Bass Preference

[Jawbone]

IS the right way to go about picking out a bass:

A. Find one that fits your hands and physique and learn to master it and tryng to dial in the tone,

B. Get the best sounding bass that rock and learn to play the damn thing,

C: Whatever tripped your trigger.

Which decision did you make?

Personally I went with B. I wanted tone right out of the box and will continue to try to play the thing the right way.

 

[darkstorm]

Neither is a good choice imo. Theres so many great basses available for low price new (around $300 and up) that there is no reason at all to settle for anything less then great playing & feeling neck along with very good to excellent sound stock. If its just very good sound even after tweaking pups for best tone and adjusting action for best tone and playability and fiddling with onbaord 2-3band eq. The perhaps upgrade the pups and or preamp so it becomes excellent in the sound dept to.

Id never, and never have limited myself to just satisfying either playability or just sound aspect. Not in the past 40 yrs have I ever regarded that as a good route to take. Took a bit more hunting in olden days but its easy to do today. Remain open minded to diff brands. Figure out which type of neck profile you prefer and what kind of pups best suit you (P, J, Soapbar, or big ole humbucking, or combo of these in some way) and only concider makers who offer this.

 

[tom once dead]

I think it really has to be a mix of A and B. Both of my main basses just felt right in my hands and the tone to match. Like darkstorm said, there are enough different brands and types of basses out there now that you should be able to find a bass that fits you perfectly.

 

[chef wong]

I bought my bass from a relative outta state. He let me play the Alembic onstage once with his band in 1998. Everything about the instrument called to me, especially the medium scale neck(which I was unaware of). I do have kinda smallish hands.

I knew about Alembic pickups/electronics, but it was my first time in contact with the sustain block feature of the Distilliate.

Anyway, the bass even "looked" like me...in the same way some pets look like their masters.

 

[pklima]

Last time I bought a bass it was C. To confirm that the bass really does look special, I sent a link to pictures of this bass to a girl I work with who used to do modeling and asked her if I should buy it. I guess that's the Jersey Shore way to pick basses!

It's not really an ideal bass according to either criteria A or B, but more than good enough on both.

 

[wednesdayagain]

I went with C the last time, but I personally think A is the best way. It's important that the bass feels right and tone can be easily altered afterwards anyway.