History of the 5 string?

[bassmonkey]

Can anyone tell me when the first 5er(not just MM, any make) went into large scale production and when they started being used on records regularly? I'm guessing sometime in the 80s.

I know Fender built a 5er in the late 60s/early 70s but I don't think it took off, did it.

 

[Dr. Nick]

My understanding is that Fender's early 5 was not exactly what we think of as a five string today...short scale with an added high string, if I recall correctly...

 

[rhythmCity944]

my friend has one of those old 5 sting fenders...it is a short scale and it is the ugliest brown thing

 

[russinator]

Actually I think it is regular 34" scale. It looks short because of where the neck joins the body, and the short length of the fretboard, but pictured next to a P-bass in the '66-'67 catalog it looks like the full length from the bridge to nut is the same.

Of course, I could be wrong. I was once I think back in '67.

 

[bassmonkey]

Errr...and my original question? Sheesh!! Wish I'd never mentioned Fender now.

 

[strummer]

My understanding is that Fender's early 5 was not exactly what we think of as a five string today...short scale with an added high string, if I recall correctly...

And it has like 15 frets or so

Actually the whole concept of a 5 string came from Jack Williams. He wrote a letter to all the manufacturers in 1967, complaining that he could actually hear his bass though the crappy amp he had at the time, and so he asked for what he called a "getaway string", a string tuned so low he could safely pluck it when he got completely lost up on the band stand, and noone would hear it...

 

[rhythmCity944]

i'm pretty sure it is a short scale...like i said, my friend has one

 

[rhythmCity944]

i may be wrong...i need to messure the scale length to be sure

 

[bassmonkey]

LOL!

You guys are killing me.

 

[mynan]

This is all I could find...it was on the wikipedia site

Alembic and another "boutique" bass manufacturers, Tobias, and Ken Smith, produced 4 string and 5-string basses with a low "B" string in the mid-1970s. Ken Smith also developed and marketed the first wide-spacing six-string electric bass.

During the 1990s, as five-string basses became more widely available and more affordable, an increasing number of bassists in genres ranging from metal to gospel began using five-string instruments for added lower range.

 

[stretch80]

This is a great topic bassmonkey...

I've heard that the SR5 was the first production 5-string.

I also remember reading that Anthony Jackson worked with someone (Ken Smith?) to develop early 6-string basses, but I don't know about 5s.

I think the SR5 has the same role in the 5-string world as the p-bass did in 4-stringers: The early design that GOT IT RIGHT!

 

[bassmonkeee]

First of all--the 60s Fender 5 string is NOT short scale. It has the same 34" scale, but it has only 15 frets and it came with a high C string. The thinking was that it'd be easier for doublers to achieve the same notes higher up on a G string by moving laterally onto a high C. Since bass players couldn't POSSIBLY need anything higher, they shortened the neck.

The 5 string as we know it today was first seen in the mid-70s. The first ones that I'm aware of were played by Jimmy Johnson and were built by Alembic.

 

[midopa]

Just an aside, I bleeb double bass players sometimes modded their instruments to add an extra string. And I think I read once in Bass Player mag about a guy who had a 3-string double bass (something about a rivalry or something 'tween bassists from the ole' days).

 

[maddog]

another aside, the bass viola da gamba typically came with 6 strings but occasionally 5 and on rare occasions, 4.

 

[bassmonkeee]

another aside, the bass viola da gamba typically came with 6 strings but occasionally 5 and on rare occasions, 4.

The earliest ones even had frets.

 

[cdb]

Just an aside, I bleeb double bass players sometimes modded their instruments to add an extra string. And I think I read once in Bass Player mag about a guy who had a 3-string double bass (something about a rivalry or something 'tween bassists from the ole' days).

I remember something like that too... and I found this:

5 String Double Basses

Double basses have existed in three, four, and five string configurations at different times and places. Paul Brun's new history of the bass deals with the matter extensively. (Brun, Paul, A New History of the Double Bass (Villeneuve d'Ascq, Paul Brun Productions, 2000)).

There was a 5 string double bass that was popular in Vienna during what Brun calls "The Golden Age of Virtuosity". this period existed from about 1760 until about 1830. These instruments were usually tuned as follows:

Tuning

The first mention of a 5 string orchestral double bass was in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1880. Hans von Bülow used 5 string basses in a cycle of the Beethoven symphonies. In 1882, a 5 string bass was being used by Willy Krausse, principal double bass of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Today, both C extensions and a fifth string are used to obtain notes lower than the open E string. There are two types of extension, mechanical and fingered. In the United States, C extensions are prevalent, although Joseph Guastafeste, principal of the Chicago Symphony uses a 5 string bass. (For more about extensions, visit Jonas Lohse's excellant website.) German orchestras use 5 string basses, and all three major London orchestras use 5 string basses.

5 String Basses

 

[Strangeglow]

I thought 5 strings were for people who didn't want to have to learn a whole different fingering pattern just to play an E major scale.

 

[cdb]

I thought 5 strings were for people who didn't want to have to learn a whole different fingering pattern just to play an E major scale.

yep, thats me, a lazy bassist...

 

[saxnbass]

First 5 string....hmmmm........that's one of the things not on Wikipedia (that I can find).

 

[mynan]

I thought 5 strings were for people who didn't want to have to learn a whole different fingering pattern just to play an E major scale.

For me it is relief after suffering through the mid-to-late 80s and early 90s often thinking that the damn D was too high and wishing for a lower one.