I started on a 5 stringer... No problems at all learning on it. But if you slap/pop a lot, you will have better accuracy on 4-string. Then again, that is something more practice can fix. Only case that I can see it being a real issue is if you have big hands and you are trying to do the Victor Wooten up and down thumb picking arpeggio thing. That needs a good amount of string spacing to do right.
and what are the benefits of a 5 string bass over a 4 string ...how it is tuned...i know 4 string has got GDAE... Standard Tuning but 5 string maybe BGDAE ...m not sure...
am planning to buy a bass...not now but within a few months...bass are really cool ...maybe coz of their long necks...and yeah that bass'y feeling is amazing...am really inspired by robert trujillo...a few months back metallica performed in bangalore
5 string = extended range. Larger arpeggio options over a chord within a narrow part of the neck. Eg: if you play a maj/minor arp over 2 octaves, on a 4 stringer, you will run out of room for the second octave or 7th unless you move your whole hand up the neck (which would slow you down considerably). Longer scale runs if you shred. Eg: Dream Theater's Overture 1928 intro run on a 4 stringer would be a nightmare For outright metal players, bassists hate it when the guitarists drop D and start playing completely on the bassist's band spectrum. So we bassists can conveniently go a little lower and conveniently keep the bottom end to ourselves. If everybody starts playing in the same narrow band of the eq, the sound will be very muddy and the instruments will be unrecognizable.
as stated before.. no reason why you couldn't . but here are a few things to remember 1) If you are gonna start learning from some text based tutorials and videos, then most of them are designed for 4 strings 2) The wider neck of a 5'er can be a problem at the beginning, but practice will fix that. 3) standard tuning for 4 string is EADG and 5'er is BEADG What kind if music are you playing anyway??
