Looks over tone?

[socialleper]

To each his own, but to my eyes this is a work of art.

View attachment 742992

Ah!
"To each his own" sounds very different than "Buy a Ric. Problem solved" doesn't it.

 

[Wolfenstein666]

Ah!
"To each his own" sounds very different than "Buy a Ric. Problem solved" doesn't it.

Sure does, and 'my own' preference is a Ric, and I offered my opinion.

 

[Kael]

Both looks and tone take a distant back seat to ergonomics. If it doesn't play well, then I don't care about anything else.

Tone can usually be fixed with a string/pickup or maybe preamp swap within reason (a p sounds like a p, a j sounds like a j). Looks... meh. Very low on my radar.

Edit, by playability I am NOT talking about setup. Some basses just want to fight me on playing them. Those are firewood as far as I'm concerned.

 

[devnulljp]

You now you need a P and a J though right?

 

[Big Heavy Bass]

Tone comes first and if I found a bass with a killer tone but was an awful color, I would just have it painted.

 

[lz4005]

That's a shame. I would just love a 5-string P with the Jazz control plate.

With a 15 fret neck, high C string and the pickup in a very different location than a normal P?

 

[keyofnight]

With a 15 fret neck, high C string and the pickup in a very different location than a normal P?

Good point. A high C would be good with that 15 fret neck, though. (You can see why they thought it might work.)

 

[rockinb]

But... Inlays!

Agree. Inlays can look so sweet on some basses and color combinations. Since this is a thread about looks vs tone, if all you are missing are inlays and you have your tone, I would suggest inlay decals. You can get them from a seller Jockomo in Japan on ebay. items in Guitar Bass Fret Marker Inlay Sticker Decal Rod Cover Custom store on eBay!

I've used them and they actually look pretty good, feel fine and seem to wear well. I put them on a Squier VM and my band mates could not tell they were decals vs. actual inlays on neck. If you have an expensive or vintage bass you may not want to use the decals. Not sure what the long term effects would be on the fretboard. I took the decals off after about 2 years (was swapping to other neck) and decals came off and the neck looked fine after decals removal. However, YMMV.

 

[lz4005]

Good point. A high C would be good with that 15 fret neck, though. (You can see why they thought it might work.)

A high C is even better with a regular neck. And a body that balances well. And pickups in places that sound good.

But yeah, I understand the logic behind it. Upright players had been doing the same thing for years when Fender tried it on electric.

 

[MobileHolmes]

Looks dont matter much to me, tone matters a bunch. That said, there is too ugly. Years ago, I was looking for a jazz and the two best ones were both metallic purple. I built a warmoth instead

 

[mtdkingstonheir]

Number one priority, for me, is "feel"/playability. My first bass I bought was an MTD and I bought it because it just felt "right". Later on, I leaned towards tone as my number one consideration. Since then, I've come back to playability as my number one priority because I can always have the pickups and/or preamp changed. Plus, modern amps allow such a wide range of tonal shaping that you can always "sound" like you want to.

 

[TMARK]

Blech. No.
Not for me anyway.
I've had 5 or 6 various MM basses and not kept any of them. Totally not my tone palette; though they all seemed well made.

I've loved every EBMM bass I've played. Acoustically. I've owned four. The only one I really liked was a Sterling HH. Just not my sound. But they were all built really, really well.

 

[twinjet]

I hate to say this, but I do it more often than I might like to admit. My 2008 American Standard P-bass has never let me down and does get played at least once a show (if not entire shows), but it gets subbed out for basses I like because they are cool, or, *owch* look good. My stable has Gibson T-bird, a Ric 4003, a Geddy Jazz and a Steinberger. They all sneak out with me to shows from time to time, get played and then ultimately replaced within a set or two by my ole reliable US P.

I'm in the same boat. I have a wonderful G&L L-2000 that is more versatile than any bass I've ever owned, but the American Standard P bass I bought has "it". The charm, the sounds, the looks - I love it.

I recently was hit by a GAS attack and thought of trading my P for a US Deluxe J bass (oly white/maple fretboard/block inlays), but remembered I was never totally cool with the J sound and that the entire reason I switched to the P was for it's own specific tone.