• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Moving - how many basses do you really need?

shirojiro

shirojiro

Jan 24, 2001
1,515
2,015
Seattle
#1
I think the real answer to the question in the Subject line is one.

But I think many of us have way more than that.

I'm in the middle of moving, and I had one bass with me for a month - a recently acquired Sterling Ray 34 with an ash body in a natural finish with Cobalt flats and roast maple neck and fretboard. It's a great bass. It sounds and plays great, but I have to admit that I missed having a few other sounds.

I went and grabbed a few other basses. Interestingly, they're all 4 strings.
I grabbed:
Fender Geddy Jazz MIJ
Ibanez RKB900 with Cobalt flats MIJ PJ bass
Harmony ash and maple P bass with Hi-A pickups.

Even this feels like a embarrassment of riches with 4 basses.

The variety of tones is great, but I miss the simpler days when I had only one and I played the same bass for years on end.

That said, I still can't just get rid of the rest of the herd /platoon.

I guess the silver lining is that a really do like all of my basses and each one sounds great to me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Crispus, DJ Bebop, 96tbird and 11 others
#4
I always want at least 2. I hope never to get back down to that number.

It’s nice not only for tonal variety, string type variety, scale variety, backup purposes, but also bases with different tunings, fretted vs fretless, differing numbers of strings. There are all kinds of reasons to own many.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LadyLoveStingRay5, Crispus, DJ Bebop and 3 others
#6
Yea, one.
But really 3 or 4. I have 8.
These 4, I think.
20220907_191431.jpg
proxy-9.jpg
20210621_080753.jpg
20220216_055700.jpg
20240617_182738.jpg

Did I say 4? I meant 5...
 
  • Like
  • Love
  • Haha
Reactions: Crispus, DJ Bebop, 96tbird and 18 others
#8
shirojiro said:
I think the real answer to the question in the Subject line is one.

But I think many of us have way more than that.

I'm in the middle of moving, and I had one bass with me for a month - a recently acquired Sterling Ray 34 with an ash body in a natural finish with Cobalt flats and roast maple neck and fretboard. It's a great bass. It sounds and plays great, but I have to admit that I missed having a few other sounds.

I went and grabbed a few other basses. Interestingly, they're all 4 strings.
I grabbed:
Fender Geddy Jazz MIJ
Ibanez RKB900 with Cobalt flats MIJ PJ bass
Harmony ash and maple P bass with Hi-A pickups.

Even this feels like a embarrassment of riches with 4 basses.

The variety of tones is great, but I miss the simpler days when I had only one and I played the same bass for years on end.

That said, I still can't just get rid of the rest of the herd /platoon.

I guess the silver lining is that a really do like all of my basses and each one sounds great to me.
Click to expand...
I drove over a thousand miles last month in my sedan on a move, trunk was hauling probably 5 jazz basses, 2 more in the back seats, two more in the U-Haul. Did I need to bring all that? Probably not, I ended up only unpacking my main duo, a five-er and a four, the rest are still in the storage room waiting to be put on the wall to look pretty on my new home studio. After a while, they become more of a collection than instruments.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 96tbird, ahbradot, RattleSnack and 6 others
#9
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: 96tbird, ahbradot, Dabndug and 5 others
#11
I have 3 but only use 1 for gigs, all 4 string but I want to get a 5 and take 2 for gigs

EBMM SS HH for live
Fender USA P bass 2005 - sentimental
Gretsch G2200 - crap needs binning

I have the digitech drop which I use to drop down to D, C & B for songs in our set and it works really well. I’d like to have the extended range and some additional lows with the 5 string and take the drop off my board. As it’s not going to be used a great deal, I’m eyeing up the Yamaha BB735A.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LadyLoveStingRay5 and Wasnex
#12
I have way too much basses from cheapos to high end. Using about 10 of them regularly. It depends the feeling for the instrument which changes almost every day. Yesterday a Harley Benton gave me the the right mood, today a Thunderbird, tomorrow an Alembic and next week probably a Fender.
Its a nice feeling to me, I can get what I feel best for the moment.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TeeSee, shirojiro, Sub-hoo-fer and 3 others
#14
My personal slim-down philosophy is to have one bass per string type I like + a cheapo for the road / backup. Currently:
  • My flat bass is a Fender P; laid-back low-mids.
  • My nickel round bass is a Fender J; all-around scoop.
  • My steel round bass is a Sadowsky M; modern high-mids.
  • My stunt bass is a Sire M7 (possibly with experimental strings).
Obviously, I could slim-down even more to my active J, but I like the versatility - each bass makes me play a little differently.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bassinthemudd, RColie, Jason Hollar and 3 others
#18
Two.

Of course, I could survive with one (after all, when I got my first bass I only had that one for about a year, and after a short time of having two when I got my second bass, I sold off the first and went some more years perfectly happy with only having one again).

Currently, i have 6, recently down from the 8 that I’d for about 5 years or so before that; but really, I could easily live with 3:
a P
a short scale
an acoustic

However, these days I’m not playing acoustic so I don’t even need that one (but during my life I’ve had stretches where I was mainly or even exclusively playing acoustic instruments, and i can anticipate such stretches will come again, so I should keep it around even though it’s been a while this [non-acoustic] time).

So, for my life and music these days, two: a Precision and a short scale bass.

Sometimes I have health issues flare up and have to go to the short scale, so that’s been a kind of necessity. And then, to me, a P just sounds right, so while it’s not quite exactly a necessity, it’s close. And then I actually really just like my two short scales, and having a second bass helps maintain some variety (spice of life!), gives a backup, etc., so a P and a short scale serve to back up each other. Problem is, which of my two Ps to keep and which of my two short scales? Each has its own strong points and weaknesses. Finally, I have a fretless acoustic that’s quite fun to mess with sometimes and isn’t really worth selling, though I could easily survive without it. So, I have 6 but need 2, perhaps 3.

A goal this year is to sell off one of my two Ps and get down to 5 basses total, but we’ll see. Like my wife said, just keep both… But, I’m not keeping 6 instruments busy, and I could use the space and money for something else that would give me more satisfaction than having an extra, unplayed P around (in addition to my two currently unplayed acoustics). In a way, having just two would be a relief, but it would be a bit hard to get there
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: JRA and Wasnex
#19
Funny how moving focuses the mind on such things. It was prepping for a move this last summer that led me to finally selling off two Jazzes I had that hadn’t been getting used (even though, in the course of preparing them for sales, I started re-falling in love with one of them, lol)
 
  • Like
Reactions: shirojiro
#20
After years of laughing at people who played 5 strings, I’ve taken the time to get used to playing them and now only play them. I’ve got three 5 strings and am getting ready to sell off two of them because they don’t get used. I’m keeping my Ric which I’ve had since ‘79 and absolutely love. Own as many basses and guitars as you want but don’t buy more than you will play.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back