How have your aesthetic preferences changed since you started playing?

[Groove Doctor]

More:
- vintage gear, traditional shapes, custom colours.
- short-scale, flats, hollowbodies, humbuckers, using plectrum.

Less:
- Sunburst finish.
- 15" speakers.

Same:
- Tube amps,
- 4-string basses,
- genuine roadwear aka 'mojo'.
- quieter acoustic gigs, DB & jazz.

 

[SonnyBassPlayer]

When I started playing at 16, I wanted my basses to be "bad" looking, like all black, metal pickguard, and things like that. I didn't like maple necks and couldn't stand sunburst finish.
Now, after 8 years, I love sunburst+maple basses, will never own "metal" looking basses, and love vintage looks.

 

[winterburn69]

When I started, I thought Thunderbirds were the coolest thing on the block, I loved most Gibson-type basses and passionately hated Fenders simply because they were everywhere.

Eventually, I began to look elsewhere when I couldn't get the bass tones I wanted and while I still love to look at the body shape of the Tbird I find a Fender Jazz body much more comfortable.

Now my Thunderbirds have a thick layer of dust on them and my Fenders and my fretless Squier Jazz are all I play and I'm quite happy.

 

[Mosstone]

Absolutely... On many levels.

When I was younger, I didn't want to have much of anything to do with Fenders. Too 'standard', too 'old-school'... "Grampas guitars" (to borrow a phrase from Dethklok).

I didn't really have much of a brand preference when I was in my teens/twenties as long as it was black, looked cool, played well and wasn't a Fender (a copy was even worse!). When I bought my first Jazz bass, I was 25 or 26 years old and I didn't even want it, but it was cheap (MIM) and I needed a bass (I was a one-bass man at the time and I sold my last one before moving from MA to AZ). I had to have a local store order one for me in black, but they also got one in Midnight Wine, which I really liked when I saw it and opted for that color instead.
Despite the fact that my MIM Jazz was just kind of 'meh', I became a Fender fanboy... Well, a Jazz Bass fanboy, anyway (I later got an AmStd Jazz and have had several copies and parts-builds since).

I never understood why anybody liked P-basses, (when you could have a Jazz) but now I'm GASsing for a Precision.

I used to hate Thunderbirds, but now I love my Classic IV Pro.

I used to love Rickenbackers, until I bought one.

Over the years, I've owned guitars and basses in so many different colors and finishes, it's easier to say which ones I haven't had, but I used to hate sunbursts and natural finishes. Today, I prefer the look of wood. I love clear finishes (if there's a lot of grain character), bursts, oil finishes and translucent dyes. I'm a little particular about 3-tone "tobacco" sunburst (I prefer a burst with vibrant ambers and reds) and I still don't care much for 2TS, but back in the day, I wouldn't even look at a guitar with any kind of 'traditional' burst.

Although I'd love to get a P-bass in CAR or LPB, these days, I'm less interested in solid colors (especially black) but I seem to be attracting black basses and guitars, lately... I have a black Jazz and a Black Tele (both parts builds) and if nothing else comes along, I'll probably end up with a black Precision (I'm jonesing for the Squier CV '70s P, but it only comes in black). Besides black and white, I only have one bass with a 3TS and I have an Epiphone Casino on the way with a 'Vintage Sunburst'. I need to get more COLOR in my collection!