Bassist4Eris
Frat-Pack Sympathizer
I have owned exactly 10, and still have 7 of them. In order of acquisition:
1980 Aria Pro II Deluxe Series 766. An absolutely great bass. Made of plywood, with stock pups, and it still sounded great and played even better. Couldn't ask for a better starter bass. Eventually the frets wore down to almost nothing. I took the bass apart one day intending to do a major rehab on it, and lost interest when I realized the body was plywood. I ended up giving it to a friend, who had a luthier reassemble it and set it up for BEAD tuning. He's quite happy with it.
1985 Rickenbacker 4003. My first "good" bass, but within months, I was back to the Aria. That said, I still own the Ric, and I'm glad I do. I think it's a bass I had to "grow into".
Ibanez P-bass copy, unknown model, unknown year. An unremarkable but serviceable axe. I traded it in on the following:
Fender MIM Jazz V, year currently unknown, but I could have told you once upon a time. 1998 maybe? My first ERB. I've always loved Fender Jazzes, but not this one. A pup upgrade would have helped. I sold it to a good friend, who still has it, so I still get to play it once in a while.
Carvin LB76, c. late 90s. I was in a band with two bass players, and I was mainly assigned the role of "lead bass". A 6-string seemed in order, and I found this beauty on the rack at the local guitar shop. Unfortunately, one night in recent years I decided to adjust the truss rod while drunk. You can probably predict what happened. I still have her, but she needs an expensive trip to the luthier's.
Once I got addicted to 6-string, I began using it as my main player, and started looking for a backup. After searching unsuccessfully, I eventually decided to buy a brand new bass and relegate the other 6er to backup. I considered many, including the Ibanez Prestige and the fretted version of the Fender Steve Bailey, but ended up going with another Carvin, this one a tricked-out version of the former, the LB76W, received in 2011. This bass remains my main player.
This was about the time I took apart the Aria. That project whetted my appetite for a similar project, and I ended up ordering a Carvin kit, a BK40A with a walnut body. This is my only J-style bass, and I used it mainly for slapping and modern rock covers. I also received this in 2011.
After that, I saw an ad on Craigslist for an 8-string bass. Someone else bought it first, but I couldn't get the idea out of my head, and ended up finding a good sale on a Schecter Stiletto Studio 8 (2010 vintage if I remember correctly) which is my main alternate bass, if that's not too much of a contradiction.
At a certain point, I came to realize that most of my basses were of the bright and modern variety, and I wanted something more vintage sounding for occasional use. Enter the tried and true Fender P-bass, in the form of a 2011 (IIRC) MIJ 70's reissue. Perhaps even to my own surprise, I love this bass.
Last and probably least, I traded an EHX Micro Q-tron for a 1986 Aria Pro II "The Cat Bass" fretless. I have since decided that I don't enjoy playing fretless, and the bass mainly sits in a closet (delirium fretlesscyllious, anyone?)
1980 Aria Pro II Deluxe Series 766. An absolutely great bass. Made of plywood, with stock pups, and it still sounded great and played even better. Couldn't ask for a better starter bass. Eventually the frets wore down to almost nothing. I took the bass apart one day intending to do a major rehab on it, and lost interest when I realized the body was plywood. I ended up giving it to a friend, who had a luthier reassemble it and set it up for BEAD tuning. He's quite happy with it.
1985 Rickenbacker 4003. My first "good" bass, but within months, I was back to the Aria. That said, I still own the Ric, and I'm glad I do. I think it's a bass I had to "grow into".
Ibanez P-bass copy, unknown model, unknown year. An unremarkable but serviceable axe. I traded it in on the following:
Fender MIM Jazz V, year currently unknown, but I could have told you once upon a time. 1998 maybe? My first ERB. I've always loved Fender Jazzes, but not this one. A pup upgrade would have helped. I sold it to a good friend, who still has it, so I still get to play it once in a while.
Carvin LB76, c. late 90s. I was in a band with two bass players, and I was mainly assigned the role of "lead bass". A 6-string seemed in order, and I found this beauty on the rack at the local guitar shop. Unfortunately, one night in recent years I decided to adjust the truss rod while drunk. You can probably predict what happened. I still have her, but she needs an expensive trip to the luthier's.
Once I got addicted to 6-string, I began using it as my main player, and started looking for a backup. After searching unsuccessfully, I eventually decided to buy a brand new bass and relegate the other 6er to backup. I considered many, including the Ibanez Prestige and the fretted version of the Fender Steve Bailey, but ended up going with another Carvin, this one a tricked-out version of the former, the LB76W, received in 2011. This bass remains my main player.
This was about the time I took apart the Aria. That project whetted my appetite for a similar project, and I ended up ordering a Carvin kit, a BK40A with a walnut body. This is my only J-style bass, and I used it mainly for slapping and modern rock covers. I also received this in 2011.
After that, I saw an ad on Craigslist for an 8-string bass. Someone else bought it first, but I couldn't get the idea out of my head, and ended up finding a good sale on a Schecter Stiletto Studio 8 (2010 vintage if I remember correctly) which is my main alternate bass, if that's not too much of a contradiction.
At a certain point, I came to realize that most of my basses were of the bright and modern variety, and I wanted something more vintage sounding for occasional use. Enter the tried and true Fender P-bass, in the form of a 2011 (IIRC) MIJ 70's reissue. Perhaps even to my own surprise, I love this bass.
Last and probably least, I traded an EHX Micro Q-tron for a 1986 Aria Pro II "The Cat Bass" fretless. I have since decided that I don't enjoy playing fretless, and the bass mainly sits in a closet (delirium fretlesscyllious, anyone?)
) and a squier p standard p/j which is my main bass and has had some upgrades.
