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One great bass or multiple good basses???

One great bass or multiple good basses??

  • One great bass

    Votes: 120 32.4%
  • Multiple good basses

    Votes: 209 56.5%
  • carrots

    Votes: 41 11.1%

  • Total voters
    370
Fellow TBers,

I've been eyeing a EBMM Stingray for a while. But to pay for the MM I would need the sell my Lakland Skyline DJ4 and G&L L2000 tribute.
Would you rather have one great bass or multiple good basses (in terms of sound build quality)? IMO the Lakland and G&L are good basses.
My take on this;
'Great' is a big word and you don't know if that sting ray is a great bass before you've played it. I'have tried many, and quite a few of those were good, Many were ok. VERY FEW were any where near 'great'.
If you find an individual bass that you consider to be 'great' rather than just a design you like, then consider selling the ones you know ,are good.
Not before then.
 
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Hadn't thought of it this way, but I recently started hanging my bass in the living room, and I seem to find myself fiddling with it all day. Up until yesterday, I was in the one great bass camp, but apparently my first bass (A BB3000) that I thought was gone has been living in my brother in law's attic!

So, yay me, and I'll be voting one great bass and one nice flexible backup that has some sentimental value. Is that too specific?

Sounds perfect :)
 
A bird in the hand is worth more then two in the bush, or in your case, two good basses in your possession is worth more than the one you think is greater. I wouldn't sell two basses that I know I like for one I'm not familiar with (unless, you've played the EBMM Stingray and you're absolutely positive it's what your want). I'm under the persuasion that it's better to save your dollars/pounds/rubies to buy the EBMM Stingray outright. You don't want to regret getting rid of the basses you already have, unless you're young enough that you haven't experienced the bitter taste of regret, in which case... Go For It!!!

Let us know how it turns out.
 
Multiple good ones and "special purpose" ones.
This week and over the weekend it's been the short scale light weight basses that have been made to play/sound/look great due to the number of gigs(2 Saturday, 1 today) and being 62 years old(back complains sometimes) and moving your own gear.

A Peavey T-40(40 tons!) works best in the studio to get almost any tone + a Line 6 Variax bass but they see very little use live. If my Kahler-equipped basses were lighter weight(nope), they'd be used the most b/c they are the most fun and stay in tune even if abused(thanks Eric Haven and friends at Bass Tremolo Fanatics ).
 
Tricky answer, I wanted one particular really good bass and bought it. However I had a few bass's with that which I trimmed down to just 2. The really good base and a budget bass small enough to travel and sit on the couch with.

So it really depends.
 
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Choose the option that makes you play better, more, and inspires you to make even better music. For me, it's 3 basses (most likely more to come). Good vs great is a matter of preference. But I'll say I'd never trade my Lakland for an EBMM. That's my preference.
 
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Since this poll only offered two non-vegetarian choices, here's what I came up with:

I have a few really great basses but one is the greatest. If my choice was get rid of it and keep the others, or get rid of the others and keep it, I'd keep it. As difficult as it would be, I'd go with one great bass. :bassist:
 
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I debate this all the time. For the playing I do I don't need a P with flats, a J with rounds, an active 5, a fretless, etc. etc. so I have one Roscoe Fretted 5. I have had it for a while now and can get a lot of different tones from it. Works for me.

I sometimes think about having multiple basses, but this is simple, easy, grab and go...and no one is complaining about the sound of my Roscoe. That said, there have been times lately where a fretless would have been nice - mostly at church. I guess in a perfect world I'd have an active 5 string fretless to match my fretted. I did but sold it.
 
There is no reason a "great" bass needs to be super expensive, and therefore you can have multiple basses that are great to you. Case in point, I just bought a 1991 Mexican P as a backup to my MIA P, and lo and behold I like it *at least* as much as my MIA. And I really really like my MIA, like more than any bass I had previously owned (many).
 
Never succeeded in finding a "do it all" bass, though I've certainly tried. Had several basses over the years that I bought with that being the intent--y'know, ones that can cop multiple tones. The only bass that really gets close to a "do-it-all" axe for me is regular 'ol pbass, just 'cause it can work pretty much in any genre/context with no fuss. So, I say, multiple basses FTW.