What is it with all the 5 strings for sale?

[mcnach]

[quote name='steantval' post='1204301' date='Apr 19 2011, 12:01 AM']Funny that, me and another bassist were discussing 5 strings tonight and both agreed a bass should have 4 strings, that's what they started with.[/quote]


I am not going to argue your preferences, you are entitled to them. But the reasoning is profoundly ridiculous, with all due respect

Seriously? Since when anything has to be just the way it started out?
Are you an Amish bass player? Think about it.

we should play double bass, that's how it started!
wait, I'm sure something came before it.
Wait... we should play music by hitting wood bits with sticks.
Wait, we should play music hitting rocks together.
Or...

yes, I'm kidding but... come on.

[Truckstop]

I think it's because people go out and buy 5ers without having a real reason for using one and then when they realise it, they just get rid. Which is fair enough. I know plenty of people that flirted with fretless or DB, found they didnt have a use for them and sold them on.
Also, they're all wimps, running scared from the thunderous B!

Truckstop

[XB26354]

What I want to know is why there are so many basses for sale in the For Sale section.

[Soliloquy]

I don't understand why (I never have understood why) people think they have to have a 'reason' to buy a 5 string.

Do they think that they have to be doing a song where there was a low D or C played originally ?

Everything that you can play on a 4 string bass, you can play easier on a 5 string bass. It doesn't work the other way around though, unless you start detuning.

I've been using 5+ strings since around 1992. I immediately fell in love with the new ways to play old songs that a 5 gave me.
No longer did I have to shift position down to fret 3 on the E string to play a low G, or 1st fret to play a low F. I could keep my left hand in a comfortable position around the 5th fret position and play all of those notes without moving.
It's also nice to be able to play parts an octave down from where it'd 'normally' be played. Ever played Stevie's I wish on a 4 string bass, without de-tuning it ?

The first gig I did on a 5 string was with a soul band at Birmingham University. It felt so good dropping those low B's, D's, Eb's etc in to the basslines. Proper low notes that really filled out the sound of the band.

Edited April 19, 2011 by Soliloquy

[bremen]

[quote name='Soliloquy' post='1204576' date='Apr 19 2011, 11:23 AM']Everything that you can play on a 4 string bass, you can play easier on a 5 string bass.[/quote]


There's something lovely about the simplicity of a 4 string with big gaps between the strings though. I just don't find playing 5 strings as relaxed. Maybe if I hadn't played 4 strings for about 20 years before getting a 5 I'd feel differently.

Wouldn't like to be without either really.

[chris_b]

A 5 string bass is a natural evolutionary step.

[JTUK]

[quote name='chris_b' post='1204600' date='Apr 19 2011, 11:38 AM']A 5 string bass is a natural evolutionary step.[/quote]

Agree..and I wouldn't use anything else.

Lots of nice basses are up here but if they aren't a 5 I couldn't even be started to be interested.
I even have one for sale myself..so am off to prepare some pics on this lovely fine day.

But other than that..does it matter what someone else plays...?
I'd be more interested in what they do with the bass they have rather than anything else.

[Shawman]

i'm preparing for another dip in to the world of 4 strings, trading one of my 5's

hopefully have a better experience than last time, but if not, i'll still have a 5 to go back to

[skankdelvar]

Look, the whole reason I took up bass was because it had 2 less strings than a guitar. Adding a fifth string would make it 50% more difficult to play and that's just silly.

I would submit that a 3 string bass tuned B-E-A is the more logical evolution by no inconsiderable magnitude.

[JakeBrownBass]

[quote name='Soliloquy' post='1204576' date='Apr 19 2011, 11:23 AM']Everything that you can play on a 4 string bass, you can play easier on a 5 string bass. It doesn't work the other way around though, unless you start detuning.[/quote]

90% of my work is done on my 5 string but i am going to disagree with that statement.

I've played lines on the 5 that just don't seem to sit right, and as soon as i pick up the fender everything just seems to work. Sometimes those shifts from 6th fret to first are exactly what the groove needs.

Also, all the bassists you posted, i'd put money on them all having at least one fender jazz or p bass, or something that resembles one. And i bet they have all used them in the studio because thats what it needed.

I think anyone who dismisses either instrument because they "don't need it" are stupid.

[MacDaddy]

it's the recession, everyone is downsizing.

[aldude]

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='1204650' date='Apr 19 2011, 12:20 PM']Look, the whole reason I took up bass was because it had 2 less strings than a guitar. Adding a fifth string would make it 50% more difficult to play and that's just silly.

I would submit that a 3 string bass tuned B-E-A is the more logical evolution by no inconsiderable magnitude. [/quote]

Just think how easy this one would be to play! Plus it's not heavy on the pocket!

[url="http://bucketbass.com/"]http://bucketbass.com/[/url]

[Soliloquy]

[quote name='J.R.Bass' post='1204674' date='Apr 19 2011, 12:46 PM']90% of my work is done on my 5 string but i am going to disagree with that statement.

I've played lines on the 5 that just don't seem to sit right, and as soon as i pick up the fender everything just seems to work. Sometimes those shifts from 6th fret to first are exactly what the groove needs.

Also, all the bassists you posted, i'd put money on them all having at least one fender jazz or p bass, or something that resembles one. And i bet they have all used them in the studio because thats what it needed.

I think anyone who dismisses either instrument because they "don't need it" are stupid.[/quote]

I know Janek uses a Fender P bass for some gigs.

I agree with your statement about dismissing instruments too. It just really annoys me when people post smug statements about this instrument or that instrument, and only needing a 4 string because so-and-so only needed a 4.

[JakeBrownBass]

[quote name='Soliloquy' post='1204748' date='Apr 19 2011, 01:36 PM']I know Janek uses a Fender P bass for some gigs.

I agree with your statement about dismissing instruments too. It just really annoys me when people post smug statements about this instrument or that instrument, and only needing a 4 string because so-and-so only needed a 4.[/quote]

No need to let others annoy you. Each to their own n all that.

Surely you have more important things going on than getting annoyed with this crap.

[gub]

[quote name='Soliloquy' post='1204092' date='Apr 18 2011, 08:25 PM']What's with all the 4 strings that are for sale, are the owners selling to buy the 5's that are for sale ?

Are the owners of the 5 string basses that are for sale selling to buy a 4 string bass, or are they selling to fund another 5, or maybe a 6 string ?

Get a life .[/quote]I
I have a life ta mate ,just an observation that i thought i would post up thats all !

[Mikeg]

[quote name='Shawman' post='1204390' date='Apr 19 2011, 07:53 AM']it's called evolution [/quote]
Agreed. Technacly the bass evolved from the upright and from the guitar
Although i cant name any 5 string players. Other than when eric claptop broke a string...

[3below]

[quote]Bassists are too stupid to play anything with more than four strings.[/quote]

Four, nobody told me there were four, do I have to use that little thin one that sounds puny. My day has been ruined, four, I ask you, surely three are enough!

Edited April 19, 2011 by 3below

[skej21]

I think this is an interesting view on what should be the 'norm' with basses;

“Why is four [strings] the standard and not six? As the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family, the instrument should have had six strings from the beginning. The only reason it had four was because Leo Fender was thinking in application terms of an upright bass, but he built it along guitar lines because that was his training. The logical conception for the bass guitar encompasses six strings.”

Anthony Jackson

[risingson]

[quote name='skej21' post='1205276' date='Apr 19 2011, 10:04 PM']I think this is an interesting view on what should be the 'norm' with basses;

“Why is four [strings] the standard and not six? As the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family, the instrument should have had six strings from the beginning. The only reason it had four was because Leo Fender was thinking in application terms of an upright bass, but he built it along guitar lines because that was his training. The logical conception for the bass guitar encompasses six strings.”

Anthony Jackson[/quote]

I love Anthony Jackson, he's one of the few bass players who can play a six string and almost make me want to buy one. Trouble is though he sounded just as good on a 4 string.

[tauzero]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1204376' date='Apr 19 2011, 07:18 AM']See post #2 [/quote]
ITYM post #3.

[tauzero]

[quote name='XB26354' post='1204563' date='Apr 19 2011, 11:15 AM']What I want to know is why there are so many basses for sale in the For Sale section.[/quote]
Because nobody's bought them yet. Not even TIM.

[krth1985]

Most of the songs I play I only need the E and A string. But its easier to go down the fretboard than across it, for me anyway. All of my bands material is in standard tuning, I have no need for anything lower than the open E. But its just easier. I picked up my 4 string yesterday, and it felt like i was playing a pencil. The neck felt so thin it was abnormal. I've only been on a five string for a couple of month as well. Cant see myself ever going back to a four.