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What? I 'need' a 6 string??


Dazed
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Stupid Gas thinks I need a sixer despite owning one years ago and not getting on with it. Since then I had a friends ken smith on a long term loan and still didn't feel I had to own one.
Fast forward years and I keep looking at them with that mental itch (GAS)
It gets worse as I even think I'd like fretless!!

The ONLY way I believe it would work is to get rid or lock away everything else so the only option would be the 6er.

Yours
Doomed
Up North.

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I've played sixers since taking up the bass again a few years back.

I like the extra flexability and the extra weight / strings don't hamper me in anyway. I've said it before but I'd get away with a five string for 90% of the stuff I do, although I have a few chordy bits in my current bands set so I do actually need the high C as well now too :blink:

It doesnt make you a better player but I do like having the options a sixer gives me :)

Edited by CamdenRob
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[quote name='Dazed' timestamp='1447857706' post='2910984']

It gets worse as I even think I'd like fretless!!


Yours
Doomed
Up North.
[/quote]

Well you'll have the pick of the stock 'cause not many people want one and they end up cluttering up bass shops all over. Bargain hard and you could get quite a deal.

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[quote name='visog' timestamp='1447919145' post='2911403']
Well you'll have the pick of the stock 'cause not many people want one and they end up cluttering up bass shops all over. Bargain hard and you could get quite a deal.
[/quote]

This is very true... I picked up a Roscoe fretless sixer last week from the BC marketplace for a ridiculous price.

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Do you find that the chordal bits get handled adequately by the guitarist? I had a 6 but found the neck too wide (and the bass weighed a tonne). More practice would have helped to get used to it, but I have gone back to 5s and 4s (but sometimes miss a low B). I imagine it is the stuff I was playing (more rocky stuff) but there wasn't really space to be putting gentle chords in whilst keeping the bottom end covered too.

I was wondering how others got on with finding the space and balance to put in higher register stuff whilst keeping the bottom end and groove?

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For me there is absolutely no problem to have a six string, in fact I own two fretted sixers. I like th additional range for tapping and chords but I'm not sure I could use a fretless sixer just as much. While tapping is possible on fretless I'd leave that to a fretted bass and chords are more tricky than on a fretted one. So that pretty much kills the advantages FOR ME. But if you wish to make a try then go for it, what can you loose, especially if you shop wisely?

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[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1447919335' post='2911405']
This is very true... I picked up a Roscoe fretless sixer last week from the BC marketplace for a ridiculous price.
[/quote]

Good score... it may actually justify buying a top-quality fretless 6 like a Roscoe and getting it fretted and the nut done to turn it back into something usable for us mortals...

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Well thanks folks. You're as undecided as I am :lol:
I don't know, the idea of owning one appeals but will it be another bit of wood getting dusty and then is a pain to get rid of. Hmmm

Yes the beauty of an unlined lined fretless board isn't lost on me, that's part of the wanty-ness. The reality soon kicks in tho once I start making a godawful racket with it!
For the past 4 months I've been playing a 4 string p bass almost exclusively, which I'm really enjoying. However whatever bass I use after a while I'm always missing something that it doesn't have - the bite of a single coil J or fretless or active trickery. In my head I want to believe 'the one' is out there but maybe that's just more wanting to think there is a one bass to rule them all, when really there actually isn't. Everything is always a sacrifice. Ho hum :lol:

So any happy fretless 6 owners care to chime in?
I'm almost convinced I'd need to shelve everything else and do some long term shedding to get the intonation under control.

Edited by Dazed
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A partial 6 string unlined fretless player here. I really enjoy it. Fretless gives you some wonderful mwah, and more flexibility in some cases. I prefer unlined to lined, as I find it easier to get the intonation right, when I see lines my fingers seem to be programmed to fall in behind the line, as you would on frets, making me very much out of tune!
However, chords above the 12th fret marker are well out of my skill level, in fact they even start to degrade heading up that way for me. The 6 strings do allow you to stay in one position and open up extra notes though. Pro's and con's I guess.

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[quote name='Dazed' timestamp='1448283271' post='2914093']
Well thanks folks. You're as undecided as I am :lol:
I don't know, the idea of owning one appeals but will it be another bit of wood getting dusty and then is a pain to get rid of. Hmmm

Yes the beauty of an unlined lined fretless board isn't lost on me, that's part of the wanty-ness. The reality soon kicks in tho once I start making a godawful racket with it!
For the past 4 months I've been playing a 4 string p bass almost exclusively, which I'm really enjoying. However whatever bass I use after a while I'm always missing something that it doesn't have - the bite of a single coil J or fretless or active trickery. In my head I want to believe 'the one' is out there but maybe that's just more wanting to think there is a one bass to rule them all, when really there actually isn't. Everything is always a sacrifice. Ho hum :lol:

So any happy fretless 6 owners care to chime in?
I'm almost convinced I'd need to shelve everything else and do some long term shedding to get the intonation under control.
[/quote]

Two remarks. One is that if you can allocate time for woodshedding and have motivation to focus on the project long enough to make rea progress then by all means go for it (6 string unlined fretless) I think it is a beautiful task. I wish I'd started playing bass earlier in my life when I had more time and less priorities that are more inportant than playing bass. I think fretless playing is not a miracle, it's just you have to take the time and there is not shortcut to this.

Two: IMO there is no bass that does it all. I'd rather have a small collection of basses (like now) with one fine example of the types I really like (a FGN JB, a Spector NT and a 6 string Prestige Ibanez) Having this collection and having owned many instuments before reall calms my GAS as I have seen a lot and know what I need and prefer. Yes, I'd still like to try/own some basses and they will come in due time.

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Thanks Paul, Ive been playing on (25 years) and off (10 years) from the age of 10 until well now really.
Ive gone through the stages of it being the most important thing in life to having zero interest and, almost, back again.
I have the luxury of time to throw at it if I feel like, and I have been very lucky to own lots of basses and still do.
I enjoy looking around and being surrounded by them.

Its just the past 4 or 5 months I've had no access to them and have been using a humble Precision and nothing else. I've really enjoyed it, the novelty of being forced into playing it for everything is something I haven't really done since I first started, when there wasn't a choice because I only had one bass and concentrated on playing it.
Then a couple of years ago, I started playing again and I found Basschat. My collection of 2 (!!) basses that had done me fine for the previous 20 years suddenly needed company, and lots of it……… sound familiar?

It has since crossed my mind and not for the first time, that instead of having this collection that only rarely gets used, other than the favourites, to get rid of them and settle on one.

Or two.

Or three……. See thats how it started last time! :rolleyes: :lol:

Now I'm even looking at 7 strings!!

I have come to realise that I suffer with GAS terribly and once the newly acquired bass lands, its starts over again.

Basschat is the monkey on my shoulder. Pointing and whooping at all the precious'is :mellow:

Edited by Dazed
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