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Making a Pilgrimage to Bass Central

IotaNet

IotaNet

Supporting Member
Dec 8, 2004
3,566
503
64
Minneapolis (Chicago Native)
#1
Enough already.

I'm in the market for a new bass at the end of the month and I want something really nice. The trouble is, most of the basses I'm looking at are models that are nowhere to be found here in Minneapolis. I'm getting tired of posting questions online and calling Bass Central every other day. :(

Yesterday, I had a bright idea: I'm going to take my wife and I on a weekend getaway to Orlando and spend a morning at Bass Central so I can choose in person!

My wife is the one who bought me my favorite bass, a Bongo, and she thinks it's a GREAT idea -- she is really cool about the whole deal! (I know -- no pics, no wife so here you go: http://tinyurl.com/2dxlyr8]). I figure the two of us can get there late on Thursday, do The Harry Potter Theme Park, do Busch Gardens, perhaps Cirque Du Soliel, get a great Sunday Brunch and come back home -- and I get to buy a great bass!

Anyone here ever do anything similar? Also, what do I need to know about visiting Bass Central? Any caveats or warnings?

Let me know your thoughts!
 
#3
My wife is the one who bought me my favorite bass, a Bongo, and she thinks it's a GREAT idea -- she is really cool about the whole deal!
Click to expand...

I don't care about the bass anymore, I just want to know how you found a wife like that :D

As far as pilgrimages, I'm in an awkward situation where I'm in one of the most rural parts of central New Jersey, so while theoretically I'm in the center of everywhere, I'm in the middle of nowhere. That means taking a bus to NYC to look for upper high end gear.

Of course if you can't find an instrument store in NYC, well...
 
#5
I live in Canada and pulled off this same plan exactly a couple years ago. My wife, brother and I booked a trip to Orlando for a week or so, hit the theme parks and the highlight of the trip was of course my visit to Bass Central.

One thing that really surprised me was how small the actual showroom area of the store was. I'm guessing they just do a ton more online business than customers coming in. We were the only customers in the store but the phones were just ringing off the hook. They're crazy busy!

I dealt with Grasshopper and he was extremely helpful. They only have room for so many basses on the whowroom wall and I had a whole list of models that I had always wanted to try but don't have access to in my area so Grasshopper and another guy were back and forth to the warehouse area grabbing me basses for a couple hours.

I finally settled on a Lakland Darryl Jones but wanted the J-Retro pre-amp in it and they didn't have a model with that installed. Grasshopper was on the phone to Lakland immediately to have them snag me a DJ off the line before the standard electronics were installed, throw the j-retro in and drop ship it to my house.

The overall experience with BC was excellent. The one thing I would suggest would be to make sure to bring a list of the models you'd like to try. It's easy to get there and just draw a blank with all of the gems on the wall but there's hundreds more models in their warehouse that they're willing to bring out for you.

Enjoy your visit!!!
 
#9
I actually live not but 20 minutes from bass central in decent traffic.

the test model line up is pretty extensive and high end, but it is more of the same. a lot of specters, MTD's, lakelands, fenders, etc.
this place is very professional so they like to keep test times for each bass around 5 minutes to preserve the "new" feel of the bass. they are very well trained and will answer any question you have about any of the models there.

don't be fooled though, Beaver doesn't play around when it comes to money. my last visit was him on the phone with a "dead beat customer" as he said repeatedly due to a lack of payments on the customers end.

if you want any further information about their line up before you come down, or any info about orlando itself. feel free to PM me.
 
#11
Prepare to be underwhelmed at the Bass Central showroom, it is very small..but if you have a list of basses that you are interested in; prepare to be overwhelmed at the massive inventory that lies behind the "door" ..if you don't see it hanging on the wall just ask, they will probably have any bass that you would like to take for a test drive..
 
#12
A trip like this sounds awesome! But I'm starting at Vancouver, Canada to Bass Central. Quite literally, it would be a diagonal cross country trip. Thanks to those that suggested the idea of having a wish list ready of instruments to test-drive.

Billygoat666 - Your profile isn't complete. In which city/province do you live in Canada? Did you actually drive to Florida?

Similar to a Bass Central cross county trek, I will begin saving up for a Carl Thompson bass. I started a thread on it at the CT forum. An idea was suggested to me, and I think it would be an extremely cool notion, to actually travel & pick the bass up when it is complete so I could meet Carl & the gang.
 
#13
get ready for lines for Universal. Harry Potter just opened up and the hype is still big.

As far as Busch Gardens go try to buy tickets online first
because right now they have a deal for all you can drink and eat for online tickets
just research it. I'm going tomorrow

As far as Bass Central definitely have a game plan for what you want to check out
as you can easily get the deer in the headlights effect there
the showroom floor is about the size of a large living room but that doesn't mean they have a arsenal in the warehouse (they do trust me)
Great store though!!!!
 
#15
I also too took a pilgrimage to Basscentral in 2007. I had a medical appointment in Weston Florida so I flew there from home... so my thinking was if I was in the states I thought might as well go and take the roadtrip and I drove about 18 hours one day to go to bass central and back to get my 20th anniversary StingRay 5 HH... Again I was expecting the store to be much bigger than it actually is, seeing their massive online inventory... But it's a cool place... I've bought all 3 of my stingrays there... and a gk halfstack... very good people highly recommended...
 
#16
I've thought about this many times, especially when I see the ads for cheap flights to Orlando. But now that we have Bass Specialties in the Philly area, it's less enticing.

Kuoxasar said:
As far as pilgrimages, I'm in an awkward situation where I'm in one of the most rural parts of central New Jersey, so while theoretically I'm in the center of everywhere, I'm in the middle of nowhere. That means taking a bus to NYC to look for upper high end gear.

Of course if you can't find an instrument store in NYC, well...
Click to expand...

NYC Shops are great, but depending on where you are in Central Jersey, Bass Specialties might be closer to you. I've never seen a bass selection like that at any NYC shop, but I've probably missed a few.
 
#20
Road Trip! Road Trip!! :D

Nice call, Iota! When we went to a family reunion in New York, I got to pick out one thing I'd like to do while there, and I went to the Sadowsky shop. Had a blast, met Roger, spec'ed out my dream bass and ordered it soon thereafter.

It's great to have a supportive wife. I'd add a big +1 to bringing a list of basses you're interested in trying before you go.

FWIW, after the visit to the Sadowsky shop I changed my order (discovered I liked the WL model better), so it's good to get to try as many things as you can before pulling the trigger, even if you think you already know exactly what you want.
 

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