One Bass Only: A short treatise

[inthevelvet]

Originally Posted by Santraginus

...The other reason is the way the lead guitarist, who is Band Leader, prioritizes his time.
After the holidays, he admitted that he did not practice a single measure of our material during three weeks - but he's got three new axes, re-arranged his pedal-board, switched string brand and gauges, and consequentely will spend a couple of band practices just fiddling with controls and setup. B.t.w.: his setup is incredible complicated, so there are about 300 knobs to adjust, re-adjust, pre-amps to program.... His setup upsets me...

I took my girl out on New Years Eve for some dancing, and there was a great band playing, crowd of about 1500 I'd guess. They played a very wide variety of dance type music, from Elvis to modern top 40. The guitarist was great, and actually managed to sneak in all kinds of cool stuff into the tunes, from Van Halen to Satriani and even Yngwie licks. The thing that stood out to me, was with this huge variety, he was playing a Charvel strat with one humbucker, straight into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe - no pedals, nothing.

[jfh2424]

I own 9 basses. However, since I started gigging regularly for money in the past two years, I've really only used two of them.

I've found that gigging really interfered with my bass GAS.

I think it's true that when you really start working on your skills as a bassist and you actually start working, you spend much less time on GAS. At some point, there's only so many hours in a week and if you spend most of your bass time on GAS, it's hard to progress, in my opinion.

I won't sell my other basses because I do feel close to them, but really, you only need a small number of basses to get work. For some, that number is one, for others it's two or three or four. But you don't need nine basses to work, I've found.

John

[ShowLow]

Originally Posted by dvh

It's not about the toys. It's what you do with what you've got....

I resemble that remark!

Hmm, thought-provoking thread, glad it has come back along. My own approach has been to try a whole bunch of basses. I love the way they look, sound, feel. Variety helps me to adapt and not become overly dependent on one instrument. Hearing the differences among basses develops my musical ear. Yet, I get the minimalist argument and think it has merit too.

Bass playing is a long-deferred love of mine. Being senior in my profession enables me to cover church and charitable donations, family needs, taxes (!!!), investing for retirement and future college for the kids, all while reserving some for toys. I have modest taste in cars and houses. So I am fortunate to have flexibility about where to spend. (I lived paycheck to paycheck in my younger days, and put in some years as a starving student. So I get all that too.)

At last, I've started to sell some basses (to make room for others?). The War Department would like for me to sell most! Yet GAS is a seductive mistress.

It's certainly true that if I spent more time practicing and less time gear-hunting, setting up basses, changing strings, posting on TB, etc., I would be a better bassist. But I love it all!

[AudioDwebe]

This thought just dawned on me: It seems only bass guitarists and guitarists have extra instruments during a gig. I've never seen a sax player bring two alto's or two tenors. Perhaps a tenor and soprano or alto, but not two of the same.

I don't think drummers do; I've not seen that in trumpet players.

hmm...

Is this a "guitar" thing?

[MCS4]

I am definitely amenable to the idea, with the exception that I believe that at least one backup bass is necessary for gigging. In reality, though, I find that I prefer to play one bass the majority of the time as my workhorse but to also have a few others for different situations (as well as simple fun/variety).

I do think it has been beneficial that 90% of my last 10 years of playing was on one bass. This will very likely change soon, though, as I am awaiting a custom Zon based in part on shoulder/neck issues (it is lighter weight and shorter scale). Regardless of how good it is, however, I find it hard to imagine that I would be willing to sell my long-time Carvin workhorse.

[bassist4dalord]

Squier Standard Precision V with D'Addario Tapewounds
Ibanez AEB5E with stock phosphor bronze rounds (will install D'Addario Tapes next)
Gallien-Krueger MB115

I'm a man of simplicity. One electric, one acoustic-electric, one amp. That's more than I need, of course, but I have options. I couldn't be happier with my gear! My only GAS right now is for a set of D'Addario Tapes for the AEB5E. Good stuff!

[blindeddie]

i kinda feel that you only need one bass... but really three. a fretted, a fretless and an upright. because i consider them all different animals. but ONE fretted, ONE fretless, and ONE upright. just like you need one hot rod, one truck and one motorcycle

[MCS4]

Originally Posted by AudioDwebe

This thought just dawned on me: It seems only bass guitarists and guitarists have extra instruments during a gig. I've never seen a sax player bring two alto's or two tenors. Perhaps a tenor and soprano or alto, but not two of the same.

I don't think drummers do; I've not seen that in trumpet players.

hmm...

Is this a "guitar" thing?

It's certainly more common among bassists and (even more so) guitarists, but I think there are also more compelling reasons to bring more of those instruments than of many others. For me, the reasons why I always have a second bass on hand are, in order of importance:

(1) In case the electronics of my main bass fail. If this happened and I did not have a backup, I would be out of luck. I've never had this happen before, but once would be far too often.

(2) In case I break a string. It is far faster to grab a second bass than to throw on a new string, plus to me it is more professional. If I am in an original rock band playing a 20 or 30 minute opener set, one string problem could wipe out a whole lot of my time.

(3) To a lesser extent, situations where having a second bass makes doing something in the specific set easier (most commonly a different tuning).

Many of these reasons do not apply to other instruments. However, another side of the story is that it is also way easier to bring a second bass than, say, a whole second drum kit (I have seen drummers bring backup snares though).

[capncal]

Originally Posted by stflbn

Different basses inspire me to play different things or to play differently overall.

That's the best excuse I have, and reasoning enough for me.

this right here is the reason to have more than one instrument in my opinion as well. when i pick up a different instrument, i get a different feel and some new things might come out.

[Biggbass]

I think I could easily get by with one J and one P .

[Joe Louvar]

For years I only owned one bass (at a time), but now I own several. I’d be happy with just 3 basses, my Fender Precision, Jazz, and BG-31 acoustic, and I suppose if I could only have one bass it would be my Fender P bass or maybe the J. But my Fender P, J, and acoustic are my favorites basses and cover everything I do - plus I really like having a backup bass. By the way, I thought about selling some of the basses I don’t play much, like my Rickenbacker 4003 and etc - but instead we’ve decided to save them (as an investment) for our grandchildren. My son in law’s down payment for their first home came from selling an old Fender Stratocaster that his dad gave him.

[Greevus]

basses are like women. man's nature is not monogamy. or is it monotony? ah they both suck. i got my 'wife', but i got a lot of other basses. how can you not notice their voluptuous curves and wonder what it would be like to just play with 'em for a while?
admit it, you want other basses! embrace the animal in you!!

seriously, don't we all want to be seen with that ONE....you know PMac/Violin, Jaco/Jazz, Gene/Ripper, Geddy/Ric, etc, sort of thing? then you fantasize about getting your OWN MODEL and endorsed! then you see the lost basses of Ebay and Craig's.

then you became a gassed out cat lady.

ahh....the sweet gassing. isn't that what we REALLLY want?

if you don't have at least TWO, then you aren't really gigging too much.

[Philonius]

I currently own four, and have been thinking of dialing that back to two. One inexpensive bass to keep at work so I can practice during down time seems easily justifiable. It really isn't about the money for me, just a matter of priorities- playing vs. diddling around with gear.

Now, just how many hours and dollars will I spend deciding what that desert-island bass is going to be?

[kozmikyak]

I feel I need _two_. A backup is necessary, as the _one_ I would otherwise play is a custom instrument of a type I can't borrow from someone else if something goes wrong. And there's no good reason to stop a show while I change a string or re-solder pickup wires. Yes, brittle solder joint breakage has happened mid-show before.

My "one" instrument is URB-like, with only passive electronics inside it. The preamps velcro to the instrument, and they're both identical; in a pinch I can swap the working one to the bow channel and use it for everything. The identical instrument I'm soon having built will have its own pair of preamps; overkill yes, but it means more ability to construct a fully operational rig from the ashes of a broken one.

In addition, I have every bit of hardware (strings, tuners, extra pickups, soldering iron, solder, wire, screws, tape, glue) it would take to field repair an instrument, short of the body itself splitting in half down the middle, in my possession at every show.

Overkill? Peraps, but experience has proven I'll need all that sometime

More than the two instruments would indeed be pointless, though. Once one has a duplicate of _everything_, further duplicates are chasing diminishing returns.

And I don't even consider these instruments fragile. It's just that I use my instruments _hard_ and eventually Uncle Murphy shows up uninvited.

[GM60466]

I would start with a P-bass and see where that leads you.

[velalv]

I'm like him, with an electric and acoustic. I feel like the Acoustic is my backup for my electric. Both my basses are very different, and I am glad to have the backup, especially as a lefty, since I can't just borrow one from a friend very easily. I had one of my basses in the shop for 6 weeks and still had to show up to church ready to play, glad I had the second bass.

Originally Posted by bassist4dalord

Squier Standard Precision V with D'Addario Tapewounds
Ibanez AEB5E with stock phosphor bronze rounds (will install D'Addario Tapes next)
Gallien-Krueger MB115

I'm a man of simplicity. One electric, one acoustic-electric, one amp. That's more than I need, of course, but I have options. I couldn't be happier with my gear! My only GAS right now is for a set of D'Addario Tapes for the AEB5E. Good stuff!

[Jarrett]

Can you have one fretted bass AND one fretless bass or is it just one bass to rule them all?

[dvh]

Upright and a P bass (with another as back-up) cover all my needs and I'm as busy as I choose to be. Was even busier before I learned to say "no".........

[ChrisPbass]

My CIJ '62 jazz reissue is incredible and of my P and Modulus fretless if I could only keep one it would be the jazz (no brainer) but sometimes I want what the P does and sometimes I was fretless. The P is B/E/A/D and is FAT and low.

[billgwx]

If I had to go with only one bass it'd be my J, for reasons versatile and sentimental. But as long as I have the P strung with either flats or tapes, it offers a different sound that I can't get out of the J, and its wider neck forces me to play more economically. Also, in the P&W music that I'm currently doing, the J sounds better with keyboard-based music, and the P with guitar-based songs.