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Graduation gift??

Which bass?

  • US lakland joe osborn 5

    Votes: 49 41.5%

  • Rickenbacker 4003

    Votes: 43 36.4%

  • Fodera NYC

    Votes: 26 22.0%
  • Total voters
    118
A

AN4E

Apr 2, 2009
61
0
#1
Ok so I'm a senior in high school and when i graduate my parents said they'll give me $2000 for a new bass. I was thinking of saving up a little on my own so ill have around $3000 to play with (can also sell my MTD if need be but i dont want to. if i did would give me $4000)

My favorite styles are jazz, blues and motown with a tad bit of classic rock thrown in.

I was debating 3 basses, a US lakland Joe osborn, A Rickenbacker 4003 or a fodera NYC

What do you guys think the best choice would be?
 
#7
Out of your 3 choices:

#1-US Lakland
#2-Rickenbacker
#3-used Fodera.

I put the Fodera at the bottom of the list only because they can be very difficult to find. Similarly, I put the Lakland at the top because that will be the easiest for you to obtain.

But, PLEASE, do your homework! Try to play all of these basses before you buy one of them, especially the Ric. A lot of people have a hard time transitioning to them because of their ergonomic peculiarities. Also-regarding the Ric, with your musical preferences, are you sure you can get those kinds of tones from a Ric? Dont get me wrong, I love the Ric sound, but except for your "tad bit of classic rock", personally I do not associate a Ric sound with your preferred musical styles. IMO, of course.

If you have a $3k budget, you can look at a ton of high end stuff like Roscoe, Sadowsky and Valenti. You should also look at Dolan and Lull basses as well.
Heck with that budget, you could probably get yourself TWO hand-built customs from Tom Clement-he's a lesser known custom luthier in Florida who builds excellent basses. He's a one-man operation does virtually everything himself including hand-cutting the body.

OR how's your amp setup? You could get a Clement custom built for you and still have $$ to spend on upgrading your amp rig.

Man, if I had $3k for basses............................
Hey-do your parents want to adopt a 47 year old with 5 built-in grandkids! :D
 
#14
thanks for the input guys! Agreed i have some wickedly awesome parents :D Defiantly will look into some custom basses :) Im not sure what kind of wood combos and things would get the best sound but gonna be hitting the web and doing some serious research!

Ill try and see if i can play some of the basses but being from a small town it might be kinda hard. Biggest music store is GC, 1.5 hours away so ill have to take a day off one week and see what they have.
 
#15
roscoe, f bass, sadowsky, lull, valenti, and much more

Just do your hw's you have a lot of time to do so, and I wish my parent would of made me that gift :p
And the best way to try them all are the GTG's
 
#18
my parents would have charged me $2000 for wanting such nice basses:crying:
I would have chosen "carrots" as a choice, The Lakland don't like, The Ric you need to play first because it isn't for everyone and a Fodera is for when you can play like Victor Wooten:hiding:
 
#19
AN4E said:
thanks for the input guys! Agreed i have some wickedly awesome parents :D Defiantly will look into some custom basses :) Im not sure what kind of wood combos and things would get the best sound but gonna be hitting the web and doing some serious research!

Ill try and see if i can play some of the basses but being from a small town it might be kinda hard. Biggest music store is GC, 1.5 hours away so ill have to take a day off one week and see what they have.
Click to expand...


Good call with going to GC during the week. You'll actually be able to hear yourself play and not get drowned out by the 12-13 year olds shredding away on Metallica.:spit:

Check out the city where your "local" GC is located-there are probably at least a couple of smaller shops in town that would probably be worth your while to visit.
 
#20
Out of the available choices, I'd go with the Lakland. The JO5 is one of my all-time favorite basses - and I will have another one at some point. They're just that awesome.

However, if I was being handed $2k for any bass I wanted right now, I'd order a Roscoe. :D
 

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