More power to all y'all who love to buy and sell instruments, but that's not my way. I want my basses to be My Basses. I want to bond with a minimal number of them, and look back in a few decades and smile at the memories I've made with them. Right now I have a couple 'experimenting' super cheap basses, and one Dean that is firmly in the family. I want to compliment it with a similar bass with a Precision sound, but that's not as easy as I'd hoped.
A 5 string, 24 fret P bass does not seem to exist. The frets I can compromise on, though I don't want to. 5 strings is a must. The original plan was to go opposite the active, 3 band, double humbucker, visually dark Dean, by getting a passive, volume-tone-output, single split-coil pickup, visually bright, pickguarded something. I have searched high and low, and I simply do not believe such a bass exists, nor can it be created affordably.
So do I compromise? There are P/Js out the wazoo. I could build a Warmoth with my ideal pickup but not have a pickguard, which [not having one] isn't the look I dig on a P-style body. Kiesel would nail the visuals but have too few frets and too many dollars. Maruszczcyk is a contender, but an expensive one and frankly the last thing I ordered from Europe took seven months to get here and that makes me nervous. An MIA P5 would be thrilling but be all wrong in the fretboard and string spacing. I've even considered buying a twin Dean and seeing if a router and enough toothpicks/woodglue/sandpaper/refinish can turn it into what I want - that's probably my worst idea, but it still intrigues me given that the bass just feels. so. good.
For perfection, an outright custom order from whatever luthier would be way out of my price range. For compromise, there are a lot of "good" options that I'm sure I'd be happy with. But... it'd still be settling. But I think it may be time to admit that settling is inevitable. But if I'm settling, what's the point anyway? But if I don't settle, then it never happens.
I dunno. Any advice or experiences?
A 5 string, 24 fret P bass does not seem to exist. The frets I can compromise on, though I don't want to. 5 strings is a must. The original plan was to go opposite the active, 3 band, double humbucker, visually dark Dean, by getting a passive, volume-tone-output, single split-coil pickup, visually bright, pickguarded something. I have searched high and low, and I simply do not believe such a bass exists, nor can it be created affordably.
So do I compromise? There are P/Js out the wazoo. I could build a Warmoth with my ideal pickup but not have a pickguard, which [not having one] isn't the look I dig on a P-style body. Kiesel would nail the visuals but have too few frets and too many dollars. Maruszczcyk is a contender, but an expensive one and frankly the last thing I ordered from Europe took seven months to get here and that makes me nervous. An MIA P5 would be thrilling but be all wrong in the fretboard and string spacing. I've even considered buying a twin Dean and seeing if a router and enough toothpicks/woodglue/sandpaper/refinish can turn it into what I want - that's probably my worst idea, but it still intrigues me given that the bass just feels. so. good.
For perfection, an outright custom order from whatever luthier would be way out of my price range. For compromise, there are a lot of "good" options that I'm sure I'd be happy with. But... it'd still be settling. But I think it may be time to admit that settling is inevitable. But if I'm settling, what's the point anyway? But if I don't settle, then it never happens.
I dunno. Any advice or experiences?
Last edited:
I just figure it'll gnaw at me knowing there are more tonal options and maybe I should try them, so I'd prefer to just not have 'em. Heck, maybe I'll just pull out the bridge pickup and extra knobs, and have a bass that looks a little... rustic.
If they just made a 5 string LB-100, that'd be close enough and this'd be a done deal.
]
