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Four String Five String? Now NBD. Why is nobody surprised?


Skinnyman

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Congrats on the Ibby SR Premium - great choice! Not surprised at all that you went for that instead of the Ibby Standard.

44 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Very nice! 😎

My OCD is intrigued by the headstock - the bass has the B and E tuners on one side and the A, D and G ones on the other, which isn't what usually happens on 5ers. I've got B, E and A on the same side on all my 5-string bass guitars (the NS NXT5 is different).

Gorgeous bass all the same. :)

My two Ibby SR 5'ers both have the 2+3 as above. Others go for 3+2 or perhaps even more commonly on the Fender style headstock 4+1. Just one other make of bass in my herd adopts the 2+3 and that's Ken Smith. So it seems to me that Ibby are in very good company! 

If you were basing it on weight of strings alone, then 2+3 i.e. B+E and A+D+G is more evenly balanced than the 3+2 alternative. So there is perhaps some method in the madness! 

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I think that perhaps the 3+2 layout is to make it slightly easier to reach the D string tuner. I know I have trouble reaching it on my Warwick Corvette 5ers, with their protruding necks.

My own Ibby has 3+2 as the Warwicks, and feels familiar. When I tune the NS upright, instead, I have to remember it's 2+3, but that's probably because B, E and A would be too thick to fit in a line on one side of the headstock without fouling each other.

Never got on with Fender-like basses on any level, and I think the 4+1 layout is utterly hideous... 😱

:)

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On 28/06/2020 at 21:18, Al Krow said:

In which case the Ibby SR Premium range with 16.5mm spacing was designed with you in mind! An incredibly playable neck for a 5 string. And IMO a pretty tasty rest of the bass too!

Thank you, by the way, for resisting the temptation to go “told ya so!” 😁

Turns out, I should have listened to you nearly a month ago.

I can’t get over what a difference the slim neck makes!

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8 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

My OCD is intrigued by the headstock - the bass has the B and E tuners on one side and the A, D and G ones on the other, which isn't what usually happens on 5ers.

Absolutely is what usually happens. Looking at all my basses, half of them are like that!

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7 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

I think that perhaps the 3+2 layout is to make it slightly easier to reach the D string tuner.

In this case it's probably a design decision, but several years ago when Fodera started the BE+ADG system, the idea was to lengthen the B and E strings. I didn't follow the reasoning too closely but I believe it had something to do with string length and tension. 

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On 07/07/2020 at 13:00, Rich said:

Anyone remember the Overwater C Bass? For those that don't... back in the 80s, Overwater produced a 36" scale version of their gorgeous Original bass... I don't know if they were all fretless, but all the ones I've ever seen are.

There is a picture in the Bass book (Barry Moorhouse) of an Original with frets. The idea is nice, my custom fretless 4 has 36" scale, and the current project (fl 5) will probably be 36", although both will be tuned (B)EADG.

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9 hours ago, Skinnyman said:

Thank you, by the way, for resisting the temptation to go “told ya so!” 😁

Turns out, I should have listened to you nearly a month ago.

I can’t get over what a difference the slim neck makes!

Nah - just really pleased that you're liking it a lot so far! 

Feel free to post a few pics on this thread - which seems to be a repository for Ibby SR lovers - although my bi-annual campaign to persuade Woody to change the thread title to something broader continues to meet with steely resistance 😁 

Just had a little trip  down memory lane on the thread and turns out that I bought my first Ibby (a 4 string as it happens - I hadn't taken up 5 strings back then!) exactly 3 years ago to the day.

 

Edited by Al Krow
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8 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Never got on with Fender-like basses on any level, and I think the 4+1 layout is utterly hideous... 😱

I think you should stop pulling your punches and come off the fence on this one 😁

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1 hour ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

I haven't got a single bass guitar with 2+3, and IIRC neither has @Happy Jack, hence my comment. :)

Just because all your basses are wrong!

But still, as you say, we can agree that at least it isn't the travesty of the 4+1.  The only one that has that is the wrongo, and somehow it suits that :)

 

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1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Nah - just really pleased that you're liking it a lot so far! 

Feel free to post a few pics on this thread - which seems to be a repository for Ibby SR lovers - although my bi-annual campaign to persuade Woody to change the thread title to something broader continues to meet with steely resistance 😁 

Well, as long as you never give up, that is what matters :D

 

So you went to a shop to get the cheapest budget Ibanez SR and then it turned out you wanted a SR premium? That worked out well then!

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1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

 

So you went to a shop to get the cheapest budget Ibanez SR and then it turned out you wanted a SR premium? That worked out well then!

It’s worse than that.

I started this whole journey trying to not buy a five string at all and use a four string tuned as a five.

And that worked quite nicely.

But then the GAS kicked in and so cheap, budget fives were on the cards.

Then I started looking at reviews and decided that I’d be better off going up slightly to the entry-level Yamaha TRBX.

But the dearer 605 looks sooo nice in the redburst.... oh, but there’s the Cort Artiisan series and that’s worth the extra over the Action series and the B5 isn’t that much more than the C5 but there isn’t one to try but there’s a funky looking Ibby in Cerulean blue or something which has the same neck profile so I can try that and see if I like the narrow string spacing, which I do so I can order a B5 by mail order but wow, that one looks nice - and that one, and that....and can I try that one up there please, I can’t see the price ticket? How much? Oh well, you’ve got it down now so I might as well play it.....well hello, gorgeous.....wanna move in with me?

So the moral of this story is twofold. 
 

1) BEAD tuning works perfectly well and means that in many cases you don’t actually need a five string

2) If you’ve discovered (1) above and you’re happy with the finding, don’t go on BassChat ever again.

Keep an eye on the Marketplace for a rather fine Sandberg California 4 string which I now need to sell to fund my habit....

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2 minutes ago, Skinnyman said:

Keep an eye on the Marketplace for a rather fine Sandberg California 4 string which I now need to sell to fund my habit....

You're planning on selling your Berg California 4 string to fund an Ibby SR Premium, rather than tuning it to BEAD?!

You foolish, foolish man! Oh wait...I did EXACTLY the same thing.

Ok NOW I wanna say "I told you so". Except I didn't 😁

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On 07/07/2020 at 10:44, Skinnyman said:

I suppose it could be but the problem I have with this (and with drop D) is that it alters the relationship between the notes across the strings and my little brain can’t cope with change like that at my advanced age. It expects that, whatever note I play, the fifth, fourth, sixth - all the other notes of the scale - are in specific places in relation to to it. Downtune a string and those relationships go out of the window and I am left floundering.

So, for me with, my limitations, tuning to drop anything is just not an option.

 

not if you have the extra frets like wot my basses do. The relationships remain the same:

 

21-39-21-38895029421_e4a899939e_c.thumb.jpg.85fad78c91573a9b77c252da715a99ad.jpg

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1 hour ago, Skinnyman said:

It’s worse than that.

I started this whole journey trying to not buy a five string at all and use a four string tuned as a five.

And that worked quite nicely.

But then the GAS kicked in ...

Looks at the shuker on the wall. Yep, its a road well trodden!

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