In the almost 40 years I've been playing and gigging the bass, I've only broken a string once (on a G&L) and I play hard.
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A bass player with only one bass...
- Thread starter martybernal
- Start date
I have been playing over 30 years and own 8 basses. I would like to sell my 6-string and would like two more really high end ones and a Rob Allen fretless so that would make 10 basses.
I play fretted and fretless so need at least two. I feel the most comfortable with my 2 Peavy Cirrus 5-string basses but It's because I've done so much work on them and constantly still tweak them so they are perfect. They play and sound as well as any bass worth 5 times their price.
That said, I still also play a Fender Jazz 4-string often as it has a completely different sound. It doesn't play as well even though it is a custom shop master build and I can't do a lot of things technically on it I effortlessly do on the Cirrus. I also have a Leduc Loga bass 5-string headless that has a very dark sound and is great for a tight stage. I would never sell my P-bass I had since the early 80s even though I rarely play it. It is the best bass I have for recording that old rock sound!
So... Does this answer your question?
I specialize on my two main basses and practice technique hours every day on them and they work really well for me. However, I have other specialized basses with different sound, wood, construction, electronics etc and need them for different applications.
My basses are all different and I appreciate them all even though I mainly use two that are identical except for one being fretless.
If you are talking about visiting a music store and picking about a very expensive bass but can barely play it because it is set up so bad with terrible intonation etc etc... well this is a totally different topic that unfortunately I often experience!!!
I play fretted and fretless so need at least two. I feel the most comfortable with my 2 Peavy Cirrus 5-string basses but It's because I've done so much work on them and constantly still tweak them so they are perfect. They play and sound as well as any bass worth 5 times their price.
That said, I still also play a Fender Jazz 4-string often as it has a completely different sound. It doesn't play as well even though it is a custom shop master build and I can't do a lot of things technically on it I effortlessly do on the Cirrus. I also have a Leduc Loga bass 5-string headless that has a very dark sound and is great for a tight stage. I would never sell my P-bass I had since the early 80s even though I rarely play it. It is the best bass I have for recording that old rock sound!
So... Does this answer your question?
I specialize on my two main basses and practice technique hours every day on them and they work really well for me. However, I have other specialized basses with different sound, wood, construction, electronics etc and need them for different applications.
My basses are all different and I appreciate them all even though I mainly use two that are identical except for one being fretless.
If you are talking about visiting a music store and picking about a very expensive bass but can barely play it because it is set up so bad with terrible intonation etc etc... well this is a totally different topic that unfortunately I often experience!!!
Blah114 said:
Yeah I have never broken a string either, but at one gig I took my Precision out of the case and it was dead! Broken ground wire at the output jack. Of course I had another bass with me as always, and didn't discover it was a broken wire until I got home to check it. But had this been my only bass, how long was I supposed to make a crowd wait for the band to play while I diagnosed the failure and fired up the soldering iron in a dark club?
Yeah anything can happen, not just broken strings. I also can't remember how many times I've rescued other bassists when their only instrument failed and I quickly handed them mine. I remember one guy had the strap button rip out of the body. Another guy had his bass sitting in a stand during their stage setup, and someone stepped too close and their foot hit the knobs shearing the volume pot shaft right off.
Perhaps not quite the same thing but anyway. For little more then half of my playing life Ive only owned one bass at a time. Saw no reason really to have more then one very versatile bass. When I did start keeping two. It was mainly cause funds available made such that easy. I found that for me haveing two significantly diff basses just wasnt gonna work out. So now, I just own two pratically identical sounding very versatile basses. So yeah, my nature is better suited to being a one bass peep with a practically identical backup.
I started seriously playing bass few months ago after playing guitar for 8 years. I bought an ibanez BTB776, and im currently searching for a backup bass for when my band does gigs. But for some reason, nothing on the market appeals to me. The BTB just has everything the way i like it, and everything else seems to be missing something. I think it will be my main bass for quite along time. Im considering just getting another BTB (the 676 maybe). I suppose i should feel greatful im not feeling the urge to buy a bunch of different basses, but sometimes its hard when you need something a nothing on the market appeals to you 
While the GASsy side of me has me thinking it's time to try a G&L, either an ASAT or L-2000, the pragmatic side is telling me to cull my current three basses down to one.
The funny thing is that the one I would probably keep if I went the latter route is my first and cheapest bass, the '93 Korean Fender P with a Reverend pickup.
The funny thing is that the one I would probably keep if I went the latter route is my first and cheapest bass, the '93 Korean Fender P with a Reverend pickup.
A bass player with only one bass... is probably not an upright bass and electric bass doubler...
I like your attitude and agree in principle. I have two because I like to have a fretless. Ideally I would have a Fretted main bass, fretted back up, and fretless bass. Anything beyond this and it gets into the collector realm and I'm not interested in looking at my basses.
All these guys that own 7 and 10+ basses are odd if you ask me. I could never get much use out of more than 3.
"Odd", eh?
Would there be any allowance for bassists who record, and at any one recording session or frelance/sub gigs to have a number of different-sounding basses at their disposal so that their sound may be most appropriate for the wishes of the band, artist, producer, etc, etc, etc...????????????
Or is this the proverbial "if you can't do it with a Precision bass, then why bother" argument??????
I've played for 40+ years and owned a slew of different axes. Some boutique, Sadowsky, Lakland USA, Tobias, Spector, Roscoe, Musicman, Yamaha etc...
I am down to 2 basses. What are they? A Precision and a Jazz.
I am down to 2 basses. What are they? A Precision and a Jazz.
I've owned only six basses in about 26 years of playing, and for almost 18 years I owned and played only one bass--a G&L L-2000 E I got in early 1983. Did I think it was the greatest thing ever? No, but it was (and still is) a pretty sweet bass and got the job done for the gigs I had. Plus, I was pretty broke...
+1
Although I agree with the OP in that one bass may allow better playing, having more than one and possibly 4/5 or more strings expands your musical ability IMO because they force you to play outside of your "comfort zone".
That said, in 2007 after going through 10 or more basses in a band setting only one worked for all styles(originals and covers). There are 4 of them here now that get rotated because they are all set up the same and sound almost identical. Other basses are used also but not as primaries.
Also, if they can't cut it on stage here then they get sold.
I own 4, but one of them gets about 99% of the attention (and has since '97). The other 3 are for variety, nostalgia, and/or decoration. I'm not GASsing for any basses, nor have I been for over a decade. My main bass does everything I want it to, and I can't see myself ever replacing it.
There have been times i was down to 1 bass by necessity, my main squeeze since '82, but i don't see myself getting back to 1 by choice. I like the variety of feels and sounds of my basses.
Over the last 6 years got up to 10 basses (TB inspired GAS thank you...) now paired down to:
1 split coil P (75% of the time played), 1 single coil P, 1 P/J and one Fretless J.... about to switch it up to...
1 split coil P, 1 single coil P, 1 P/J fretted and 1 P/J fretless....
Minimum set would be the two P/J's...but I love the two P's....
Before that (and the internet...) I got along with 1 P and a fretless P/J....with the fretless seeing little action...
1 split coil P (75% of the time played), 1 single coil P, 1 P/J and one Fretless J.... about to switch it up to...
1 split coil P, 1 single coil P, 1 P/J fretted and 1 P/J fretless....
Minimum set would be the two P/J's...but I love the two P's....
Before that (and the internet...) I got along with 1 P and a fretless P/J....with the fretless seeing little action...
