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Does anyone have "the one", yet you keep searching?

CaptainWally

CaptainWally

"You wrote a bad song, Petey"
Oct 21, 2000
3,094
1,797
Sandy Eggo, CA
#1
Let me qualify "the one" by defining it as a bass that meets your needs and preferences so well, that finding another that fits you as well is very statistically improbable.

So who has this instrument.....loves it to pieces....yet still snoops around for something new?

If you're a "need a bag of golf clubs" person, i.e. different tools for different situations, clearly this won't apply to you. But if you're a hobbyist that is really happiest playing said "one", I'd be interested to know whether you still search.

EDIT: If you have a "one", then please tell us what it is! :-)
 
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#6
CaptainWally said:
Let me qualify "the one" by defining it as a bass that meets your needs and preferences so well, that finding another that fits you as well is very statistically improbable.

So who has this instrument.....loves it to pieces....yet still snoops around for something new?

If you're a "need a bag of golf clubs" person, i.e. different tools for different situations, clearly this won't apply to you. But if you're a hobbyist that is really happiest playing said "one", I'd be interested to know whether you still search.
Click to expand...

Nope. And I wasn't searching when "the new one" showed up unasked either.
 
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#10
1998 Squier Jazz with bone nut and MEC active jazz pup's with passive controls. My bury me with it bass.:D
 

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#11
Yes, all i ever wanted was a medium scale P bass and Ive had it for a few years now. I love practically everything about it and if I could only have one, this would be it. But I can have more than one, so why not?

80s MIJ Squier Medium Scale P Bass
MIJP-4 (6)

MIJP-4 (6)

80s MIJ Squier Precision Bass
 
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#12
CaptainWally said:
Uh, I'm not sure I want to hear more about your relationships with your instruments... :)
Click to expand...

Heh! In my case, I work with some pretty killer luthiers and trouble comes looking for me.
Yel_wink.gif


I had the same bass for 40 years, rarely owning a backup for the first half of that time, and never searching for something better. At about 25 years in my wife egged me on into getting a second one. That became "the one" and I even sold the older one eventually. When a more recent luthier friend told me he was going to build me a new fretless 4 as mostly a gift I was actually somewhat indifferent, mostly because he had no track record of building something like what I would require to usurp "the one." But I knew it would be cool in its own right, and I couldn't gracefully decline his offer, so I pushed my ideas along where I could. A few weeks before the reveal I took "the one" over to my friend's shop and had him play it a bit. He topped it easily as far as I'm concerned. Go figure!

Edit due to your added request in the first post: 40 year bass was a Travis Bean fretless. The next one was this Crescent Moon Bass, their standard model built to my fretless specs. I added Q-Tuner pickups and one of my own preamps quite a few years in:

CMBTCAF4.jpg


The new one is this Marco Bass:
 
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#14
my "the one" is a cheap chinese branded PJ with the best neck. it replaced my 30 y.o. custom build as "the one." it's the ax in my avatar: looks ugly but plays like a dream. i don't have GAS anymore (8-9 years?)...i like looking at other folk's axes, but i don't search for (or lust after) instruments for me. (i did get another of those axes a year or so later = also very nice to play, but it isn't quite like "the one." as far as i can tell: the company no longer makes unlined fretlesses so that helps to extinguish GAS, too.)

what i learned about the one:
- it's the feel of the thing in your hands (neck and pluck)
- when you play it = you have no excuses
- it is better than you, so you have to aspire
- but it's also like 'coming home' --- it's a comfort when you're tested

when i accepted that my instrument was 'there for me' = no GAS: stop searching: play!
 
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#19
Love my 2001 epi eb0. Neck feels perfect to me and discovered i love short scales. Play almost daily. Feel bad when i dont. Compared to old ibby long scale that sat barely played once or twice a year for a decade or so after going through a few other long scales.

Not into online ordering as i know i dislike a bass in a few minutes so stuck with local stores or hitting other places when i travel. Like trying all scales if i havent seen the bass.

Tried the mikro, bronco, jr jet, violin (hofner and epi) and mustang. Never seen a jag ss. Probably would have gone with jr jet if had come across one before my eb0 but dont like it more to be worth a trade.

Thinking of hollow body for 2nd. Want something that really sounds different than i can get through strings or amp alone.
 

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