![]() While adoption of the 5 string bass reached mainstream acceptance in the 90's with players like Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith), Jason Newsted (Metallica), David Ellefson (Megadeth) and Billy Gould (Faith No More) among others - many other bassists chose to stick with the 4 string bass they were familiar with. Scale lengths of 35 inches became increasingly common as a way to 'tighten up' the low B string. Coming up with the right string spacing, neck width, neck radius, electronics and scale length seemed to take a while to get right for most bass instrument manufacturers. The Peavey 5 string bass guitar has come a long way in recent years in the quality of both the looks and sound and is still affordable for most beginners.Ĭreating the perfect 5 string bass required special consideration, unlike 4 and 6 string basses that have an even number of strings, the bass guitar neck on a fiver need to be able to handle the uneven tension. There were other companies that came up with their own 5 string bass designs including Spector, Warwick, F Bass, MTD, Ken Smith, Zon, Fodera, Pedulla, Esp and Modulus Graphite. These more modern Fender basses can compete against the boutique 'clones' that cost far more to make by hand. The recently released Fender 5 string bass guitar versions of their J and P basses offer some modern touches but remain true to the Fender sound. When Fender finally got around to adding the fifth bass string to their Jazz and Precision basses, they were criticized as not being true to the classic Fender sound. Companies like Sadowsky, Lull and Lakland helped to fill this void. This allowed for boutique luthiers to rise in popularity by filling the need in the market for a 5 string bass guitar with a vintage Fender-like style. It wasn't until the 90's that Fender began to adopt the 5 string bass into regular production. Within a few years, 5 string basses where showing up in more and more affordable models by major manufacturers like Ibanez, Peavey, Yamaha and Washburn. The first regular production 5 string bass guitars was the Musicman String Ray 5 which debuted in 1986. The 5 string bass guitar didn't evolve to the instrument that we know today until the 1970's, when both Alembic and luthier Michael Tobias created 5 stringed basses as custom ordered requests from high profile customers. It seems funny to me that Fender pioneered 5 string basses since the same company was reluctant to introduce the extra string to versions of their basses until well after most other major bass guitar manufacturers had embraced the concept. I know that John Paul Jones played one for a time with Led Zeppelin, and I have the feeling that the Fender V was tuned E-A-D-G-C rather than with a low B string. ![]() I first heard about this instrument through bass player magazine a few years ago, but I can't recall the month or the cover story - so I'm still tracking information down. It was dubbed the Fender V and didn't seem to catch the imagination of the bass playing community. Perhaps oddly enough it was Fender that came out with the first 5 string bass in 1964. Read on to find out more about the 5 string bass guitar, how it was developed and the special considerations you need to learn to play this amazing instrument. The 5 string bass is a fascinating offshoot of the electric bass guitar.
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