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One Bass to do it all?

#101
Dr. Cheese said:
The Caprice is a great bass indeed! If EBMM had made a five, I would have bought one eventually.
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5StringBlues said:
I could narrow down to my Roscoe Beck sig Jazz bass but I'd really miss playing my old Epiphone hollowbody too much.
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Which leads us to the Invalid Link Removed. I really recommend it (and you @Dr. Cheese already made a clip about it). I'm a Stingray5 guy and this is not only my "anything else" bass but also can fake a sorta' Musicman tone too. This is the poor man's Roscoe Beck (a 3 way switchable coil tap for each humbucker), just with a more comfy neck (IME, I prefer them skinny) and 17mm spacing at the bridge (I'm OK in the 17-18mm zone). Can sound all sorts of ways, real chamaleonic. I got this bass after years waiting for a Caprice 5 to be a reality (the discontinuation of the Caprice what a BIG disapointment). I loved the Caprice's kinda' "Fender'ish with an attitude/aggressiveness" character and Sterling like skinny neck. This CV-5 is the closest thing I've heard/played on a 5 string. Don't know what you liked/disliked about the CV-5 when you tried it, but maybe you should give one a try with your strings and setup, I personally got a lot of answers about versatility with this bass.
 
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#102
Three basses for the Elvis-king under the sky of Memphis,
Seven for the Heavy-lords in their halls of metal,
Nine for the Country Men doomed to drive their cattle,
One for the Funk Lord on his funky throne
In the Land of Music where the harmony rules.
One bass to rule them all, one bass to find them,
One bass to bring them all and in groove bind them
In the Land of Music where the harmony rules.
 
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#103
I own several Bergers, a splendid Warwick Streamer 5 and a 60th P, but meanwhile i'm using the Steinberger L2-5 only and i don't think i'll switch back to the others for i get any desired sound from. Beside that, the L2-5 is perfectly travel friendly and easy to not let back in non or poorly controlled eras ...
 
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#104
One bass to do it all? That's always been my philosophy.

The one I'm playing now is the best so far, my Sadowsky Jazz. I haven't done a gig in the last 2 1/2 years when it wasn't majestic. It bails me out when I'm not playing my best. I kept the Lull PJ when I bought this and sold the rest. I haven't missed any of them.
 
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#106
Dr. Cheese said:
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.
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I’m a mediocre bassist playing all kinds of music, always on fretless. A big part of it is to not setup your bass to sound just fretless. A tad more action helps and my passive electronics are always with 500 k pots to keep just a bit more highend. Both help with defenition and a versatile technique, wich is more inportant than a versatile bass imho
 
#108
I think the issue is that even though the Pedulla fretless is a great bass, a fretless is not what your ears are wanting to always hear with the type of music that’s you mostly play.

A good active 5 string is most often used and there is a reason for this.
I’m not surprised that the Sire is really what works best in your Church mix. This is another reason I let my Caprice and Stingray5 Special go. Nothing sounds better to me than an active Jazz 5 for this music .

I’ve dedicated myself to focusing on Urban Godpel/ modern Worship music. My Fender Elite Jazz 5 and Sire V3-5 just work better for this type of mix. They also happen to feel great in my hands. To me, that’s the magic combination , feels great and sounds great. Good looks is the icing on the cake . The fact that they can both handle any other type of music is the cherry on top.
 
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#112
Reedt2000 said:
I've used my Warwick FNA Jazzman 5-string for a lot of different projects and styles. The J/MM setup is really versatile. I've played funk, pop, blues, rock, heavy stuff, and I've always been able to dial in appropriate bass tone with blending the PUs and occasionally tweaking with the preamp.
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I agree with you on versatility of tone on the FNA, but for me the look (mine is honey violin like yours in my avatar) doesn't always fit the situation (same with some of my other wood finish basses) so I usually grab something that's a little more subtle looking with a darker wood or black finish in those situations.

My Skjold has the most tonal versatility - I can get anything out of it, just amazing.
 
#113
I mean this in the most polite way, but.....if you would stop philosophising about what bass to use you could have put alot of time in the shed my friend. I had buddies go through college jazz studies with an upright and a cheap MIM fender to cover all grounds. I did my school years with only my jazz bass no back ups. Even after that I thought lessons for years with that same jazz bass. It's all in the fingers buddy. ;)

:)

Friendly....in no way antagonizing.

Cheers buddy.
 
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#114
I’ve been playing bass for almost 20 years now, and just last year got a Precision (for better or worse- thanks TB :rolleyes:)

I realized with other active and/or 2 pickup basses, I would find the “best” (to me) tone and leave it there. Now, I’m no pro, just a weekend warrior; but I like to bring “my” tone to whatever I play. I just wanna plug in and play the lines. Whatever band I choose to play with, the P will fit.

I did just join a bluegrass band, and I half considered getting a thumpier bass for that; maybe a semi hollow or something with a neck Humbucker. But everyone in the band has been raving about my playing, I figure why rock the boat!
 
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#115
ugly_bassplayer said:
I mean this in the most polite way, but.....if you would stop philosophising about what bass to use you could have put alot of time in the shed my friend. I had buddies go through college jazz studies with an upright and a cheap MIM fender to cover all grounds. I did my school years with only my jazz bass no back ups. Even after that I thought lessons for years with that same jazz bass. It's all in the fingers buddy. ;)

:)

Friendly....in no way antagonizing.

Cheers buddy.
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I know you are right already and I am in no way offended.
 
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#118
Variety is the spice of life. Some days, one bass just sounds better than the other to me, or I feel more dialled in to one bass than the other. I make my choices for what to play that day based on that instinct.

If the choice is to have one bass that does everything to a reasonable standard, or a few that perform a specific role to an exceptional standard, I'll take the latter.
 
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