One Bass to do it all?

[Rib 13]

My G&L ASAT (a L2K with a tele body) is technically my #1 (my Sire is currently, as its 5 string)...I consider it the ultimate Swiss Army bass as it can achieve the broadest palette of diverse voicings of any bass in my personal arsenal.....have you ever sat down with a L2K or ASAT and tried going through it thoroughly?

 

[Door County Bass]

‘One is the loneliest number...”

 

[Gilmourisgod]

If I had to sell all but one, my G&L L2k would probably be the survivor. It gets all the standard P & J tones, plus a passable Ric emulation in Treble boost mode. It’s a little heavy, but perfectly balanced. Absurdly versatile bass with very high build quality.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

A part of me is still leery about a fretless being my number one, but there are so many great fretless players in so many genres. I am sure I could manage as a mediocre bassist who plays a few different styles.

Reading your post had me thinking, maybe you just prefer fretted basses. I know a lot of fretless players who prefer fretted basses, especially for some styles.

 

[Bass V]

man, I'd be PO'd to spend $$$ on a legendary high end bass only to be disappointed, good luck with it.
I've spent the equivalent on various low enders over the years only to end up with a super sweet $100 P bass being my main go-to at present, it does everything I like exceedingly well despite no bridge PU, even cops a cool Mountainous Felix-esque feel when going thru my apt. mini rig. couldn't ask for more ...but I am. topping my GAS list forever is the bass that does 0 of it all except the one thing it does better than anything else, blow down big buildings with the pluck of a single note, the Gibson EB-0 violin, or it's SG equivalent. sure wish I could go to the library and borrow one lol the fear of a di$appointment like the OP's is a scary consideration!

 

[Marc DLarosa]

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 will humbly say this, about the Bass players that have had "careers" with ONE bass...
They had a signature sound, and played ORIGINAL Music. Those of You who are not in this position, have varying tones in Your heads, and want to hear them ALL come out of ONE bass.
I think that it's honorable to pay tribute to those "career" folk, but... I don't see getting that many DIFFERENT tones/sounds out of ONE bass.

Don't be so hard on Yourself, and... keep doing what You do, My Friend.

Peace

 

[cromag31]

lakland 55-94!!!
nuff said.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Reading your post had me thinking, maybe you just prefer fretted basses. I know a lot of fretless players who prefer fretted basses, especially for some styles.

I will admit that playing fretless has made me realize that there are fretted tones that I REALLY like.

 

[JZQuantum]

It's too hard to get to only one bass. I feel like I always need a 4 string and a 5 string at any one time. I could probably get to one TYPE of bass...meaning a 4 string and 5 string P bass at the same time, but I'm not making that decision any time soon.

I'm sticking to 4 basses at the moment...a Warmoth p bass, a Peavey Fury, MIA jazz and a Stingray 5H.

 

[40Hz]

I enjoy playing different basses. And I have always happily tried out anything I could get my hands on. But despite now owning several really nice basses, I really only need a (as in just one) bass. And I’m pretty confident I could make whatever bass that ended up being work in whatever musical context I found myself in.

Sure, I have preferences. But those preferences aren’t the same thing as requirements.

I never really bought into the “one bass to rule them all” thing. I’m more the “make the best out of whatever you’ve got to work with” type of player. Use it up. Wear it out. Make do. Improvise.

But maybe that’s because owning multiple basses is a relatively recent thing for me. It wasn’t till around five or six years ago that I started acquiring most of what I currently own. Before that I mostly just owned two: my first bass and something else, which was usually a Jazz.

 

[sikamikanico]

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.

 

[JimmyM]

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

Not all do

 

[mikewalker]

Unless you want to spend a goodly percentage of your remaining hours on this planet CHANGiNG BASS STRINGS, it's probably prudent to have at least THREE ( one for rounds, one for flats, one for tapes...)

 

[kerrycares]

I have a number of basses that I play at home but I primarily play electric gigs on my Bassmods Cali 5.

 

[diegom]

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.

While the Pedulla is an excellent instrument, it does have its own sound. Fretless, on top of that!
I'm sure the Pedulla can do a more-than-adequate job on any genres, but it will not give you a Chris Squire growl and snarl. Musicians who use a single instrument for their whole career have a basic (bassic??) voice and they don't stray too far from that. If you seem to like the Sire for these particular selections, it is not about the bass or the songs. It is about what you hear in your head as the 'perfect' sound for those songs...

We have such a huge availability of instruments, that we now have more points of reference, instead of just saying "That's the sound I have, that's the sound I like, and that's how the song will sound with this tone"...

Of course, YMMV. You're probably holding yourself to a very high standard...

Good luck!

Diego

 

[Dr. Cheese]

My G&L ASAT (a L2K with a tele body) is technically my #1 (my Sire is currently, as its 5 string)...I consider it the ultimate Swiss Army bass as it can achieve the broadest palette of diverse voicings of any bass in my personal arsenal.....have you ever sat down with a L2K or ASAT and tried going through it thoroughly?

I agree that the double MFD and G&L preamp/switching system is super versatile. In fact, the fretless L-1505 was a fretless that could really sound fretted, including a great slap tone. The Pedulla is not great at impersonating a fretted bass. G&L fives, outside of L-1505, are not my favorite. The L-1505 is apparently discontinued; probably a fretless Kiloton would work for me, but I am not trying to buy more Basses!

 

[buldog5151bass]

I've said it before - for 20 years, I played one bass, a jazz with a P neck, upgraded bridge pickup and e string de-tuner. Rock (covers and originals), jazz, pit band, church and school concert band. No one ever had issues with my tone. Still my favorite bass after 35 years. If it wasn't almost 12 pounds, I'd never have touched another bass.

Toys are fun, but we get carried away with having the "right" bass/strings/cab/head.

 

[pappabass]

Just 1 bass?? Oh come on !!
I have 3
1. ESP/LTD B205 Korean made, it is my church bass.
2. Fender P, my beer joint bass
3. Sterling Ray 4 when I want a clean bass sound.
Don't play in church any more,
Fender P is a little muddy sounding like all are. Already bought & sold 2 other fenders. I would end up just buying another one. Plus its my davoite color, black on black
Mainly play the Sterling now.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

I will humbly say this, about the Bass players that have had "careers" with ONE bass...
They had a signature sound, and played ORIGINAL Music. Those of You who are not in this position, have varying tones in Your heads, and want to hear them ALL come out of ONE bass.
I think that it's honorable to pay tribute to those "career" folk, but... I don't see getting that many DIFFERENT tones/sounds out of ONE bass.

Don't be so hard on Yourself, and... keep doing what You do, My Friend.

Peace

This is a great point. Most studio player since the 1980’s are multiple instrument players. Even Marcus Miller goes fretted and fretless.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

man, I'd be PO'd to spend $$$ on a legendary high end bass only to be disappointed, good luck with it.
I've spent the equivalent on various low enders over the years only to end up with a super sweet $100 P bass being my main go-to at present, it does everything I like exceedingly well despite no bridge PU, even cops a cool Mountainous Felix-esque feel when going thru my apt. mini rig. couldn't ask for more ...but I am. topping my GAS list forever is the bass that does 0 of it all except the one thing it does better than anything else, blow down big buildings with the pluck of a single note, the Gibson EB-0 violin, or it's SG equivalent. sure wish I could go to the library and borrow one lol the fear of a di$appointment like the OP's is a scary consideration!

My Pedulla is the best made bass I have ever owned, and it is far from a disappointment. I just know that there are times that I just love the tone of a fretted bass. I also think that I need to get used to fretless in more settings. I recently have been listening to Tony Franklin with Blue Murder, and his very fretless sounding fretless kills in that hair metal setting. Fretless is close to non-existent in Urban Gospel, there is no reason why I can’t be different. My biggest problem was that during rehearsal, I could not hear definition of the notes on my Pedulla like a I wanted even though the bass cut through clearly. I will try my Pedulla again for these rehearsals which are with a keyboardist who is much louder than our regular choir leader. He also has a lot more chops. Now that I know these songs passably on fretted bass, maybe I can transfer the knowledge back to my Pedulla.