Do you have a perfect bass?

[Deleted member 165050]

No. But I have two less-than-perfect basses I keep coming back to year after year no matter what else I own - Wal Pro 1 fretless 4, Warwick Corvette Standard fretless 5.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

A perfect bass.

One you would never consider changing. One that came just right straight from the factory.

Out of the 5 Basses I own, 4 have had pickup changes. While all were successful and delivered what I wanted. One bass stood alone. Perfect in every way and will not be changed in any way.

The Basses that were changed were 3 Jazz Basses and one precision bass. The Jazz Basses because of the hum. And I’m happy to say that the hum is gone. But crazy good tone is there.

The Precision was also changed because of a clank sound that I traced to the pickups. Switching fixed this issue.

Now oddly enough my last Precision has identical pickups as the one that was upgraded. I’m fact it’s even the same model and year. So other than the finish both Basses were identical. Except for one thing. One has a maple fret board while the other has a rosewood. The maple fret board unit had the clank. Fortunately the pickup change as fixed this problem.

So.

Five Basses. Four upgraded. One stands alone. Perfect right out of the box.

Anybody else have a bass that you wouldn’t change a thing on?

Yes, my 20 year old MIA Fender PJ.

 

[JRA]

Anybody else have a bass that you wouldn’t change a thing on?

i have several --- but they didn't get "perfect" for me by luck (per the OP)! i've spent hours, days, months, years coaxing them into utter, quintessential perfection! they're beasts! so i wouldn't change anything about them = just maintain them as the players they are. however, if i put them into a box they'd go in as "uber perfect!"

per the POV of "perfection right out of the box": no, not really.

 

[RGerhart]

Yes, this beauty. My Skjold.

It's the only bass that clicked all the boxes for me, and is just effortless to play. I wouldn't change a thing on it.

 

[CallMeAl]

Just got a G&L SB2 and it’s the first bass in like 4 years I haven’t wanted to mod. Still adjusting to the balance of it, but as long as it stays in the stable it’ll stay stock,

 

[drumvsbass]

yup

 

[shnapper]

I bought this new/used recently as some know from the G&L fan thread..

Well it’s perfect now IMO, I missed a small detail when I bought it. The neck wasn’t flat to the body, it was lifted about 3mm. I actually thought it was shimmed until I hit the area with a bright flash light.
Well I disassembled the whole thing, checked it all, lightly cleaned the pocket and swiped/wiped over both the neck and neck pocket with 3000grit. Re-seated, reset and set the whole damn thing up again. It’s now perfect, I won’t change a thing because it sounds and played exactly how I expect it to..

 

[RickBlair]

My 2 Mosrites and my Carvin LB75F. I stupidly had the Carvin routed for EMG soapbars and put in an EMG BQC circuit. Big mistake. i put the original electronics back, and used a pair of empty soapbar shells to cover the original Carvin pickups. Now it looks customized while being completely original under the hood.

The Mosrites I'd have to be crazy to modify.

Rick B.

 

[darwin-bass]

I think the answer depends much more on the standards of the player than on the characteristics of the bass.

I have 3 perfect basses. Absolutely perfect. Perfect for the task at hand. No neck dive, no dead spots, great tone, easy to play, stable tuning, light weight, great colors, affordable prices. None are immune to changes however, because while they are perfect, there are still things I might want to improve


... as evidenced by my history so far ... Part swapping (mod, mod, mod) - A picture story.

 

[PJ Muzikmansky]

Yes, this one.

1982 BB2000.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

A perfect bass.

One you would never consider changing. One that came just right straight from the factory.

Out of the 5 Basses I own, 4 have had pickup changes. While all were successful and delivered what I wanted. One bass stood alone. Perfect in every way and will not be changed in any way.

The Basses that were changed were 3 Jazz Basses and one precision bass. The Jazz Basses because of the hum. And I’m happy to say that the hum is gone. But crazy good tone is there.

The Precision was also changed because of a clank sound that I traced to the pickups. Switching fixed this issue.

Now oddly enough my last Precision has identical pickups as the one that was upgraded. I’m fact it’s even the same model and year. So other than the finish both Basses were identical. Except for one thing. One has a maple fret board while the other has a rosewood. The maple fret board unit had the clank. Fortunately the pickup change as fixed this problem.

So.

Five Basses. Four upgraded. One stands alone. Perfect right out of the box.

Anybody else have a bass that you wouldn’t change a thing on?

I've only had one bad bass and that was my first one. It was a MIJ short scale piece of that I bought in 1965 before Japan figured out how to make good basses. Didn't have an amp at the time but bought a '66 Fender Bassman new in 1966...that's what clued me in to how bad that Japanese bass was. Luckily just a couple of months later I was able to buy a 1965 Fender Jazz Bass. That was a great bass and I never would have bought another one if it hadn't been stolen in 1976 when our house was burglarized.

Loved the neck on it and knew it pretty well because I toured with it for 3-years in the early 70's averaging 250 performances per year (5-nights a week, 50-weeks a year). When I went looking for a Jazz to replace it, none of them had decent necks. The were all fatter (front to back) and felt terrible to me. Then in 1985 when I had gone back to college and was working part time at a music store, someone brought in a mint 1982 Jazz (we thought it was a 1984). I'd been so disappointed in Jazz necks for so long I didn't even try it out for 4 days. Then when I did, it felt like home. So I bought it.

It's a 1982 Olympic White passive Jazz with a white bound maple neck, white pickguard, white pickups, and white strat-type controls. The pick-ups have the 70's era spacing measuring 4" center to center. It has a little brighter sound than my '65 did with controls dimed and it has significantly more sustain, presumably because of the maple neck. If I want to make it growl, all I have to do is dig into the strings above the bridge pickup and she'll growl all day long. Her Olympic White color has softened to a butter cream color over the last 36-years and I will never get rid of this bass. Promised it to my eldest son when I'm gone.

 

[JuanB]

My Modulus Q5 is a disgustingly good bass.

Full disclosure, I did change the hardware color from gold to black with identical stuff, but it could have came from the factory with black as well.

Pics?

 

[Pings Bass]

Nothing's perfect, but I never change anything but strings.

 

[Mechanical]

My Kiesel PB4

 

[TOOL460002]

Either my standards are lower than most or I'm not good enough to appreciate a really high-end bass, but I've been nothing but happy with Stingrays for over twenty years. No mods but a few repairs. Or blissful ignorance is a good thing sometimes.

 

[JMarkD]

Well, there isn't anything that is perfect, but as far as my basses go, I have a Modulus Q6 that is exactly as it came out of the box. No adjustment needed. My Q5 (avatar), the same except the original Bart preamp died and had to be replaced. Both basses are over twenty years old and other than batteries and strings and that preamp are untouched from when they left the old Modulus factory.

My Lakland 4-94, likewise. Perfectly set up and have never had to touch a thing. My most recent purchase, a G&L CLF L1000 required only a minor set up adjustment to the string height. For me, the closest to being perfect is a neck that needs no truss rod adjustment and these four qualify.

 

[Tom Kinter]

Anybody else have a bass that you wouldn’t change a thing on?[/QUOTE]

Yah, both my '93 G&L SB-2, and my '97 Thumb Fretless.

 

[moon-bass]

Out of my 30-ish basses that I own, I've only modded 1-2 of them. Some came modded (bought used) but most of my basses are perfect as is.

 

[Pyrat]

Tony Franklin fretless. I wanted the perfect bass for decades and lo and behold, Brother Franklin had done the leg work. Everything I would've done it I built it from the ground up.

 

[jimmydean]

My Fender JMJ Mustang is 99.9% perfect ?