5's and 4's

[vmaxblues]

Since I made the move to fives I have had a blast and totally got my head around it.  I have just picked up a nice 4 in a trade and have enjoyed setting it up and playing it.

I was concerned that going back and playing 4's might play with my head and muscle memory?

How do you guys find swapping between the two types of bass?

[chris_b]

Try it.

Many players use both. If swapping starts to cause problems either practice harder or stop playing one or the other.

I don't swap. I only play 5's. I have nothing against 4's but for what I want to play 5's are the most flexible option. I have done 2 gigs with a 4 string bass since I switched to 5's in the mid 90's. One was a Rock and Roll gig which was easy and the other was on a borrowed bass in Prague, for an all originals gig where I had to transpose on the fly a whole set of 5 string bass parts. Definitely the most uncomfortable gig I've ever done.

[Delberthot]

The more you do it the easier it is to adjust.

I have 2 4 string basses but my Sterling has a detuner so I can drop the E down to D or B if I want. At the moment the Rickenbacker doesn't and I tend to use an octave pedal and play higher up the neck. It is just a matter of getting used to changing positions to suit the bass you have in your hands.

I went from a 4 to a 5 to a 6 then back to a 5 I think. I've hovered between 4s and 5s over the past few years but have now decided to stick to 4 strings

 

Edited November 11, 2018 by Delberthot

[Hobbayne]

I play both. A Yammie BB 5 and a Fender P.

However, the weight of the 5 plays havoc with my shoulder. So I try to mix and match with the correct song that I can do on a 4, so my shoulder gets a break.

[fleabag]

I play 4's , only 4's and nothing but the 4's

[vmaxblues]

may the 4's be with you

 

[ambient]

It’s easier if you play notes rather than frets or string numbers.

[FinnDave]

After 40 years or more on four strings, I bought a couple of sixers, and after two or three months of playing only them, my fours seems very limited and he necks very narrow. I would need a week or two or re-familiarising myself before i was  willing to gig a four string again.

[stingrayPete1977]

Strangely I play four string upright without thinking about it but an electric four string bass confuses me totally. 

[Sibob]

I play 4s, 5s & 6s. To me, the biggest technical consideration is simply muting, everything else is comfortable after a couple of hours shedding on the instrument (which I do with all of them regularly). 

As has been said, if you see your bass as a collection of notes capable of music, the number of strings/frets becomes superfluous info. If you don’t know where the notes are on the neck, and you’re simply playing learned basslines, that’s when swapping between them becomes a slightly harder prospect IMO.

Si

Edited November 12, 2018 by Sibob

[NancyJohnson]

I've got both and have previously switched between 4s and 5s. 

While I don't necessarily experience issues switching between the two, live or session, I do prefer just sticking to the one.

I don't know that I could step up to a 6...that high C string.  Just too unbasslike.

[ambient]

14 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

I've got both and have previously switched between 4s and 5s. 

While I don't necessarily experience issues switching between the two, live or session, I do prefer just sticking to the one.

I don't know that I could step up to a 6...that high C string.  Just too unbasslike.

It all depends on your requirements. A 5 has always made more sense to me than a 4 string, not just because of the extra low notes, more so the positioning thing, especially on reading gigs where you can pretty much stay in one position on the neck and concentrate on the part. A 6 string is fantastic for soloing and chordal stuff; I personally love the chord voicing possibilities that a 6 allows.

[Painy]

After 21 years of playing 5 string basses exclusively (apart from about a year when I used a 6 string a few years back) I don't really see the point in swapping back and forth as there's nothing a 4 string offers me that a 5 doesn't because I'm totally comfortable with my 5 string basses. 

[Teebs]

9 hours ago, fleabag said:

I play 4's , only 4's and nothing but the 4's

It was written: "Let thee craft thyself thy bass guitar, and let it be given 4 of thy finest strings no more, no less, for anything other than 4 is an abomination, and leads to deviance from the true path of righteousness"

🙏

Edited November 12, 2018 by Teebs

[Painy]

32 minutes ago, Teebs said:

It was written: "Let thee craft thyself thy bass guitar, and let it be given 4 of thy finest strings no more, no less, for anything other than 4 is an abomination, and leads to deviance from the true path of righteousness"

🙏

Looks like I'm going to Hell then. 😈

[Teebs]

18 minutes ago, Painy said:

Looks like I'm going to Hell then. 😈

Bad Painy! 🎸 5  🚫

[NancyJohnson]

7 hours ago, ambient said:

It all depends on your requirements. A 5 has always made more sense to me than a 4 string, not just because of the extra low notes, more so the positioning thing, especially on reading gigs where you can pretty much stay in one position on the neck and concentrate on the part. A 6 string is fantastic for soloing and chordal stuff; I personally love the chord voicing possibilities that a 6 allows.

The point I was trying to get over wasn't so much about the switching, more about if I'm gigging/recording, then I'd prefer to do the whole session on just the one stringset, be it a four or five.

I've played a six string once, in a shop in Landaan.  Played a seven string Conklin when I was demonstrating for EBS at a trade show 20+ years ago.  I just found that the high register extended range was unnecessary for me; I mean, Steve Lawson does very well off it, but in a three piece punk band, well, it's way too many strings.

[jazzyvee]

I tend to play 5’s mostly. Though if im playing basslines for covers that i think were played on a 4 string bass i tend to stay away from the B string for tonal balance. There are times when i use the 5th string for emphasis if the song needs the extra weight of bottom end. 

[yorks5stringer]

Despite the name, I'm back to 4's although did  a gig a few weeks ago with the 5. The only issue I have is I forget about the B string and started one song in the wrong key( as if it was a 4 string bass).

[BigRedX]

I bought my first 5-string bass back in 1989, and apart from a couple of years when I was playing fretless and hand't yet been able to find a suitably good fretless 5-string I've stuck with 5-string basses. I really can't see the point of going back to 4-string. There's nothing I could do on one that can't do just as easily on a five string.

Having said that I've recently started playing Bass VI in one of my bands, but I don't really have any problem switching between the two because I'm playing completely different songs on the different types of basses.

Being also a Guitar, mandolin and balalaika player helps as its the actual notes and not the string/fret position that is important.

[thepurpleblob]

I mostly play 5s these days but I can switch to a 4 without much thought. 

The only thing is string spacing. Everything has to be the same. I don't like 5s which have 5 strings crammed into a 4 string neck anyway.

[MacDaddy]

Now just 4's with an extended fretboard for me.

But when I was playing both, I found the B string on a 5 was the thumb-rest, but the top of the pup was the usual thumb-rest for a 4. 

Funnily enough I never had any problems playing a 6. Took right to it. But that may have been the bass, a rather tasty Shuker 6 with an amazingly thin flat neck.

[josie]

Interesting. I started on a 5, so that feels natural. Switching back and forth to a 4 has never been a problem. At first I kept the G string as a fixed reference point and I might or might not have the low B to drop down to. I've switched to fixing on the D at A5 as the centre point of the fretboard, and relating everything else to that, which seems more secure. 

I hadn't thought of this before, but it may be partly that the GMR 5 and the Aerodyne 4 have very different body shapes - they feel different as soon as you pick them up -  and I've learned to associate that with the number and spacing of the strings. It's quite likely that a GMR 4 or a Jazz 5 would seriously confuse me. 

The 6 is taking a bit of getting used to. Mostly in the right hand - the string spacing is actually slightly wider at the bridge than on my 5, although it's the same at the nut. On the fretboard, that D is still the centre point. 

[silverfoxnik]

I enjoy playing both 4 and 5 string basses and after years of using both, can switch from one to the other during gigs without any problems at all.

After so many years of doing this, I think that that my playing ability and style is pretty consistent whichever bass I'm using, but the way that I use the 5 is definitely different and works really well for some songs and some styles of music.

I've never got on with 6 string basses though; had one for about 3 months once and didn't enjoy the experience at all... 

But having said that, I absolutely  love listing to someone like Steve Lawson play one - it's really amazing how creative it can be in the hands of the right bassist.

[josie]

It does so much depend on both the style of music and the mix of the band. My ex-band - indie-pop - gave me a lot of scope to mix deep broody prog with bright disco-pop and all things in between - a 6 would have been perfect, but ironically I left before buying one. Now with Plastic Mojo, while we had our excellent lead guitarist, I used the low B a lot to put some depth under his high bright leads, but now that he's left (no blame, change of personal circumstances) we just have rhythm guitar (and keys) and I'm using the high C to add some detail and sparkle. 

If I could only have one gigging bass it would be the 6.