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New expensive 5 string or a 4 and a 5 string.

Kronisk
Posts: 22
Quote:
You *do* need to mute strings you want to remain silent and you *should* already be doing that with a 4-string.
Exactly. Yeah, the B string is big and creates a lot of sympathetic vibration. But E is only so much smaller than B. The pack of bass strings I am looking at now is 130, 100, 80, 65, 45. That 100 is not going to sit and be polite if you leave it unmuted, five strings or no.
2nick3
Posts: 533
Quote:
How the guys with 8 strings do it I'll never fathom

I have an 8-string (EADG with octave strings). I have a Gruv Gear FretWrap helps a TON with muting on it. The “right” way to play is with a pick doing downstrokes, striking down through the octave string to the regular bass string, and it's pretty easy to catch the next octave string down, especially when you (well, I) dig in.

I picked it up at a great price, and the sound is so full I really want to get comfortable playing it, but it's yet another beast to deal with.
Just about every great bassist who ever played an electric bass played a 4 string. Dropping below D is for losers and keyboardists. Get a great four string.
Kronisk
Posts: 22
/edit One of the biggest things that I had to learn was to just accept that every kind of music has its own techniques and ideal notes. Of course, neurological/auditory quirks that make one able to hear the lowest notes on 0db over the highest notes at 50db helps. Haha.
Started with a four string. Bought a five string and never liked it. Neck was like holding a tree trunk. Went back to a four and just play everything in drop tuning.
LoudLon [moderator]
Posts: 1938
Quote:
I've always been a four string player, and I enjoy playing in alternate tunings. But lately I feel I've learned all I can learn from alternate tuning, and I've been feeling an itch to pick up a 5-string. I've even been writting more 5-string tabs lately, rather than transcribing for alternate-tuned 4-string like I normally do.But I'll be relocating to another state in the very near future, so I won't be getting one just yet. Once I get settled in, though, I'll likely be picking one up. But I'm a cheapskate, so I won't be dumping a lot of money on one. I'll probably start off with one of those $125 cheapies you can get on Amazon or Ebay. As nick said, I'm not going to cough up a lot of cheddar for a 5-string only to find out I don't like the feel or fit. But if I do, I'm sure I'll upgrade to something of higher quality later.

So I finally broke down and bought a 5-string, and am patiently awaiting for it to arrive today. I did what I said I would and went with a cheapie – a Glarry 5-string, after doing a lot of homework on it. Most reviews I read of it said it was very good quality for something so inexpensive (I got it for $77 plus tax and shipping from wish.com, for a grand total of $111 and change). Looking forward to playing it, as I've never played a 5-string before.

This also means I'll be going back to all the “5-string transcribed for 4” tabs I've written and rewriting them for 5-string.
2nick3
Posts: 533
Quote:
This also means I'll be going back to all the “5-string transcribed for 4” tabs I've written and rewriting them for 5-string.

Looking forward to them Lon!

There are times where an alternate tuning is better than an extended range bass. An open A has a different feel to the sound than playing the same A at the 5th fret of the E string. Same note, from the same bass, just not the same. Tune down a whole step and the open D has that different feel than playing it on the 3rd fret of the B string on a 5 (“She Sells Sanctuary” by The Cult is a great example - check out Lon's tab).

Praise music has a lot of Eb's in it, especially with the vocalists I play with. Tuning E down a half step just doesn't have the right sound for the music to me, where the 4th fret on the B string on a 5 does. And going up to the 1st fret on the D string isn't the right Eb either - at least with our band. Or at least our band pre-COVID - no idea what we will look like when we get started back up.
ekvirtanen
Posts: 138
I say, that if you need drop d, stay with 4-string. If you want to play songs from b to c#, take 5-string.

I have both, but i do love my 5-string warvick. Dont need to retune or anything. And playing 5-string after a while is not hard, easy just as 4-string.

Dont listen too much what peoples say, go to shop and try it out yourself.
Kronisk
Posts: 22
I still have a four-string. Use it for drop D, myself. But because I have tremors that I am getting an assessment of in a couple of months, learning songs that are more complex than Einstürzende Neubauten's Ten Grand Goldie is currently off the table for me. I could certainly stand to learn more songs that are that simple.
I have both a four string and a five string. Any song i cover on my channel from E standard to C standard is four string territory and anything B standard and lower is for the five string. I like to keep them at different steps from each other, currently the four string is in C# standard and the five string is in B standard. I try to avoid changing tunings and doing set ups as much as possible so i sometimes use the five string as a spare four string. For me the playing difference between the two is small, the five string's neck is only five mm wider than the four string's at the nut and i had zero transition time when i got my first one. I have never muted my strings and ive never really noticed sympathetic vibration.

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