Best and worst gear purchase of 2013?

[bufert57]

Best:My whole Ashdown rig CL410 and ABM500. oh and my 62' AVRI

Worst:I bought a big muff and did not like it. And a strap I did not like.

Best: 1983 G&L SB-2 from a TB'er
Worst- Ashdown Mag 300- died/had fixed/died

Mine died too in 2013!

 

[delta7fred]

Best

Tascam DR-40 Hand Held recorder - great piece of kit.
STAGG EUB - Just to mess about on. Impulse buy with no regrets.
Vintage (JHS 5 string) V10005Blk (?) $25 Junk sale find by our guitarist.

Worst - None, only 3 bass related purchases.

 

[wolfmancharlie]

My best bass purchase was a Tom Martinson Custom Nessie 4 string Fretless bass.
My Worst was an Epiphone Hummingbird Artist guitar made in China. The neck bowed so bad in 2 months that it was unplayable. Took it back.

 

[Bass Dao]

Best: Gibson Midtown Standard bass

Worst: no worst

 

[MusicBear]

Best - (no 'best' this year)

Neutral - Ibanez GSR206Bk 6-string bass. Almost tolerable at first until 1) sharp fret ends were filed, 2) restrung with new strings and 3) disconnected active bass boost control; then quite good.

Worst (for me) - Aria TAB-60 bass. (Excellent bass, just not what I hoped it would be.)

 

[chris_b]

I only bought 3 things last year and they were all game changers for me:
Wolfcraft 5500 trolley
Aguilar TH500
Bergantino CN212

 

[SPYD3R #9]

best: Fender american deluxe pbass v
worst: NS micro tuner, the new model, the older/bigger model is good though

 

[Texsunburst59]

Best Purchase (BARTER): I got this '69/'70 Gibson ES-335 in a trade for 3 pcs. of insulated glass and 1 hr. of my time to install them.

No BAD purchases this year.

 

[davidhilton]

Hi guys, every year I do this. So 2013 is no different.

I am wondering what is the best and worst bass related gear purchase that you did this year? It will be interesting to see if there are several items that come back, post after post.

My best gear purchase will probably surprise you. I bought a mini clip digital tuner Eno ET 33. I got it for like $5 or something (including free shipping) from China. The thing works great, it's compact and it saved me from bringing my much clunkier, bigger tuner. As you can tell, money is tight so I haven't really spent a whole lot on gear this year.

My worst gear purchase I did last year, but it continued this year. Last year, I bought a GK MB 212 combo. Sounds great, but I've had major issues with it. GK has great customer service (bless those folks), but the fact remains that it has failed several times and I must say that it is frustrating to have to deal with this stuff.

And you?

John

Best gear bought: xotic X-J 1T five string...amazing bass.
Worst gear: MIA Fender Standard V...worst bass ever.

 

[Robus]

Best: 2011 American Standard Jazz Bass. I took up bass this year after playing guitar for many years and couldn't be happier with this as my first quality bass (I've had an old Washburn XB around since the 90s). Especially since I put the Fender flats on it, the tone makes me weep.

Best: Hal Leonard Bass Method and several other books by the same author (TBer Ed Friedland), especially R&B Bass Masters and Bass Grooves.

Best: Bogner Ecstasy Blue overdrive pedal (guitar gear). Absolutely the best guitar pedal I've played, ever, ever, ever.

Best: Empress Compressor.

Worst: Nothing too bad. I couldn't gel with the Rotosound 77 flats. The Ampeg BA108 practice amp proved to be redundant and doesn't get much play, though it's fine for what it is and didn't cost much. And the BDDI. Nothing wrong with it, but it hasn't worked out for its primary mission, which was for recording direct. Its mid-range shaping options proved too limited. A Boss GEB-7 EQ pedal helped a lot (good purchase there), but lately I'm finding the direct out on my new GK MB500 offers so much more--that amp could well be on my list of best purchases of 2014.

 

[Session1969]

Best - Roscoe Century Standard 5

Worst - An amp head I bought thinking it would drop into my 4-10 combo to replace the old head. No sense mentioning the brand seeing as it wasn't there fault, I just bought it off ebay without checking the combo first to see how the original head sat in the box.

 

[grrg63]

Best:

Squier Mike Dirnt P Bass
Fender Flats for the P
tce BG250 (answer to my lifelong dreams of a lightweight, loud enough, good sounding amp)

Worst:

short scale strings I ended up not needing because I got rid of all my short scales and just kept my medium scale Telecaster bass and the P. I did get my money back by selling the strings on ebay so nbd.

 

[toblerone24]

Best: Ampeg SVT Micro VR - great lightweight amp for home use and small gigs

Runner up: Darkglass Vintage Microtubes - my fav pedal, it never gets turned off

Worst: EHX Bass Big Muff, never made it past sound check, everyone in the band and FOH said it sounded so muddy and awful!

 

[jacobsmithbass_]

Best- bergantino cn212 and puma 500

Worst - the most recent mxr phase 90.
Kills your tone

 

[jacobsmithbass_]

I'm also going to add my TC Electronic hall of fame mini. The tone print is the best

 

[MovingPitchers]

Best- geddy Lee cij fender jazz bass. No more basses for me. I'm set.

Worst- bass odb-3 pedal. Too much overdrive for me.

 

[Son of Wobble]

Best Purchase (BARTER): I got this '69/'70 Gibson ES-335 in a trade for 3 pcs. of insulated glass and 1 hr. of my time to install them.

No BAD purchases this year.

Hubba hubba for the surprise guitar porn!

 

[Right_Butterscotch64]

This purchase was made on the tail end of 2013

Best: Rickenbacker 4003? My dream bass, always wanted one.

Worst: Rickenbacker 4003, my dream bass....or is it? For 1600$, I had to get the nut filed way down, and find an appropriate truss rod tool because a 1600$ instrument should come from the factory with mile high action and no tool to adjust the truss rods. Also came with a faulty toggle switch, and the bridge saddle on the D string was machined poorly causing it to rock back and forth.

Had to ship it back to where I bought it from to get it fixed up, very disappointed. But the good news is the store was more than helpful to me when it was apparent I was having issues.

 

[Son of Wobble]

I didn't purchase so much as a string or pick in 2013.
And the way the coffers are looking here first Q, I am not going to be able to afford new picks in 2014, either.

 

[Sav'nBass]

Hmm seeing this and thinking about it made me realize .. I got a lot of gear in 2013 .. the best was probably my KZ5 .... my B3 and my 9.2 Max.. The B3 and the 9.2 were new and I am quite happy with them.. the KZ I got from a TBer and it has become my main bass..