Love 4 string basses but....

[fiatcoupe432]

I really love 4 string basses and sometimes I do miss having one but I can only afford one bass ATM as we trying saving for diff reasons ....

now I ve played 6 string and 5 strings for a while and I would love to go back to 4 but I'm scared I'm gonna miss the high c or low b or both ....

anyone here went from 6/5 to 4 ? 

How did I find the transition?

[stingrayPete1977]

Less is less, sold all my fours, stay as you are

[fleabag]

Throw 'em in the bin. 5+ are the spawn of the devil

[Delberthot]

Before I sold my SR5 to get my Sterling, I had to make sure that I could play everything on a 4 string. The way to do it was to get a Hipshot doublestop that can drop the E down to 2 lower tunings. I have mine set to D & B and regularly switch it during songs.

I did play 6s for a few years but in the end I could see no point in having a C as I never used it - I only had a 6 for the sake of having a 6

[martthebass]

I've played 5s and 4s but always felt more comfortable on a 4.  I don't have any 5s in the fleet now and TBH I don't really miss them.  There are occasions where I think that a particular song would be easier to play on a 5 but I always enjoy digging in far more on a 4 (never enjoyed the narrower string spacing on a 5 and always found 'broadnecks' too much of a handful).

[ambient]

Stick with your 6.

Anything you can do on a 4 you can do on a 6, but not the other way around, at least not without de-tuners.

To me a 6 makes perfect sense.

[dave_bass5]

Like flats, i love playing 5 string basses, but always go back to 4's (and rounds).

2 hours ago, fiatcoupe432 said:

How did I find the transition?

Dunno, you tell us how it went :-)

[EssentialTension]

I don't do anything I can't do on a four string with flats.

That's it.

[uk_lefty]

I had a six briefly. Poor quality bass so got rid, never seen the need to have one since. I have owned a fiver longer than anything else and it does make me play differently to my fours, but is limitation is that it's fretless and it's a pointy heavy metal looking thing. Since putting a hipshot d-tuner on my 4 string jazz bass thats now my one bass useable for any gig if I only want to take one bass. 

I spoke to a luthier recently about a new bass and enquired about price difference from 4-5. He says he pretty much makes 4s with a hipshot now rather than 5s as it's what more customers want... 

[oldslapper]

Horses for courses & all that...

I started on 1 unlined fretless 4 string in the late 70's, went on to own 5 & 6 string basses & a 10 string stick. 40 years later, I own 1 4 string unlined fretless. 

I tend to respond differently to 5 & 6 string basses than 4's too. I always end up noodling a lot more, playing chords and tapping when I've owned ERBs. 

Have whatever you're most at home with. 

[lojo]

It all depends on what you use it for I guess , Ive only used a 5 for covers where the key needed a lower B 

 

[thepurpleblob]

I learned on a five but drifted to a four for a few years and now play both. My Stingray 4 is just the right thing for some gigs and songs. If in doubt, I take the five. It's hard to explain. This doesn't help at all, I know :-D

[Roger2611]

I have decided to dispose of both of my 5 string basses, I find the string spacing on the 5's could become addictive, having a few few really nice 4's I don't want to get used to that 5 string spacing at the expense of the 4 strings so out the 5 strings go, I have to admit that other than a short period doing Pogues and Waterboy's covers where the low B was handy I haven't found a need for the extra string....I hope that makes sense!

 

[Paul S]

I always played 4 string basses and fitted a detuner for the rare occasions I needed a low D.  Then around 18 months ago (+/-) one of my bands decided to morph into a Bon Jovi tribute and a lot of their material is played with lots of low notes - Hugh Macdonald uses every bit of his 5 string basses!  So I found myself having to get used to using one - I decided the best way was to use the 5er for everything and not just the songs I needed to, which I carried over into my other band.  So I now find myself using 5 string basses exclusively and, actually, I quite like it.  Not just for the extra low notes at my disposal but for the ease of getting around the neck and extra choices for playing certain notes - do i want the E to be open or fretted, do I want the bassier timbre of playing some notes on the B string - whatever.  Makes me wonder what I would do if I came to a point when I no longer needed to use a 5er - would I keep to them anyway?  And what of those wonderful 4 string basses I haven't touched for over a year?

[Barking Spiders]

Love 4 string basses. No buts here. I've tried 5 stringers but they just don't do it for me with slap n pop and double thumbing . I often like to dig in hard and play aggressive fingerstyle but I need the space 4 stringers give 

[alyctes]

I went back to fives because it was that or radically change my tuning (singer's voice has a pitch where he's comfortable, and we're stuck around that).  What they really give me is the range under my left hand; I'm not using the notes below D at all, and that only occasionally.

Edited March 1, 2018 by alyctes

[ribbetingfrog]

I learned on a five string but came to the conclusion four strings are easier and more comfortable to play.

My band doesn't play anything below drop D so only takes me a moment to retune when required.

 

Every now and then I miss the low rumble but it's Defo a lot simpler playing a 4 string.

[stingrayPete1977]

15 minutes ago, ribbetingfrog said:

 

Every now and then I miss the low rumble but it's Defo a lot simpler playing a 4 string.

That's why they are for novices, lol

[Bluewine]

When I started playing bass in 1965-66 there were no 5 string basses. Hence, I never got the whole appeal of basses with more than 4 strings.

Blue

Edited March 1, 2018 by Bluewine

[ambient]

Did you get the 7 string that you were talking about?

[josie]

7 hours ago, ribbetingfrog said:

Every now and then I miss the low rumble but it's Defo a lot simpler playing a 4 string.

Imho it's easier to reach the range of notes I might want around the 5 to 9 frets on a 5. The left hand fingering is so much simpler that it outweighs the right hand having an extra string to land on.

My band's originals often suit a high bassline so I'm planning to re-string one of my 5s E-C - please don't let this lead to GAS for a 6... :-)

[Lozz196]

I can`t remember her name, but Prices bassist mentioned in an interview that when she was playing Prince said to her, I think you`ve got one too many strings on that bass. Bowing to her musically gifted employers opinion/guidance she went back to playing 4 string basses and has stuck with them apparently.

[FDC484950]

I’ve never played a cheap 6-string bass that was any good. The peculiarities of the design (range, width of the neck, pull on the truss rod, ergonomics) tend to mean that a purpose-built bass is more successful, as opposed to a 4 on which the builder slaps a wider neck. This usually means that they’re more expensive - certainly the nicest ones I’ve played (Dingwall, Elrick, Fodera, Ken Smith, MTD, etc) are very pricey. If you can afford it, great, but as your only bass, are you using the high C enough to warrant reaching over it to play EVERY note on all the other strings? I’ve adopted Simandl technique on the right hand as the width of a 6-string neck rules out one finger per fret unless you have very long fingers or you like getting hand issues! I also find the first joint of my little finger tends to lock uncomfortably when reaching for notes in the low B.

On the other hand, a five string is much closer to a 4 in that the top 4 strings are the same; get one with 4-string spacing and, other than damping that pesky low B, the experience isn’t too different. However, thinking of it as a 4 with a few lower notes is the wrong way to go - use all the notes you can in that low B and take advantage of the increased range, or else it’ll just start to feel awkward.

All of which leads us to a 4, on which probably 95% of all music involving electric bass has been played. If you never go below a low E or play chords/very high parts a 4 is the best option - you can pick a good bass up cheaply, there’s loads more choice, it will probably be lighter, easier to play and may mean you spend more time in the performance than on your technical ability or what you can play with all the other strings - whether the music needs it or not!

[Mottlefeeder]

I rarely use the G on my 5, so when I bought a 4-string back-up bass I tuned it BEAD. I find it much easier to swap between basses when the strings I use most are where I expect them to be.

David

[Spoombung]

4 - string = fun

5, 6, 7, string = no fun