~~~~~

Yamaha John Myung model (purple and all)...

really wanted this, really hoped it would be amazing.  love 6 strings, love the color and general look, love dream theater.

This one was --- defective imho.  the action couldn't get nearly low enough, we're talking really high, without a shim that was 2.5 mm thick at the very end of the neck pocket!  I did that and it was ok, but with a shim that thick it never played the same after, I didn't make a proper angled shim out of wood or anything, before I decided it wasn't for me.

Tone was - meh.  no presence at all.  no life to it.  very dead sound, yet acoustically teh strings were nice and bright and new sounding.  just the electronics, and/or wood.

Couldn't unload it fast enough.... should have been the best 6 I'd played up to that point, but no.  LTD cheap model was waaay better.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cort headless precision bass from the 80s. ..

Headless with licensed high quality steinberger (heavy, good metal) hardware.  terrible weight distribution, boring tone, half circle p bass neck LoL.  blechy red and white burst from hell . EWE.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ibanez BTB 6

- I did try to love it, but in the end only just... respected it. so well made, so beautiful, so nice to play, but I didn't like 35" scale (Still don't), and it was lacking in life.  so little tone variation with touch.  most ibanez basses are very sensitive to touch, but not that one.  Played a low end btb5 later on that was full of life, so I know it can exist.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

USA fender Jazz, 1990s

pretty bad tone with new strings, setup was high and needed a shim but I didn't bother.  This was clearly a bad bass in many ways, yet it looked pristine.  I think it was a lemon that nobody ever wanted to play, and I found out personally why they didn't.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Epi Thunderbird (low end bolt on model)

Pretty good actually, better than expected.  I liked the tone, very gibson.  but just too awkward and heavy for me.  Much better than folks say they are, but the cheap bridge metal - it was bending AS I WAS ADJUSTING IT.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

speaking of cheap bridge metal.... Hagstrom 8 string bass, the chinese reissue.

should have been great.

- no depth to the tone at all, very middy (way way too much for practical use as a bass, octave strings were way louder than fundamentals, needed an active bass boost like crazy)

- terrible bridge metal - flexible while adjusting, could easily have been broken off

- noisy pots when turned, noisy switch when switched.... just so cheaply put together, but the wood and acoustic tone were great.  played ok too for an 8.  But I've played much better 8s than this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

8 string NON OCTAVE bass, generic chinese brand of some kind

sure, it was cheap, used.  huge neck, couldn't reach low B and F strings in normal fingering, had to wrap hand around it.  terrible fretwork, some notes didn't work right or played the higher notes.  I filed frets like crazy to make ti playable, but even then action was awful, neck through but couldnt' get low enough.

nice double truss rods though, half way decent active preamp tone, and picks didn't soudn awful actually.  but I'm only 5'7" so away this giant went.

Blimey, someone's hard to please!!  

It's a Lag, I remember drooling over it when they were on TOTP, memories....

Hartke do great 15"s if that suits your pocket

Best I've used in 30 years, I've stuck with mine for 4 years now which is something of a record. There is loads of bottom end! They don't mind if you swap between active and passive either.

15 hours ago, TrevorR said:

This Aria Pro II SB700 (still got it, still play it) and a 75W 1x15 Laney Combo. In 1982...

 

Wow, you were lucky!!

 

Hondo Deluxe Series 830 - probably a lot better than I gave it credit for

Laney Linebacker 30 - about as loud as my radio

Spectors are most definitely great basses, incredible in fact. The only problem I have them is that they sound too much like Spectors!!!

You're not "missing" anything except maybe a really great bass for you - I've tried with a number of them and my advice would be to make sure you try all the options on the fingerboard, it makes a hell of a difference on a P.

Boiling strings - when I was a kid with no money I would always boil before a gig, makes them zing for a few hours but BEWARE, also makes them more likely to snap......

2 minutes ago, visog said:

I've no memory of a single note or line he's ever played. 

Him and Paul McCartney I guess

1 hour ago, Meddle said:

No idea why such a crap bassist gets so many endorsements.

That's well out of order. Rudy is one of the pre-eminent rock bassists of the last 30 years, you don't get the gigs he has without being seriously capable - look at his CV maybe? What is it that made you think he was crap?

Oh wow, good for you, I bet that is awesome 

Have owned a lot, I have had the Tecamp Puma 900 longest which I guess says a lot.