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How many is too many?

#21
Damn I feel bad. I currently have 25 although a few are up for sale. I usually take two to a gig - one active and one passive, or one 4 string and one 5 string, depending on the band.
I am not terribly picky about which ones get played. Of the 25, about 15 are in the regular rotation. I have several basses that are just hanging around because I can't bring myself to sell them, for example, my Larry Graham Moon bass, my three '77-'78 Antigua Fender jazz basses, and my Chrome Warwick.
Realistically if they were all in the rotation, I probably couldn't keep up with restringing all of them.
 
#22
I've owned at lo of basses. At one point after a divorce a few years back I sold 17 and I still kept about 12 electric basses and 4 upright basses!
Well, the reason is that I am good at buying them and I am really bad selling them. I never end up getting a decent price when I sell a bass.
Anyway, I do a lot of recording sessions, at least a couple every month, but usually a lot more than that. Some producers call me just to get my P bass sound, but other than that I hardly ever use my P bass!
Anyway, these days I've managed to just keep the basses that I believe I need. Being a freelance musicians I play with hundreds of people every year, so well... I still have 10 electric basses and 2 upright basses! Yeah, I know still seems like a lot, but I have been doing this full time my whole life, so I guess I can justify it.
I have a Fender P bass passive, Fender jazz bass passive, fender jazz active, fender jazz 5 string active, fender jazz fretless, Ibanez hollow body, Surine 7 string, Surine 7 string fretless, Yamaha TRB6JP, Yamaha TRB6JPII, and I have a Romanian 7/8's upright bass, and a chinese 3/4 upright also.
The good news is that I am cured! I don't need any more gear! ... although I played a Sadowsky the other day that was awesome!...
 
#24
I think it depends on your gig situation, really. In a cover band I could see the need to have more than one instrument available (maybe you need fretless, something tuned differently, active aggressive tone vs subtle passive tone, Ric, beatle bass, rounds vs flats)... i can see how that'd be useful. In my situation it does seem ostentatious, as you put it. I'm in an indie rock band, playing our own songs, which despite a good amount of songwriting variety, still fall within the same relatively narrow patch of sounds.

I've experimented with swapping basses on stage for certain songs, and I have friends in similar bands that do the same thing... what I've noticed is that (1) no one in audience-land can tell the difference, nor do they care, nor are they really watching you as a bass player unless they're your friends or you're incredibly attractive. (2) swapping mid-set can slow down the flow of a set (3) introducing outside variables inevitably confuses or annoys the sound guy, and neither has a good end result (4) if your bandmates aren't busy swapping out their guitars every song, they'll probably resent the fact that you want to.

So I've just stopped doing it. If we had a song that required a different tuning I might do it, but just for the sake of a different sonic feel, i'd rather use a stompbox or switch pickups or something. I used to bring a backup to every gig, and still do on occasion or for those really, really important shows, but these days i prefer travelling light. But again, it probably depends entirely upon the nature of your gig.
 
#25
spade2you said:
Eleventy.
Click to expand...

Winnar!

I might be considered guilty by some people's count with 7.

I currently have (in order of useage)
EB MM Bongo 6 HH - Kept in ADADGC or standard, depends on the group I'm playing with Drop for my band, standard for some jam people. Got EB Slinkys on it.
ESP LTD B-305 - This is in Drop B, (B, B, F# B, E) This is strung with DR Black beauties, and is super punchy.
Fender MIM Jazz - With a defretted P neck; this is my fretless bass, Got Rotosound Jazz Flats on it.
P-bass body with MIM Jazz Neck - I like this bass ok enough, this is kept in standard and what I teach people with, though I need to change out the pups to some QPs.
Peavey Fury VI - First 6'er. It had 1 more note than my ESP (20 fret 6 vs 24 fret 5) and it's pre-amp was kinda weird, I bought it used, got a good deal for it, so figured why not, replaced it with my Bongo.
Carlo Robelli 8 (coursed) - I bought this for $100, haven't played it, the strings are backwards for finger picking and I don't like it (big strings are under small strings, irritating for me)
Michael Kelly Dragonfly - My pops actually picked this up for me one day off craigslist, since he heard me say I wanted an AEB, got it for like $250, pretty sweet deal overall.
 
#26
I have 8, but the three that I use mainly are my Schecter Studio 6, my MusicMan Stingray, and my custom JC Roya 8.

I also have a Carvin LB76, a Fender MIM Jazz, and an Aria 6 that never see gigs and will likely be sold by the end of this year to finance the purchase of a Spector 5/6 and a Warwick 5/6.

I have a Carlo Robelli AEB that sees only acoustic jams, which I'd also like to sell to upgrade to a longer scale AEB, and a Fretless Brice 6 that I use mainly for mods and will occasionally bust out for jazz-related stuff.




You can never have too many provided you use them all. I feel like I have too many because I have 3 that feel like they are just wasted space.
 
#28
My band in our set we almost have two different styles, some of our songs are more straight up alternative rock and some of our newer stuff that's more Blues Traveller meets Dave Matthews/John Mayer. So sometimes I almost feel like I should take two basses, I however usually don't because I don't want to mess with it. I don't think most people would mind one change, but I went and saw one band play one time and the acoustic guitarist changed guitars two or three times, the electric guitarist had 4 guitars, the bassist had 3 basses. The set was only 30 minutes, I thought that was a little overkill.
 
#29
bertbassplayer said:
I went and saw one band play one time and the acoustic guitarist changed guitars two or three times, the electric guitarist had 4 guitars, the bassist had 3 basses. The set was only 30 minutes, I thought that was a little overkill.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's overkill for sure. In our originals band with our 40 minute shows, I have no problem just playing through on one instrument. The guitarist used to have both a 6 string and a 12 string guitar -- then he got a double neck. :eek: But 4 hour cover gigs? That's different, I think.

Thanks for the comments!
 
#32
Nobody cares but us. I can play whatever, and nobody would know the diff. Band might object if it were something crappy, but that’s about it.

I need a killer rig, but as for which bass I use or “tone”, nobody cares.

P bass covers everything for recording, and live, but I used my jazz live because it’s the only five-string I have and I needed that to cover all the songs.
 
#33
I have 27 electric basses, 2 acoustic basses, and 1 double bass. I take a Precision and a Jazz to gigs, unless it is a DB gig, then I have no backup. Probably 15 to 20 of those basses I haven't played in years, but I do break out a different one every now and then.
Generally speaking, one can play any style, and sound good doing it, on a Fender.
 
#35
sleepytime said:
One more is almost always okay. Two more is pushing it, three more is too many. If the wife can say "You got one not that long ago.", one more is pushing it. If she says "You just got one!", one more is too many.
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LOL! Yeah, I got a few more than I regularly use, too. Just a few. When it was at six, my sweetie declared a new rule, that I had to get rid of one before getting another. That worked for quite a while. Then my son returned my old Cort about 4 weeks ago, then the following Sunday a friend offered to sell me her hand-made bass for $100. Two for a price that can't be beat! See how I snuck that in there? :D Mind you, I still have 4 acoustic and 2 electric 6-stringers . . .

That's something different about basses -- there is much more variety in basses than guitars. Differences in guitars are usually about neck profiles, tone (acoustics), electronics, looks. But they all generally have the same length scale and 6 strings, fretted fingerboards, etc. Basses come in all shapes and sizes, different scale lengths, numbers of strings, fretted or fretless . . . you get the picture. In my small collection, I have an 18" fretless to 42" EUB, a 3/4 DB, a 6 string fretless, a short scale fretted, a headless "stick bass", and a couple standard fretteds. I love variety!!!
 
#37
You have to play what makes you happy first - if you're playing an instrument that sounds good to you and fits the song - who cares if you have 3 Basses.

Having said that - tonally through either changes in settings or hand placement I can get an appropriate sound for any style of music. Are some Basses better suited to certain styles - yes - but in a practical sense one or two Basses typically work with some tonal adjustment for the song.

The first priority is playing the song well and if having the right Bass and sound puts you in the right state of mind to get that sound and feel then I would say - take whatever gear you think gets the job done. Your choice and you have to carry it (unless you have Roadies).



KrisH said:
The "boss snobbery" thread got me to thinking about something that bothers me . . .

We all want to get the best sounds we can, and different songs demand different sounds. Well, I have three different basses that I regularly use to practice with, each with their own unique characteristics and sound palette. I could justify using all three basses at a gig, swapping out for different sounds as the songs require.

It's been my experience, though, that other musicians don't pay attention to the bassist, and especially give little consideration to the tone of the bass. For instance, in one band I'm in, we regularly share the stage and equipment with other bands. The guitarist would always take his own amp, but comment to me, "you can just use whatever amp is there." At one other rehearsal, I switched from my usual bass to a different one I've used, and that guitarist commented, "I like the other one better." (I was using my EB-3 on some Cream tunes we were running over . . .)

So, given this background, I'd feel kinda awkward setting three basses out when gigging. It somehow seems . . . ostentatious . . . if you know what I mean? I've gigged shows with other bassists who often have a second bass set up as a backup, and rarely if ever use it. So -- does the concept makes sense? Certainly, someone like Chris Squire might have a half-dozen different instruments on stage with him. But a local cover band bassist?

In the past, I just used one bass -- for years -- plugged into whatever amp I owned at the time. I suspect many or most other bassists do likewise. Now I'm paying more attention to the nuances of myself and other bassists. Hmmmm . . . thanks, TB! :eyebrow: But, for those of you who do use several different basses on gigs -- how many? And how do you justify it, beyond the "sound" argument, which nobody pays attention to anyway?

BTW, the basses, while not budget quality instruments, aren't high-end boutique show pieces, either. Just average instruments, wildly divergent from each other.
Click to expand...
 
#38
Marko5657 said:
Nobody cares but us. I can play whatever, and nobody would know the diff. Band might object if it were something crappy, but that’s about it.

I need a killer rig, but as for which bass I use or “tone”, nobody cares.

P bass covers everything for recording, and live, but I used my jazz live because it’s the only five-string I have and I needed that to cover all the songs.
Click to expand...

That depends... sometimes I get asked for specific basses when I am called for a recording session.
 

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