Does anyone actually use their B string?

[JakeBrownBass]

All the time. The only problem with 5 strings is they’re missing the C string 😜

[super al]

20 minutes ago, Muzz said:

38mm nut, slim contour...not gonna happen with a 5, unless a couple of the strings are stacked... 😉

Ah...now there's thought...two skinny necks, essentially a 6 string but 3 a piece.

Any takers? 😁

[stingrayPete1977]

I rarely play an open E anymore. If anything I'd rather have a BEAD bass than a EADG one if a five wasn't available. 

[Bobthedog]

2 hours ago, Skol303 said:

All the time.

Playing a 5-string, for me at least, is all about playing across the neck rather than up and down it.

This, exactly this. 

[dmccombe7]

Use it in the recording studio mainly because the guy i'm doing the bass work for likes the low B string depth. 

Other than that i never use my 5 or 6 strings in a band situ.

I def prefer my Jazz 4 string.

Dave

[Pinball]

I use the B string quite a lot in our origonals songs. Both up and down the neck and I love to bounce between octaves. 

Like on the end of Fear of Flies : https://theangrybadgers1.bandcamp.com/track/the-fear-of-flies

[chris_b]

I play a 5 string bass because it is the most flexible instrument I've found so far. I play the lines I want and need to play and I don't stand there counting the number of times I play a note on any of the strings. I've got better things to think about.

[josie]

Yes, almost every song. Especially improvising / walking, there's always a 5th below which I can drop onto without even thinking about it and barely moving a finger. As said,  easy tight fingering patterns across the neck. Almost always gig my GMR 5, but I've re-strung my Jazz BEAD. 

I do love the high C on my Ibby 6 too, but that's for special situations like solos.

[Vinny]

Eh? Basses have 5 strings, what I don't understand is how folk cope when there's only 4. I played a gig on mine a few weeks back and felt like I was holding a broom handle, not to mention being unable to find where half the notes had gone!

[Woodinblack]

All the time. I don't really use it specifically for lower notes so much, like you there are only a couple of songs that have a note that need a 5 string to play, but frankly I would  struggle to play ½ of them without a 5 sting as it makes some things much harder to play. Every so often I take a 4 string to play and quite often mess up

If you aren't using your 5th string, why do you have one? If you just want a lower note for a song or two maybe a detuner is a better option?

[tauzero]

All the time, except when I'm playing a 4-string (TBH I'd rather play Marillion songs on a 5 but Pete Trewavas plays them on a 4 so to be a proper tribute, except fatter and balder, I have to too).

[Roger2611]

I tried 5 stringers but struggled to get on with them and ended up selling them on, in Yodaclub my bass work tends to be higher more melodic lines which suits a 4 string perfectly, however, now I am also playing in a rock band I find I need two basses, one in std tuning and one in dropped to D, so I guess a 5 string would remove a lot of guitar changes on stage....but on the flip side, there are a number of songs with quite busy basslines which really suits a Jazz bass profiled neck where the benefit of a 5 string would be lost with a bigger wider neck?

I will stick to the 4 stringers and put up with the on stage changes.

 

[chris_b]

6 minutes ago, Roger2611 said:

I tried 5 stringers but struggled to get on with them and ended up selling them ....but on the flip side, there are a number of songs with quite busy basslines which really suits a Jazz bass profiled neck where the benefit of a 5 string would be lost with a bigger wider neck?

You should practice to remove any dependence you have on size of neck in order to play busy lines.

Anyone who is "struggling" to play a 5 string due to physical or technical issues needs to put in the time to make their technique independent of the instrument.

[Muzz]

12 minutes ago, Roger2611 said:

I tried 5 stringers but struggled to get on with them and ended up selling them on, in Yodaclub my bass work tends to be higher more melodic lines which suits a 4 string perfectly, however, now I am also playing in a rock band I find I need two basses, one in std tuning and one in dropped to D, so I guess a 5 string would remove a lot of guitar changes on stage....but on the flip side, there are a number of songs with quite busy basslines which really suits a Jazz bass profiled neck where the benefit of a 5 string would be lost with a bigger wider neck?

I will stick to the 4 stringers and put up with the on stage changes.

 

I've found that the superb pitch shifting on the Helix Stomp negates the need for an additional detuned bass...song in D? Just pick the patch...and it's cheaper than a good bass, too... 😀

[BigRedX]

14 hours ago, LITTLEWING said:

Good point about efficiency. I think I ignored the real benefit of mine because anywhere on any fret it sounded like a wet rubber band. I imagine a decent bass made for a B would have made me use it more.

That's your problem right there. If your bass isn't producing a decent sounding and feeling low B string it's because either the bass itself isn't well enough made, or that you aren't using the most suitable strings for getting a good low B.

This is something I read over and over again on here. People go out and buy a cheap 5-string bass and are disappointed with it. IME there is a lot more to making a good 5-string than simply taking a 4-string design and slapping a wider neck on it to make room for the extra string. The neck and neck joint in particular need to be a lot better constructed than the average 4-string bass, with rules out most sub £1k basses with bolt-on necks. You also need the right strings for you bass. IME most low Bs are far too low tension compared with the rest of the set. For a standard 40-100 G-E you should be using at least 130 B and have it fitted in such a way as to minimise the compliance of the string.

[thepurpleblob]

I get that low D in everywhere I can. It makes people's drinks fall off the tables 😄

[BigRedX]

To answer the OP's original question, I've pretty much only played 5-string basses since 1989. I'd just spent most of the 80s playing synths and wanted something that was capable of playing in the same register. It also helped that the first 5-string bass I bought was much better than the 4-string bass I'd been using before, and my next 5-string (an Overwater Original) was an exceptional musical instrument. 

Since then, the amount of use the B string gets depends entirely on what songs I'm playing and the musical style of the band I'm in at the time. Interestingly the band that saw me making most use of the low B was also the most musically conventional band I've been in, as the original guitarist favoured the keys of B, C and D when he was writing songs, so those notes got a lot of use. 

In my current bands, I use the 5-string in one, and use the low B on just 2 songs in the current set (one being a cover of She's In Parties" by Bauhaus where I play the bass line an octave lower than the original). In the other band since the departure of our guitarist and the decision not to replace him, I've switched to Bass VI (short-scale 6-string bass tuned E- E) as the higher strings are more useful for the music we play and we have a synth player to cover any really low notes.

Edited March 7, 2019 by BigRedX

[EliasMooseblaster]

Yes.

I speak from the perspective of someone who has only owned a fiver for a matter of months, but I can honestly say that once you get accustomed to the extended range, it does change the way you play certain lines. Typically, I've been given acres of space for improvisation with the basslines I play, so I'd second @josie's point above - the extra string gives me more options for places to go, especially if I'm walking through the changes.

Sure, the notes below E are nice to have, but if some strange (and purely hypothetical) quirk of design and physics were to ever force me to choose between low-B-through-Eb and the extra hand positions, I'd keep the hand positions. As a few others have mentioned, being able to fret the low E does make you look at the board differently.

[stingrayPete1977]

1 hour ago, Roger2611 said:

I tried 5 stringers but struggled to get on with them and ended up selling them on, in Yodaclub my bass work tends to be higher more melodic lines which suits a 4 string perfectly, however, now I am also playing in a rock band I find I need two basses, one in std tuning and one in dropped to D, so I guess a 5 string would remove a lot of guitar changes on stage....but on the flip side, there are a number of songs with quite busy basslines which really suits a Jazz bass profiled neck where the benefit of a 5 string would be lost with a bigger wider neck?

I will stick to the 4 stringers and put up with the on stage changes.

 

Most of the very busy and solo bassists use at least five strings, there's no reason to think a skinny jazz neck is faster or even more suited to the higher melodic stuff. 

[6feet7]

14 hours ago, Skol303 said:

All the time.

Playing a 5-string, for me at least, is all about playing across the neck rather than up and down it.

This. 

[Hobbayne]

I picked up a Yamaha BB 5 string on here back in the summer. I wanted to try it out on our set to see how it sounded. We mainly play classic rock covers which were all originally done on a 4, so the low B doesn't get a lot of use.

In fact, I have recently gone back to a P Bass again.

Edited March 7, 2019 by Hobbayne

[Iacopo San]

With my band we have a couple of songs in D, so... 

[Horizontalste]

I use it loads, I think the fretboard on a five makes far more sense in terms of visualising shapes. With two octaves under your fingers the standard forms we all use are less broken.

Edited March 7, 2019 by Horizontalste

[tauzero]

1 hour ago, Muzz said:

I've found that the superb pitch shifting on the Helix Stomp negates the need for an additional detuned bass...song in D? Just pick the patch...and it's cheaper than a good bass, too... 😀

You lose out on 90% of the benefits of a 5-string though. The ability to go below bottom E is as nothing compared to the power of the Force ability to play in a greater selection of neck positions. Still, as long as people keep buying 5-strings, misunderstanding them, and selling them on, I'll have a plentiful supply of little-used 5-strings to buy.

[EliasMooseblaster]

11 minutes ago, Horizontalste said:

I use it loads, I think the fretboard on a five makes far more sense in terms of visualising shapes. With two octaves under your fingers the standard forms we all use are less broken.

That's a good point: when I (briefly) taught bass guitar, one of the finger-stretching exercises I used to get my (few) students to do was go up and down a few two-octave scales. F or G major over two octaves is a good warm up for the fretting hand on a four-string. Doing the same on a five rather takes the challenge out of it!