Imposter syndrome?

[Rich]

Not at all. I use a 5 string 100% with the Destroyers but rarely venture below Eb or D (for which I could drop tune a 4) and I don't feel remotely pretentious. For me the main advantage of a 5 is the ability to play across the neck rather up & down. 

[BigRedX]

For me the main advantage of a 5 string is that the E string is no longer at the edge of the neck, which makes it easier to play with my less than brilliant technique.

[mcnach]

17 hours ago, missis sumner said:

Am I being pretentious for playing a 5 string bass, when only two songs of my band's set list actually require it?

 

I find I'm fitting some very low notes into Sympathy for the Devil (admittedly, the Motorhead version, so...)... and then finishing some of the songs on a very low octave bass note...  I kind of feel like I'm falling into the same trap that my drummer does, when he slows down the ending of... EVERY.... SONG.... 

 

You don't need to use every note on every string. Play the 5er and enjoy it!

 

Personally, I find the strength of 5-string basses is not the additional handful of notes, but the ability to play across the fretboard rather than up and down. 

 

Play what you like!

 

[Dad3353]

2 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

Extra string, extra muting. Even if you only use it twice in a gig you still have to concentrate on muting it throughout. 

 

Not strictly true; if playing the 5th string ('B'...) systematically instead of the 4th ('E'...), there's no more muting involved. One is simply playing a bit further up the neck, s'all, no..?   It would be true if one's repertoire involved extensive use of the open low 'E'. Is that a 'thing', though..? 

[Grimalkin]

The most use I have for fretted fives is having two octaves in one hand position, that is handy for pit work, transposing songs or synth lines below the range of a four. Playing standard lines I like to have all the inflections, slides etc. plus the different timbre you get playing up the neck, more fill on the thinner strings and no extra string to mute. I would consider the high C on a six the preserve of chords or soloing/solo pieces...

 

One advantage I've found is fretless. Lower notes played up the board equals shorter scale, easier intonation than the very bottom end of the neck.

 

I'm more likely to go for the right timbre rather than convenience though, even if it means a bit more work.

 

[Grimalkin]

7 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Not strictly true; if playing the 5th string ('B'...) systematically instead of the 4th ('E'...), there's no more muting involved. One is simply playing a bit further up the neck, s'all, no..?   It would be true if one's repertoire involved extensive use of the open low 'E'. Is that a 'thing', though..? 

 

You're going to play all the tunes on the B string? I do prefer the sound of an open E rather that the fretted version. More ring, a different timbre. In fact, though you can use it, I'm not too fond of the B string response past the 6th or 7th fret. The string was designed to reproduce low notes, too far up the neck and you start to hear the overtones.

[Woodinblack]

3 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

Extra string, extra muting. Even if you only use it twice in a gig you still have to concentrate on muting it throughout. 

 

I can honestly say i have never concentrated on muting the B string on a gig. I don't think I have ever had to concentrate on muting at all, apart from when I was first learning. that is something for my hands to work on, not my head. 

 

3 hours ago, missis sumner said:

 

I know.  Extra weight as well. 

 

my spector 5 RST is the lightest bass I own, it was one of the lightest basses at the last bass bash - can't remember what it was but it is 3.3KG on the web, it is lighter than my Ibanez EHB1505, which is in itself not exactly heavy. 

[Grimalkin]

1 minute ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I can honestly say i have never concentrated on muting the B string on a gig. I don't think I have ever had to concentrate on muting at all, apart from when I was first learning. that is something for my hands to work on, not my head. 

 

 

I suppose it depends on what you are playing. Jaco spent 9 years on the head for Donna Lee, he spent more time trying to mute it that actually playing the line. On a four string.

[Grimalkin]

I use a movable anchor, if I have to anchor the thumb on the E string say, the thumb mutes the E and the upper side surface of the thumb mutes the B string above. I don't anchor my thumb on the B constantly, I move up when playing the higher strings, keeping the picking pattern over three strings. That's the grid I like. Picking the G string with your thumb anchored on the B, is too far away for me.

[BreadBin]

5 minutes ago, Grimalkin said:

 

I suppose it depends on what you are playing. Jaco spent 9 years on the head for Donna Lee, he spent more time trying to mute it that actually playing the line. On a four string.

Maybe he just wasn't that good?

 

I use a 5 for everything, apart from the part in the set of 2 songs with an instrumental section in between which are all in D. I use a 4-string in drop-D for this as it's just more fluid sounding.

[Dad3353]

7 minutes ago, Grimalkin said:

You're going to play all the tunes on the B string? ...

 

No, and no need to exaggerate to such extremes. I understand that if one is largely playing open low 'E', it could be a factor; it's not my style (at all...), and I'm not so fussy about overtones and the like; to me, bass is bass is bass. My main bass is a four-string (Hofner Verithin...), but I also have a six-string fretless, used every day by Our Youngest, and muting has never been an issue (varied repertoire of pop-rock, Radiohead, Bowie, SOAD, Noir Désir, Bashung and much more...).
Disclaimer : I'm a drummer, anyway, so what would I know..? 

[Grimalkin]

1 minute ago, BreadBin said:

Maybe he just wasn't that good?

 

Try it and find out...

[Woodinblack]

12 minutes ago, Grimalkin said:

Jaco spent 9 years on the head for Donna Lee, he spent more time trying to mute it that actually playing the line. On a four string.

 

Cool story bro.

 

I assume - I have no idea what 9 years on the head means, or who donna lee is, but anyway, his problems are not my problems, I don't personally know him, I was just saying what I did, and as usual, you are just saying what Jaco did. 

[Grimalkin]

2 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Cool story bro.

 

I assume - I have no idea what 9 years on the head means, or who donna lee is, but anyway, his problems are not my problems, I don't personally know him, I was just saying what I did, and as usual, you are just saying what Jaco did. 

 

Ok.

[BreadBin]

34 minutes ago, Grimalkin said:

 

Try it and find out...

Believe it or not I'm one of the many that doesn't get moist over Jaco. He was good, but not the godlike genius that you seem to think he was. I'll just keep playing my way rather than comparing myself to a long dead and deeply flawed individual. If he gives you a hard on then good for you.

[chris_b]

The B string is no different to any of the other strings. The 5th fret doesn't sound like the same note on an open string on any of them.

 

5 string basses are not heavier than 4 string basses. My Lull PJ5 weighs less than my 68 Fender Precision.  Some basses are boat anchors and some aren't. The number of strings is irrelevant.

 

Muting isn't more difficult on a 5 than a 4. Learn what you have to do and it becomes an automatic technique.

 

I knew a bass player who had inherited and sold his dad's trucking company and was comfortably a millionaire several times over. He told me he wouldn't play a 5 string bass, "Do you know how much a set of strings costs?" I just laughed.

 

Stop making it a thing! Just play the bass that gets the job done. If that's a 5 string bass,  just get on and make the changes that are necessary. The only "issue" is a player's willingness to relearn some techniques and add some new ones. Apart from that there are no downsides to playing a 5 string bass. Not even little ones.

[Kitsto]

18 hours ago, missis sumner said:

 There is also the fact that I can barely play a four string.

In which case stick to the 5. Guitarists in the band won't notice (they find bass beneath them). Punters in the audience will be impressed.

[Grimalkin]

46 minutes ago, BreadBin said:

Believe it or not I'm one of the many that doesn't get moist over Jaco. He was good, but not the godlike genius that you seem to think he was. I'll just keep playing my way rather than comparing myself to a long dead and deeply flawed individual. If he gives you a hard on then good for you.

 

I don't ever remember thinking or claiming Jaco was a godlike genius. Innovator, yes.

[ambient]

5 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

Extra string, extra muting. Even if you only use it twice in a gig you still have to concentrate on muting it throughout. 

Practice.

[Grimalkin]

8.20, you'll notice Scott says that muting will be an automatic response, but floating thumb which he is using, isn't an easy technique in itself. So that's how he got around it:

 

 

A lot of slappers like four strings, no B to mute.

[missis sumner]

1 hour ago, Grimalkin said:

8.20, you'll notice Scott says that muting will be an automatic response, but floating thumb which he is using, isn't an easy technique in itself. So that's how he got around it:

 

 

A lot of slappers like four strings, no B to mute.

After a work related hand injury about a year ago (thankfully my right hand), I have to play with a pick! lol

[Delberthot]

I've been saying this in pretty much every thread asking if a particular bass is right for a particular band, genre, event etc for about the last hundred years but if you like the bass, it plays well and it sounds good it doesn't matter how many strings it has

 

I've played rock gigs with a 12 string, wedding gigs with a Modulus Flea bass and the only reason for using them was because I liked the basses at the time

Edited December 3, 2022 by Delberthot

[missis sumner]

1 hour ago, chris_b said:

 

5 string basses are not heavier than 4 string basses. My Lull PJ5 weighs less than my 68 Fender Precision.  Some basses are boat anchors and some aren't. The number of strings is irrelevant.

 

I have to disagree with this.  5 string basses are always heavier that 4 string basses, of the same type, obviously.  But yes, I understand what you mean about some basses being lighter than others.

 

I agree with the rest of your post.

[missis sumner]

3 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

my spector 5 RST is the lightest bass I own, it was one of the lightest basses at the last bass bash - can't remember what it was but it is 3.3KG on the web, it is lighter than my Ibanez EHB1505, which is in itself not exactly heavy. 

   I appreciate that some other basses are quite light as well.  If anyone wants to sell me a 5 string that is this light, and is not an EHB, well, let's say I'm open to the suggestion.

 

[Woodinblack]

39 minutes ago, missis sumner said:

   I appreciate that some other basses are quite light as well.  If anyone wants to sell me a 5 string that is this light, and is not an EHB, well, let's say I'm open to the suggestion.

 

 

Well, I have two other light basses, the Maruszczyk L24, which is a chambered swamp ash bass with ultralites on it, and a shuker uberhorn 5, also swamp ash. Neither of them as light as the RST though, which I assume is some kind of paulonia. 

And I have a spector euro that is maple all the way, and I suspect heavier than all the ones above put together