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Bass Features: Top Ten Personal Turn-Offs

#141
1) More than 4 strings (maybe a fender iv or something, but not a normal 6 string)
2) Active
3) No Pickguard
4) Not made of wood
5) Headless
6) Ramp
7) Overly thin neck
8) More than two pickups
9) Sting's signature!
10) More than 20 or so frets
 
#143
- neck dive
- Guitar wannabes (Les Paul, thunderbird)
- less than 24 frets
- less than 5 strings
- fretless
- clover tuners
- no mid control (try it and you'll wonder how you lived without it)
- Fenders
- Less or more than 34-35" scale
- 3 pickups
- 1 pickup
- heavy
- ridiculous designs/finishes (Ritter for example)
- too many pots/switches (5 is plenty)
 
#144
1. Headless and
2. black basses (plain ugly)
3. Too complicated eq's (the basic 3 band suits me)
4. PJ pickups
5. Cheap hardware (no more tuning problems, please)
6. Sharp fret ends
7. More than five strings (as mentioned, I play bass)
8. Cheap figured woods (what's the point of having a figured top if the figuring is bad?)
9. Weird 'custom' body shapes (birdsong etc.)
10. Heavy basses (my bass at 9 lbs. is as heavy as I can take it)
 
#145
1. Multithousand dollar Fender Copies
2. Single coils
3. Basses with only a volume knob. One trick pony with a broken leg right there.
4. Unsculpted heels.
5. Single cuts. No idea why, but every time I pick one up I feel handicapped.
6. Precision basses. Every time someone suggests the P-bass as the end all God given bass to mankind, I throw up a little. I personally have nothing against them, but it's not suited for everything. Good tone though.
7. Wooden pickup covers. It looks like a flaw in the wood to me.
8. Vintage bridges. Are we stuck in the past? They just don't cut it for me.
9. EMG's. Don't ask me why, I don't even know why I hate them.
10. Those pickup covers on Rickenbackers. I love the basses, but it is such a huge hindrance to my playing style!
 
#146
1. trussrods (yes, my bass does not have a trussrod.)
2. more than 4 strings.
3. singlecut body designs.
4. flame/quilted finishes.
5. no pickguards.
6. active pickups.
7. pickup designs that hum.
8. pickups that are too hot (more than 10kOhms).
9. pickups too close to the bridge (jazz, MM) or too close to the neck (EB0, Ric).
10. non-stainless steel frets.

(11. less than 21 frets.)
(12. neck dive.)
(13. fenders.)
(14. expensive fender clones.)
(15. vintage price tags.)
(16. pointy headstocks.)
(17. uncontoured bodies.)
(18. cheap hardware.)

etc. etc. etc.
 
#148
1) Gold hardware!!! - No! Gold is a horrible colour and the last place it should be is on a guitar

2) Goldtop - Mostly a guitar thing but it's the most sickly thing ever

3) Pearloid - Unless it's on a Royal blue jazz with a maple neck

4) No head - I'd like to note hate them but it feels like my hands gonna fall off the end, bassist who played live with public enemy used one though and it was awesome for them.

5) Bright pickups - I like a bit of depth personally

6) Really "modern" look, I'm not against making basses better but there are some really ugly Ibanezes and such about

7) Light basses, although I like to jump around as much as possible it needs the weight for it to feel like a solid instrument I can rock the $%^& out of

8) Slimness - Don't like small bodies or neck or anything, for the same kinda reasons as the above, I like basses I play to be really solid so I can get a good solid tone, plus I drop stuff alot...

9) Over 5-6 strings if you don't play solo stuff, again your supposed to be playing bass

10) for then 20-22 frets - It's called a bass for a reason, unless you play solo/very chordy stuff I don't see why you need to enter guitar pitch territory
 
#150
1)neck dive-she's gotta balance, both seated and standing!
2)sharp body edges
3)<19mm spacing @ bridge
4)<5 strings
5)silver body color
6)TTB body color-I know everyone seems to love this, but for me it might as well be a station wagon with those butt ugly (IMO of course) wood panels. Soooooooo tired.
7)onboard pre-but this is not a deal-breaker for me. Some of my favorite basses are active, but I bypass the pre and prefer to give the planet a nod. Batteries are evil :-)
8)painted/fake f-holes
9)>9lbs
10)<21 frets or poor upper fret access
 
#151
1. Active electronics
2. Pickguardlessness
3. Soapbars
4. Small bodies
5. Wide spacing at the bridge
6. Jazz pups only. I'm cool with a J in conjunction with something else, but not by themselves.
7. Single pup at the bridge.
8. Flame and quilt tops. Occasionally a flamed top will appeal to me, but I really dislike quilt.
9. 34" + scale. I prefer 30". Anything above 34" is an automatic no-go.
10. Unless it's a tic tac or bass VI, I don't want more than 4 strings.
 
#152
1. Anything more than 4 strings. (If you want more, play guitar.)

2. Active electronics. (High quality passive pickups have more soul.)

3. Too many knobs and switches. (Use your fingers to change the sound.)

4. Gold hardware. (I've never seen any that wasn't tarnished.)
 
#153
1. Basses with preamps that doesn't have a passive mode.
2. Solid colored basses without pickguards.
3. Some of 'em white/beige 80's finishes.
4. Really pointy basses
5. Angeled headstocks, breaks off too easily (never happened to me, but you never know :D)
7. Lousy access to the truss rod adjustment area
8. Gold hardware, never. Black hardware on some basses, but not on most.
9. Hollowbodys, just to fat and no substantial feel to them
10. Acoustic basses, I've never tried one that I've liked.
 
#157
More that 5 strings
Big, UGLY headstocks
Curly Q body horns
Beatle Basses
Guitar body basses
Lightwave Systems
Tort Pickguards, although I own a bass with one :confused:
Slide Switches
Non locking strap buttons
Rickenbackers...........I don't care how good they sound. There is NOTHING about them that pleases my eye and the pickups/bridge looks like a Rube Goldberg contraption :eek: :rollno:
And lastly.........THUMB RAMPS GAWD they look hideious :spit:


I'll update my post as soon as I remember the others :D
 
#159
-less than 5 strings, unless you play only washtub bass lines.
-pickguards, unless you just can't learn to control your pick.
-paint, unless you leave your plywood bass out in the rain a lot.
-poor balance, unless you only play sitting down.
-Fenders and their clones, unless you're really into ugly.

Beyond this, if the sound is right I'm willing to tolerate most anything.
 

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