Non 4 string social stigma?

[Angel]

[quote name='cloudburst' timestamp='1356776433' post='1913402']
Reading with bemusement.

Wonder what would fit better in a motown band: 4-string Bongo or 5-string Fender? :-)

CB
[/quote]

Yeah, exactly what I was thinking.

I seem to recall that Oasis told the bass player to lose the 5 string if he wanted the gig.

[warwickhunt]

I've gigged in the NE for a good few years and from choice I play 4 string even though I have had to detune the E string to D on many occasions and a 5 string would have helped. I've encountered plenty bassists playing 5's (6's and even the Chapman Stick), some of whom I've had to dep for and it has been a struggle to convince some bands that for 95% of their set I can easily do everything their existing bassist has played but on a 4 string. In fact I've just taken over in a band who's former bassist used 5's exclusively and I do get the feeling that they'd like me to play a 5... tough!

I think the OP has been unlucky in some of his encounters BUT I will concede that there is a core of bands/musicians that still view anything other than a Fender 4 string (Jazz or Precision acceptable) as too flash/unnecessary... says the man who has turned up to auditions/rehearsals with strange Warwicks and Bolins (goodness knows what they will make of my Dingwall)!

[EssentialTension]

It happens the other way around sometimes:

Punter: Hello, I'm a drummer.
Me: Hi, how you doing?
Punter: My friend's a bassist.
Me: Oh yeah, that's good.
Punter: He's a proper bassist.
Me: How do you mean?
Punter: He's got a five-string and everything.
Me: Er...ok

[Black Coffee]

[quote name='Angel' timestamp='1356778698' post='1913443']
Yeah, exactly what I was thinking.

I seem to recall that Oasis told the bass player to lose the 5 string if he wanted the gig.
[/quote]

Shame they hadn't told the singer to get a personality and a voice . . . . .

Some people , just put them in front of a microphone and they think they can sing and that they are important or something.

Brotherly love and a sympathetic co-operative bassist clearly made the band a success. Did the bass player not eventually leave ? I never really followed every move or bought many CDs but you couldn't avoid the strangled cat with mancunian twang on the radio andTV.

Edited December 29, 2012 by bassman344

[chris_b]

[quote name='mbellishment' timestamp='1356738112' post='1913195']
....Is it just the Newcastle music scene where this is an issue, or is it found everywhere?....In the past I have been turned away from bands for the sole reason I play a bass with 5 strings on it....
[/quote]

I'm sure we also have narrow minded idiots in London but luckily, so far, I haven't met any.

[discreet]

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1356755093' post='1913300']
with all due respect Discreet the name Guitard is not a good name for some of the best musicians i know... [/quote]

Oh yeah - that was a typo. I meant to type 'guitidiot'. Sorry.

[MrTaff]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1356778404' post='1913437']
Now thats funny because I have found all the same notes on mm 5 string basses so any music style that can be played on 4 can be done on 5, is a six different then? Your being drawn up the same path about what looks right!
[/quote]

Image matters, would you turn up at a blues or jazz gig with a flying V or BC Rich Widow? they've got the same notes

[stingrayPete1977]

But they are shaped a bit odd, a 5 string jazz, P or even the new EBMM Classic 5 looks fairly similar unless your a bass nerd though. If no one tried putting things out of their natural habitat we would be stuck in the 60's (some people are).

Anyway I would turn up for the jazz/blues gig with my upright

[obbm]

At our last gig where I was using my usual trusty Stingray 5, I mentioned that I had recently acquired a '73 Precision.

Singer says "Oh a proper bass".

[cloudburst]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1356782541' post='1913491']
Anyway I would turn up for the jazz/blues gig with my upright
[/quote]


Personally, I'd turn up at the jazz/blues night with a good book to read.

CB

Edited December 29, 2012 by cloudburst

[stingrayPete1977]

And a spliff

[Mykesbass]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1356749851' post='1913289']
I don't get this at all. You wouldn't presume to comment on what gear the drummer or guitard are using, so why people think it's acceptable to make a decision about what instrument a bass player uses (when they know nothing about bass playing) is beyond me.
[/quote]

Not so sure about this. I have come across drum snobbery - a jam night where the guy that ran it (a drummer) once brought just kick, snare and hi-hat with the comment "that'll sort the men out from the boys"!

[JapanAxe]

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1356778712' post='1913445']I think the OP has been unlucky in some of his encounters BUT I will concede that there is a core of bands/musicians that still view anything other than a Fender 4 string (Jazz or Precision acceptable) as too flash/unnecessary... says the man who has turned up to auditions/rehearsals with strange Warwicks and Bolins (goodness knows what they will make of my Dingwall)!
[/quote]
Funny you should say that, as one of the factors that went through my head recently when deciding to buy a Sandberg Cali VM4 rather than lay out a considerable extra wedge on a Dingwall AB1 5-er was: How can I turn up at a country gig with this weird-looking fanned-fret 5-string? So it was partly down to my own conservatism, partly down to my perception of the audience's conservatism.

[Black Coffee]

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1356783472' post='1913513']
Not so sure about this. I have come across drum snobbery - a jam night where the guy that ran it (a drummer) once brought just kick, snare and hi-hat with the comment "that'll sort the men out from the boys"!
[/quote]

Maybe he just drove a Reliant Robin. How is Rodney these days?

[discreet]

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1356783950' post='1913522']
...How can I turn up at a country gig with this weird-looking fanned-fret 5-string? So it was partly down to my own conservatism, partly down to my perception of the audience's conservatism.[/quote]

Shame! The Dingwall Super-J is easily the best bass I've ever played - but I take your point. So I too am a conservative. EEK!

[drTStingray]

Sorry youy've had this experience.

The sad thing is that if you follow the x bass fits in y genre only train of thinking, you end up with any Fender with a custom pastel colour belongs only in a pre Beatles 'surf' band or as an ornament on the wall. None of these 'x only fits in y' people would recognise this though - what bass was shown in the portrayed as deeply unhip stripper backing band in The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour - Fiesta red Precision of course!!

Encountering this sort of thing isn't confined to Newcastle, regrettably - I guess how much you tolerate it is down to how much you want to play in the band (for instance because you need to earn money).

One thing's for sure, people who tell you what bass to play and also what notes to play are unlikely to allow you to be a 'band member' - I for one find this sort of thing even more laughable (and sometimes more difficult to take) when the people involved haven't learned to play their instrument properly even. Has anyone else been in a situation where someone says something like 'oo your guitar strap was hanging down in that DVD and looking untidy' when in the self same DVD, same bloke is playing completely the wrong pattern!

It boils down to froth v substance - unfortunately there's a certain amount of froth around amongst the music scene.

Yes, if you're in a heavily produced pop band this may apply - or even if you're in a tribute band you may be asked to play a certain instrument - the latter always creases me up when the band members look nothing like the original guys anyway!!

You should try and find some sensible musicians to play with - my experience has been open mike/jam sessions are a good place to go (although they also have their doses of prima donnas and the like). I was asked to join a rockabilly band and took my Stingray 5 to the first three or four gigs - and it sounded the business!! I was accused of getting a double bass esque sound generally, and a Fender sound on the songs needing electric bass. The SR5 is a great swiss army knife bass so anyone who wants you for your playing and sound will have no problem with it.

Edited December 29, 2012 by drTStingray

[discreet]

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1356784180' post='1913532']
...there's a certain amount of froth around amongst the music scene...[/quote]

I'd say roughly ninety percent.

[Black Coffee]

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1356783950' post='1913522']
Funny you should say that, as one of the factors that went through my head recently when deciding to buy a Sandberg Cali VM4 rather than lay out a considerable extra wedge on a Dingwall AB1 5-er was: How can I turn up at a country gig with this weird-looking fanned-fret 5-string? So it was partly down to my own conservatism, partly down to my perception of the audience's conservatism.
[/quote]

I play a DIngwall ABZII at the minute and my feeling is if you don't like it find someone else.
Most people generally spend the first 5 minutes asking about how does that fretboard work; then the next 5 mins working up to asking for a play on it. Then generally agree it's the mutts nutts afterwards.

Are we all bowing to the image of a Leo inspired wooden slab with the bare bass-ics. . .

Guitar players get to play weird and wonderful shapes and sounds. Drummers percuss on whatever they find. Why do bass players have to conform to someone's (probably the gear slave guitarist) idea of how it should be. With expression / technique / effects / plucking and picking / accent are we not there or thereabouts with most sounds if you have a decent quality passive / active bass and amp. If it is the case - then we are image driven.

Edited December 29, 2012 by bassman344

[Conan]

As a 30 year veteran of the Newcastle music scene, I have never encountered this attitude at the audition phase. You might get the odd snidey comment once you have been in a band a while and people know you, but that is more of a personal dig than a comment on the instrument itself!

I think you have just been unlucky.

[drTStingray]

[quote name='MrTaff' timestamp='1356782329' post='1913485']
Image matters, would you turn up at a blues or jazz gig with a flying V or BC Rich Widow? they've got the same notes
[/quote]

You're taking it too seriously - most punters wouldn't give a **** - if you asked many of them to name three bass players they would probably get to Paul McCartney, maybe Bill Wyman and that would be it. It's generally the musicians (and in my experience, mostly guitarists) who get all anal about this.

I use my Stingray 5 for one of the blues bands I play in (along with a good book - you're quite right Cloudburst) - the band love the sound. If you listen to modern blues/funk/rock you'll find the punchy active bass sound alive and kicking - it's one genre which the 'mamby pamby play a Precision and we can mix it down with the kick drum without it quite disappearing' producers haven't got their hands on thank god.

[Musicman20]

Unless you are being paid sunstantial amounts of cash (and I mean a lot more than £60 a gig per member) I would just play what the hell you like. As long as the bassist holds the groove and works well with the drummer, who cares? A good tone is a good tone, so I understand some basses sound 'wrong' in certain bands, but that must be pretty rare.

Originals and unpaid (eg for fun) - no rules. Do what you like.

[wateroftyne]

Without referring to the 5-string thing specifically, there is another angle to this.

If a guitarist auditioned for a band I was in and they turned up with, for example, I dunno.. one of those flowery Ibanezzzzes with a pointy headstock and a carry-handle, I'd probably pre-judge that person.

And I'd probably come to the conclusion that, given the kind of music I'm into, we're probably not going to have a lot of common ground, musically speaking.

And the chances are, I'll probably be right.

Human nature, innit.

[stingrayPete1977]

Our guitarist has a pointy Hamer that he has had rewired for allsorts of pickup combinations, wheres a leather jacket that he painted his own devil design on, loves 80's metal and anything pointy would you jam with him wateroftyne?

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1356786177' post='1913566']
Our guitarist has a pointy Hamer that he has had rewired for allsorts of pickup combinations, wheres a leather jacket that he painted his own devil design on, loves 80's metal and anything pointy would you jam with him wateroftyne?
[/quote]

I would LOVE to!

[Beer of the Bass]

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1356785847' post='1913559']
Without referring to the 5-string thing specifically, there is another angle to this.

If a guitarist auditioned for a band I was in and they turned up with, for example, I dunno.. one of those flowery Ibanezzzzes with a pointy headstock and a carry-handle, I'd probably pre-judge that person.

And I'd probably come to the conclusion that, given the kind of music I'm into, we're probably not going to have a lot of common ground, musically speaking.

And the chances are, I'll probably be right.

Human nature, innit.
[/quote]
It's funny though - I jammed with a guitarist in Glasgow for a while, who I knew as an excellent fingerstyle folkie. I went round to his flat one time, to find him playing one of those Steve Vai Ibanezes, though his was the fluoro yellow one with the pink and green pickup covers, rather than the flowery job. Apparently it was a relic from his teenage years, and while he didn't play that style anymore, he'd hung on to it as his only electric guitar as he liked the wide neck and didn't see any compelling reason to change. So they are out there!