Five Stringed Adventure: Long Live the Hot Rod!

Well this is news!

     My resistance to the B-strung world has ended.  What happened to provoke such a radical change of heart?  

     To celebrate completing grad school, my wife approved the purchase of a new bass, so I placed an order for a custom aqua-colored Kiesel Vanquish.  19 weeks and four failed order attempts later, I canceled it and asked for a refund, which processed on a Thursday.  The next day I discovered this photo on G&L's social media page: 

The photo was posted in July, and mentioned it was being shipped to the Bass Place in Peoria AZ.  Excited, I checked their website, only to discover it had been sold right away.  Next I learned that there may be one in stock at the G&L factory, so my favorite dealer said he'd check on it Monday morning.

Saturday, two days after canceling the order with Kiesel, I discovered an advertisement listed for a "Turquoise G&L JB5."  After checking the G&L photo against that in the advertisement, I learned that it was the very same bass!  Suspecting the bass at the factory was likely way out of my price range, I made the seller an offer and he accepted.  Result: five-string bass is now part of my repertoire.

Turquoise Metal Flake is a pretty bold color scheme-- why was I looking for something like that?  As a kid in the 1970s I was fascinated with hotrods, motorcycles and drums, all of which embraced bold metal flake colors and I was smitten.  It should be no surprise that my admiration of such things has only intensified with age.  And heck-- why should our drummers have all the fun?! 


Turquoise appealed to me because it is the same as my grad-school cohort's colors-- a teal, turquoise, version of blue/green. Again, I waited 19 weeks for Kiesel to build me a bass in the same color (what they call "aqua"), and when they failed to meet the challange I shifted my attention to other builders and returned to G&L.  It should be noted that Kiesel has recently announced that they will do metal flake finishes-- something they've resisted for many years, claiming "it gunks up our sprayers."  Their metal flake option adds an additional $600 to their basses, which prices their instrument out of my price range.  If I were to buy the G&L new, it would have cost about $1,700.  This is why I am so excited to find the exact bass I was looking for on the used market and within my budget.    

After a very quick trip from California, the bass arrived on a Wednesday afternoon.  Tuned up the strings, gave the bass a good inspection, and I spent the next hour or so in the music room getting used to having an additional string.

Overall, the JB5 is a traditional Jazz Bass, but with G&L's higher quality and premium materials.  This particular bass has an empress wood body, which really lightens the instrument-- just a hair over eight pounds. Pickup covers are a step above the typical covers found on most Jazz basses; these are made from a slightly textured satin-finished material that gives the bass a special feel and provides a comfortable spot to anchor my thumb.

Left: standard JB pickup. Right: JB5

Other than the neck being a little wider than normal, it seems a bit flatter as well (thickness of the neck from front to back).  Getting accustomed to the different neck and the additional string did not take long.

Some initial impressions of a 5-string: 

Being a visual guy, my brain recognizes the B as an E when playing at first.  Adjusting to the additional string has been easier the more I play. Some of those lower notes are fun to play, specifically the low D, but what I find more useful is being able to play the E at the fifth fret, and keeping my hand position in pretty much the same area of the neck.  

There is quite a bit of sympathetic resonance happening when playing around the fifth fret on strings other than the B. So while playing I can hear the B faintly sounding. Perhaps one of those fret-wrap things will help while I work on a right hand muting technique. 

String spacing seems slightly tighter than on my four-strings, so paying more attention to my right hand technique is important to avoid accidentally striking unintended nearby strings. 

On a four-string I typically anchor my right thumb on the pickups edge when playing the E, then on the E string when playing the A, and so on. I'm enjoying using the B as an anchor to play in different areas-- between the neck and the pickup, or between the two pickups for example.  This might change somewhat as I work on that muting technique mentioned earlier.

One week in, and playing on the JB-5 is becoming more comfortable with each practice session.  However, there is still something to say for the simplicity of a four-string-- such as the Kiesel Vanquish V49K, which I will review real soon.  Until then...

...stay tuned & in tune!