Basses you are emotionally attached to

[ghiadub]

I have an attachements to most of my basses. I will still sell most of them. Except my memphis P bass.

So, on with the story;
I build basses. Most out of parts, a few from scratch. I don't have all the tools or I would build more from scatch. Anyway, people know this and give me parts. Anyway, this buddy of mine gave me a graphite neck, it had been mutilated and I took a while to bring it back to fender spec on the heel. Much Epoxy. I have had it in a few basses but it was still looking for a body that was home. I found this jazz copy on craigslist for 60 bucks and bought it, it worked fine but played for caca. I set it up to play nice and low (a fetish of mine) and it was getting ready to be taken apart and I noticed the bolt pattern on the neck was not exactly fender spec. Too shallow. That same day, on craigslist I notice a guy wanting to trade a memphis P bass for a jazz type. I called and made the deal.

The memphis neck was warped beyond belief, it has some super high tension flats on it. I put on some TI jazz flats, set it up, adjusted the neck and started playing it. It seemed to have a voice of it's own. I play different on this bass. It feeds me basslines I do not play on other basses. I proibibly never sell it as it is worth a lot to me, but nothing to anyone else. It is my main bass. I have Roscoes, modulus, fenders, but the memphis P gets more gigs.

Next up would be my VM squire P/J. I purchased some parts and basses off craigs again with the intention to relic a bass. This bass has a VM squire jazz neck on a VM squire P body with a jazz pickup added. I built it up and played it for about 5 months on several gigs before I started the relic process. Anyway, I wanted to get the paint to crack so I put the body in a freezer to get the paint to shrink. It did not work. I thought I might toss the body around and get some random dents in it and it cracked and broke. I felt like an idiot and I knew I would have a hard time finding another body. So, I decided to glue it back.

The glue worked out great and upon assembling it back, the bass now has a really cool voice, nothing like the body prior to the break. Like a midrange kind of hollow sound. I will probibly never sell it for the same reason as the memphis, not worth anything to anyone except me. Funny side note, several bassists have asked me what pickups are in it (fender vintage hot 60's). It ain't the pickups.

 

[VincentGrim]

My univox highflyer. My first bass and it made me addicted to a 30' scale. It was originally purchased by my uncle back when they first came out, but he loaned it to my brother and I for us to learn on.
I'm heading out to trade in my ESP LTD and fork over some cash for a viola bass tomorrow, despite a new short scale in the ranks, the univox will be receiving plenty of attention

 

[Honk'n_down-low]

My Vintage Jazz - spent a lot of time with it, lot of Gigs, lot of practice, lot of Rehearsals. When I found this Bass back in the 80's it was in the back room of a Mom and Pop Music Store. I plugged it in and played it for just a few minutes and I knew I had found the Bass I was looking for. After 25 years an emotional attachment is an understatement - it is a part of my life.

 

[Bard2dbone]

Most of my basses have been traded in to get my next bass. That's what happens when you're po'. Notice I said po' , not poor. That's because I can't afford the whole word to be poor.

My first bass was bought by saving my lunch money from my (nearly) entire freshman year of high school. It was junk. But it was mine. It was a Beatle Bass copy by Ventura. It lasted a year or two before being traded in. I don't miss it, except for being my first. I tended to get better each trade, incrementally.

I had a Rickenbacker 4003 copy by Univox. Awesome bass, actually a little better than my real Rickenbacker 4003. The Univox was supposed to be a backup for the Ric. It ended up going the other way around. Then American Airlines killed the Univox.

WHen I got out of the Navy I just had the Rick. I got a Schecter Jazz copy to be the backup for the Ric. Again, the backup became the main bass. So I traded the Ric for a fretless Fender Jazz. It's my main bass, now. It has been for four or five years I think.

I wish I still had the Schecter, but it was dying and a new neck is a lot of money. So I traded it for a Guild Pilot. I loved that thing. Solid two piece flamed maple body, EMG's, fastest neck I had ever played. The neck was too thin, though. It would shift while I was playing. If I held up the weight of the bass with my left hand, it would go out of tune and the G would buzz. So I traded it in on a Spector NS2a.

The NS2a and the fretless Fender Jazz are what I have currently. I love the NS2a, But I don't LOVE it the way I did the Univox and the Schecter. And I have told my wife the fretless is to be buried with me.

I've had a few changes around the house since I posted that.

I still have the Spector. It's my backup backup bass. I guess the Squier that I tricked out for my daughter would be my backup backup backup bass. My fretless got turned into two basses. One is the body from the fretless, but now it has all black hardware, EMG's, and a Geddy Lee Sig neck. I call it the anti-Geddy. The other is the neck from the fretless on a sunburst body with Hipshot hardware, Nordy p'ups, and an Audere pre. That's the one I want buried with me.

But now I also have two of the basses I GASsed for for YEARS, so the Jazzes aren't getting as much action as they used to. I now have a Lakland 55-02 and an NS Design WAV4. They get the majority of my attention, currently. I guess the Lakland is my main bass now.