askchapo

or We Came As Romans

They do so for a lot of bassists, I've noticed!

I actually went through a progression where I added 1 more string with time. Like most bassists, I started with a 4-string, then I began playing a 5-string, and then I began playing a 6-string, so the 7-string was to be next in line. This wasn't a deliberate scheme from the beginning or anything like that—it's just how my interest in string count evolved with time.

Playing extended-range basses got so damn normal for me that I sometimes feel like I forget that 4-string basses are the "norm" for people. I'm hoping to get a used Conklin GTBD7, and I will use that as my main machine, so of course, it'll be what I record my debut album with.

I love the ability to maneuver to high range far more seamlessly. I've written bass fills and whatnot that involve movement all the way up to notes as high as a D₄, which, on a 4-string bass, would be the 19th fret on the G string, but on the 7-string tuned to B₀–E₁–A₁–D₂–G₂–C₃–F₃, you can get there by playing the 9th fret on that high F string,

Here is an isolated track of a floaty bassline I wrote (to be transparent, it's programmed, as I don't have the 7-string yet, but I wrote out the sheet music for this!

A lot of the movements and those fills you hear would make this bassline incredibly unnatural to play at the same octave on a 5-string bass, as it would require much more flight up and down the fretboard, but this line, on the 7-string bass, stays entirely within the first 6 frets while incorporating notes as high as B₃ (which would be the 16th fret on the G string). The fact that there are also power chords during some parts would also complicate playing this on a 5-string!

7-string basses have become an incredibly weird obsession of mine, and looking into the works of Jeroen Paul Thesseling, Garry Goodman, Danny Hauser, and a few niche bedroom bassists on YouTube increased that a lot as you can see!