Yeah it’s so funny. I disliked my 5-string for exactly this reason - the string spacing just felt goofy to me and I never got used to it. After a few months I gave up on it and decided to stick with 4 strings.
This was on a Warwick as well, with adjustable spacing that I widened as far as possible.
No one should be afraid of trying a 5 because it’s too big though - as @DaveT noted the EADG are actually an easier reach on a 5-string than a 4 just because of the spacing.
kerushlow your 'sausage fingers" comment made me laugh. I initially started to play guitar at 49, but found that I pressed at least 2 strings down at a time when trying to play chords. So I thought that bass might be easier purely due to string spacing and number of strings ( little did I know - still at beginner level 4 years later!). I started on a 4 string and then got caught up in hype of You Tube and bought a 5 string Ibanez. Same issue with the string spacing, couldn’t get used to it especially on the first 5 frets, even though I had been using a 4 string bass for 6 months. The 5 string is long gone now and I think I will play 4 from now on.
It’s personal for me lol. Just realize two things. It isn’t insurmountable even if difficult . I can play even a six string proficiently, even if it took some time to adjust. That low B and high C is useable and provides some nice range.
Yep. A 5-string gets a total of five additional semitones. That’s it.
It does have some nice additional opportunities for note fingering, and some killer timbre on the whole B string, but in terms of what you simply cannot do with a 4-string - it’s not a huge difference at all, especially given how well Drop D works.
Just look at the players who have successfully come up with some of the best bass lines ever on a 4string. I hate to say it, but just get better on a 4 string. Flea, Les Claypool, Tim Comerford, Justin Chancellor, LouIs Johnson, Jeff Berlin , Larry Graham, Billy Sheehan, Cliff Burton…On and on. The only limits are in your mind.
I don’t think it should mess anything up, although I haven’t taken it so I can’t say for sure.
If you get a 5 string I recommend a smaller gauge string like a 120. most basses the low string sounds so buzzy and muddy. I have an Ibanez sr505 and it made the tone more approachable imo. previously I had a 130 string and the first 4 frets sounded like poo.
LOL I have 135 gauge B string and it doesn’t sound like “poo” what kind of strings were they?
Hey Pam! they were d’Addario regular roundwound XL. I switched to Fodera nickle lights.
P.S thank you for your insight on SBL I went with talking bass instead and like the approach of Mark.
I think this really depends on the bass and strings. I have used D’Addario .135 nickel rounds on both a Warwick Rockbass Streamer LX5 and on a LX4 in BEAD and both sounded awesome. Both of those are naturally bright sounding basses and those are bright strings.