Bass + Style

[SMaubass]

've kinda been thinking about this for a little while so I might as well post. How much does your personal fashion style effect your bass buying, be it shape or color. I tend to dress kinda hipstery, I guess, modern-designy, and I tend to like black basses that fit my style nicely (I have a black dean right now). Anyone else wanna share their opinions?

[totallyfrozen]

I can see why someone would consider the looks of the bass in relation to their stage wardrobe, but I haven't bought any basses for those reasons.

[packhowitzer]

I'm on the other side of the spectrum: I dress like a jackass. But I also only buy black basses.

[Fatalistic]

I dress "normally".
The Bass I play is pretty normal, too.
The bass I want (and plan on picking up at some point) is not so normal. Hm. XD

[mantrabass]

I like to dress semi-casually... typically polo shirts and button down's... I'm also a big fan of tight jeans, beanies, and Air Jordan sneakers. Yep, casual.

The basses that interest me are either the hardcore standards (Fender jazz & precisions) and the mildly abstract (my Conklin GT-7 and Peavey 5-string neck-thru grind)

[Phalex]

My bass is a second hand beat to crap cobbled together piece of poo........

Yeah, I guess we do kinda look like we belong together......

[hover]

it doesn't. at all. then again, i don't have full-body mirrors either, so practice-posing is out of the equation too.

[D.M.N.]

I guess I dress pretty 'retro': tight-fithting flare pants, fitted t-shirts, western button-ups, Campus and Chelsea boots, long hair, aviators, biker jacket. My bass is a 62 AV P, with the bridge cover on, and I've adorned it with a green scarf and an osprey feather. I didn't buy it to be part of an image, but it's pretty classic, so it seems to go with whatever. I'd say we fit together pretty well.

[nicoli]

I like to dress functionally, and I mainly play a P-bass. So I guess indirectly that's a yes to fashion taste being related to bass choice.

[Bloodhammer]

I dress like Jeff Hanneman and I want to buy a pink P-bass and put rainbow and unicorn stickers all over it. For a blackmetal band.

Basically, I AM a jackass.

[Marko5657]

Except when playing outdoors in high heat/humidity, I almost always wear black on stage, which imo is like “neutral”, as in, any bass would work.

I know I’d never want a black bass because they look smudgy all the time.

[DBH_Bass]

I play bass on stage with shorts, and either a cutoff beer/racing/band shirt or a long sleeve beer/racing/band shirt and sometimes a camo chevy cap.

I used to play a cheap Washburn covered in stickers and writing, now I play a Spector.

[malicant]

Though sound and play-ability are always first on my list when it comes to deciding if I like a bass or not, the looks do factor in in a big way. For example, though I like the sound of rickenbacker basses, I would never buy one as I hate the look of them (controversial, I know).

[DJ.D.]

Of course looks matters! But never as much as sound and playability. My newest investment was a creamy white 5-string Fender J-bass am. deluxe with a black pickguard. I would like to change the pickguard to something more unique ;-) Don't know though if it's worth the cost...

An other side of the coin is the question how low down you have the bass hanging with the shoulder strap. It's more comfortable having it high up on the chest IMO, but not so rock'n'roll :-P

I think this is quite much based on the music style you are currently playing. My fretless Peavy Cirrus I have very high up. Fretless is a bit geeky so why not go all the way! I try to have the other basses low, at waist hight, but not lower because I think it becomes difficult to play with good technique. But as low down that still is comfortable is more pleasing to look at.