Owning one bass.. are those days over?

[Standalone]

I love to play my #1. But if I’m being honest, buying (and sometimes selling) basses and gear is my primary form of relaxing during down time. This goes back to the days of absolutely poring over late 1980’s department store, audio, and music catalogs. Elderly Instruments, anyone?

I got my first guitar and bass from the JCPenney catalog and the rest is history.
I have up TV in 1995 or so, I guess this fills the time! Pic for no reason.

 

[CallMeAl]

I have 4, but 3 could disappear and I’d be ok with that. But my wife likes the acoustic, and I like to keep a spare electric around in case my son is ever interested. I have been thinking about giving one to the local music school though

 

[Ggaa]

Have 2 Wicks, different strings and electronics, each has its own gig(one could cover the other). Then I got a fretless. Question is how many at the gig.

 

[75Ric]

At the moment I'm down to one bass. It's a Lull P, and frankly, I could just play just this and be quite happy.

 

[Ekulati]

No way to prove this but I'd bet the ranch that there's a direct correlation between the advent of the internet and multiple instrument ownership.

 

[Ggaa]

No way to prove this but I'd bet the ranch that there's a direct correlation between the advent of the internet and multiple instrument ownership.

I had multi instruments in the past but the net makes them come and go faster.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

As I stand here and practice with one of mine, which I love, I look at the other 3 and say “why have them if they’ve not been played in months?” Is it similar to babies with pacifiers? I can totally get by with just one like many famous did back in the day and still do. But every time I think of letting the other 3 go, I chicken out lol..WTH

If they are pacifiers or security blankets, don’t beat yourself up. Mental comfort is a good thing.

 

[pepj]

I think there is a practical limit.
Playing them all plus maintaining them in a giggable condition is time consuming at the very least.

I'm at a point of 1 in, 1 out and my quandry is which one is next out.
The good thing about this is it curtails my desire to buy anything I see that I fancy.
It has to really be a must have...and they dont crop up too often. win-win.

 

[lbbc]

I"ve had as many as 14 at one time. I'm down to 6 (but 2 are for sale locally). I could be content just playing one....but each of my 4 are very different "beasts".
1973 Aria 1420 Beatle Bass (30" passive)
1986 Alembic Persuader (32"... active)
2013 Dave Pushic Custom (32".. active/passive)
2021 G&L Fallout Tribute (30" passive)

90% of the time, I gig with the G&L
10% of the time, I gig with the Pushic.

 

[rockscott]

Im down to 3 and they cover Every tone i need & then some! Gibson les paul jr dc, birdsong shortbass & a breedlove discovery acoustic.

 

[Bass4Brkfast]

My max was 8 at one point.
Currently I have only 4.
I could see myself letting one go, so 3 is my lowest, best, and final offer. Take it or leave it. Lol

 

[RSey716]

Hey, if you can get down to one and you are happy with that then very cool. What ever inspires you to keep playing. For me it's tones. Like an itch you can't quite scratch. Most of my playing now is at the house but I still keep the variety. One bass I have back on the wall is a German made Warwick Corvette $$ that most of the time we don't see eye to eye on but for the last couple of months it's done the trick for me and after a couple of hours of playing my inner peace has been met and all is right with the universe.

 

[JRA]

i didn't start 'collecting' until late in the game, but i regularly play 6 of 7 so i have no shame. . i might assemble some more parts axes, but i'm pretty sure that 6 instruments is all i can handle for any semblance of a "regular rotation."

while i don't need more than one (who does?), i like having different configurations of the same basic format (fretless).

i wouldn't have bothered with all of these in years past, but i'm not as busy playing these days and i enjoy assembling real players.

per the OP: those days are over for me. i'm at a point in life where i don't bother trying to rationalize --- i like 'em all!

 

[Jscriv]

I used to be just fine with my jazz bass, but I've always had atleast 5 or so others, Ps, 5s, fretlesses, humbuckers coming and going. Current band added a guitarist and it seems P basses cut through the best with the tones of the two guitars. So I may have added a few PJs too for research purposes. I ended up at 24 (I went on a small EBMM stint for a while and ended up with 5) I'm down to about 18 or so. Mostly because the only way I can try anything other than a fender around here is to buy and sell if I don't like it. It's a slow game. Theres 6 I couldn't imagine living without as they all get played. A 7th I dont wanna live without. The rest are subject to be sold or traded at all times. Then there's a few that I've had since the beginning that I doubt would fetch more then 100 on average if I sold them and quite honestly they're worth the 10 fold the space they take up in nostalgia for me. But if I had no choice, had to sell the farm for bills and could only keep one, i could. My 04 MIM jazz bass, only thing original by now is the body. I still hate the sunburst paint job, but it's seen an untold number of gigs and plays like a dream. The rest of the stable is just because I can

 

[kerrycares]

For me I need a back up to my gigging basses so that’s 2 Sadowsky 5 and 2 uprights.
Then I have my fun Basses Fender 54 Paranormal and Anaconda 6
Then I have my “maybe you’ll replace one of my other Basses but I’m not sure yet” Sadowsky 5 and G&L 5

I love Basses and I love moving them in and out of my hands and my home since 1976.

 

[Clark Westfield]

Just crested over 5, with #5 being something I can leave at office at work.

5 seems to be a good number for now.

Then comes #6.

 

[Jhalb]

One stays at practice and one at home.

 

[HardNHeavy]

i'm up to 5 and #6 is almost done...I play every one of them. atleast once a week and keep them on rotation on my stands.

 

[BlueRock]

Anything after one great P bass and an acoustic and I may as well be collecting Hotwheels.

 

[TrevorG]

I've asked about owning multiple basses here on TB before. The key factors seem to me to be how much you can afford and how addictive your nature is. I'm quite addictive but controlled by my finances. That leaves me with five decent instruments that have different qualities. As long as I'm growing as a musician none of my basses are wasted, even if I don't play them all equally, because what I've learnt will transfer to all of them as and when they are needed.