Dream Theater bassist John Myung discussed his approach to extended range, telling Bass Guitar Magazine:
“If a six-string bass interests you, you could always see it as a four-string and play it as a four-string. That’s always how I saw it.
“The extra strings are there for creative purposes. You will accidentally hit a note that wasn’t normally available on a four-string and it might really sound cool.
“Things like that happen all the time where you’re working on something; ‘As I Am‘ was like that, I was just playing something and the availability of the extra string means you will naturally use it. That’s where the creativity comes in.”
“For me, I tend to favor six-strings with a narrower neck. I was playing wide-spaced Fender six-strings and they proved to be way too taxing on my hands. I asked Music Man to make me a six-string while utilizing the width of a five-string neck, and that seems to work for my hands.
“If you go for a six-string, maybe go for something that has a reasonable width to the neck. Playing those basses with the larger spacing can be like playing an upright bass, and there’s a whole different physicality there. To play something like that night after night I need something that will work a little bit with me.
“Picking a bass, though, is a very personal thing. It’s like thinking about what kind of car you like; it is a very personal choice: do you think it is cool, does it agree with you. It can be hard. Six-string is definitely cool and it has its own energy to it; it makes you play differently.”
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!