When I first started playing I had a 4 string for maybe a year or two. I only played it a few months to make sure I wasn’t going want a guitar or keyboards or whatever.
I found a 5 that I was shopping for specifically in the classifieds in Denver and bought it from a pro bassist. It’s been my goto for many years.
I felt like the 5 required less shifting, and the spacing has always been fine. That bass has a 34” scale.
Now I’m playing (2) MTDs with 35” and the buzz feiten 0 fret system. Both these basses have great string tension on the b string. I wish I would’ve bought a new bass years ago. The growl and punch is awesome, and it’s a big neck compared to a 4 but the asymmetric profile is sweet to me.
When I play my little gold tone micro bass 4 my dexterity feels great, and it’s easy to navigate. It kinda feels like a little toy, but honestly it sounds nice— I did switch out the rubber strings a while ago.
So, I guess my point is that you’ll figure out the switch with a little time spent playing. It might be easier than you think.
I’ve seen the 0 fret thing mentioned in the blurb for the Ibanez 5 string. All it says is that it maintains a decent tone when playing an open string but apart from that I have no clue as to what it actually is. Could you point me in the right direction please @Moose_Hofer?
To be clear, I didn’t have trouble playing it. I just found that even after two months or so, I still didn’t like playing it. The smaller interstring spacing just annoyed me. The larger fretboard was a mixed bag. I liked the larger radius (i.e. it was flatter) and left hand fingering in EADG was technically even “easier” than a 4 string as there was less reach. Technically. In reality, it just never felt right to me and I disliked it. It also felt huge, too thick and heavy in comparison to me.
Like I said, I didn’t expect it either, but it turns out that I just really prefer 4 strings. So now I have one in EADG and one in BEAD and get the best of both worlds. YMMV. Lots of people prefer 5 strings - just not me
I totally get what you’re saying @howard
I suppose for me this is just another itch I’ve got to scratch and it fits in with my musical taste.
If it doesn’t work out I will end up going down a similar route to you and have a bass or 3 with different bass tunings.
At least with the direction I have taken I’ve still got the SR and I can try a 5 string for a small financial outlay. If I like it I can reconsider my options, if I don’t I can move it on without the worry of loosing a couple of hundred bucks potentially.
I’d definitely recommend people take approaches like that (or buying cheap used) rather than just going all in.
No one should be afraid of trying 5-strings though, they are different but not in a way that will mess you up. Worst case is you end up like me and sell it again. Totally worth trying.
And regardless of how one feels about 5-strings, B strings are awesome
Sure. The first fret sits right up from the nut, and the strings ride over it like a saddle on an acoustic bridge. I’ll try to include some pics— lighting in the house is terrible at night for pics.
Intonation and sting tension are great on these basses because of it (I think, and other specs I’m sure help too) and I can set the action about as low as I want without any fret buzz. My B string doesn’t have any flubby feel to it, it sounds great open, and it’s 3/32” above the 24th fret. My G string is at 1/16” at he 24th fret.
Sorry, I haven’t figured out how to rotate photos on my iPad Mini to the forum.
35" scale will do wonders for string tension, if that’s the 35.
I’ve seen short scale 5’s and also the 28.5" Mikro has a 5 string variant. Unless you use a giant B-string on those I bet they are super flubby. My 34" scale B string at 0.135 seems fine but I would absolutely not want less tension on it. I’ve played others with lighter B strings that felt distinctly flubby at 34".
The 0-fret seems like a great idea for tone, wonder why others do not do that.
In between doing the B2B second time around I just couldn’t resist starting “ Blondie “ as I’ve named her lol
I’ve sanded the body and neck as it was a little too rough for my liking and begun applying coats of shellac to keep the natural colour of the wood but hopefully accentuate the grain .
Looks half decent so far .
. I’ve subscribed as there looks to be a lot of decent viewing on his channel
.