Bass GAS vs Guitar GAS

[PennyroyalWe]

Looking around my music room, my friends’ music rooms, there’s a lot more guitars than basses. Reflecting on my last few months, I’ve noticed bass GAS is pretty different from guitar GAS for me. Principally, I’ve got a lot less of it. The reasoning, I think, is because the bass guitar world is BORING! I’m not going to touch on amps, just basses. In the last decade or so it seems like everyone just stopped having new ideas and started copying everyone/everything to the point where it’s pretty much all the same. With the exception of some novelty brands/basses (Hofner, Rickenbacker, Danelectro, Eastwood, etc) it really seems most makers are just settling on P, J, PJ, MM, or soapbar HB’s in rather uninventive configurations. The best we get is a “new” body shape that it comes on. With guitar there seems to be infinite combinations of pickups, hardware, controls, scale lengths, etc, made by many companies. Sure, there’s the standards that aren’t gonna change and aren’t going anywhere (strat, tele, LP, etc) but overall it seems that manufacturers are way more adventurous with their guitars than basses in the R&D department. I should count my blessing that my GAS is in remission, as I am really pleased with all of my bass gear at the moment. Scrolling through the local CL and FB pages, it just feels like I see the same bass over and over and over again, despite being different makes and models.

 

[TolerancEJ]

I have GAS for both basses and guitars, but I have different approaches to each.

For basses, I mostly GAS for boutique, luthier built instruments. About 35 basses in my immediate wishlist.

Only 9 guitars on my immediate wishlist, but no luthier built items. A few quite easily attainable off the rack, but I’ve placed basses with higher priority. For most of my GAS guitars, it would much easier if I had access to a time machine. Haha For example, I like Guild’s old “X” series of guitars X-79/80/82/88/100. I also like Hamer’s Scarab. Gibson’s Moderne and the Futura Korina (the design preceding the Explorer.)

 

[PennyroyalWe]

I have GAS for both basses and guitars, but I have different approaches to each.

For basses, I mostly GAS for boutique, luthier built instruments. About 35 basses in my immediate wishlist.

Only 9 guitars on my immediate wishlist, but no luthier built items. A few quite easily attainable off the rack, but I’ve placed basses with higher priority. For most of my GAS guitars, it would much easier if I had access to a time machine. Haha For example, I like Guild’s old “X” series of guitars X-79/80/82/88/100. I also like Hamer’s Scarab. Gibson’s Moderne and the Futura Korina (the design preceding the Explorer.)

You might be on to something. Guitars off the rack are usually fine for most levels of player, and are really accessible (too accessible maybe) to the lay person. You. Look at the top level players and rarely is it a boutique guitar, vintage maybe, but not boutique. Bass on the other hand, it seems like many of the top tier players have instruments that are as custom made as their licks. This most of the off the rack basses are pretty bland because many bassist who want something else will just shell out the $$$ for one just they way they want. Just kinda sucks that gone is the adventurous spirit the 50’s-80’s when everyone was trying to come out with something really new.