Is 4 strings really enough? (Oooo i went there)

[SumOne]

I play a 5 and rarely need anything below the E, I use the B string all the time though - playing further up the neck, and not using open E. Could get by with a 4 with a de-tuner but personally I prefer a 5.

[JapanAxe]

I’m on my third 5-string and I feel like I’ve finally found one that I can get comfortable with - but I’ll save all that for a proper NBD post. I probably would stick with 4s but there are songs that really need the range of a 5. However, to me a 5-string is almost like a different instrument from a 4 - it needs to be addressed differently, eg you can play further up the neck and across the strings.

[snorkie635]

Been playing for 49 years and for the last 25 of those, it's been five string for everything. Still play my fours but mostly at home only, taking two fives if gigging.

[Boodang]

I play a 5 string but it's high C. For me low B doesn't play like the other strings, undefined and basically just a giant fart sound. 

The rest the time I play a 4 string fretless or an EuB. I certainly don't feel the need for that lower string. Part of the reason for this, I believe, is that I centre myself on C of the E string (8th fret), which I put down to mostly working with piano players rather than guitarists. As a result I naturally feel like I have a lot of lower notes to choose from rather than starting at the lowest note on the bass and the only way is up!

So basically I think you'll be fine going standard 4 string, you just need to rethink your tonal centre.

[Woodinblack]

I only play a 5 and I often think I would like a 4, so I end up buying one and then not playing it and selling it again. Then I repeat the cycle.

 

So yes, if a 4 works for you, go for it, there aren't any rules that say what you have to play, or how you have to play it.

[Delberthot]

Over the past 35 years I've played 4, 5, 6, 8, 12 string basses. Sometimes to suit the material I was playing at the time, others just because I wanted to.

 

When I was in my Nathan East phase I was playing a 6, during my Chilis phase which has lasted on and off for the past 32 years I've played a Modulus Flea, Musicman SR5, various Stingrays and a Sterling, 2 12 strings in my Cheap Trick phase and an 8 after hearing Abe Laboriel play with Lee Ritenour.

 

Right now I have only 4 string basses, some with Hipshot Xtenders, some without.

 

I think in my ramblings I mean, play whatever you want - keep the 5 and get a 4, maybe a HIpshot with a double stop so that you can have two alternate tunings for your E.

[Barking Spiders]

I've bought a 5 string once but didn't get on with it. I play a lot of funky slap n' pop stuff....😱....and only 4 strings will do.

[Owen]

You cannot spell Bass without a B. Outside now, 4 string people. I will fight you all. 

[JapanAxe]

17 minutes ago, Owen said:

You cannot spell Bass without a B. Outside now, 4 string people. I will fight you all. 

I’ll hold your coat.

[chris_b]

1 hour ago, Boodang said:

. . . .  For me low B doesn't play like the other strings, undefined and basically just a giant fart sound. 

 

 

You need to play better basses.

[Dan Dare]

11 minutes ago, chris_b said:

You need to play better basses.

 

Much truth in that. A 35" scale makes a lot of difference on a low B. It helps if your gear is up to reproducing it, too. No real world bass rig will give you a low B fundamental (31 hz) at high volumes, but the better ones get closer or cover their tracks better.

[steantval]

Four strings for all of my bass playing career, never had the need for a fiver in any of the bands I have played in.

[ahpook]

33 minutes ago, steantval said:

Four strings for all of my bass playing career, never had the need for a fiver in any of the bands I have played in.

 

Me neither. Nothing against 5-strings, just never needed to.

[Boodang]

7 hours ago, chris_b said:

 

You need to play better basses.

If I wanted to play a 5 string I could pretty much buy anything I wanted but I haven't found one that can do the job. Imho 31hz is just too low and the tension on the string, no matter the scale length, makes it feel wrong (bearing in mind my upright is 41" scale and just about right I reckon for low E, although the full scale 44" is better!). Actually my 5 string high C is a custom Sei bass and originally I strung it low B... for all of a week! After which I discovered the joys of the high C, Gwizdala style but without the talent. Which all reminds me of a bass Overwater made ages ago which was a 4 string 36" scale where it was tuned low C, which felt good but not if you tuned it down to B (actually quite fancy that bass now as it would be different). 

Also, as @Dan Dare says, how are you going to reproduce 31hz?! Do you take folded double 18 bins with you to gigs? Most bass cabs, or at least ones you can carry and fit into a car, start going -3db at 80hz and -9db at 41hz let along 31hz, so you're struggling with low E let alone B. So for me that's another issue. Even if you're happy with the way the bass plays, you still can't really reproduce the bottom end properly. Bag End used to do a system with a dedicated processor and speaker which they reckoned could do it but obviously not cheap, and outside of a big PA system I'd say you're struggling to get a speaker to do anything but fart at those frequencies.

Edited September 20, 2023 by Boodang

[BigRedX]

A typical bass rig doesn't reproduce the fundamental at anything like "full volume" for notes below the open A string. It doesn't need to as it's all harmonics and your brain fills in the gaps. Keyboards have the ability to go much lower than low B on a bass and despite the fact that the average keyboard amp is even less suited to reproducing very low frequencies they seem to manage well enough.

 

Besides for me the PA does all the heavy lifting, and in the days when I did use a traditional bass rig most of the time it was at best a personal monitor and at worst a very large, heavy, and expensive stage prop.

 

I've never had a problem with different numbers of strings. However from the outset I played lots of different instruments with varying numbers of strings and tunings. Perhaps if I had only ever played the bass guitar I might have for stuck with just four strings, but I don't have those blinkers.

[MrDinsdale]

I’ve always played a 5 string up until a couple of years back, now I only play 4. I never really used the B string, it’s just another thing to mute.

 

We play in Eb and sometimes drop to Db, tuning only usually takes a few seconds and I have no stability issues etc.

 

Still have my Warwick Corvette 5 and DIY 5 I made years back but almost exclusively on the Schecter J4 for everything now.

[BigJHW]

i think i've decided - once the 5 string rockbass sells - i'm going to put that 400-450 towards a reasonable 4 string - fit an extender to it for those drop D tunes and give it a whirl see how i get on.

[WinterMute]

Started playing 5 string in 1987 after playing precision/ricky copies since 1980, bought a Warwick Thumb that, unbeknownst to me at the time, had a legendarily thunderous B, tight as duck's whatsit in a sandstorm... I loved that bass, sold the Wal and the JD Supernatural and never looked back, playing originals is sessions and occasionally in bands 5 string just suits what I do.  I stopped playing for 5 years and sold it.

 

Went back to playing a few years later and started with a Geddy Lee Jazz and a Squire jazz fretless, both really nice basses, loved the Geddy neck, but I consistently missed having a B string, and so eventually picked up a Tony Levin OLP for a steal, a MM necked SR5 hybrid 5er. I've found that I have to pay close attention no neck profile as I have small hands., string spacing becomes very important, I find 18mm to wide, the Thumb was 16mm, the SR5's are 17mm, which works with the slim profile very well.

 

When Alan Cringean built my fretless a couple of years ago he built it to 17mm with his asymmetric neck carve that feels very natural to me, contrasting with the Bongo that is just a little too chunky in my hands.

 

I don't think I'd ever go back to 4 strings, 34" scale B strings on a rigid bass design are clear and tight, although you do need to keep the strings fresh. I'm never going to be playing covers or in the kind of band that demands a particular bass for the look, so 5 suits me just fine.

 

Oddly I've never been tempted to even try a 6, although I did think about an NS Stick then they came out...

[Owen]

21 minutes ago, WinterMute said:

Oddly I've never been tempted to even try a 6, although I did think about an NS Stick then they came out...

I played a Stick about 38 years ago. My head still hurts a bit. Talk about "this looks familiar, let's have a go. Oh wow, this is bonkers!". I take my hat off to anyone who plays them. My brain is not wired that way.

 

I have a 6 which is tuned to bottom F#. It is lots of fun. Am I getting the full fundamental note? No chance. But I use it for last notes in songs and as long as the harmony above is all good then it provides a nice cushion for everyone else to sit on.

[jazzyvee]

I started out on 4 strings and used to down tune the E- string depending on the track if I needed to go under low E usually Eb or D.

Then i got  5 stringers which are my main gigging basses. I still have a 4 string and tend to use them for particular gigs where i don't need anything below E.

That said since I play 5 stringers mainly i find things easier to play on that bass even if I don't use any notes on the B string. As others have said it's a good thumb rest.

I went through a short phase of tuning my 4 string BEAD since i hardly use the G-string for reggae. But that became somewhat confusing and 'fumblesome' when playing a regular tuned 4 string having to convince my brain which bass i'm playing.

If I had to have only one choice it would be a 5 string.

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Owen said:

I played a Stick about 38 years ago. My head still hurts a bit. Talk about "this looks familiar, let's have a go. Oh wow, this is bonkers!". I take my hat off to anyone who plays them. My brain is not wired that way.

 

He mentioned a NS stick, that is not tuned the same was as (most) chapman sticks, they are 8 string instruments generally tuned in 4ths from B to Bb. so 2 strings on top of a 6 string.

[diskwave]

Nope 4 strings is not enough. All those Motown tunes and gazillions of 70's chart hits sound awful without that fifth string....he said.

[Paul S]

For me the type of bass I play is very much a fluid situation.  I had always played 4 string basses.  Then one of the bands I was in morphed from doing 'rock covers' to a Bon Jovi tribute.  A lot of Bon Jovi song basslines dip below E so I got myself a decent 5 string and, over a period of a few months, taught myself how to play one.  I got used it it - liked it, even - more for the ease of playing across the neck rather than up and down it.  Sold all my 4 strings apart from one, a JV Precision bass, which in hindsight was a mistake as I threw a couple of irreplaceable babies out with the bath water.  Added a handful of other 5ers, as you do.  After 3 years I stood down from the Bon Jovi band so my 'need' for a 5 string was no longer there.  I joined my current blues rock trio and started to choose my Precision over the 5 strings.  Gradually sold off my 5 strings and started accumulating 4 string basses again.  I am currently finding I prefer playing short scale basses and my long scale basses are soon all going to be moved on. 

[Owen]

38 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

He mentioned a NS stick, that is not tuned the same was as (most) chapman sticks, they are 8 string instruments generally tuned in 4ths from B to Bb. so 2 strings on top of a 6 string.

That will be another no then

[Linus27]

37 years of playing here and only ever played 4 string. Now I only play fretless. I did try a 5 string once but my head couldn't get used to an extra string being where the E is. So I'm thinking of taking on a challenge and buying a 5 string fretless as I love the look of the fretless 5 string headless Ibanez make 🤣