Loyalty to Any Specific Brand?

I've basically been a Fender guy most of my life, BUT I just received one of the new Warwick Alien acoustics. It's a 6 string fretless. Granted, it's not a handmade German model, but it's still going to retail just south of about $2000. That's pretty expensive. Even though I love my Tony Franklin Fenders, I've also been bitten by the Music Man Bongo bug. I'll probably end up with a 6HH in either one of the silver-ish colors, or a stealth. It's also in the $2000 ballpark...I never should have played a MM JPXII 7 string guitar. That's what set off the Bongo lust.

Edit: I will probably end up with one of the German Warwick electric 6 string models, too in a year or so. Just haven't decided which one.

 

I play 2 brands (pretty much) exclusively - Fender and Rickenbacker. And, for no other reason than after years of playing, these two work for me.

 

"If you can't be with the one you love...love the one you're with."

Pretty much sums up my loyalty. To basses I mean.

 

I'm a Carvin fanatic, although I own other basses too. The reason I prefer Carvins is that the value, measured as a ratio of quality to cost, is second to none.

Carvin, unfortunately, are about a year too late to sell me one of their new P-basses. I just put a Fender P in my stable last year, and I really dig it. Had the Carvin PB series been out then, I almost certainly would have bought one instead. So of course, now I'm thinking I should get a five-string version from Carvin. But I'm gassing for one of their SB5000s much, much harder.

Another bass I own is the Schecter Stiletto Studio 8, an 8-stringer strung in pairs of octaves. This one gets a lot of stage time, but I can definitely imagine something better. The day Carvin releases an 8-stringer, I will be relegating the Schecter to backup status.

At this point, I'd like to remind my fellow TBers of the "no pics, no bass" rule. Here are my Carvins:

 

Even when I am a big Fender jazz bass fan, I found that are many $300 basses that are a piece of junk and are $300 basses that are great instruments,,,but there are $2,000 basses that are great instruments and there are $2,000 basses that are a piece of junk. All is about what bass fits my style and my kind of performance. I love Peaveys basses, Ibanez basses, Squier Vintage Modified 70's Jazz basses and I don't see why I have to spend $1,200 in a American Jazz Bass to sounds great, when the 85% of the people of the place that I play, doesn't know the diference between a cheap bass and a $2,000 bass. I respect the guys that have expencive basses and have the money to buy those basses but the only way that I can spend a lot of money buying a expencive bass is that I play for and artist or on the TV,,,,or my money on the bank is a lot, lot, lot and I don't have bills to pay. So I am not loyal to any brand and I am one of those guys that like to have something good but practical. Basses is all about stiles and situations. Some basses works for some guys and some doesn't.

 

I've never played basses from any manufacturer that felt as 'right' to me as Fender/Squier, so those tend to be what I buy.

A big part of that is almost certainly due to the limited range of models available in shops local to me, though

 

Over the years I have tried Washburn, Fender, Ibanez, Music Man, Spector Alembic, Carvin, Schecter, and G & L basses, Ampeg, GK, Hartke, Fender and Eden amps.

I always end up going back to Fender, Spector and Ampeg. That's all I use now.

 

I own more Carvin stuff than I do any other brand. I like their amps, and I think they have some of the nicest bass necks in the business.

There might be a 5 string Carvin P-bass in my future.

 

Well, I guess just through use, I would be most loyal to Fender. My Precision will probably always be my #1, and my Jazz a #2, but I also have a Gibson Thunderbird and I'm looking at getting a Hagstrom 8 string or a Guild Starfire. So basses, I'm not too loyal about, I just currently favor Fender, but I'll gladly play whatever gets me the sound I want. Ampwise, I'm far more fanatical, and pretty much only own Sunn at this point (selling everything else).

 

Fender. Never did me wrong.

 

I've been pretty satisfied with Ibanez but I'm open-minded to pretty much any brand.

 

I always want to see. I love bass pics. My fave is the Peavey, but I really like the Samick and Washburn too.

Mr. Phalex, please sir, if it's not too much trouble, could we get a pic of that AC50F listed in your profile? Pretty please?

 

Nope, I've had a whole bunch of different stuff.

 

Must be nice to have all those basses at just 16 years old.

When I was your age all I had was a single late '60s Jazz Bass.

 

I don't have an allegiance to any brand but I do enjoy what Fender does. Realistically, though, I would only need two or three. My AVRI '62 Jazz is awesome and a sister AVRI '62 Precision would be a winning combination. Add in a fretless of some sort and that would probably be all the Fender I could handle. Aside from that, I would probably venture back to Lakland's catalog (American this time), perhaps a custom Carvin or MTD 635-24. That is in the way distant future, though.

I get the appeal of being brand loyal as there are plenty of brands that deserve loyalty. I'd just rather ignore that and enjoy the great instruments out there, regardless of what name is on the headstock.

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@MarkTheRogue - That may be the highest concentration of Peavey basses I have ever seen in one picture. They're beautiful, though. I have never seen those before. I'm used to the T-40s and Grinds.