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"There is no money above the 5th fret" - The Origin


Baloney Balderdash
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The saying stems from a guy who once commissioned a custom 5 fret bass, thinking his custom order was in safe hands he let the luthier finish his work without bothering him further.  

But when the man went to pick up his custom order it turned out that the luthier had used a 24 fret neck for the bass anyway.  

The guy who ordered the bass got furious and demanded 19/24 to be cut off the initially agreed on price.  

The luthier had no way around admitting to his mistake and give the man his demanded discount.  

And such the saying "There is no money above the 5th fret" was born.

 

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Probably stems from the music industry when session players were the norm on almost every record. They would be required to play within a tight structure and the bassist would have to play what the producer deemed correct, ie nothing above the fifth fret. Petty much the same as the drummer sticking to absolute basics, they were the musicians who got all the work.

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22 minutes ago, mikel said:

Probably stems from the music industry when session players were the norm on almost every record. They would be required to play within a tight structure and the bassist would have to play what the producer deemed correct, ie nothing above the fifth fret. Petty much the same as the drummer sticking to absolute basics, they were the musicians who got all the work.

^This. Don't know the actual origin, but certainly from the session industry.

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When Paul McCartney (the original one) was training his replacement (the current one) and teaching him their repertoire, Paul (the current one) was prone to wandering up the fretboard which frustrated Paul (the original one), who worried that his plans to abscond and live a normal life in Milton Keynes could be scuppered if Paul (the current one) didn't get everything just right. Things came to a head during one song when Paul (the original one) erupted and shouted at Paul (the current one) "MONEY? NEVER ABOVE THE FIFTH FRET!"

James Jamerson happened to be outside walking past the slightly ajar window of the rehearsal room at that very moment and, even though he wasn't fluent in Liverpudlian, understood enough to get the gist, but interpreted it as "There is no money beyond the fifth fret." 

He told the story to his friend Carol Kaye who has since claimed credit for it.

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