Advice needed about entry to 5 string

[xgsjx]

TBH, putting a good set of flatwounds & better pickups on a £200 bass makes sense.  Often the cost of a bass is reflected on the hardware used rather than the build quality.

I played a Fender MIM fretless Jazz & a Squier fretless Jazz.  I felt that a change of strings & pickups for less than £200 on the Squier would make the £250 bass a far better instrument than the £700 MIM.

[Bigwan]

5 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

- putting £70 strings on a bass costing £210 is like putting tyres costing £700 on a car costing £2,100. Who does that? You don't put very expensive tyres on a cheap car. 

People with sense. My MkV GTI likes £450 of tyres about once a year. If they were £700 I'd still spend it because putting remoulds on a performance car is suicide...

Flea is awesome? Maybe in your world, but I think he disappeared up his own behind after BSSM.

[Al Krow]

5 minutes ago, Bigwan said:

People with sense. My MkV GTI likes £450 of tyres about once a year. If they were £700 I'd still spend it because putting remoulds on a performance car is suicide...

Flea is awesome? Maybe in your world, but I think he disappeared up his own behind after BSSM.

How much was your MkV  GTI? If you picked it up for £1,350 you got yourself a bargain. That's where my analogy was heading (i.e. spending 1/3 of the price of a bass on the strings)...

With due respect to us, who has heard of Al Krow or Bigwan outside of our own local pub?! Or ever plays one of our bass lines? Yup Flea is awesome. Makes us seem like fleas in comparison.

[chris_b]

IMO we should all strive to sound the best we can. If someone doesn't care about how they sound then we are not on the same bass planet and none of my posts are for them.

I used to play in a smoky dive off Regent Street. A horrible, smelly, bad sounding dump of a place. I insisted on bringing my Wal, and Ampeg gear rather than using their awful no-name combo. One night I was offered a gig in a pro band by the band leader, who had dropped in for a beer. That lead to touring the UK with good musicians and paid a lot of the bills. OK so you might not want to go pro but its a nice feeling and an affirmation of your bass playing if someone asks.

I don't care where or what you are playing, you shoot yourself in the foot on every gig that you don't try to sound your best and play your best.

And I had a set of DR's on my bass that night.

[Cuzzie]

@chris_b makes a lot of sense to me, and I use DR’s too

[neilp]

Where tyres are concerned, the value of the car is utterly irrelevant. You should ALWAYS buy the best tyres you can afford. If you buy cheap you get cheap. In my opinion, strings are the same

[Dad3353]

It's easy to confuse the terms 'cheap' and 'inexpensive'. They are not, however, completely interchangeable. Cheap in price does not systematically equate to cheap in quality. The opposite is also true: higher cost is not necessarily higher quality.
Just sayin'. 

[BreadBin]

The tyres analogy is, with respect, utter rowlocks. 

Cheap strings aren't going to endanger anyone, won't affect your stopping distance or lead to unpredictable handling at the limit.

Buy the strings that suit you best - cheap expensive or whatever it's up to you. 

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, chris_b said:

IMO we should all strive to sound the best we can. If someone doesn't care about how they sound then we are not on the same bass planet and none of my posts are for them.

I used to play in a smoky dive off Regent Street. A horrible, smelly, bad sounding dump of a place. I insisted on bringing my Wal, and Ampeg gear rather than using their awful no-name combo. One night I was offered a gig in a pro band by the band leader, who had dropped in for a beer. That lead to touring the UK with good musicians and paid a lot of the bills. OK so you might not want to go pro but its a nice feeling and an affirmation of your bass playing if someone asks.

I don't care where or what you are playing, you shoot yourself in the foot on every gig that you don't try to sound your best and play your best.

And I had a set of DR's on my bass that night.

That's a lovely story Chris. And I guess if folk can easily afford to splash out on a Wal they won't need to have second thoughts about expensive strings. But I think Dad nailed it when he said:

33 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

It's easy to confuse the terms 'cheap' and 'inexpensive'. They are not, however, completely interchangeable. Cheap in price does not systematically equate to cheap in quality. The opposite is also true: higher cost is not necessarily higher quality.
Just sayin'. 

My point is this - you don't necessarily always need to go for the 'very best' when 'good enough' will more than adequately do, when it comes to gear. Using your same logic everyone should be saving up for a Wal, when frankly a Squier will get the job done fine. And don't get me wrong 'good enough' is also not the same as 'crap'. Yes we should all avoid 'crap' gear. Always.

I'd be happy to wager you that the you weren't offered that pro band gig 'cos you had a Wal and an Ampeg, but 'cos you're a bloo*dy good bass player! And if you had been playing my Ibby SR (or a Squier) through my Markbass combo it would have been plenty 'good enough'.

Edited May 7, 2018 by Al Krow

[Cuzzie]

@Al Krow I agreed with everything you said until you mentioned playing through your MB Combo.....

[xgsjx]

4 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

That's a lovely story Chris. And guess if I folk can easily afford to splash out on a Wal they wouldn't need to have second thoughts about splashing out on expensive strings. But I think Dad has nailed it when he said:

My point is this - you don't necessarily always need to go for the very 'best' when 'good enough' will more than adequately do, when it comes to gear. Using your same logic everyone should be saving up for a Wal, when frankly a Squier will get the job done fine. And don't get me wrong 'good enough' is also not the same as 'crap'. Yes we should all avoid 'crap' gear. Always.

I'd be happy to wager you that the you weren't offered that pro band gig 'cos you had a Wal and an Ampeg, but 'cos you're a bloo*dy good bass player! And if you had been playing my Ibby SR (or a Squier) through my Markbass combo it would have been plenty 'good enough'.

Splashing out on a good set of strings for your Ibby or Squier could be a better option than selling said bass & buying one for £500+.

I haven't bought strings for some time (I play flatwound, they last for years), but a good set of roundwounds shouldn't cost much more than £30 & flatwounds ain't much more.

I'd never be happy with "getting the job done".  I want to play something I'm happy & comfortable playing.
For me for now, that's a 28 year old Ibby SR with D'Addario Chrome strings.

[neilp]

What is all this "should" nonsense anyway. I will buy the strings that work best for me, on my basses. If they cost £70 a set, I'll pay it. The strings I use on my double bass cost £300 a set. I don't quibble.

HOWEVER... I really don't care what anyone else chooses to do, at the end of the day it makes no difference to me...

Tyres, on the other hand.... Your tyres might kill me one day, so I do care

[Cuzzie]

Crikey, think they are a few hot and bothered people in the sun, wish I had never used the tyre analogy now!

Although as one of the guys after me said, cheap doesn’t necessarily mean rubbish, so maybe we can cross the road safely using the green cross code, in the knowledge peoples tyres are OK.....

[xgsjx]

1 minute ago, Cuzzie said:

Crikey, think they are a few hot and bothered people in the sun, wish I had never used the tyre analogy now!

Although as one of the guys after me said, cheap doesn’t necessarily mean rubbish, so maybe we can cross the road safely using the green cross code, in the knowledge peoples tyres are OK.....

Aye!  You and your bloody tyres!!!!  

On that,  My £3k Honda Del Sol got Falken tyres at £250 a wheel.  My £25k Nissan QQ gets £75 no name tyres.

[chris_b]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

That's a lovely story Chris. And I guess if folk can easily afford to splash out on a Wal they won't need to have second thoughts about expensive strings.

I always get the feeling that you are reading the words but not getting the meaning.

I was trying to illustrate the point: focus on playing well and sounding good and you will open more doors than by just playing expensive gear.

I bought that Wal for £700 but the price is irrelevant. Expensive strings (or anything else) are certainly not a prerequisite to sounding good but there are points in the scale of prices where "sounding OK", becomes "sounding good", becomes "sounding better".

We all decide where we are on that scale, but my point is to try a little further up the scale and see if that brings benefits. Don't be satisfied with "OK", try for "better". If you do or don't find improvements at least you tried and you might actually end up sounding better than you did.

 

[Al Krow]

12 minutes ago, chris_b said:

I was trying to illustrate the point: focus on playing well and sounding good and you will open more doors than by just playing expensive gear.

I'm 100% in agreement with the above. But I think an average reader, like me, would take from:

"I used to play in a smoky dive off Regent Street. A horrible, smelly, bad sounding dump of a place. I insisted on bringing my Wal, and Ampeg gear rather than using their awful no-name combo. One night I was offered a gig in a pro band by the band leader, who had dropped in for a beer. That lead to touring the UK with good musicians and paid a lot of the bills."

...that it was your insistence on high end gear that got you the offer? There's certainly no mention of the importance of knocking it out the park in how you were playing that night!

It's the old adage: we all spend too much time angsting about tiny improvements in "sound" from better gear, instead of focussing on being better bass players. The two are not the same thing and I am as guilty of this as the rest. Gear is a LOT of fun, but it isn't where our main focus should be if we want to be really good bass players.

[Al Krow]

26 minutes ago, xgsjx said:

Aye!  You and your bloody tyres!!!!  

On that,  My £3k Honda Del Sol got Falken tyres at £250 a wheel.  My £25k Nissan QQ gets £75 no name tyres.

Please, please NO ONE get dangerous / illegal tyres. That is NOT the main take away from this thread 

[chris_b]

6 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

...that it was your insistence on high end gear that got you the offer? There's certainly no mention of the importance of knocking it out the park in how you were playing that night!

It's the old adage: we all spend too much time angsting about tiny improvements in "sound" from better gear, instead of focussing on being better bass players. The two are not the same thing and I am as guilty of this as the rest. Gear is a LOT of fun, but it isn't where our main focus should be if we want to be really good bass players.

You've missed the point again.

[Dad3353]

14 minutes ago, chris_b said:

You've missed the point again.

Easily done, the way it was made. 

[ambient]

On 06/05/2018 at 09:48, lojo said:

One down side of a 5 is this ..

I'm due to receive a 5 string in a trade and haven't had one in a while so I look up the cost of my favourite flats which I use on my 4s , cost £70 ! 

Anyone use a different string for the B ? Seriously it's so low anyway I wonder if it would notice 

I’ve got a 6 string set of flats that I’ve been advertising for ages in the sales section if you’re interested. They’re brand new and unused.

[lozkerr]

On 06/05/2018 at 22:17, josie said:

Constance Redgrave (Spikedrivers) strings her 4 BEAD, and I'm thinking of doing that with the one 4 I love too much to give up.

That sounds like a superb idea! I presume it would need a normal gauge B string rather than just detuning the E, though? 

[BreadBin]

12 minutes ago, lozkerr said:

That sounds like a superb idea! I presume it would need a normal gauge B string rather than just detuning the E, though? 

You would need the bottom 4 strings of a 5 string set, or equivalent. 

Also make sure to widen the slots on the top nut to suit...

[Guest adi77]

had 3 5 strings over the years

yamaha rbx375, best intonation ever on a fretted instrument, great session bass

ibanez gwb fretless (the cheaper one) shouldnt have sold it

sire v7 5 string, great bass, a bit on the heavier side

 

all sold now, id grab a used yamaha if looking for a 5er in fact i saw some damn good deals on the trb series a while ago on reverb

[Guest adi77]

...another 5 string i played and liked was the ibanez atk 

[Cuzzie]

New Schecter C4 Apocalypse has also a baritone version which is designed to be String BEAD if it’s your thing

https://www.schecterguitars.com/bass/c-4-apocalypse-1655-detail