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One Bass Only: A short treatise

#41
Im on the same page as the OP. I am down to one bass, my 08 MIA P-bass. Its a great bass but I really want is a PJ in a P body with a Jazz neck with the same MIA appointments and quality. Too bad Fender doesnt make such an animal outside of the custom shop.
 
#43
I dig the one-bass thing, and if I weren't (usually) in a band, I would go that route.

However, as I tend to be in bands, playing shows and attending rehearsals and all that, I like to have a spare bass - not just as a backup for important gigs, but also a lighter, cheaper one I don't mind knocking about a bit for practices and dive-bar gigs.

FWIW, since I tend to not play them live, I only have one guitar and one saxophone; all the gigging guitarists/horn players I know have multiple.
 
#45
It's nice to be able to afford a good stable of different instruments, but I know in my youth I felt lucky just to have one decent instrument and a reasonable amp rig of one head and one cab to gig with. I updated my gear, when I could afford something better, but I usually had to sell the old bass I had, to get the one I thought was better. It was that way for a good while until my day job and my gigs combined, grew financially and allowed me the luxury of keeping the stuff I had, and adding more.
 
#46
tbassist4 said:
In the overall tonal spectrum, an electric bass is an electric bass. A P-bass can do what a J-bass can do and vice versa - and this carries over for every electric bass. We think that basses sound so different from one another because we're so used to listening to them and picking apart every element of their sound. To a guitarist or to an average listener, they probably wouldn't be able to tell which you were playing unless they saw it, or had experience with basses. Even bass players often can't tell them apart, as has been demonstrated here on TB with several blind tests including a J vs. P bass in a recording.

Consider it this way: In the world of classical double bass, you soon realize that every bass you pick up has a vastly different character, but to a cello/violin/viola player, they might only notice huge differences (like a 4k instrument vs. a 25k instrument). In addition - despite these apparent vast differences, there is no consistency forced in double bass sections - except perhaps that an instrument be of a certain quality level. There's so much tonal overlap between DBs that the nuances are actually quite small in comparison. Much more has to do with your playing and technique than the instrument itself. The same goes for electric bass.

Really the only reason to own more than one bass is for yourself. It's not as if you picked up a music man and it was all of a sudden incapable of doing pop, or you picked up a P-bass and all of a sudden it refused to be played in a jazz trio. In the objective musical world if you have one nice bass that plays well, is comfortable, and your technique is up to snuff, you'll be able to do everything out there and sound really good.
Click to expand...

I disagree slightly. I played a P-Bass with flats for a gospel rehearsal last week(full band, 60 piece choir) and it sounded VERY out of place slapped and the low notes transposed up an octave. Being a rehearsal I decided to try it assuming a P-bass should sit perfectly fine in that idium, and it didn't. Can you get by with it? Yes. Is it at all preferable? No. But I do understand your argument.
 
#48
I should clarify my statement as tbassist4 wasn't necessarily refering to a P-Bass with flats, but rather one instrument that is versatile and can cover most anything you might play. In that case, you could very well have zero issue using one bass for every opportunity that comes up.
 
#51
Well I own only 1 bass(a cheap one,and I own only 1 because I don't have the money lol).

But,I believe that all my needs will be accomplished when I have 2 jazz basses.
one is fretted and one is fretless.
Fretted because well,its the "standard" sound,probably I will have it active with quality premap and quality pickups.

The fretless will be passive.
Fretless just sounds awesome!

So yeah well,I also don't understand the need of 10 basses..
If I got some serious GAS I might buy another one.
But i see people with 10 basses,and both me and them know they don't really play them all...


And well,to be honest if my house ever gets robbed(god please don't),I will lose 2-3 basses,and not 10 or more :D!
 
#54
For the moment, I own one bass, and I couldn't afford a second. But I'm happy.

For my level of playing, I think I wouldn't need to worry much about what particular bass I play, what I need to learn now I can learn on any bass.

I like the sound of my squier 50s P with flats, it works for what I play, so it's just fine for me now.

If I can ever afford a better bass, I will get one I guess. Still I would simply feel arkward owning two basses.
I just hope I find "the one" bass when the time comes, and for now I am fine with what I have.

The only reason for me to own a second bass would be a fretless one.
 
#55
bigcardinal said:
I get GAS attacks too, trust me! I'll see something new I like, do a bunch of research, look into pricing, and then ultimately decide that I should stop looking at it because I don't need it.

Funny thing is, right now I'm as minimalist as they come: I currently have NO basses! LOL. I sold my MIM P because I needed the money, but I still have my Traynor amp (don't look for logic here...I guess I just knew that eventually I would be getting a new bass). So, part of this note was self-instructive in the sense that I want to get ONE bass that will be fulfilling and adequate. I'm not a great player, nor do I have much money, so that shouldn't be a problem ;)
Click to expand...

I personally do not agree with your philosophy or what I'd term a "justification" of having just one bass. Being a drumber I've seen a LOT of this discussion in another instrument. How many drums should your kit have? Should you have an array of sonic choices being surrounded by hundreds of percussion items or is "less is more"? Well BOTH are sort of true!

One well-known way to jump-start creativity is to reduce your drumkit down to next to nothing. The smaller the better. What that does is takes away all the myriad sonic choices and FORCES you to concentrate on the NOTES and the MUSIC. The bass-equivalent is one bass that forces your attention on "it's all in the fingers"! It forces your attention onto the notes and the music. It gives you a new perspective and emphasis.

But you also need to understand that it's all about the music and sonic choices are a REALITY. Do they just make shoes in one size? And then tell everyone with big feet to just sort find a pair that is "as versatile as possible"? It's not how it's done.

Basically sonic choices are as much about the music as are the choice of notes, dynamics, etc. I'm sorry but your Fender P or whatever it is, is NOT the same bass as any of my fretless basses. Nor is it like my 8 string (octaves). It doesn't look like my Wishbass, nor sound like my Modulus. And it probably costs way more than my bar basses.

The point is there are basses with quite different characteristics and purposes here! If you have ONE purpose, and only love ONE kind of music and you found the one bass that fits that music. Well, then one bass is exactly right for you...assuming that you intend to stagnate and never learn anything new! I know some players who have played not just the same bass, but the same rig for 25 years, who have an "image" and make a living. I guess it works for them, but I'd be awfully bored doing that. My imagination is always fascinated with new ideas.

Which brings the final point. You have GAS. Why? Probably because like most of us you have an interest in lots of things and would like to learn more. GAS and a new bass is of course easily justified as "educational". The best way to learn about this or that thing (fretless, 6 string, doubled strings, active electronics, etc. etc.) is to actually live with one for a while. Once you've learned about it, THEN things are different. You can say, "this isn't me" and sell it. Or you can say, "I can see lots of places where this would fit into our music". And keep it.

Personally I don't buy the argument that if you aren't playing a bass you have to get rid of it. Wrong question. It isn't ARE you playing that bass, but rather DO YOU EVER EXPECT to be playing that bass sometime in the future. Things that I've "outgrown" or go with music I've outgrown are things I don't "need". But just because currently I'm not doing music that needs 6 strings and not playing my 6 stringers, doesn't mean I'm hurting the poor starving children of India by leaving them in by closet. By selling them I'd be hurting myself, because I'd never know if I could be as lucky TWICE to find another bass later just like them, if I sold them now and then suddenly "needed" them later.
 
#56
While I agree with the notion of minimalism, I don't see myself cutting to one bass in the forseeable future.

Others have commented about the need for backup and having different instruments for different styles. Those both apply to me.

But also it doesn't make economic sense. I go through phases where individual basses don't get played for a while, then I pick up a new project and come back to them. In 1985 I sold my first Rickenbacker for $400. Two years ago I spent almost $2,000 replacing it because I felt needed that voice. I would have been smarter to leave the original Rick under the bed. Plus the cost of owning a bass includes the cost of tracking it down, buying it, and getting it set up right.

Also each bass has its own voice, and even if 95% of the crowd can't hear it, 5% can (and at one stage when I had a mortgage, trying to economise on gear definitely cost me gigs because that 5% included fellow musos). But even if only I could hear it, it changes my playing. There are lines that will cut through on a Rick and sound dull on a P, while the P settles easily into a solid but unspectacular groove. An upright can't be played as fast as a fretless or sustain as much, and a fretless can't get the warm breath of an upright. And so on. So if you put me into a situation with the "wrong" bass I will change what I play around the limitations of the instrument. This particularly matters in recording, where the nuances of an instrument become more obvious.

Finally there are some situations where my best gear is likely to get damaged or stolen, so I have something cheaper to use in those situations. With uprights, this has already paid for itself when the neck on my plywood beater got broken - a cheap repair on that bass, but would have been 2-3 times the cost of the entire cheap bass to do the same repair on my good one.

Oh and I guess I forgot the issue of setup. My electrics are all pretty similar but my orchestral and pizz uprights are vastly different, and a compromise setting that is good enough for both is not possible.

So I agree with the basic principle of the OP, but it leads me to a different number of basses.
 
#57
bassbenj said:
I personally do not agree with your philosophy or what I'd term a "justification" of having just one bass. Being a drumber I've seen a LOT of this discussion in another instrument. How many drums should your kit have? Should you have an array of sonic choices being surrounded by hundreds of percussion items or is "less is more"? Well BOTH are sort of true!

One well-known way to jump-start creativity is to reduce your drumkit down to next to nothing. The smaller the better. What that does is takes away all the myriad sonic choices and FORCES you to concentrate on the NOTES and the MUSIC. The bass-equivalent is one bass that forces your attention on "it's all in the fingers"! It forces your attention onto the notes and the music. It gives you a new perspective and emphasis.

But you also need to understand that it's all about the music and sonic choices are a REALITY. Do they just make shoes in one size? And then tell everyone with big feet to just sort find a pair that is "as versatile as possible"? It's not how it's done.

Basically sonic choices are as much about the music as are the choice of notes, dynamics, etc. I'm sorry but your Fender P or whatever it is, is NOT the same bass as any of my fretless basses. Nor is it like my 8 string (octaves). It doesn't look like my Wishbass, nor sound like my Modulus. And it probably costs way more than my bar basses.

The point is there are basses with quite different characteristics and purposes here! If you have ONE purpose, and only love ONE kind of music and you found the one bass that fits that music. Well, then one bass is exactly right for you...assuming that you intend to stagnate and never learn anything new! I know some players who have played not just the same bass, but the same rig for 25 years, who have an "image" and make a living. I guess it works for them, but I'd be awfully bored doing that. My imagination is always fascinated with new ideas.

Which brings the final point. You have GAS. Why? Probably because like most of us you have an interest in lots of things and would like to learn more. GAS and a new bass is of course easily justified as "educational". The best way to learn about this or that thing (fretless, 6 string, doubled strings, active electronics, etc. etc.) is to actually live with one for a while. Once you've learned about it, THEN things are different. You can say, "this isn't me" and sell it. Or you can say, "I can see lots of places where this would fit into our music". And keep it.

Personally I don't buy the argument that if you aren't playing a bass you have to get rid of it. Wrong question. It isn't ARE you playing that bass, but rather DO YOU EVER EXPECT to be playing that bass sometime in the future. Things that I've "outgrown" or go with music I've outgrown are things I don't "need". But just because currently I'm not doing music that needs 6 strings and not playing my 6 stringers, doesn't mean I'm hurting the poor starving children of India by leaving them in by closet. By selling them I'd be hurting myself, because I'd never know if I could be as lucky TWICE to find another bass later just like them, if I sold them now and then suddenly "needed" them later.
Click to expand...

Very good point however the initial comparison to drummers doesn't hold water. Drummers can have a huge kit and literally play it all during a song. Basses can only be played one at a time. Regardless it's a good point you make.

The OP didn't say it but I suspect that he is married. My "one bass to rule them all" philosophy is strongly rooted in the "happy wives make a happy home" philosophy. And really all I need is one. Just gotta figure out which one that is . . .
 
#58
tbassist4 said:
In the overall tonal spectrum, an electric bass is an electric bass. A P-bass can do what a J-bass can do and vice versa - and this carries over for every electric bass. We think that basses sound so different from one another because we're so used to listening to them and picking apart every element of their sound. To a guitarist or to an average listener, they probably wouldn't be able to tell which you were playing unless they saw it, or had experience with basses. Even bass players often can't tell them apart, as has been demonstrated here on TB with several blind tests including a J vs. P bass in a recording.

Consider it this way: In the world of classical double bass, you soon realize that every bass you pick up has a vastly different character, but to a cello/violin/viola player, they might only notice huge differences (like a 4k instrument vs. a 25k instrument). In addition - despite these apparent vast differences, there is no consistency forced in double bass sections - except perhaps that an instrument be of a certain quality level. There's so much tonal overlap between DBs that the nuances are actually quite small in comparison. Much more has to do with your playing and technique than the instrument itself. The same goes for electric bass.

Really the only reason to own more than one bass is for yourself. It's not as if you picked up a music man and it was all of a sudden incapable of doing pop, or you picked up a P-bass and all of a sudden it refused to be played in a jazz trio. In the objective musical world if you have one nice bass that plays well, is comfortable, and your technique is up to snuff, you'll be able to do everything out there and sound really good.
Click to expand...

Comments on this.

Rather than saying any electric bass can do what any other electric bass can do, I would say there is a fair amount of overlap but there are still differences. For example, you can't make a fretted bass sound like a fretless. You can't make a bridge pickup sound like a neck pickup. So Jaco's trademark sound and reputation as one of the greats could never have happened on an EB0 or a Rick like it did on a fretless jazz. He might still have been great, but it would have been different.

Finding an edge through technological advance is actually quite common. Think Beatles and multitrack recording, Duran Duran and the Fairlight, Edge and digital delay, modern bands and autotune.....

Orchestrally I am an amateur, so you probably know more than me. But my teacher now retired was a VERY serious professional and he has told me stories of uniformity being forced, right down to one major orchestra ordering a set of matching instruments from a high end luthier. And I have heard of people being told they passed the audition provided they change their instrument for a bigger one (which I guess you can see as a quality issue, but I played the rejected instrument in question and it was rather nice). And I have at one stage talked to a band who said I would have to leave my gear at home and use theirs if I joined. (I didn't, but for other reasons).
 

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