5 String "too niche"?

[neepheid]

Just now, franzbassist said:

I play mainly 5 string fretless 

 

Did you waltz into a shop unannounced and buy any of them?

[Boodang]

Bass Direct have quite a few basses!

[Silvia Bluejay]

As a left-handed, 5-string bassist who plays fretted and fretless (and, God forbid, also upright 4 and 5 string!), I agree that going to an actual shop for anything that's not a Fender, 4 string, fretted bass guitar is a bit of a waste of time. Large, out of town stores are possible exceptions.

 

What I found depressing when I was a beginner student, in my early 40s, was being offered the abovementioned 4-string Fenders even after stating at the very beginning of the conversation that 1. my hands are small, 2. I'm in proportion to my hands, so I don't want a bass with a big body, and 3. I'm actually left-handed, for real, so there's no point in suggesting I learn to play right-handed.

The only concession to the above that the salesmen (all men!) would usually do was to offer a Fender Jazz, as opposed to a Precision, because the neck is so thin. What a pity its body is huge, heavy and stupidly shaped...

 

So I think many bass players who want to look beyond Fender have been saved by the internet and the high number of good, higher-end luthiers we have in this country and abroad.

[stingrayPete1977]

5 hours ago, Ricky Rioli said:

The staff are lovely in there, not deserving of having their attempts to engage with you truthfully given a kicking online.

It's not truthful, it's a view from twenty years ago. 

 

It's not much of a kicking really is it? I haven't even named the City in the title or the shop at all!

Edited November 23, 2021 by stingrayPete1977

[StickyDBRmf]

Here in New Jersey we have a shop in Edison that carries, the last time I was there, a few Alembics, several lefties, 5&6's fretted & fretless,  a couple of those short rubber-band basses, THEY EVEN HAD A CHAPMAN STICK. The owner met Emmett in the 70's and has always tried to have one (or two). Pedullas, etc. The place is known up and down the East Coast. And it's a SMALL shop.

[Downunderwonder]

11 minutes ago, StickyDBRmf said:

Here in New Jersey we have a shop in Edison that carries, the last time I was there, a few Alembics, several lefties, 5&6's fretted & fretless,  a couple of those short rubber-band basses, THEY EVEN HAD A CHAPMAN STICK. The owner met Emmett in the 70's and has always tried to have one (or two). Pedullas, etc. The place is known up and down the East Coast. And it's a SMALL shop.

If you can make a niche out of selling exotic basses all power to you. You get known as the place to find something fancy. Better keep keep filling the shelf with them!

 

Then every other shop gives away the fancy end of the market entirely. Hell it must be tough to be in retail. I vaguely recall going to visit a few shopkeepers with my Dad to see if retail would be a career for me. It wasn't!

[Woodinblack]

I moved to the states in the mid/late 90s and sold all my music stuff. While I was there i bought a guitar and synth so played those. When I came back all my stuff was still on a boat waiting to get back and would be a while, so I walked into a second hand guitar shop* and thought, well, I had a guitar when it came back, i would get a bass, but I didn't have much money as my company weren't paying us reliably and we just had to get a new flat and stuff.

There was a cheap 5 string bass with narrow string spacing that looked ok, and played ok. i had never had a 5, but it was cheap and thought why not. That was the only bass i had for 8 years so by the time I had a desire to get a new bass, i had got used to the 5, and though my new fancy bass was 4 string, and obviously better, I was still playing the 5 string more.

 

5 strings are niche as people didn't sell them. People didn't sell them as 5 strings are niche.

 

* Portsmouth was pretty blessed by guitar shops in the 80s/90s. 

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, StickyDBRmf said:

THEY EVEN HAD A CHAPMAN STICK.

 

I have never seen a chapman stick in an actual shop. I have only really seen one advertised in an actual shop and that was crazy money. 

[ubit]

Guitar Guitar in Glasgow has plenty of 5 string basses. Fretless, lefties , you name it. I thought that was normal.

[neepheid]

1 hour ago, ubit said:

Guitar Guitar in Glasgow has plenty of 5 string basses. Fretless, lefties , you name it. I thought that was normal.

 

You went to the Guitar Guitar in Glasgow and it had heaps of basses/5s/fretless/lefties.  You went to quite probably the best place for physically looking at basses in the whole of Scotland and thought you'd extrapolate it out to cover everywhere?  Did you look in Kenny's or Merchant City?  That'll bring you back down to a more average experience, but both of them are still better than some.

 

Then come to Aberdeen.  We only have one shop now - a Kenny's which tries to squeeze everything (guitars, keys, drums etc.) in because of its geography and has a bass:guitar ratio of about 4:1.  This may seem healthy but there's less space.  There is no dedicated floor to basses, there's a corner - and for that we are to be grateful.  If there's a 5 or a fretless it's probably there by mistake.  There's a cool second hand instrument shop but it's even smaller and the ratio varies but it is invariably worse than Kenny's and of course it's pure pot luck what they have in at any time.

 

I enjoy a visit to Guitar Guitar in Glasgow when I'm down there but believe me, it's anything but normal!

[Daz39]

I recall the halogen days of the late 90s when Newcastle had 8 guitar shops in town: a tota mecca of new and used instruments.

I think half of them are gone now.

 

Halifax used to have a guitar shop, tucked away in Dean Clough, that moved into town for a few years, even opening a cafe in the larger space. It’s gone now too. Nearest one to me now is Aire guitars in Bradford (very small) or PMT in Leeds.

Even Cleckheaton had an instrument shop at one time; they specialised in ye olde stringed instruments and historical items.

[Hellzero]

I don't agree at all as having lefties, fivers, sixers or fretlesses should be normal in a shop in 2021, not by quantity, but quality.

 

The problem is simply the shop owner(s) as I explained earlier (if you really read the threads, you should have seen it) who only sells what makes huge profits, just like 50 years.

 

If they just understood what their customers want, they would be very rich, but as they just wait and moan, it will never happen.

 

We have here in the village a shop selling only crap at delirious prices.

 

I told them many times that they should have real instruments at decent prices instead and that people have access to the Internet to compare these prices, but they still act like 50 years ago : huge profits only !

[stingrayPete1977]

5 hours ago, ubit said:

Guitar Guitar in Glasgow has plenty of 5 string basses. Fretless, lefties , you name it. I thought that was normal.

Yeah Birmingham guitar guitar and PMT stock and sell plenty, I know because I've bought a few!

[Boodang]

Who remembers the Bass Centre in Wapping? Crammed full of just bass stuff. Bought quite a few basses from them. At least we have Bass Direct which seems to have taken on where Bass Centre left off.

[neepheid]

Honestly, f this whiny thread.  Waaaaaaaah, why doesn't every shop cater to my every whim?  Every shop should have a decent selection of statistically rare basses.  It's so unfair!  They're doing shopkeeping wrong.

 

They're not, you're doing shopping wrong.

 

 

[stingrayPete1977]

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

Honestly, f this whiny thread.  Waaaaaaaah, why doesn't every shop cater to my every whim?  Every shop should have a decent selection of statistically rare basses.  It's so unfair!  They're doing shopkeeping wrong.

 

They're not, you're doing shopping wrong.

 

 

It's that why they are all closing down, retired and just spending all that money they've made? Lol

[Boodang]

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

Honestly, f this whiny thread.  Waaaaaaaah, why doesn't every shop cater to my every whim?  Every shop should have a decent selection of statistically rare basses.  It's so unfair!  They're doing shopkeeping wrong.

 

They're not, you're doing shopping wrong.

 

 

I think how we are shopping wrong is by going into a shop, play everything, ask advice, then walk out and buy it on the internet because it's 5 quid cheaper.

We had a great drum shop locally which folded for exactly this reason.

[Steve Browning]

1 hour ago, Boodang said:

Who remembers the Bass Centre in Wapping? Crammed full of just bass stuff. Bought quite a few basses from them. At least we have Bass Direct which seems to have taken on where Bass Centre left off.

I do. Stunning place. Bought some nice ex-Entwistle basses in there.

[uk_lefty]

On 22/11/2021 at 22:19, EssentialTension said:

No, you never saw it there is no such thing.

Ahem....

 

Bought almost twenty years ago. Had to import it from the states but it definitely does exist. I'm looking at it right now.

 

 

Edited November 24, 2021 by uk_lefty

[EssentialTension]

9 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

Ahem....

 

Bought almost twenty years ago. Had to import it from the states but it definitely does exist. I'm looking at it right now.

 

 

 

Ha Ha very good.

[uk_lefty]

1 minute ago, EssentialTension said:

 

Ha Ha very good.

Yeah.... I've always been a sucker for weird stuff! It was either that or a headless.... It was a very tough call.

Edited November 24, 2021 by uk_lefty

[ubit]

6 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

You went to the Guitar Guitar in Glasgow and it had heaps of basses/5s/fretless/lefties.  You went to quite probably the best place for physically looking at basses in the whole of Scotland and thought you'd extrapolate it out to cover everywhere?  Did you look in Kenny's or Merchant City?  That'll bring you back down to a more average experience, but both of them are still better than some.

 

Then come to Aberdeen.  We only have one shop now - a Kenny's which tries to squeeze everything (guitars, keys, drums etc.) in because of its geography and has a bass:guitar ratio of about 4:1.  This may seem healthy but there's less space.  There is no dedicated floor to basses, there's a corner - and for that we are to be grateful.  If there's a 5 or a fretless it's probably there by mistake.  There's a cool second hand instrument shop but it's even smaller and the ratio varies but it is invariably worse than Kenny's and of course it's pure pot luck what they have in at any time.

 

I enjoy a visit to Guitar Guitar in Glasgow when I'm down there but believe me, it's anything but normal!

 

 

Well I live in Oban so have to travel 100 miles to Glasgow to get into a music shop. There was one here but it's closed now and only does online sales. I do come up to Aberdeen all too often for my job but never have I looked around for music shops. I realise there are smaller shops but as far as cities go when there's a large shop you expect to see a wide range of instruments, even if a lot are second hand.

[ubit]

6 hours ago, Daz39 said:

I recall the halogen days of the late 90s

 

 

As opposed to the l.e.d. days of the 2000's

[stingrayPete1977]

1 hour ago, ubit said:

 

 

Well I live in Oban so have to travel 100 miles to Glasgow to get into a music shop. There was one here but it's closed now and only does online sales. I do come up to Aberdeen all too often for my job but never have I looked around for music shops. I realise there are smaller shops but as far as cities go when there's a large shop you expect to see a wide range of instruments, even if a lot are second hand.

The shop in question was quite large with a decent selection of everything else, not that many basses though.

[stingrayPete1977]

Both the basses I use were purchased after just walking into a shop, USA Jazz five string and Musicman Stingray five string, both from PMT Birmingham a few years apart, I paid full retail for both. Guitar guitar had a good selection of Fender, Musicman and Lakeland too on the same day I bought the Jazz.