Gonna try 5-string bass - any advice?

The biggest issue is keeping that rumbly B-string muted.

Are you playing with a pick or fingers? Here are my hints for fingers. If you usually anchor your picking thumb on a pickup, anchor it on the B-string instead, lifting it to play on the B. This results in 2 things that really helped me. 1) It keeps the b-string muted. 2) It helped me from losing my place and playing the wrong string. With your thumb resting on the B your fingers are positioned to "think" that the lowest string is the E, just like playing a 4-string.

I’m almost exclusively a five string player, the advice above is good. I do finger style and anchor my thumb on the B. I started on five to address hand pain, I can play stuff up a position and change my hand and wrist angles. Plus, I don’t have to rely on open strings unless I want to.

My usual advice for a beginning five is a Fender or Squier Jazz or Precision, but to be honest there are so many decent ones out there you have a lot of choice. My main players are a couple of P5s and a few EBMMs.

Thanks for all the suggestions and pointers so far.

How do I play? Because I'm a guitarist, I tend to use my thumb for the bottom couple of strings, then incorporate my index and middle fingers for the high strings. I've tried anchoring my thumb and using those two fingers, but because I keep my nails a little longer for fingerstyle guitar, I keep hitting the strings with my nail and getting unwanted clicking and tapping... suggestions (other than cutting my nails)? So far I don't use a pick at all.

I looked at a LOT of lefty basses before buying the Schecter Stiletto 5; it had several things I wanted: two pickups, 3-band active eq and a 35" scale length (although I could have lived with 34").

Good point.

Thanks for your (full) comment.

But it’s four damned important notes.

My own personal philosophy: I will leave the 5(+) string basses for the real bass players.

😂

Well they haven’t earned their place on the staff yet “o) the concert bass only goes down to E. I’m pretty sure someone is messing with that.

Things change, if the function has value it will persevere, I think we can agree that’s the case with the electric bass 5+. In my case I noticed that with the B string most of the patterns were all in the box, I wasn’t having to stretch out to get the scales/modes, I felt that it was too easy and I was not moving around as much on the fingerboard, it’s my laziness, why reach for the note outside the three fret box when it’s right there. It may even be genius. 

The impact with me was my bass lines were also getting a bit lazy, I’m aware that all the notes are there for my use but my bass lines were not quite as interesting as they are when not contained to the box, the 4 string makes me think a little more and reach for notes not quite as available. 

It’s just me, when I spent that week with Victor Wooten and crew, and all the younger musicians I percieved   this opinion of mine is more relevant to me than the younger generations, who didn’t seem quite as affected by it.

Bottom line, I play the four string more creatively than the five. I’ll be 70 in a couple of months, it gets harder to change when you’ve got that kind of time invested in your instrument. That’s 63 years of playing, violin, cello,  concert bass, electric bass and guitar. 

Music has changed a lot in the last centuries. Chords used to utilize three or four instruments, other than the piano and harp, nearly everything else played a single note, occasionally two notes. 

It may be due a 1 7/8" nut width.

I find 1 3/4" to be much more comfortable in the hand (EBMM has this as the nut width or something similar, and G&L may use 1.75" as well).

For me, finding a comfortable 5-string takes more work than does a comfortable 4 (I have 2 5-strings).

The transverse thumb rail.

The fixation device professionally installed.
www.amazon.com/photos/shared/m-t9qwpZRAGLcegKXr1ecg.zSPt0BRlXhRLmRlgYzQ5M6

I used the fixation device that held my shattered arm, wrist and hand together while healing, the Doc informed me I’d never play again, that too much damage was done to my left hand and wrist.

The fixation device re-purposed
www.amazon.com/photos/shared/QnvPbpZBSACcPRxy_c_7Lg.1DgZmU4IAFshRq0KOUfAJI

The hand is working fine I lost a little motion in flexing but the rotation is fine. I’ve had a lot of practicing healing broken bones, I guess I’m pretty good at it, though I’ve retired from risky adventures, Mostly.

Ouch! Man, that first picture was gross! Reminds me of when my dad had surgery on his neck, and was in a "halo brace" for a couple months. 

Nice "re-purposing" of those "bits"! 

 Yeah it’s a little  macabre, the Doc was unscrewing the posts out of my arm and had as we where talking BS, I asked him if They autoclave these parts and reuse them. He said naw we toss them. I said wrap them up, I got a use for them. He had the nurse clean them and wrap them up. He asked what I’d use them for, with out even thing about it I told him a transverse thumb rest on my five string bass.

He just kind of shook his head, he still believed my playing days were done.  
I was about 3 or 4 months later I sent him a youtube link of me sitting in with Albert Castiglia at the Highdive in Gainesville. I sent him an email with this attachment of me playing bass.

"Four important notes"?? Not to sound pedantic, but aren't there "5" extra notes when you add a B string? B, C, C#, D, D#?