How Many Strings Does Your "Main" Bass Have?

[DONUT]

My main bass has 5 strings. 4 strings are for knuckle draggers and any more than 5 are for wannabe guitar players!

[zeronyne]

Originally posted by davio:

Well, 09, I've heard many people's reasoning for their choices before (and I've read a few of those threads before). I was just curious as to what everybody's preference was...not so much why.

 

Just curiosity.

That's why I stated that they were related threads. I wasn't busting your chops to use the search feature.

[ATM]

Originally posted by DONUT:

My main bass has 5 strings. 4 strings are for knuckle draggers and any more than 5 are for wannabe guitar players!

Donut, my man, you are making me pull it out again!

 

Originally posted by ClarkW:

The Way of the 4-Stringer is the Way of the Lord. All those who add more unto this gospel shall be cast off, to burn with the heathen and the drummers. Amen.

I just love that quote.

 

ATM

[DONUT]

Uh....My five strings have two E strings in case I break one. I'll be switching to 5 E strings because I'm playing a little harder these days. Its also nice if I miss a string.

[RHINO_ROB]

all of my basses have their required number of strings, pre-determined by the grooves in the nut and the saddles on the bridge.

any more than that would just look silly.

[davio]

Originally posted by zeronyne:

That's why I stated that they were related threads. I wasn't busting your chops to use the search feature.

Geeze 09, throttle back on the chop busting. Quit busting my chops about not busting my chops.

 

DONUT, a wise man once said, "A bass has four strings. One to play and three incase it breaks."

[jeremy c]

Chuck Rainey has been playing a 5 string for years.

 

You can't get any more old school than Chuck....he built the school.

[Peckels]

I play a 4, because the bass I have is all I can afford as of now. Once though, I got to rent a 5, and it was pretty sweet. Usually, in my school's jazz band, my eyes are either on the music, the director, or the soloist. This means my left hand usually needs to stay in one position, as its hard for me to go very far up and down the neck without looking down at the neck. On more then a few songs, I'd be playing with my pointer finger hanging around the 6th or 7th fret. Then all of the sudden I'd have to hit a low E or F and suddenly moving my eyes down to the neck could be very distracting, especially with sheet music that was written so it was actually hard to follow. With the 5, after a day or two of getting used to it, the problem was solved.

 

Oh wait, I guess the easier hand positions made it a contrabass or something.

 

Imagine what it would be like if 5 and 6 strings weren't considered 'real' basses.

 

- Bassist shows up for gig with a 6 string, starts practicing and shows off some impressive groove -

 

Guy: You're a pretty good bass player.

Bassist: Oh, this isn't a bass, its a six string contrabass guitar.

Guy: Err... What's the difference. You play it the exact same way, and the way the basslines are played doesn't seem to change much at all.

Bassist: Oh, you see, with this I can play higher notes without having to slide my hand all the way up the neck!

[getz out]

Originally posted by ZZ Thorn:

A bass has 4 strings.

 

If it has more than 4 strings, it's not a bass. You have to add a qualifier like '5 string' or '6 string' in front of it. If I recall correctly Anthony Jackson called his 6 string bass a 'contrabass guitar.'

 

Those things are like playing ironing boards.

Facist.

[ZZ Thorn]

I was born in the '40s, is that old enough?

 

Just giving you a hard time, ZZ. [/QB]

Oh yeah, that makes you real old. In fact, I'm not sure you're gonna be around long enough to read this post....

 

I also want them to raise the pitcher's mound back up.

[Seamy ALB]

Originally posted by DONUT:

My main bass has 5 strings. 4 strings are for knuckle draggers and any more than 5 are for wannabe guitar players!

Thats Funny!

[Dave Brown]

Knuckle Dragger here.

 

I'm not opposed to the Five, although I've not seen any written parts for a 5. Yet.

 

Chuck does gig a lot with a 5 or a 6. When I knew him (granted, 12 years ago) his favorite bass was a 4 string Spector.

 

But he did enjoy the expanding range, so I'd put him down as a convert.

[jeremy c]

I've played in a musical theater group for which a 5 string was a life saver.

 

It was Beach Blanket Babylon, a revue which has been running in San Francisco for over 25 years.

 

The parts were full of Eb's and Db's. Some were written by an arranger who doesn't seem to know the range of a bass and some were transposed on a computer without anyone worrying about the range of the instruments.

 

Of course I could have brought a 4 string and tranposed the offending notes up an octave while I was sight-reading them, but a 5 string seemed a little more of a logical choice.

[ModmanQ6]

6, but I have a fretless 5, a fretless 4 and a fretted 4.

[BenLoy]

I play low notes that make the song sound good. Who cares how many strings it has as long as the notes are correct and feel good?

 

I've met this guy and he does it equally well with the number of strings he has:

 

http://www.conklinguitars.com/artistprofiles/galleryimages/stewlive.jpg

[tnb]

I've seen harps with fewer strings than that, BenLoy.

[letsfret]

My Yamaha and my Jazz. I can do more on a 4 than most people can on a 5 or 6. None of my favorite players claim a 5 or 6 as their main bass. Even Wooten and M.Miller's faves are 4 string. Those extra low notes are nice and all but the truth is the additional strings confuse my fingers. I bought a Hipshot for my Yam. Im thinking of having a B-E-A-D bass made.

[MvW]

4, but I have a 5 that see's regular use as well. I love the extra lower-register notes that the 5 makes available from a single position.

[Peckels]

The situations that sprout into my head from that comment about 5 and 6 strings just keep coming.

 

"Oh, you play the violin, that's pretty cool"

"No, I play the 5 string violin!"

 

"Hey man, you got some wicked licks on the keys!"

"Err, this isn't actually a keyboard. You see, its two keyboards on top of each other, so..."

[_Sweet Willie_]

Originally posted by Dave Brown:

I'm not opposed to the Five, although I've not seen any written parts for a 5. Yet.

 

I have a technique book that's been gathering dust. It's by Edouard Nanny (French author) and it's written for 4- and 5-string URB. The author comes from a classical music background (I think). I bought it about 20 yrs ago, and I bet the copyright date is earlier than that.

 

I should get it out again. There are some pretty solid exercises in it, and it would be great in terms of strengthening my sight reading skills.

 

However, as far as I remember, it's not like it has bits of orchestral scores that were written for 5-string included in it.

 

Peace.

--SW

[Nicklab]

A 5 suits me most of the time. I've got a number of 4's and a couple of 6's that fill in from time to time. I basically pick the instrument that fills the need for a given tune. It's not all that complicated.

[Dave Brown]

Nanny is a lot older that that, W.

 

And the orchestral literature is full of notes below E...since many of the parts are doubling the cello down to the C.

 

URB players are quite familiar with reading these up an octave.

 

Nanny was writing his book because there were several different approaches to adding below staff notes to basses in his time.

 

I was really referring to Electric parts not written very low. I'm sure that the top arrangers are beginning to understand the register of the 5 string, but the traditional parts are still written for a 4. Unless, as Jeremy said, somebody was arranging and didn't bother to check.

[_Sweet Willie_]

Thanks, Dave!

 

It's nice to have that additional background about the book!

 

Generally I agree with what you've said about parts not being written for electric bass down in that low B (or even low F#) range.

 

And then there are compositions by my friend, Dan, for those of us who like our basses tuned B-E-A-D-G-B-E...

 

Peace.

--Doctor Luv

[davio]

I always thought it would be interesting to tune a 6-string E-A-D-G-B-E...truely a bass GUITAR.

 

Are there any bass players out there that do this that I can check out?

 

This Dan Cooper guy sounds quite interesting.

[musicfiend]

Aren't the fender bass vi and danelctro baritone tuned eadgbe......so maybe you could check out some older cream stuff, kack bruce used the fender.

[jeremy c]

Rufus Reid played a Fender VI with Eddie Harris.

 

There are even some examples in his book The Evolving Bassist.

[musicfiend]

Apparently Bill Laswell used a bass VI for a phase of his musical career as well, as noted in a fairly recent issue of bassplyer mag.

[Panick]

I didn't vote because I love all of my basses equally, both 4 and 5 string.

[tarkus]

I have 3 basses: they are all pretty much "main".

 

My Stambaugh 8 is my dream bass. It only goes to gigs where it will be guarded.

 

Lately I've been doing a lot of oldies and sitting in with acoustic guys. I'll use my Fender J (4) and My El Capitain acoustic.

[DafDuc]

My main bass has 25 keys...

 

http://stceciliawashere.blogspot.com/images/nk25.jpg

 

So I couldn't vote.