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Owned 10 basses or more? What is your experience?

simenandreas

simenandreas

Jan 23, 2011
174
11
#1
What is your favorite bass and why?

I just wanted to share some experience with some of the basses I`ve owned, and what I like and dislike about them.

I have also made a video or two playing some of them! :D

I have owned
- Yamaha 414 4-string Black
- Dimavery 6-string nature
- Musicman Stingray 5-string
- Fender Marcus Miller 4-string jazz
- Fender Mexico P-bass
- Fender Mexico 5-string Jazz
- Squier vintage modified jazz bass 70s
- Sandberg California Tm 4 4-string
- KSD Proto J 5
- Fender Road Worn jazz bass
- MTD kingston kz 5
- Warmoth Gecko 5

Of my 12 owned basses, my Fender Road Worn is my first priority bass. I bought it new and it came with very low action (which I love), and it is the lightest bass I`ve own (7,1 lbs). I love how you can define your tone dynamically with the small vintage frets. And I love the passive preamp circuit. I`ve put a pair of Nordstrand pickups in them, but the standard pickups where really good. The jazz comes with a alder body and a maple/rosewood neck. This is an amazing bass for an affordable prize. The downside of this bass is that you have to unscrew the neck to change your truss-rod. But it was a more easily thing to do than I thought. I bought the bass because of the 60s specs, not because of the finish.

Youtube:


The MTD has a some good pickups and a fine preamp. I like how it is a 3-band eq. I love to have some control over the mids too! Nice to cut trough the mix! :) The neck was great and thin. Again I didnt like the frets though Too big.. No video of this one.. :(

6th bass! Musicman Stringray!
Okei, I am a funk guy, and I love to funk fingerstyle with the stingray, but I cant slap them. My experience is that I loose all bass when I slap them in a live setting. Cant cut trough the mix as I can with my jazz basses. But again, this was my 3th bass, and I really couldnt eq or make a good setup on this guy. Maybe it would be different if I owned one today. The musicman should have a singelcoil too, as the sandberg. That would be great. And some vintage frets!! 6230 all the way!!

Okei, The yamaha 414 was the first bass I`ve owned. Really great bass for any beginner! Made me keep my motivation for playing more! :D The fender mexico P and J bass was not my thing. The P was really forward heavy, and I could not cut trough any mix. I was really not hitting the jackput on this one. The mexico was very sucky as well. I didnt know what is was, but there where just no tone in this one. Really boring bass.

Okei thanks for reading my post! Please share your bass experiences! ;)
 
#2
whoa, lots of stuff there!
I dunno how many basses I've owned, (translation: more than 10) but I can tell you that my favorites were pretty standard...
the '63 P that I had on loan from a friend for a few years is pretty much the best I've ever played. All original, it had never had a screwdriver taken to it...ever. The guy i borrowed it from mowed lawns in the 60's and bought it slightly used.

the '71 Rick was fantastic, last of the toaster pup's, and really rocked. Wish I still had it.

Other than that, I am happy with whatever has fresh strings and sounds good.
 
#3
Slough Feg Bass said:
whoa, lots of stuff there!
I dunno how many basses I've owned, (translation: more than 10) but I can tell you that my favorites were pretty standard...
the '63 P that I had on loan from a friend for a few years is pretty much the best I've ever played. All original, it had never had a screwdriver taken to it...ever. The guy i borrowed it from mowed lawns in the 60's and bought it slightly used.

the '71 Rick was fantastic, last of the toaster pup's, and really rocked. Wish I still had it.

Other than that, I am happy with whatever has fresh strings and sounds good.
Click to expand...

Cool! I have never tried a "good" p-bass, or a Rickenbacker. Know there many guys who just swears to these basses. Personally, a p-bass is a bit too undefined for my taste, but that is just me. A Rickenbacker would be cool to try though!
 
#4
Hmmm ... Not sure how many basses I have owned ...

A hofner, Hofner clone, Gibson EB0, about 30 Rickenbackers, various jazz, and p-basses, Ibanez, Schecter, Quite a few frankensteined Fenderbirds, Stingrays, and quite a few parts basses ... Over 50 ... not sure of an exact number ... I don't think I hit 100 yet.

My favorite ...

Hmmm ....


I like my Ricks, and several of my Frankensteined basses ...
 
#5
Ric5 said:
Hmmm ... Not sure how many basses I have owned ...

A hofner, Hofner clone, Gibson EB0, about 30 Rickenbackers, various jazz, and p-basses, Ibanez, Schecter, Quite a few frankensteined Fenderbirds, Stingrays, and quite a few parts basses ... Over 50 ... not sure of an exact number ... I don't think I hit 100 yet.

My favorite ...

Hmmm ....


I like my Ricks, and several of my Frankensteined basses ...
Click to expand...

Serious? 30 ricks? please tell me why
 
#8
I've owned as many as 11 at once. Here are my findings:

1. Costs a lot of money.

2. Costs a lot of money for strings.

3. Doesn't make you play any better, but distracts you from it nicely.

4. If I sold all my basses but two, I'd work as much as I ever did in my life.
 
#10
I have owned as many as 17 and likely 100+ over my playing career.

I found that having between 2 and 5 great (to you) basses is all one needs. No need for 17 basses IME as most can cover almost all tones with 5 or less.

In any case, I believe it is better to own one great bass than many cheap ones. Just IME...
 
#11
I've owned a lot of basses. I have 8 right now that are strung up and ready to play (not including the Ergo 5 upright).

I like Precisions. I've owned production Fenders from cheap Squiers to one from the early 80s; I've never owned a newer Fender P but have checked out friend's basses and they're fine as well.

I like 4 and 5 (low B) string basses, 8 string is close enough to 4. 6 string or 5 string with high C are awkward for me.

I like lighter basses. Heavy basses are OK for short durations if they play fine but over the years I've come to dislike heavy basses. Comfortable straps are worth the money too.

For me money should be put in amp > speaker > bass. I've owned great basses and been disappointed in the sound due to the amp. When I went from a Trace Elliot 350SM to an 80's SVT the sound change was extremely dramatic. The Trace was an upgrade to the SWR I had previously, but the GK I had before that sounded better. This was tested with a Ric 4001 (that sounded bad through everything, long story), a mid 70s P with EMG PJs, a Ken Smith Burner 5 string, and an Alembic Epic 5 through a couple of Genz Benz 4X10 cabs. The Precision was the best sounding of the bunch for rock and roll, hands down.

Years ago I had a MusicMan Sabre (with the exposed poles and mini switches) and it sounded great despite being heavy (I was a teenager so it wasn't a big deal then). I now have a U.S. made SUB 4 which is totally different and yet still plays and sounds amazing. This is currently my go-to for most things but not my favorite bass. Whilte it sounds great it isn't as full sounding and takes more work to get right, but it's worth the extra effort. I bought a SUB 5 string and never liked the way it felt. I got a setup from a guitar specialist and it was still not up to snuff so I sold it rather than keep poking at it. Nice bass, but the neck just didn't feel right. Lesson learned? Just because you like a 4 string from a company doesn't mean a 5er from the same company and model is going to feel the same.

Biggest dislike, even more than heavy basses, is a bass that sounds too clean. It seems strange to me, but in retrospect the cleaner basses I owned were almost sterile to me. Even great little basses like the Epic 5er, the Ken Smith Burner 5er, and the Spector Euro 5er all played the low notes clean and sounded good alone, but just didn't fit in when I played with others. This is probably why I don't care for most solid state amps as well; the GK RB400 had good character but lacked power, but the Trace Elliot and SWR rigs required way too much knob tweaking for a decent tone, and that went to hell if I changed basses. Oddly I had an old Acoustic 330 that was an amazing amp for years; I wish I still had it.

Special mention: Rickenbacker. I've owned 3 4001 basses, one with Seymour Duncans, and I hated all 3 of them. All 3 played like pewp, the binding bothered me, and sounded worse than they played. I love the sound of Rics from other and took a chance on a 4000 (no binding) and it works for me, a lot. Rics are definitely love / hate, but if you want to love them you have to find the right one (or get lucky with your first).
 
#12
Yes I have owned a little over 10 bass guitars, but I've been playing for nearly 25 years.

My experience is that you should get a bass which looks nice and suits you. Don't buy a bass with a figured maple top and gold hardware if you're a fat dude in khaki shorts with a scraggy goatee beard.
 
#15
I've owned plenty and I think I own about 13 now (need to sell some). Honestly, much of the time and money spent on so many instruments would be much better directed toward lessons and practicing. You can enjoy both, but with limited free time, IME it's better to focus time and money on learning and improvement rather than gear. It's less work though to just jones after another bass! The other side effect is that you can wrack your mind debating which bass is "one" for the gig.
 
#18
I've got about 20 basses. Been through about 100. I love all 20 that I now have and it sometimes gets difficult to choose which one is coming out to play. Top of the list is my Bongo, Big Al, and much to my surprise an antigua Jazz that I've been using exclusively with a Zep tribute I've been playing with. Pretty sure I'd be fine with those alone if I had to be. Hmmm... I'd probably have to throw my Stringray in with them too. And my Jaguar. And I'd be fine. Hmmm... and my Warwick. OK. I'm done. For real.

I love the unique personality of each and every one the above.
 
#19
I'm down to two now. I've been playing my Jazz exclusively until I bought an ESP Surveyor 5 over the weekend. That could be my two basses forever as far as tone. I've had about 15 over time; from a P Bass to L2000 to Ibanez Prestige 6 strings to Stingrays to Tobias 5s. I'm pretty happy with what I have now over most anything I've ever owned. Maybe in just getting complacent, but a good passive bass and a good active bass is all I really need(for now anyway) haha.
 
#20
I belive I have over 10 basses right now And guess what? 8 of them are in my closet (in the overhead), there's a gibson in the living room (in its case for the past 3 weeks), a ric next to the TV in my bedroom (untouched for at least 6 months). And the hagstrom 8 string is scatered around the house (unassembled).

Do I need 10 basses? Not at all. Do I play them all? I'm not even in a band right now.

I did own and let go some 50+ basses and just kept the really, really nice ones, so it would be really hard for me to part with any of them unless it was for financial reasons.

Owning lots of basses wont make you play or sound any better, it just means that you are most likely not a full time musician.
 

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