Looks like you've been thinning the word "thinning" there too!
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Anyone ever have a problem "thining the heard"?
- Thread starter jimmyb
- Start date
oh man do I feel ya on this. I went on a pedal buying adventure last year, trying everything I was even curious about, and now I have way too many.
Went to sell a few and immediately turned into Evil Bilbo. “Why shouldn’t I keep them? They're mine after all! My preciousessssss…”
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This resonates! If it were easier and less of a risk to sell them for closer to what they were worth, I’d have less of them.
I bought a bass in 2007 so I could pick up playing again. One year later I had three. I'll come across a bass in my local guitar store that I just have to have and justify buying it by telling myself I'll just sell one out of my collection to pay for it. The problem is that I never seem to get around selling and now I'm up to 13 basses and a Stratocaster and I don't even play guitar.
I seem to have an excuse for each bass that I'm not selling.
In the past several months I sold two and bought three and I also have a Warmoth J body on order for a parts build. I've finally come around to letting one go now and then but I should be selling more. Three in my collection are fretless which I play occasionally. I'd like to sell two of these fretless basses but that's not so easy because one is highly upgraded Squier Affinity which won't sell for what I've put into it so I may as well keep it. The second one has the opposite problem as it is a prototype TF Fretless made in the Corona plant in 2005. I know it's the real deal because I showed it to the man himself (Tony) and spoke with the person who was the Fender Product Manager in 2005 and he described some very specific details to look for in the body cavities that only someone who was involved with the build would know about. However, I don't have a Certificate of Authenticity and without that I don't feel comfortable advertising it without it so it just sits in its case. The third fretless is a newish Lake Placid Blue TF Fretless and this is just too pretty to let go. Besides, I bought when they were priced about $500 lower than what they are today so it's the fretless I should keep.
Another, candidate is a very nice looking and playing limited edition MIJ P-Bass. I have two other very good P-Basses so I don't need this one but I won't sell a Christmas gift from my very thoughtful wife.View attachment 5444717
Another is a 4 string USA MTD I ordered during covid and waited a year for it to be completed. It's beautiful and plays like a dream. 4 String MTDs are rare since Michael Tobias only builds them upon custom order requests. I could get a pretty penny for it and my friend is currently wanting to buy it from me. If I sold it I'd regret it and I don't have the patience to wait another year for him to build me another one.View attachment 5444716
I could go on but this reply is long enough already. While I should sell more I just don't want to and I can rationalize to myself why I should keep each one of them. It's funny how the brain works (when it does).
I seem to have an excuse for each bass that I'm not selling.
In the past several months I sold two and bought three and I also have a Warmoth J body on order for a parts build. I've finally come around to letting one go now and then but I should be selling more. Three in my collection are fretless which I play occasionally. I'd like to sell two of these fretless basses but that's not so easy because one is highly upgraded Squier Affinity which won't sell for what I've put into it so I may as well keep it. The second one has the opposite problem as it is a prototype TF Fretless made in the Corona plant in 2005. I know it's the real deal because I showed it to the man himself (Tony) and spoke with the person who was the Fender Product Manager in 2005 and he described some very specific details to look for in the body cavities that only someone who was involved with the build would know about. However, I don't have a Certificate of Authenticity and without that I don't feel comfortable advertising it without it so it just sits in its case. The third fretless is a newish Lake Placid Blue TF Fretless and this is just too pretty to let go. Besides, I bought when they were priced about $500 lower than what they are today so it's the fretless I should keep.
Another, candidate is a very nice looking and playing limited edition MIJ P-Bass. I have two other very good P-Basses so I don't need this one but I won't sell a Christmas gift from my very thoughtful wife.View attachment 5444717
Another is a 4 string USA MTD I ordered during covid and waited a year for it to be completed. It's beautiful and plays like a dream. 4 String MTDs are rare since Michael Tobias only builds them upon custom order requests. I could get a pretty penny for it and my friend is currently wanting to buy it from me. If I sold it I'd regret it and I don't have the patience to wait another year for him to build me another one.View attachment 5444716
I could go on but this reply is long enough already. While I should sell more I just don't want to and I can rationalize to myself why I should keep each one of them. It's funny how the brain works (when it does).
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if you really want to thin the herd, choose not the ones to go, but ones to stay. classify the collection and remove some duplicates as a first step.
for example, if you have 10 j-basses, choose two to stay, list the rest.
for example, if you have 10 j-basses, choose two to stay, list the rest.
I only have 24 or so and have maybe one I'm willing to let go? If like to shed 10 or 12 but can't bring myself to do it
I had 4 basses at the start of 2024, now i have 2....that was my goal, my main and a backup....just sell dude, you cant play but one at a time, and you cant take em with you.
Yes, I have been struggling with this for the past year and I'm getting nowhere. I did manage to get rid of one of my Pbasses and a couple of other goofy things I've accumulated but I'm still at 20 plus basses and at this point in my life I consider this to be critical mass. Eight of them are nearly identical Stingrays and five of them are fretless. What in the hell do I need with all of this? When it comes time to make these critical decisions I just stall out.
Parting with something has never been a problem for me. My real problem comes from what’s involved with selling something.
Between the hassles of shipping a bass, and dealing with flakey would be buyers (and now the potential income tax ramifications if you use online resources like Reverb or Paypal) it’s become far more of an ordeal than it used to be.
Between the hassles of shipping a bass, and dealing with flakey would be buyers (and now the potential income tax ramifications if you use online resources like Reverb or Paypal) it’s become far more of an ordeal than it used to be.
At one time I had 16 basses. That's an unheard of thing for me. I got caught up in GAS and decided to let everything go except my Dave Pushic Custom and an Alembic Persuader.
I ended up giving both of them to my sons, who wanted to play bass. I figured, give them the best tools you have and maybe they'll love and play them as much as I did.
Fast forward to now. I have the Dave Pushic back and bought 3 more ...Fender Coronado II, G&L Fallout Tribute and an Ibanez AGBV200A. I have thinned my herd a little. I gave the G&L to my granddaughter (a budding bassist), and have the Coronado for sale here.
If I get down to 2, there's only one more I want.... another Alembic Spoiler (or Persuader) and that's where I'll stay!!
I ended up giving both of them to my sons, who wanted to play bass. I figured, give them the best tools you have and maybe they'll love and play them as much as I did.
Fast forward to now. I have the Dave Pushic back and bought 3 more ...Fender Coronado II, G&L Fallout Tribute and an Ibanez AGBV200A. I have thinned my herd a little. I gave the G&L to my granddaughter (a budding bassist), and have the Coronado for sale here.
If I get down to 2, there's only one more I want.... another Alembic Spoiler (or Persuader) and that's where I'll stay!!
You may have sold them, but you haven’t let go of them (yet).I’ve never owned more than 12 at a time.
A few years ago I decided to downsize, wanted to get down to 3, but only managed to sell 5. And I really miss those 5…..but I’m no longer playing in bands or recording, so the 7 I still have are just sitting around unplayed.
But I really don’t think I can part with them, because of how I feel about the ones I did let go of.
It took me 10 years to sell an old favourite bass of mine. It sat in its case unplayed for 10 years before I sold it. It took me another 6 years to properly let go of it emotionally.
I crashed & wrote off a collectible sports car last year. (Fully insured & no one hurt). Man, I don’t think I’ll ever recover from that one.
I sat down and noted what I NEED.
In my case, it's a P bass,
a six string bass,
and a backup six string.
Three basses and I can cover all the ground I do want to cover.
I sold the rest.
In my case, it's a P bass,
a six string bass,
and a backup six string.
Three basses and I can cover all the ground I do want to cover.
I sold the rest.
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
The same reason you ended up with so many is why you can't get rid of any.
I would work another way. Make the hard choice that you are going to keep X basses, then pick your favorites. Would you rather do that, or leave it to your family, who have neither the knowledge (or ability or interest) in getting a proper amount of money for them, or getting them in the hands of someone who will appreciate them?
I would work another way. Make the hard choice that you are going to keep X basses, then pick your favorites. Would you rather do that, or leave it to your family, who have neither the knowledge (or ability or interest) in getting a proper amount of money for them, or getting them in the hands of someone who will appreciate them?
I didn't have nearly that same volume of instruments to thin as the OP, but I went from 11 (had been as high as 18) with lots of buying and selling, to 6 Bass guitars some years back. I was guided by:
-Which basses we're closest to my ideal ergonomics.
-Which Basses would actually get played regularly.
Some were simply sold, some were replaced by better instruments. Among the 6 I kept, I allowed myself the nostalgia of my first bass and one vintage recording bass. That emphasis on quality and usefulness had resulted in a collection has been stable for years and I'm more satisfied with it now than at almost any other point in 30+ years I've been playing the instrument.
-Which basses we're closest to my ideal ergonomics.
-Which Basses would actually get played regularly.
Some were simply sold, some were replaced by better instruments. Among the 6 I kept, I allowed myself the nostalgia of my first bass and one vintage recording bass. That emphasis on quality and usefulness had resulted in a collection has been stable for years and I'm more satisfied with it now than at almost any other point in 30+ years I've been playing the instrument.
I used to have nine, now I have eleven.
Three of them are mostly unplayed.
Fretless hippie sandwich jazz which weighs close to a thousand lbs.
Fretless P with exotic fingerboard and baseball bat neck.
Crackercaster 5 with 35 scale and 19mm spacing- sounds good on paper but my dwarfish hands fatigue quickly.
I could sell every single one for half of what I paid, but all three are quality instruments and it would feel like donating to charity.
Three of them are mostly unplayed.
Fretless hippie sandwich jazz which weighs close to a thousand lbs.
Fretless P with exotic fingerboard and baseball bat neck.
Crackercaster 5 with 35 scale and 19mm spacing- sounds good on paper but my dwarfish hands fatigue quickly.
I could sell every single one for half of what I paid, but all three are quality instruments and it would feel like donating to charity.
I'm a minimalist that doesn't keep much of anything sentimental. I threw my high school yearbooks in the dumpster a few years ago, if that tells you anything. I just sold all the gear I don't need, and I'm down to 2 basses and one amp. I haven't looked back.
For the collectors who don't want to lose money when they sell something, keeping the item you don't need doesn't put the money back in your pocket.
For the collectors who don't want to lose money when they sell something, keeping the item you don't need doesn't put the money back in your pocket.
I have nowhere near as many as the OP, but I still have trouble posting for sale ads for two that need to go.
Two years ago I bought a Stingray Special and decided I'd sell my Precision V to offset the cost. I really liked the P, but I wasn't playing it much so that was an easy decision. I never sold the P, though.
Last fall I had a gorgeous Big Al 5SSS more or less fall into my lap and I promised I'd sell two basses to offset the cost. However, I didn't admit that one of the two was the P I was supposed to sell a year earlier.
The other was an L-2500 I was no longer playing because my two Stingrays were getting so much playing time. Another easy decision.
However, that was last September and both the P and the L-2500 are in their cases in my basement storage room, untouched since making decisions to sell them. I've written and re-written the for sale ads I need to post and have checked "comps" here and on Reverb multiple times to see what their selling prices should be. I know I need to sell them, but I haven't been able to actually post the for sale ads.
Two years ago I bought a Stingray Special and decided I'd sell my Precision V to offset the cost. I really liked the P, but I wasn't playing it much so that was an easy decision. I never sold the P, though.
Last fall I had a gorgeous Big Al 5SSS more or less fall into my lap and I promised I'd sell two basses to offset the cost. However, I didn't admit that one of the two was the P I was supposed to sell a year earlier.
The other was an L-2500 I was no longer playing because my two Stingrays were getting so much playing time. Another easy decision.However, that was last September and both the P and the L-2500 are in their cases in my basement storage room, untouched since making decisions to sell them. I've written and re-written the for sale ads I need to post and have checked "comps" here and on Reverb multiple times to see what their selling prices should be. I know I need to sell them, but I haven't been able to actually post the for sale ads.
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