Does your bass play awful??

[pbass2]

My USA Glaub has the 1.75" neck and medium Labella flats on it, and I keep it professionally set up, but I like the action for recording to be as buzz-free as possible, even if I want to dig in a bit, so it's…high-ish I guess. I have medium to smallish hands too. So, great bass, pro setup, always sounds great in the studio, never an errant fret buzz to worry about when tracking, and to me it plays like "buttah". Yet, a bassist friend of mine picked it up recently and recoiled in horror, saying "I couldn't play THAT!" as if it was a cartoon baseball bat or something!
Funny thing is, I later tried one of his and it was a rattly, sloppy mess - the action was way too low and buzzy and the strings way too light for me--if you breathed on it it buzzed. Would have gotten tossed out of any pro session!
But, it obviously works for him and his purposes!

 

[2behead]

My action is high, and my string hight is odd for a lot of players. I prefer my D string a little higher than the other strings. I hat the way a "Perfect" set up feels. I can play pretty heavy handed so the hight action is needed. My brother though I was just lazy, but he realized my basses are always set up the same.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

It is a matter of preference. I've picked up basses with the action too low, and I play hard. the fret buzz was off the charts.

 

[petrus61]

My action is high, and my string hight is odd for a lot of players. I prefer my D string a little higher than the other strings. I hat the way a "Perfect" set up feels. I can play pretty heavy handed so the hight action is needed. My brother though I was just lazy, but he realized my basses are always set up the same.

To be fair, I don't think there is such a thing as a "perfect" setup. What suits the player is it, end of story. My setup might seem a little off to some, with my E being super low, my A being fairly high with the D slightly lower than A and the G just stupid low (or is that normal??) That's just the way my hands deal with my bass's radius/fret size and neck shape. There are no rules. Just play the right notes! To be honest, I would love to keep a medium to high action because I think it has some tonal merits, but I can't do what I do (suck) at that height.

 

[GregC]

I'm sure Jamerson's basses played "awful"(ly) according to the tastes of a lot of players.

 

[Gaolee]

I don't really have a setup preference except that too low isn't good. Given the choice, I'll take a baseball bat with a bit of string height to play with so the strings don't clank off the board or pickups. Otherwise, as long as the intonation is good, I'm happy and will play just about anything.

 

[Pudge Fish]

Learning how to set up a bass the way you like is key.

Like owning many things, you can call in an expensive pro, or you can learn the basics yourself and get things running smoothly.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

My action is medium low, but back in the 80s my setup was odd. The strings were flat at the bridge regardless of neck radius, due to playing very quickly with a pick, it made this function far easier

 

[Bassaga]

Bought my first bass a few weeks ago, and by that evening found myself thinking, "Dang, but it's harder than I imagined to get the strings to the fretboard." Stopped into a local guitar shop today and looked at their basses; a month ago I had trouble playing them, but now it felt like I could fret the strings just by blowing on 'em. Apparently I've developed some hand strength.

All this is to say, yes, I suspect my bass probably does play awful.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

My basses all play well...all 2 of them. The one in my avatar is so good it will almost play itself if I let it. I don't let it.

I certainly know what you mean about necks. I had a '65 Jazz Bass that was stolen in 1976. I didn't find another bass that had the same neck until 1985 and it's that white one right there. I tried lots of other basses and just can't stand to play on a wide, chunky, D-shaped neck. Of course the good thing about my Jazz Bass is that it not only looks good and feels good, it sounds great too!

 

[HalfManHalfBass]

I neither buy or keep instruments that play awful and even if they played awfully, I would still prefer not to keep them.

 

[Jughead6]

I have eight basses. They're all different and they each have a slightly different setup, but I think they all play well.

I do try to use the same type of strings on all my basses (light flatwounds). That's probably the critical thing for me.

 

[bassstrangler]

No, but it does play Misty.

 

[David Jayne]

A good friend of mine is a genuine world-touring pro hitman/can play any gig/mega chops jazz guy. Plays a Sadowsky PJ 5. I've occasionally had him ask me to sit in on his more casual gigs. I can't really play his bass-action too high for me but man it sure works for him. I also noodled around on Gary's bass back in the Tribal Tech days. Ramp and action virtual on the deck. I couldn't play that either. Preferences.

 

[Cowboy in Latvia]

In response to the original question: I guess it all depends on your preferences. They play well for me with very low, responsive action that makes me have to focus on the mechanics of playing to avoid a bit of fret clank. I do not get any fret buzz on them though. The necks are all medium-thick (not thin but not Warwick thick) and the string gauge and spacing varies depending on the bass.

 

[Mantis Tobaggan]

I also like low action and light strings. I play really fast and cant play some of my parts if the action is too high.

 

[David Jayne]

To follow Cowboy, mine vary but I've kind of settled on my G&l necks, 1 5/8" wide with a 9 1/2" radius. Medium C shape. I run what I'd call medium-low action with little relief, maybe .010" at the 7th-8th fret. Medium gauge strings. This works for me for all styles.

 

[Rob22315]

I prefer wider fretboards with thin necks but can play most any neck type. Low action is a must though, no reason to make fretting notes any harder than it has to be.

 

[madbass6]

Like the title states - does yours? If so, why? I've recently played some other folks basses that are darn near unplayable to me. And these belong to experienced & competent players, not noobs. Tall action coupled with wide ball bat sized necks, made it hard to play even just a few songs on them, and even then i had to "dumb" down my playing just to get through the songs. I play all night on my basses and never get that kind of fatigue, and I don't setup my basses as low as they will go. These are 34" scale basses with regular gauged strings (45-100 rounds). There are no wrong answers, I'm just curious.

Its almost like asking is my girlfriend the ugliest ? To you she mite be ! but to me shes the most beautiful in the whole world..?
like the old saying goes
"beauty is in the eye of the beholder !"
With that being said Just cuz some elses Bass doesn't feel rite to you it doesn't mean the bass plays awful ! Just means it plays awful to you !
your Bass mite be perfect for you, but maybe not for me! & at the end of the gig as long as it plays perfect for me its all that really matters.

 

[Kmonk]

If my basses didn't play well, I wouldn't have bought them.

Having said that, everyone has their own preference. Just because other players do not have their basses set up the way you like them, doesn't mean the basses do not play well. To the people who play them, their basses might play perfectly and your basses might play poorly.