5 string or 4 string...

[geoffbyrne]

28 minutes ago, geoffbyrne said:

Nip over to Jon Shuker's for a week & build a 5!!!!!!  😁

G.

I did exactly that and came home with a unique instrument - Gibson RD-style body, 5 string fretless fender-style neck, and an alnico 5 pole pup in exactly the Stingray position.  I'm not living at home (where the bass is) so I currently can't put up pics.

G.

[4000]

On 10/12/2019 at 17:26, Woodinblack said:

Every so often I see some really nice 4, and I eventually get one as 'I am sure I will play it'. I do for a while, but then ultimately I don't gig it, which means I end up not playing it, and then eventually I get rid of it.

 

That’s were I ended up with fives and sixes, so I got rid of them. Much prefer 4.

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, carlsim said:

But what if the bass you absolutely wanted was only available as a 4???

Then I buy it. I play it, then it sits in the rack in my music room until I decide to sell it because it is not getting used.

1 hour ago, 4000 said:

That’s were I ended up with fives and sixes, so I got rid of them. Much prefer 4.

Fair enough, we are all different, I feel the OP is closer to what I do though.

I can gig a 4 and occasionally do. It just requires a bit more though to rearrange stuff. But then it ends up, I can take a 5  and not think about it, or I can take a 4 and put the effort in. Eventually the 5 wins every time. 

[Monkey Steve]

yeah, I'm with @Woodinblack - no matter how nice a 4 it is, I won't gig with it

In fact I've been forced into it over the last year or so - currently awaiting a new Wal so I'm down to a 5 string Streamer and my first proper bass, a 1975 Rickenbacker that I will never sell but which has largely sat on the rack for the last couple of decades.  I then did a dep gig last year and needed to swap basses mid set for two songs in a different tuning, and fortunately they didn't require a low B, so the Rickenbacker was called up from the subs bench. 

Loved it, brought back all the memories of how good it was to play back in the day, the band and the soundman loved the sound...but it's now back on the rack because it feels restricted compared to a 5.  If anything, it's made me hanker for one of the new Ricky 5's, so maybe once my Wal is paid for...

[mangotango]

On ‎11‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 06:49, lownote12 said:

How many of us make full use of the G string? Not me for one. I even experimented with BEAD tuning but it sounded too muddy. 

I play unison melody lines with trumpet/keys high up on the G string. On one tune, the intro melody is played on the bass, and so high up on that G string that when buying my new basses, I had to go for instruments with a 2-octave neck.  Whilst shopping around, I was in Andertons and ready to pull the trigger on fretted and fretless Sires, when I remembered to try out that melody line....and ran out of neck. Deal breaker right there.

And when using the rather lovely Squier Bass VI that I acquired from @Al Krow, there's a bass feature/solo on one tune that will require me to go above the octave on the top E string. Yep, into guitar range.  "It's a Far Country - they do things differently there".  Fortunately, I speak their language...…

BUT since I play in a band with horn players...then there will always be tunes called in Eb, Db, or C that need that low B string rumble.

Not all of us go "thump thump thump" in E, playing behind guitarists, y'know.....