Are you happier owning only one bass?

[el_Bajo_Verde]

I only have one bass, an active 5-string. I have no need for another bass, so I don't have any other basses.

I also have no need for a backup. Batteries only need to be changed once a year...and in the .003% chance that a string breaks, I have extra strings

 

[Bunk McNulty]

One always needs a backup( string break,someone throws a drink & shorts out the pickup,forgot the battery if you play active,falls or get knocked off the stand,etc)
Gotta have at least 2!

Yes. I'd rather have just one, but once you've broken a string in the middle of a song...gaaahhhh....

edit: Would I be happier with one bass? Maybe. But I'd have a lot more anxiety.

 

[jazzyvee]

I'm happier sticking with one brand. As an aside , I was fortunate to interview Marcus Miller when he visited Brum a few years ago on tour and I asked him about this as part of a question about tone and where it comes from, fingers or the bass?
In his answer he made a few points that, players will find it takes longer to find their personal tone when they own and play many different types of basses. He felt it was better to stay with one bass and really get to know it and find your sound on that, then when you get another bass you really understand what that bass is giving you.

 

[baileyboy]

I currently own two- a '74 P and a Geddy Jazz. Since I generally prefer the P over the J, and mine is a half pound lighter, I would have no problem selling the Geddy.

 

[Paulabass]

Need v. want. I have lots of basses and I justify that sometimes I need a fretless, sometimes a 5'er, etc.etc.
I do like having a spare, but in a pinch I could go with an extra set of strings. (I last broke a string WHILE PLAYING, in the late seventies). In a bar gig, you can easily announce a 5 minute break to put on a string. Harder during a showcase.
This weekend I'm subbing in a cover band. I'm bringing a fretless just for Don't Stop Believing, a jazz for Play That Funky Music + Brick House, and a P for everything else.
I really don't think any BL would even comment/care if all I brought was a P-bass.
If it was just me, in a perfect world I COULD OWN ONLY ONE BASS.
Probably this one- I built it to sell, and it ended up the all-time keeper/swiss army knife/does everything machine.

 

[two fingers]

I own one "main" bass. I have several others for fun.

That being said, if you play for a living, the three you have are outstanding, and certainly not "too much".

 

[Mister Boh]

For what I do now (noodle in my basement) one bass does just fine, though I'd like to get a 5 string as well.

If I were gigging again I'd want a 2nd for sure.

 

[Ductapeman]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA

no

 

[neddyrow]

as a DB player mostly, I need to have two uprights

i play a bunch of gigs all year round and you never know what can happen to an upright during transit, winter, etc. Gotta have a backup. my back up is pretty much the exact same. This is also great when i want to test out or break in new strings.

i only have 1 BG - mostly because i play about BG gig a year - but also there is less to go wrong.

 

[Slevage]

Nope
Need a BG,EUB .
And a backup for each.

 

[redwingxix]

one bass to rule them all...

That is way too Zen a concept for me, but something I would certainly aspire to.

 

[FugaziBomb]

I can easily say I would not be happier with just one bass. It has very little to do with function or timbre, either. Almost all of my basses are 4 string dual humbucker configurations. For me, it's the horde factor that I love so much. I have about 30 guitars and basses and I meticulously display them all, then spend countless hours looking at them, playing them, comparing them to each other, etc. I record information on all of them. I have a thick binder full of information like repair/modification logs, charts that track strings and when they were changed, even string action recorded in millimetres with feeler gauges and dates as to when I adjust the action/neck relief. I've also measured DC resistance of all my pickups. Hell, I even have pot values and cap values recorded as well. To a degree, the appeal of having the collection almost trumps the appeal of the individual instruments for me.

 

[chris_b]

I grew up in a different age. No one had a second bass back then, not even the top bands.

For me a bass is only a tool that gets the job done and my view is that, in the music business, the best tool usually does the best job. I'll only buy a new bass if it sounds better than the current one, so owning the best sounding bass I've found makes me happy, not multiple basses. See my sig for current and backup basses.

I just don't have the right attitude to own a "collection".

 

[trofud]

I have 3: both 4 see a lot of playtime (different tunings) but the fiver does not see a lot of action these days.

I could easily do with only one 4.

 

[40Hz]

I was perfectly happy not owning but having a bass to use when I started out, and then for about the first five years after that.

I was perfectly happy owning just one for the next ten.

I now own over a dozen.

I’m still happy.

 

[chiphaleonbass]

Last year I bought and went through a lot of basses, at one point owning 15, I'm currently down to 10 and realize I only play one, an American Vintage Reissue Precision, all the time. It wasn't until I got that precision that I was really happy with what I had, and now that I have that I really haven't had a desire to buy anything else. Probably could sell everything else other than something as a backup, a jazz or my Casady, and be just fine.

 

[rtslinger]

Not to start a flame war here.
It's just about getting some opinions and thoughts.

I am blessed to have owned some of the best instruments, and I owned 15 basses at the same time at some point in my life.

Now I'm the lucky owner of a Sadowsky NYC Will Lee 4, a Sadowsky metro MV5, and a Fender Precision bass CS Pino Palladino, so 3 amazing instruments.

Except for a band where I'm really asked to bring the 5 string, most of the time I find myself Asking myself which bass to take, knowing that owning the gear I own , whatever bass I take will be ok ( unless they don't want the flatwounds vibe...)

But I remember when I only owned one bass ( those days are pre TB) and doing everything with that bass , finding ways to get the tone I want from one bass...

I often ask myself if I wouldn't be happier just owning one bass and just do everything I need with one, ok it's cool to have loads of instruments to choose from, but at the same time it's great not to have to think about anything and just grab what you got when you only have one bass, and just play the role of the bass player.

I say to myself that owning a great 5 string is all a bass player would need ( of course it's not a 4 and somebody could tell me what about the flatwound tone etc...)

I'm a pro bass player, I earn my income playing bass, and of course a pro needs some tools, but sometime, just a great sounding bass is enough, for example, I always have compliments about my tone when I bring one of my Sadowsky basses, or people love the "velvet" tone of my pbass, so whatever bass I bring, I always have a good tone.

It's just that sometime, I miss those days where it was simpler, just owning a bass and doing everything with it.

If you guys only had to own one bass, would you get a passive bass, active bass? 4 or 5 string? Jbass or Pbass oriented ( or maybe something else like a Musicman or whatever?)

for the ones that went back to owning one bass, are you happier?

If I owned only one it would be my 75 Gibson Ripper which I bought new back then and is still my favorite bass out of my many.

 

[1983L2000]

If I had only one, it would be my L2000 with inside/outside coil splitters. It can easily cop J-type tones or P-type tones, humbuckers can be used both or separately, can be coil split (either to inner or outside coils), can be used in series or in parallel, active or passive, and with all these combinations it's actually hard to come up with a crap tone.

...but then I had to get another one so I could put flats

...and then I really fell for a Warwick Starbass

...and that Streamer, the price was just too good...

 

[FishDub]

The 3 basses I got are to me some kind of the ultimate basses, and I don't think I'm capable of selling any of them, I love them 3 to death, but, sometimes when for example, I take the Sadowsky WL, I think that would be the only bass I need ( it has a D tuner, I can try to find a way to go to a 5 string territory if I detune), then at another Gig, I play the Pbass, and think to myself : Simplicity, it's all you need..., then a gig on the 5 and here I am thinking that this bass can cover all the bass needs because it sounds great, and it's like a jazz, so can't be wrong with that...

I hear the point about having a back up, but I'm really careful with my instruments... and the sadowskys can go passive...

Maybe I just like the idea of having a tool to do it all, which I believe is possible because in the past I did so

My basses are:
-Fiesta Red Squier CV with TIs
-An American Standard Jazz
-Steinberger XL2
The jazz can mostly cover everything I play, and I can get close to a P sound soloing the neck pickup, which makes me question why I have the Pbass. THEN, I play the pbass with TIs and just smile after I play it. THEN, I play the XL2 for some dub/reggae and it makes me smile even more. Do I NEED them? NO..But they make me happy when I play them. So like others have said, 3 seems to be my happy place. BUT, none of them have me in any kind of debt so why sell them? Nope.

 

[micguy]

I'd be perfectly fine with only owning 1 bass, so long as my wife owned the others, kept them in our house, and allowed me to use them whenever I wanted.