If you became well-know enough to have your own signature model, what would it be?
 

In as much detail as possible. Any brand you want, seeing as I know relatively little about basses and am a generally bad bassist, I can't go into too much detail, but here's mine:

Fender Jazz bass
24 Frets
Mahogany body, painted black, with a black pickguard
SD Basslines
Black hardware, including tuners
Flamed maple neck + Fretboard with black inlays
Khaler bass trem

I'll play,

Mine would most likely be:

Fender Jazz Bass
21 frets
Alder Body, nitro finish in either black or sunburst with tortoise guard, worn in...not flashy
Lollar pickups
Aged chrome hardware
Quartersawn maple neck with either maple block n bound, or rosewood w/dots. Nitro finish also worn in.

In other words it would either be my current fender jazz or my Nash 63' jazz....combined

Ritter Cora
rosewood 34 inch 24 frets
lightweight alder
carrara white finish
bolt on
4 strings
maple neck
gold hardware

Mine would be a Fender P weighing in around 11lbs with the fattest maple neck Fender could muster. Early 70s big TV logo on the headstock. Colors would be Daphne blue and/or anything in huge metal flake. Bridge cover only and finish off everything with a real heavy relic. Pretty much a "looks only" bass that would be too heavy for anyone else except me and I could just have them all :D

Warwick streamer cv, gold finish, silver pickguard, 5 strings tune e-c, chrome hardware, maple neck and Birdseye maple fretboard with satin finish, block pearloid inlay, matching headstock, nordstrand big singles, volume volume tone two band eq, pull.up tone for passive bypass.

Fantasy bass time, eh?

Fanned fretboard w/ zero fret
Carbon-graphite neck
Figured Mahogany body, clear satin finish
Ceramic MM pickup in std MM position
Barto soapbar humbucker between MM and bridge
Piezo loaded, brass, Dingwall style bridge (black)
Barto BTMB 18v pre w/ bypassable option and pu/piezo balances
Hipshot lite machines w/ D-tuner
String tree bar just behind nut

...And a glass of Piraat. Thanks.

Mahogany Jackson Concert-like body
Bolt on Kramer Disciple neck (maple/maple)
Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound P/J
Volume/Volume
White with black stripes/red pinstriping
4 string, 45-105 Rotosound rounds (E-G)
Black Schaller M4s
Black Hipshot A bridge
Black Fender strap locks
Unfinished neck, thin poly on the body.

This could be fun...

Jazz bass style four string fretless
Swamp ash body with tung oil finish rear rout
Maple neck with ebony board no lines 24 fret cantilever extension
No guard.
Passive Lindy Fralins
Hipshot a syle FM2 string through
Non-fender style headstock

No I have not been thinking about this...

MIA Fender P.

4 strings
Olympic white
Black pickguard
Maple neck and fretboard
Modern C neck
Black dot inlays
High mass bridge
Chrome hardware
Hipshot tuners
SPB-2 pickup
Dunlop strap locks
Elixir nanoweb strings 45-105

Hmmm....

The starting point would be a Fender American Standard Jazz Bass 5 string. The differences?
-Swamp Ash body (selected for light weight)
-Contoured heel with 5 bolt neck joint (ala American Deluxe basses, circa 2007)
-Quartersawn maple neck (vintage tint finish, relic'd back of neck)
-Rosewood fingerboard (dot inlays)
-Hipshot ultralite tuners
-Fender high-mass vintage bridge with string through body option
-Passive pickups wound with higher resistance by Fender's Abigail Ybarra with V/V/T configuration
-Nitrocellulose lacquer finish
-Color options: black (with red tort guard), sherwood green (with w/b/w guard), 3 tone sunburst (with red tort guard)

Fender Jazz Body (Mahagony, Flame Maple Top, 3 tone sunburst with painted black sides and back)
Joe Barten pickups
Bad Ass Bridge
Fender P-neck (Maple neck, Ebony Fretboard, Jumbo stainless 1-12/Med-Jumbo 13-20 frets, matching headstock paint scheme, with USA Deluxe style tuners, dots are fine, satin black paint on back of neck)
Chrome hardware
Black pickguard
Fender parts bridge and neck pickup covers
Fender parts strap locks (the ones that look like volume knobs on an amp)
Strings (Blue Steels)

Sexy, full-toned, and no skinny neck!

I'll play.

Mike Lull M5, honeyburst on quilt maple top. The only differences from a standard M5 would be Bartolini CB pickups instead of the stock Seymour Duncan single coils, and there would be no onboard EQ controls, just a master volume and pickup blend. Oh, and the headstock would be finished to match the top.

This, but with a P pickup (hidden under a big rectangular or maybe even oval housing just for looks), one volume knob, an extra strap button and side dots on the left-handed side.



Available in Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Burberry finishes, all with matching headstocks!

Gibson EB-1 5!!!! 5 string version of their first electric bass with a hollow chamber under a REAL F hole that's not painted on, and a mud bucker that was wound to original spec but wide enough for a 17.5 5er!

Knowing how much Gibson charges these days, no one would be able to afford it!

Mine would probably be like The Homer to everyone else:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvn9k8dnhjI

mainly due to my injuries. So even if I were a celebrity, I doubt I could get anyone to make it. But in that alternate universe...... :)

I can't handle any cranking of my left wrist around or in half, I need to be able to keep the wrist perfectly straight as much as possible. That's the main problem I've encountered on almost every bass I've ever played except my L2K. For some unknown reason, most basses insist on you having to reach waaaay way out to play down in half position.

Here's an extreme example that just absolutely makes my left arm scream in pain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DCMwyFS634

but this is the general idea on lots of other basses. The neck being too wide (for me) aggravates this even on basses that do balance well, like my Carvin Bunny 4. It's close but, as I"ve recently discovered, not quite there.

The other problem is usually a misplaced bridge PU (too close to the bridge usually) with a flat face. This leads to uneven volumes for the strings, and an inconsistent surface to pluck over. Closer to the bridge than about 2.5" is too tight on the strings and gives a very nasally tone.

There are loads of basses out there that get 95% of the way there for me, but are always missing the one or two little things I really need to complete it:

- a very thin neck up at the nut (Jazz bass dimensions at least), also thin front-to-back. I wouldn't care if another material than wood would be required to build such a small neck and still have it be stable. Full composite would be fine, as long as it's a little pencil at the nut.
- something configured so that it doesn't launch the neck way way out to the left, especially when on the strap. That would mean a lower cutaway further towards the headstock than most basses and a longer upper horn (past the 12th fret, possibly as far as the 11th or even the 10th).
- the bridge PU has to be in a very specific position, about 2.5" to 3" away from the saddles.
- the PU needs to be radiused, since I use the bridge PU as a ramp; also the volume of the strings needs to be even.
- it has to be wide like a G&L MFD or MM humbucker.
- unlined FL would be standard, lined FL and fretted would be no-cost options.
- I'd mildly prefer neck-through construction, but it wouldn't be a requirement.

Basically, this more or less describes a G&L L1500 with a #8 unlined neck, but with a slightly longer upper horn and the whole thing made out of a hunk of maple. The PU would need to be radiused somehow, but I'd be ok with just a radiused face as long as the string output is even so I don't have to use compression or limiting to even out the string volumes.

My L2K right now is the closest to this I have at this point. It only lacks the radiused pickup faces and the upper horn is about 1" or so too short.

But like I said, I doubt anyone would manufacture this, especially not G&L and probably not even Carvin. I'd have to have my instruments basically custom made if I were actually gigging.... I currently can get away with my L2K because I don't play enough to justify my Homer Bass, but if I were pounding it out on a daily basis, I'd need The Homer....


LS

Hmm....

Precision body shape, slightly modified with deeper cutaway for upper fret access.

Maple fretboard. Maple neck w/ graphite stiffening rods.

Swamp ash body, chambered for weight reduction.

24 frets. Fiber optic markers on side. Fiber optic "Rip" design on either 12th or somewhere in the upper region of the fretboard.

Now for the fun stuff.

ALL passive. Model One humbucker at neck position, P-bass pickup in normal spot, J pickup at bridge. All pickup with equal volume (hey, I'm dreaming here, right??)

All this, under 6 pounds. And since its my signature model and is gonna be sold to the public, lets make the price $499 so everyone can afford it, but keep the construction in the US. That's right, an MIA bass for $500!!

Fender Precision Bass (PJ routes)
Trans Black Swamp Ash Body, Nitro
Maple/Maple Neck Precision Width Nut, Pearloid Blocks, White Binding, Tinted Nitro Finish
BWB Pickguard
Dimarzio Model P and J, creme
250K, No Load Tone Pot, .1mf Cap
Flat Top Chrome Knobs
High Mass Bridge
Chrome Bridge Cover

BAZINGA!

Startin' point: an American Deluxe Jazz bass in natural finish (gloss on ash body)
 

American Deluxe Precision bass maple neck/fingerboard with 21 frets and only dots
On mentioned American Deluxe Jazz bass and electronics I'll swap dual former American series splitcoil: one per each Jazz single pickup
(same three band equalizer with on/off switch)
Hipshot BT8 bass extender (Fender "ultralite") and Fender flatwound strings, possibly in the fattest available gauge (I don't mind rigidity: I play a full step downtuned D, G, C, F and, with detuner on C, G, C, F)

That's it

Cheers,
Wallace

A Torzal Twist precision bass for me :)

Ibanez SoundGear

6 strings
Single cut design
Swamp Ash body with 5A flamed maple top
5 pcs Maple / Purple Heart wood / Wenge / Purple Heart wood / Maple neck
2 titanium truss rods
Bolt on
Rosewood fretboard
26 medium frets
34 inch scale
Abalone jazz block inlay
Brass nut
Nordstrand Dual Coil pickups (parallel)
Custom placement of the pickups
Nordstrand 3B-5a preamp
Gotoh tuners
Hipshot detuner for the Low B string
Monorail IV bridge
16.5 mm string spacing
Hardware colour : gold
Neutrik® locking jack
Dunlop straplocks
Body painted in Dragon Burst (sometimes called Caribbean Burst)
Matched headstock
Oil finish for the neck
Pyramid stainless steel strings - X-heavy 6 (.030 - .140)