Gospel Music

Is the 5 String Bass Guitar the
evolution of the Electric Bass?

The 5 string bass represents a
fascinating branch of the electric bass
guitar class. Can you guess the name of
one of the original bass guitar makers
that held off on adopting the 5 string
bass to its main product line despite
introducing the first ever electric 5
string instrument? Read on to find out
more about the 5 string bass.I

5 String Bass History

5 String basses didn?t really start to
appear until the late 70?s when Alembic,
Ken Smith and (by his own admission)
Michael Tobias built one.

The first veritable production 5 string
bass guitar was the Musicman Sting Ray 5
which debuted in 1986. Within a couple
of years, 5 string basses were surfacing
in more and more low-priced models by
major manufacturers such as Ibanez,
Peavey, Yamaha and Washburn.Strangely
enough, because a certain bass
manufacturer stayed away from offering 5
string versions of its bass guitars
until the1990?s, a cottage-industry of
lookalikes started to appear. Custom
bass guitar luthiers began to rise in
popularity by meeting the need for a 5
string bass guitar with vintage styling.
Companies like Sadowsky, Lull, Lakland
and finally Allevo Coppolla filled this
void.

Companies including Spector, Warwick, F
Bass, MTD, Ken Smith, Zon, Fodera,
Pedulla and ESP offered 5 string bass
guitars with their own unique designs.
One particularly unique design is the
fanned fret system used on Dingwall
basses that helps extend the scale
length of the low B string
substantially.

Producing the perfect 5 string bass
required some particular considerations,
with the uneven number of strings, the
neck had to be assembled for increased
stability. Figuring out the best string
spacing, neck width, neck radius,
electronics and scale length took many
years and a lot of different attempts.
Early five string bass concepts often
had necks that were too broad, or that
attempted to cram 5 bass strings into
the same size neck as a four string
bass; neither of which were ideal for
most players. 35? scale basses became
progressively common as a method to
?tighten up? or add definition to the
low B string.

While adoption of the 5 string bass
attained mainstream acceptance in the
90?s with players like Tom Hamilton of
Areosmith, Jason Newsted of Metallica,
David Ellefson of Megadeth and Billy
Gould of Faith No More et al., many
other celebrated bassists chose to
remain with the four string bass.
Bassists such as Geddy Lee, Flea, Marcus
Miller, Billy Sheehan and Victor Wooten
proceed to do the bulk of their recorded
or live performances entirely with four
string basses.

A recent movement towards detuned 4
string basses with a 35 inch scale that
share the equivalent low notes as a low
B equipped 5 string bass happened in the
early to mid 2000s. While the five
string bass appears to be here to stay,
it seems that it has yet to fully
replace the 4 string bass in the fashion
that the electric bass essentially
supplanted the acoustic bass in the
1960s.

5 String Bass Guitar Tunings

The more common tunings for the 5 string
bass are either E-A-D-G-C (high C) or
B-E-A-D-G (low B) with the latter tuning
embodying the most prevalent. Low B
tuned five strings are popular in
Gospel, Hard Rock and Metal music genres
while the high C tuned 5 string bass is
more common in Jazz, Fusion or bass solo
recordings.

The Perfect Low B 5 String Bass

With the low B string, 5 string bass
players have fought to find the right
amount of punch and presence to give
definition to the lower frequencies
without it sounding like ?mud?. Finding
the ?perfect low B? in terms of sound
and feel is an perpetual quest for many
players ? often warranting the expense
of arranging a custom-made bass guitar
from a luthier.

I hope you enjoyed this taste of what
the 5 string bass guitar is all about.
As for my question at the top of this
article ? did you guess that the company
was Fender? That's right, Fender
introduced the ?Fender V? in 1964
limited quantities. It seems that this
particular instrument didn't feature a
low B string, and John Paul Jones was
known to have played one for a time in
Led Zeppelin.

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