One Bass to do it all?

[pachelbel160]

I’m torn between two. My Sire 5 and MM MiJ Jazz. Maybe one day I’ll get down to one... still got a heavily modded fretless 4 and a passive fretless 6 that I built a few years ago

 

[Miles_ONeal]

One bass to rule them all, one bass to grind them, one bass to rock them all and in the pocket bind them.

You win the internets today! And that bass is my Preciousss...

 

[Miles_ONeal]

I'm fine with my Thunderbirds (Epi IV and Epi Pro V). I know I could get by with the IV just fine if I had to.

 

[Stugilliam]

Ah, but he who dies with the most toys wins!! And I haven't that long to wait, I will go peacefully with my over two dozen wooden children around me!

 

[JD Ronson]

I'm fine with my Thunderbirds (Epi IV and Epi Pro V). I know I could get by with the IV just fine if I had to.

HA I was doing fine with my T-Bird Vintage Pro backing up my fretless for songs I didn't need a 5-er for. Maybe that's what I should do - 5 string t-bird =)

 

[Bryant Mosher]

Recently, I found that I had a hard time getting my Pedulla to sound the way I wanted it to when rehearsing for a church concert at the end of the month. My Sire really sounds great for the music, but it is bothering me that my main bass is not working out. Now that I know the songs better, I am going to practice them at home on the Pedulla and use my Pentabuzz at the next rehearsal. I think of how many great players have had careers on one bass, and I feel that I should be able to carry out my humble take on one bass too. In fact, I really want to let some basses go. Probably just keeping my Sire, Peavey Fury, and Pedulla. I do have another bass on an extended layaway and selling off my Carvin may take care of that. Four basses is still a lot of basses, but I want to use the Pedulla at least 75% of the time. If my Peavey had not only cost me $65, I would probably sell it too.

 

[NLbassguy]

I’m in the ‘one bass is not enough’ camp. For a long time I thought my one p/j style shortscale bass with flats would do it for me, then on a whim one day I Put the old rounds back on it and fell in love with that grittiness and clang again. I ended up buying a squier cv p just to have rounds on it, so now I have the best of both worlds, the shortscale with flats which is super comfortable to play and works for funk, blues, and anything where I want a faux-upright sound....and I’ve got the basic/typical pbass with rounds on it for playing anything that needs more grit, diggin in, rock, etc.

That being said, I feel like I can get any tone I’m likely to want between those 2 basses, and the one common denominator is that split P pickup. Thats the bass tone I’ve always liked the most, and I know now that that is what does it for me.

As a little footnote, I also would strongly recommend that anyone with multiple basses own at least one good shortscale!

 

[Djadja]

I'm a one instrument kind of guy.

I was an acoustic guitar player for years and my #1 was a Lowden O25C. It is not a do everything guitar but the sound just fit me. I tried buying backups, other guitars for multiple tunings (I was playing in about 7 different tunings per show), "outside" guitars... but found I always went back to my #1 even when the others were equally good sounding/playing guitars (at one point I had 3 Lowdens - still played 1).

For bass, my bass is the fretless Bee in my avatar. Again, not a do everything bass but it has become my sound. One of these days I may swap out the pre-amp for one that is "do more" type... probably an Audere. I would be perfectly satisfied to have only that bass. Saying that, I do have a fretted Ibanez Mezzo that I have been playing a lot and like. I swapped out the J pup and will likely swap the preamp on it as well, also to an Audere... I had a band leader a while back who required that I play a fretted bass and even though that gig is long gone, I decided to keep one just in case...

 

[Bruce]

Recently, I found that I had a hard time getting my Pedulla to sound the way I wanted it to when rehearsing for a church concert at the end of the month. My Sire really sounds great for the music, but it is bothering me that my main bass is not working out. Now that I know the songs better, I am going to practice them at home on the Pedulla and use my Pentabuzz at the next rehearsal. I think of how many great players have had careers on one bass, and I feel that I should be able to carry out my humble take on one bass too. In fact, I really want to let some basses go. Probably just keeping my Sire, Peavey Fury, and Pedulla. I do have another bass on an extended layaway and selling off my Carvin may take care of that. Four basses is still a lot of basses, but I want to use the Pedulla at least 75% of the time. If my Peavey had not only cost me $65, I would probably sell it too.

I have a nice arsenal of basses, Kubicki, Status, 78 P, Fender Kingman acoustic, but the one bass I have that fits all my needs is a 2013 Fender Road Worn Jazz with original BadAss II bridge. These basses kick butt.

 

[tbplayer59]

In my opinion, there is no musical reason to have more than one bass. Singers have "one voice" but manage just fine.

But there is also nothing wrong with having multiple basses. If you're clear and honest with what you want, than all is good.

I think the OP is a good example of why a variety of basses may be needed. There's no way a Pedulla fretless is going to sound like a P bass, or vice versa. If you've got different gigs, you may need different tools to do different jobs.

 

[Bryant Mosher]

First, I recall something purportedly said by luthier Rick Turner: "You want ten tone controls?" Then he wiggled all of his fingers. This is basically true. The best bassist can draw great tone and make a pretty lousy bass sound darn good. A lousy bassist cannot make a premiere bass sound worth diddly squat. But regarding drawing a specific tone preferred for a specific style of music and/or for setting against one's body properly for use of a particular technique, the bass chosen may make a big difference to most players. This is likely true in part due to such things as round wound strings vs. flatwounds, number and tuning of strings, pickup placement along active string length, tone control array, sometimes how a manufacturer has addressed these components, yada yada. So, after most players take the preceding into account relative to their developed abilities, the average player is going to have preferences. I for one, cannot get what I want for all of the styles of music I play out of one bass. So I have two acoustic uprights, 4-, 5- & 6-st 42" EUB's, as well as a pretty large group of both fretted and fretless, round wound and flat wound, 4- through true 8-st (B thru B flat, but having been may alternatives) electrics, along with such anomalies as a Mexican guitarron turned into a 35" 4-st fretless, a 38" quad output 4-st and a 3 lb. mini 35" strap-on EUB. Some are interchangeable for applications, but some are unique to the task. At times, it simply depends on how I feel at the time I am heading to a gig or session; I might even take a few of different configurations just in case. So in my opinion, a player who plays one style of music with one finite set of techniques and who does not deviate from nor experiment with their developed style(s) may well find 'one' perfect bass. Otherwise, the territory for exploration of what the bass may do both within and outside the immense vastness of musical possibilities beacons us to try them all.

 

[Foeredetting]

Sandberg California 5 string. It has a P-pickup and an MM style pup at the bridge. With a so far planned additional switch I can run only one of the coils =Jazz Bass. Pretty versatile. Fretlless will be difficult on it though.

 

[benhill1982]

My Sandberg VM5 with coil tap on the humbucker is very close to covering everything. P, 60/70’s J, Stingray (approx)

 

[Bassmike62]

Don't know about the future, but for the last 8 years, Jazz basses have been able to cover it all for me, even more since I started modifying them by series-parelleling the pick-ups 3 years ago. It simply is a very reliable, comfortable and fun bass to play for me. My 4 Jazzes all have the same mods so on stage, if I change basses for whatever reasons, I'm not risking using one that won't do the job. I bring 2 basses at gigs and use the same one throughout, usually the Fender American Special 2011. Once in a while, I buy a different model (Epi TBirds, Peaveys, even a hand-made Ric imitation that was awesome) but always end up flipping it. In the future, might give MusicMan basses a spin, they've always intrigued me and TBirds are never far from my mind... who knows, right ?

 

[GTA4lifehomie]

Depending on the bass you have i would sell the peavey and then get a peavey t40, in terms of what it can do it is exactly everything that your heart desires, they are iconic basses but only until recent is that people are finding out about these legendary beastly basses, they can do anything from single coils to humbuckers immitate a rickenbacker a thunderbird, a precision bass a Gibson EB 0 they have phase switching and some say it can do a musicman stingray type sound as well no task is too big or too small for one of them peavey t40s

 

[Wyvern]

Unfortunately I got really good examples of basses that I wish I could sell, but I can't.

I have a Dingwall Combustion 3X in black burst swamp ash I use it for everything from church to Rush, breaking ben to my own stuff (I faster/prog rock, not in a band... yet). I can't say it covers the whole sound spectrum because it's very aggressive and modern sounding with pronounced high mids.

And in close second is my LTD B-1005 SE Bubinga- love the wenge neck, great midrange, good warmth and attack and sweet highs. Better balanced than the Dingo with more of a raw sound, but has a meh B due to the 34" scale, main it with Rush covers since I can get that Geddy sound with it.

Now I have a Steinberger spirit XZ-51 I thought about selling, it doesn't sound impressive, but it is the best balanced and most comfortable bass I've ever played, plus it's a really nice example. It stays as my practice and doodle bass since it's so easy to play.

I have a LTD F-415 I dubbed "Spider bass" looks so fricking good and the fretwork is exceptional, but I don't play it much due to the narrow and taught string spacing, does sound good with the EMG Bucker in the neck and P5 split in the bridge. I have decided to keep it for drop down tuning and pick playing.

I also have a 6 string BTB776PB, best looking top I've seen on these, and plays really easy for a 6 string, but I really don't need the C string so it gathers dust. I have decided to part ways with it soon however.

I also have a Knightro Exploder multiscale bass in the works, with wood/pup selection geared for midrange and a balance between the Dingo and the B-1005.

I honestly wish I never bought the F-415, ZX-51 and the BTB- The two 5'ers would be sold if someone approached me cash in hand with a good offer.

Gas is a very costly condition.

 

[northerngitbass]

Don't know if they've been mentioned yet (I can't be arsed to read 18 pages, sorry) but the Line 6 700 and 705 seem to get more praise than kicks. I've got the 705 and like it. Most people say that they sound like what they're trying to sound like. I've got two Hagstrom H8's though and it doesn't give an accurate take on that bass (and neither could it - one string trying to sound like two) but in general it gives pretty faithful renditions I think...

 

[northerngitbass]

Mind you, despite the fact that I've got the 705 I still have at least ten others (and I've sold two or three of late too...)! ( - :

 

[Pete Langford]

The only bass that really covers it all is the Fender Precision. If you can't do it with that, maybe you should play guitar.

 

[Wyvern]

I always thought a PJ was the most flexible.