Anyone ever owned an expensive bass, only to go back to a Stingray/P or Jazz bass?

[RaginRog]

I've found some similar posts, but wondered if anyone has ever saved and bought an expensive boutique or custom bass, only to sell it and go back to an old standard like a Stingray, P bass, Jazz bass, or 4001/3??

I only ask because they seem to have the market, even among "professional" musicians. Sure, I've noticed a lot of Laklands too (Nice!).

I don't want anyone to knock manufacturers...you don't even have to mention what you owned.

[Dan Robbins]

Hells yeah! The J-Bass and the P-Bass are the sound of music history! And so are ceramic magnet HEAVY speakers!!!! And so are large transformer and capacitor heads!

I love "boutique" basses but many of them I think are better for looking than cutting through a mix....

Though, my MTD 7 string cuts like no other (wenge neck and fingerboard/ poplar body maple top) but some MTDs I just don't like (don't really dig mahogany bodies--kinda middy and dark to my ears). THat being said, the MTD is not the most appropriate sound for roots music set FLAT---though you can EQ it to sound a bit more like a Fender/rootsy.

Alder or ash body, maple neck, maple or rosewood fb sounds the most musical and "right" in many cases though....Guess that's why Fender has been doing it for 60 years...

I think the P-bass and Jazz bass are the standard for great bass tone...In fact, I bought my Bongo 6 HS ( NOT HH) partly because it could sound a lot like a P-bass....

When I audition for a rock or funk band a 4 string Fender is the right choice.

[JAUQO III-X]

I pretty much went that way around 2004. Even though I never abandon using Fenders, Music Mans, Laklands or any Fender inspired basses. I just felt that the best sounds for me were coming from none hippie sandwich basses.


For me I do believe that to much of the hippie sandwich thing that a lot of luthiers do are nothing more than a marketing ploy.

For the record some not all.


I prefer bolt on and that's a personal choice. I think for me that most neck thru basses are not sonically clear as a bolt on and that has a lot to do with all the mass of wood that a note has to travel through to come out clear. and it can be even worse if more than one note is played at the same time or chords even.


Now I am only speaking for me from my experiences. Sometimes there's a level of distortion that travels with the note(or notes) from a neck thru that I do not get with a bolt on. Almost like the ball of distortion is at the very tip of the note and the note is simply trying to play catch up and pass the ball of distortion up.

I also believe that all the different type of woods contribute to this as well as the type of glue that the luthier is using. Glue if not applied correctly(or the right kind of glue)can stop a instrument from having a proper sonic vibration throughout.

Aside from my boutique Sub contra basses, and 15 string neck thru bass I am playing bolt on basses. Not a bunch of woods glued together.


I am very happy with a boutique bass having an ash, mahogany or alder body ,maybe with a figured top and being bolt on. But all the different woods glued together not for me.

[jschwalls]

I sold a bunch of basses I had and bought a Spector, which I had been wanting for a very long time.

Played it at a gig for less than 20 minutes... put it back in it's case and sold it the following day.

I came to the conclusion that something that expensive and nice isn't for me. I play too many places where the crowd is literally dancing right next to me. I have my basses bumped and beer dumped on them.. I have a Bluesman Vintage 57 Pbass replica, and am much less stressed out about minor damage being done to it.

[lfmn16]

I owned a couple of Alembic's and now play Stringrays and a Jazz. It's hard to put my finger on why I switched, but the Alembics just weren't sounding and feeling the way I wanted. The Stingrays and the Jazz felt and sounded perfect right out of the case.

In my old age I tend more towards, "If it aint broke, don't fix it."

To each his own, this should in no way be interpreted as a knock on the high end basses.

[Nobody]

Fender Ps, Fender Js, Musicman Stingrays, and Rickenbacker 4001/3s are all expensive basses compared to my bass.

[soulman969]

Yeah, the last two basses I sold were an MIA Deluxe Jazz Bass, and a Modulus M92-5 and I now have a Squier CV Jazz Bass and while it's not quite as nice as the Deluxe it's as nice as any MIA Standard I've played.

[Modulator]

I've owned 2 very nice Modulus Quantum 6's and a Ken Smith 5 string, all of which ended up taking a back seat to my '99 Stingray 5.

[powmetalbassist]

Used to have a warwick Corvette. Very nice, always wanted to play one. Played it for 10 minutes and realized it was not for me. Sold it and went back to my light, smooth and preferred late 80's Ibanez RD's. Never really gave it a second thought.

[Slowgypsy]

Both my parents were professional musicians. Dad a violinist. Mom a violist. They owned many instruments, and classical instruments of quality cost way more than the most expensive boutique bass guitar by a good margin. And yet the instruments they chose to play were among the least expensive in their collection. For them, it was all about the sound and feel. Those relatively inexpensive instruments that were their main players just had that magic.

In a way I'm going down the same path. There's many instruments in my collection, and yet the one I keep coming back to, and have finally decided to simply stay with, is hardly the most expensive instrument in my collection. It's an old fretless Music Man Stingray. Just has that magic.

[pbassnut]

Originally Posted by jschwalls

I sold a bunch of basses I had and bought a Spector, which I had been wanting for a very long time.

Played it at a gig for less than 20 minutes... put it back in it's case and sold it the following day.

I came to the conclusion that something that expensive and nice isn't for me. I play too many places where the crowd is literally dancing right next to me. I have my basses bumped and beer dumped on them.. I have a Bluesman Vintage 57 Pbass replica, and am much less stressed out about minor damage being done to it.

Interesting (slightly) parallel experience to my own. I picked up a used pre-Kramer Spector NS-2 (like Sting used to play before he got that mojo infested mid-50's Precision) for only $700 back in the late 80's. It was the finest made bass I ever played ... I had it set to almost a disturbingly low action with no fret buzz and the intonation was so good that you could play a low F Major bar chord on it and it would ring true. It sounded really pristine and you could get a lot of different good sounds with the EMG P/J pickups & active EQ. Shortly after getting it, I took it to a (rare as hen's teeth) rehearsal (I play in sleazy blues bands that never rehearse) along with my '82 Fender AV "Fullerton" '57 reissue Precision and played it for a while and then picked up the P-Bass. The Spector sounded much better than the Precision by itself. However, when mixed in with the band, the Precision blew it's doors off causing a personal epiphany that has remained with me to this day ... there is nothing like a P-Bass (I like Js, too). Shortly thereafter, I got a $1200 offer for the Spector and sold it and have never strayed away from Fender again.

[lousybassplayer]

well, those basses are expensive to me, but I think the question is custom boutiques vs "standards". Limited experience here, but the boutique-ish basses i have owned or played have done the least for me, and my favorite among them was essentially a fender jazz with barts and a graphite neck. of course there is the old different strokes chestnut, but i am perfectly fine with well built examples of cookie cutter basses like Fenders, Ray's and Ricks. Of course, if the Fender copy maker were Sadowsky, AC, Elrick, Dingwall, LE, Valenti etc etc, I would certainly not complain.

[RaginRog]

Originally Posted by Dan Robbins

Hells yeah! The J-Bass and the P-Bass are the sound of music history! And so are ceramic magnet HEAVY speakers!!!! And so are large transformer and capacitor heads!

I love "boutique" basses but many of them I think are better for looking than cutting through a mix....


Alder or ash body, maple neck, maple or rosewood fb sounds the most musical and "right" in many cases though....Guess that's why Fender has been doing it for 60 years...

I see where you're coming from- "Old-School- Meat & Potatoes" guy!

I started it, because aside from a Brubaker, and another custom that a guy at a local shop let me try, I have no experience with expensive $3000 + bass guitars. The Brubaker 5 was an amazing sight; a single cut bass, with a very fancy spalted/looking top, that couldn't have weighed more than 8.5 pounds. But, it was a very hi-fi sound, very crisp...a slappers delight, that didn't have a great rock tone imo. I think the guy said it ran him almost $4k when he bought it. This was a couple of years ago. Beautiful though...I was nervous holding it!

Originally Posted by JAUQO III-X

I pretty much went that way around 2004. Even though I never abandon using Fenders, Music Mans, Laklands or any Fender inspired basses. I just felt that the best sounds for me were coming from none hippie sandwich basses.


For me I do believe that to much of the hippie sandwich thing that a lot of luthiers do are nothing more than a marketing ploy.

For the record some not all.


I prefer bolt on and that's a personal choice. I think for me that most neck thru basses are not sonically clear as a bolt on and that has a lot to do with all the mass of wood that a note has to travel through to come out clear. and it can be even worse if more than one note is played at the same time or chords even.

Thanks Jauqo. Yeah, I tend to prefer bolt-on basses for the styles of music I play as well. I still wouldn't mind a custom build of my own...but it'd likely only be a Fender/Musicman style copy...

Originally Posted by jschwalls

I sold a bunch of basses I had and bought a Spector, which I had been wanting for a very long time.

Played it at a gig for less than 20 minutes... put it back in it's case and sold it the following day.

I came to the conclusion that something that expensive and nice isn't for me. I play too many places where the crowd is literally dancing right next to me. I have my basses bumped and beer dumped on them.. I have a Bluesman Vintage 57 Pbass replica, and am much less stressed out about minor damage being done to it.

What model Spector was it? They do have some sweet looking models. I played a Euro, that had amazing attention to detail. I didn't like the preamp though.

Originally Posted by lfmn16

I owned a couple of Alembic's and now play Stringrays and a Jazz. It's hard to put my finger on why I switched, but the Alembics just weren't sounding and feeling the way I wanted. The Stingrays and the Jazz felt and sounded perfect right out of the case.

In my old age I tend more towards, "If it aint broke, don't fix it."

To each his own, this should in no way be interpreted as a knock on the high end basses.

Alembics are nice. My local GC has a 6 string (Elan? maybe). Beautiful, and it has some really nice tones...but it has 2 strings too many. I would have seriously considered though if it was a 5. The neck was comfortable, and the string spacing was ridiculously close...a slapper would have hated it.

Originally Posted by Nobody

Fender Ps, Fender Js, Musicman Stingrays, and Rickenbacker 4001/3s are all expensive basses compared to my bass.

Yeah, but I checked your profile...you've had some nice expensive basses...including a Ric.

Originally Posted by soulman969

Yeah, the last two basses I sold were an MIA Deluxe Jazz Bass, and a Modulus M92-5 and I now have a Squier CV Jazz Bass and while it's not quite as nice as the Deluxe it's as nice as any MIA Standard I've played.

wow, that's a huge step you took. But I have played some nice Squiers lately. There was a fiesta red P bass I played about a year ago...it was like Butta'

[esa372]

Let's see...

I bought a custom Alembic Élan in 1990 - kept it.
I bought a Fender AV'62 Jazz in 2000 - kept it.
I bought a Fender AV'75 Jazz in 2010 - kept it.

So, I guess for me the answer is 'yes and no'.

[dedpool1052]

back in feb i traded my '98 stingray 5 for an '81 g&l L-1000. does that count?

[pbassnut]

Originally Posted by lfmn16

I owned a couple of Alembic's and now play Stringrays and a Jazz. It's hard to put my finger on why I switched, but the Alembics just weren't sounding and feeling the way I wanted. The Stingrays and the Jazz felt and sounded perfect right out of the case.

In my old age I tend more towards, "If it aint broke, don't fix it."

To each his own, this should in no way be interpreted as a knock on the high end basses.

I had an Alembic Series I "Point" model back in the late 70's when I was playing full time. It was an excellent bass to be sure, but I was always worried about it because it was like a work of art and it was extremely un-ergonomic to play ... 13 pounds, giant 5 pin connector cable that went into the power supply, neck dive balance problems and it was generally just a huge instrument. I was a Dead Head/Phil Lesh fan and that was probably the main reason I got it. I had the works ... an Alembic F-2B preamp, Furman parametric EQ, Ashly 2-way crossover, Crown power and a 1x18/2x10 cabinet setup and it sure sounded good, but no better than the simple '58 Precision through an Ampeg SVT/Sunn Concert Bass cab loaded with a pair of JBL K-140 15s that I had before it. I eventually saw the light and went back to Fenders.

[RaginRog]

In defense of boutique builders...they usually build what "you- the customer" tell them to build.

[Marty Forrer]

Yessir! I've had a Wal, Pedulla Rapture, Stingray 4 and 5, Am Fender Deluxe 5, amongst others. Now my sole bass guitar is a Squier CV 51 P bass. Of the above basses, the Pedulla was the best, but it got stolen.

[RaginRog]

Originally Posted by esa372

Let's see...

I bought a custom Alembic Élan in 1990 - kept it.
I bought a Fender AV'62 Jazz in 2000 - kept it.
I bought a Fender AV'75 Jazz in 2010 - kept it.

So, I guess for me the answer is 'yes and no'.

I played a 6 string Elan recently...WOW...that bass was incredible. Used for $2200....too many strings for my "average" abilities.

[JAUQO III-X]

Originally Posted by RaginRog

In defense of boutique builders...they usually build what "you- the customer" tell them to build.

The majority of boutique builders have standard approaches that usually set them apart from the none boutique builders.

In my case I realize that I am a bolt on player. And I do not need a bunch of different woods glued together.