Thursday, May 8, 2008

String Theory

No, not that kind. Some of the entertainment at last weekend's Cinco de Mayo festival was provided by a really good R&B band. Not very Mexican but they had their own brand of hot sauce. I took this picture of the bass player with a 400 mm lens. Only when I looked it at the computer did I see that his instrument had five strings. I used to own both an electric guitar and an electric bass in my wayward youth. (Couldn't play either of them worth a damn.) The bass had four strings, the regular guitar had six strings unless it didn't because it was a twelve-string and, well, that's how it was. Never heard of a five string bass before. Can one of you musicians out there illuminate the subject?

TOMORROW: Mother, son, bunny ears.

7 comments:

  1. Not my instrument, so someone correct me if I'm wrong, but 5- and 6- string basses are pretty commmon. 5-stringers have an extra low string (B-E-A-D-G) and 6-stringers have an extra low and high (B-E-A-D-G-B). Basses with more strings exist but are less common. Also I remember a band with a two-stringed bass but the name escapes me...?

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  2. Ah, google tells me it was Mark Sandman (RIP) of Morphine, worth checking out if you don't know them.

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  3. Don't know but cool photo.

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  4. 5 string basses have become rather popular in the last 10 years or so.

    It allows much more tonal range and the 5th string can be added below the E string most often as a B or above the G string usually at C if I am bot mistaken.

    Hope that helps, BTW: beautiful photo!

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  5. Lana is correct, according to Wikipedia:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_guitar#Strings_and_tuning

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  6. The reflection in his glases is amazing. Such a sharp image.

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  7. I play with several different bassists. About half of them play with a 5-string as their primary instrument. I suspect that it got popular with a lot of the metal "drop tuning" that was going on with the guitars. Not a lot of basses can drop their tuning much without the strings getting too slack, so maybe that's why the low B became popular.

    I don't personally know anyone that plays a 6-string bass, though. To me, they look amazingly wide, like playing on a 2 x 6!

    John Myung in Dream Theater usually plays one. I'm sure you could find a video on YouTube. As a bonus, their guitarist frequently plays a 7-string guitar.

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