how has your taste in basses changed?

[wmhill]

It's been a learning curve over the 30+ years of my playing & gigging
I learned that I like tone
I learned I did not like a P bass (rather quickly too)
I learned that Fender wasn't the king of basses
I learned that fresh strings sound good
I learned that I really don't like pointy basses anymore
I learned that I have been able to get all the gigs I want for the past few decades, so I must be doing something right.
I learned that a nice chrome ashtray can look pretty cool on a bass even if it is useless.

 

[bassfootballguy]

My biggest change has been going from active basses to passive. I likely will add a MM style - and probably an active one - but still prefer the sound of passives when you really dig in.

 

[Snibborwocky]

I guess I've sort of been all over the place except for having a 6-string (or more) and came back to where I started. Cliff notes version of my journey is basically: Started on a Jazz, went to a P/J, then a Stingray H, then a 5-string, then a T-bird, then a Precision, and now back to a Jazz.

 

[IamGroot]

A Rake's Progress

4 string fretted cheap korean
4 string cheap fretless
Plywood Upright
Carved Upright
5 string fretted crappy Ibanez
5 string fretted boutique
5 string fretless boutique
6 string fretted boutique
4 string Jazz
4 string Epi Jack Casady
4 string P
4 string fretted cheap Indonesian Sterling 24CA

Simply Irresistible
There's no telling where the money went

 

[RumbleBot]

I used to love high tension strings and higher action because I used to really pound on my basses. Then I smartened up. Now I prefer light gauge strings and low action. I can play much better when I'm not fighting the strings.

 

[Dabndug]

After I took up upright, all my previous requirements regarding neck profile and action went out the window - even the most base-ball bat necks with sky high action felt like a shredder's delight compared to that beast of a doghouse. This revelation stopped me looking for "the one" and got me to concentrate on getting the best out of whatever was to hand. I haven't felt the need to even check out new basses for the last four years as a result. That said, I have built up a bit of a menagerie of basses over the decades.

 

[John Chambliss]

I started with a Hagstrum around 1965. Transitioned to a Hofner Beatle bass in 1967. Picked up a Fender P Bass in the early 70s and did a defret job in 1980. Been playing fretless Fenders, mostly P basses, since then. Practice and perform (when that happens again) primarily on upright bass these days.

 

[Lunatique]

I started with little to no knowledge and went for whatever looked good and had flexible electronics to achieve wide range to tones (Bongo, Warwick $$]. After years of buying/selling, I've now settled into a distinct set of preferences:

• Headless. It's just much more ergonomic. No headstock to bash into things or tuners to knock out of tune, and no neck-dive. Modern headless can take any string and is easy to restring and tune. The bass tends to be light too.
• Must be as light as possible. Ideally 8 lbs. or less.
• Zero tolerance for any hint of neck-dive.
• With preamp EQ, and ideally at least 3 bands, but 4 is better (rare), and switchable/sweepable mid frequncy even better. It's just faster/more convenient to tweak at the bass than at the amp, as I wouldn't have to tweak the amp again when I plug in another bass, nor do I have to keep going over to the amp for every adjustment.
• No single coils. I hate the noise. Other types of pickups placed at the bridge or EQ'd can get close enough that I really don't need a noisy single-coil pickup.
• No locking jacks. They're more frustrating than useful.
• Darker fretboard over lighter. I prefer more contrast between fretboard and frets/markers/strings.
• Pearl over abalone, because abalone can blend in with the fretboard color a bit too much in some cases.
• Bright flatwound, or coated roundwound, or tapewound. No roundwounds because finger noise is annoying. I can get similar brightness from EB Slinky flats or Elixirs.
• Action as low as possible, as long as there's no buzz/rattling with moderate force.
• At least 3 finger's width of space between neck and neck pickup, for more comfortable slapping/snapping--especially fast triplet snappings.
• Wide neoprene straps for best ergonomics. Nothing else will do.
• 34" scale. Other scales just lack enough string choices for the kinds I prefer.
• Learned the hard way I don't like multi-scale.
• Don't like glossy necks. They don't play as smoothly.
• Ibanez seems to embody my preferences. Also Kiesel and a few other small boutique brands that have headless models.

 

[Nephilymbass]

when i first started playing bass in 1994 and for years after, i played black PJ basses with rosewood fingerboards. then i changed... i started thinking a little variety couldn't hurt. i got a minty green (ibanez called it lime) mikro. i enjoyed it. the world didn't end.

now i have a red bronco (maple neck, fingerboard is part of the neck), a surf green mustang, a wood finish GSR100EX, a roadster orange mezzo (i always like that orange, but it didn't used to fit in with my dark color scheme). i also owned a sunburst traveler TB-4P that i sold.... apparently along with all my black basses. my semi-hollow ibanez SRH500 doesn't even come in black.

when i went to order my smallguitars.com bass, i went with daphne blue, and it was then that i realized both of my black basses, only bought to mod, aren't even with the basses i currently play. * gasp *

and the only bass i'm pondering now is a short scale EBMM stingray. not a PJ, not black.

i also moved from long scale to short scale, but that wasn't so much taste as injury. on the other hand, i love my short scales - i just hadn't given any a chance before that. sort of a machismo thing - can women have machismo?

so what - if anything - has changed when it comes to your bass taste / preferences?

I think my taste has changed. Some things have actually come full circle. I used to be all about natural finishes. Now my fender acoustic is the only natural finish bass I own. I used to prefer jazz or musicman style pickups, now I have a mix of just about everything. I used to be very picky about sticking with 34” scale but now I own a 37” Dingwall and my next bass might very well be a short scale. I’m not afraid of fretless bass anymore. For a while I got into 6 and 7 string but ended up primarily playing 5 strings again so that has come full circle.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

when i first started playing bass in 1994 and for years after, i played black PJ basses with rosewood fingerboards. then i changed... i started thinking a little variety couldn't hurt. i got a minty green (ibanez called it lime) mikro. i enjoyed it. the world didn't end.

now i have a red bronco (maple neck, fingerboard is part of the neck), a surf green mustang, a wood finish GSR100EX, a roadster orange mezzo (i always like that orange, but it didn't used to fit in with my dark color scheme). i also owned a sunburst traveler TB-4P that i sold.... apparently along with all my black basses. my semi-hollow ibanez SRH500 doesn't even come in black.

when i went to order my smallguitars.com bass, i went with daphne blue, and it was then that i realized both of my black basses, only bought to mod, aren't even with the basses i currently play. * gasp *

and the only bass i'm pondering now is a short scale EBMM stingray. not a PJ, not black.

i also moved from long scale to short scale, but that wasn't so much taste as injury. on the other hand, i love my short scales - i just hadn't given any a chance before that. sort of a machismo thing - can women have machismo?

so what - if anything - has changed when it comes to your bass taste / preferences?

My second bass was a Jazz, third a P. Mumble years later, still Js and Ps with the only wobble being a Westone Thunder 1A, a III, a no name brand five string fretless with soap bar pickups and an awful five string Washburn.

 

[mikewalker]

...

so what - if anything - has changed when it comes to your bass taste / preferences?

Over the last 25 years I have played and owned almost everything under the sun, but the twenty years previous to that I played exclusively just a couple of short scales. The last year or so I've discovered that I really do enjoy playing short scales with narrow string spacing best of all. Economy of motion - or just nostalgia? I don't know!

As for what has changed... well I've suddenly become a huge fan of headless basses - and ultralight ones at that. I love the sound of aluminum-neck basses, but I have never found one lighter than 7.5 pounds. And for me, what else has changed is that about six pounds is my new limit, and five pounds is ideal. Which is pretty much unobtainium territory for an aluminum-neck, and Gittler won't make me a titanium short-scale (yet!).

The last couple of years I have experimented with various graphite basses, and have found that's really the way to go for now. The only problem with graphite these days isn't that amazing-sounding graphite basses are not available, it's that almost nobody makes them in short-scale. I loved the sound of my Status Streamline, but it had some playability issues - and did not come any shorter than 32 inch. (bendwell version). I would be perfectly happy with my Miller, except it's even longer at 33 inches. (Easy enough to play, but the longer scale just bugs me... and imho a five thousand dollar bass guitar should not offer even the slightest annoyance!)

Anyway headless is really my 'twenty-first-century' preference now, mainly because they are usually lighter, but also because there's less chance of banging the headstock into things. I have recently ordered a BassLab composite monocoque short-scale headless, so when that finally arrives (12 month build time, should be here around Christmas!) I think I have pretty much exhausted all the possibilities in this 45-year instrument quest. (The BassLab will be something like bass #300 for me, I lost count a long time ago...)

 

[Manticore]

About a year after I started playing I bought a mapleglow Ric. I played it almost exclusively for almost 20 years. In '92 I bought a new Alembic Elan 6, which I've played almost exclusively since. I have a number of basses, but the Elan goes everywhere to every gig and has for 28 years. I guess my tastes haven't really changed much.

 

[Lagado]

If I had just bought a Jazz bass instead of looking for a bass that sounded like a Jazz that wasn't a Fender, I could have saved myself thousands of pounds. I remember an interview with Nathan East about 25 years ago, where he said that he was surprised that being a fan of the StingRay sound, he didn't actually own one. Not at that point anyway.

 

[retslock]

They haven’t really changed. There are more basses available and some I like but my preferences are still where they were years ago except for the extra string. My wallet won’t support my taste but if it did I would get a custom passive Precision 5 string with narrower spacing. That’s all....or maybe a Sandberg VM2 to keep it company. I have several colour preferences so there’s no single colour combo that I must have.

 

[Chas49]

I played a bowed neck Fender Mexican jazz bass for 20 or so years. Then bought an American jazz and was amazed at how easy it played. Recently I joined a new band and my bass was sounding too thin... so I bought a P bass. I didn't like the neck, so I swapped it for a jazz neck. I'm really loving vintage style P pickup basses with J necks now. The Fender vintage 63 pups are fantastic. I'd love to try out a custom shop postmodern bass...

I've always been a rosewood guy and a Fender guy, even though now I realize my first Fender bass was pretty bad.

 

[darren1970]

I started out with active basses for many years ( initially Ibanez, then Warwick, Status & Spector ) mostly 4 strings with the occasional "dabble" into 5 strings.

About 8 years ago I switched to passive basses, as I found them a more natural "woody" tone ( Gibson Thunderbirds & Fender Jazz's ).

My current taste is to find an "all-rounder" bass that can cover loads of styles and multiple tunings etc, so I've ordered a Dingwall D-roc 5 string ( still passive ).

 

[Altitude]

Two things that don't bother me, and that I don't even really think about, are scale and nut width. I'm surprised at the obsession. For me, those are like dating a girl who has blonde hair or brown hair. Either is fine as long as the whole thing works.

 

[ElectricBass72]

My first real bass was a black 4-string Spector NS-2 bought new in '91. All of the cool rock bands' bassists were using those at the time.... grunge and glam rock, Alice in Chains, Skid Row, etc. After the Spector, I went through the Carvin phase in mid to late 90's, LB75 my first 5-string... nice bass, gigged with it a lot. 00's were lean times financially, so I played a used Dean Edge 5-string which was an underrated bass, IMO. Nowadays I can afford some nice basses and I like to have options. I'm incapable of being one of those typical Fender P only bassists. There's more to bass life than Fender Ps.... that's why I have a Rickenbacker, EBMMS5, ESP Fretless and 2 Ibanezes... ATK and SR.

 

[btmpancake]

My taste in basses always change when I pay off the balance of my credit card owe'd from the last bass purchased and then buy a different brand or model.

 

[dmt]

Due to the body getting pretty beat up over the years, I’m mainly interested in short scales anymore (I’ll always keep a P though).

Been having various issues for many years, actually, but before I was too proud to "stoop" to a short scale. So that’s definitely changed - the first time I tried my MIJ Mustang in a store, I was like "What have I been doing?!" Beating myself up with a full scale is what I had been doing.

But, I still like full scale; just not sure I’ll be buying any additional ones.

Color-wise, I was always attracted to the Fender pastels, but I felt they weren’t rock ‘n roll enough for me. I could deal with a pastel now though. I’d actually prefer a surf green, pastel orange, pastel yellow or daphne blue in a next instrument as I don’t have anything like that so far