The more basses I own...

[Dr. Cheese]

...the less reason I see in having so many. I love basses, and I think I am at peace with the fact that collecting/hoarding is just at the foundation of who I am. The irony is that more basses I would own, the more I am inclined to think all I need is two: either two main basses; or a main bass and a backup. I say this because whatever I play, active or passve, four string or five, fretted or fretless, round wounds or flats, all audiences care about is how well I play. The last few services, I played everything on my Mustang PJ or my Peavey Fury with flats, and there is absolutely no difference in response from the audience or fellow musicians if I had used my DJ5 and my Peavey Forum V. Back in 2015, when I had a borrowed Sadowsky, only the drummer noticed, and that is because he plays a little bass too. Whether I have a First Act or Fodera, nobody cares but me.

 

[scubaduba]

Haha. True. The audience probably doesn't notice most of any of the "magic tone" we constantly seek to find. Hoarding has the best of many of us though. For me it is sort of a hobby, and it satisfies me some to know that I can hear differences in the gear I hoard... and I enjoy trying different things. But you are right, two basses is probably more than enough for most of us.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Ha, I sat here mulling over buying another used bass today.
The only thing it would give me over what I have now is a prettier finish & a neck-thru design.

Finally I convinced myself that I can suffice with the 2 electrics & 1 u-bass that I have

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

...the less reason I see in having so many. I love basses, and I think I am at peace with the fact that collecting/hoarding is just at the foundation of who I am. The irony is that more basses I would own, the more I am inclined to think all I need is two: either two main basses; or a main bass and a backup. I say this because whatever I play, active or passve, four string or five, fretted or fretless, round wounds or flats, all audiences care about is how well I play. The last few services, I played everything on my Mustang PJ or my Peavey Fury with flats, and there is absolutely no difference in response from the audience or fellow musicians if I had used my DJ5 and my Peavey Forum V. Back in 2015, when I had a borrowed Sadowsky, only the drummer noticed, and that is because he plays a little bass too. Whether I have a First Act or Fodera, nobody cares but me.

Interesting because both of those are 4 strings and you consider yourself a 5 string player. So did you miss that low B at all?
Perhaps it just wasn't necessary for the songs you played these past 2 services.
Do you think you could get by with just those two 4 strings?

 

[jaco944]

Man I just sold a bunch of my extra basses to consolidate and turned right around and bought 3 more. I think the hoarders among us just have to go with it.

 

[DigitalMan]

A collection and a horde are two different things. Each bass in a collection has a purpose.

 

[BB3000S]

As long as I can tell which bass I'm playing and how they are different from one another, it's all good.

 

[kodiakblair]

2 separate things going on here @Dr.Cheese. A love of basses and collecting basses is not the same as playing bass.

Including my "collection" of Peaveys I share the house with 59 basses,and a cat Now I rarely play most of the collection same as we don't play every record in a collection. If it was fine china you'd never dream of using the Royal Doulton tea set. Collecting is not "Hoarding", hoarding is a condition folks have no control of. We collect things we appreciate and enjoy,folks hoard old newspapers and garbage.

The basses we play are tools . I've been using the same claw hammer for 30 years,I have others but the Estwing is always on my belt. It's the one I know will do the job.

Enjoy the basses you play and enjoy the basses you have for simply for enjoyment.

 

[stevenA800]

I have five and am looking to get rid of one because I don't use it, I realized I'm not a collector.

 

[Mathilda]

59 that's it?

 

[inanimate_carb]

I own what I need to cover the calls I get, and a few backups. That's it. I still marvel over the artistic and technological triumphs of Anthony Jackson Presentations and other axes that command five figures, but there's literally nothing I could do with them that justifies their purchase.

For me, a concern about making quality music overtook my concern for the tools of the trade. Most of the really accomplished players I know on other instruments don't have an extensive collection. I just don't see a lot of brass, string, or woodwind guys owning dozens of instruments and buying and trading 300 of them over a 3-5 year period if they're not dealers. That's not completely unheard of with guitarists and electric bassists.

Anyway, buying some new or new-to-me bass isn't going to get me hearing that iii chord any faster or really hearing that upper-structure harmony as I'd like to. It took a number of years and several instruments to figure that out for sure though.

 

[Ooba Tooba]

Currently have 2. Fender jazz plus V and an '83 Peavey Foundation. I really like how they both play/sound. I want a Roscoe Beck V, and another early 70's Fender Jazz. Then I'll be good. Maybe a fretless too. Yep. 5 should do it

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Interesting because both of those are 4 strings and you consider yourself a 5 string player. So did you miss that low B at all?
Perhaps it just wasn't necessary for the songs you played these past 2 services.
Do you think you could get by with just those two 4 strings?

I have been using a four for lessons since my teacher is not a fan of B strings. I also wanted to get out of the low B box, and get better at playing higher than the 7th fret. Watching clips of great four stringers like Esperanza Spalding and Michael League made me want to get better at incorporating the upper register into basslines.

 

[Old Blastard]

2 separate things going on here @Dr.Cheese. A love of basses and collecting basses is not the same as playing bass.

Including my "collection" of Peaveys I share the house with 59 basses,and a cat Now I rarely play most of the collection same as we don't play every record in a collection. If it was fine china you'd never dream of using the Royal Doulton tea set. Collecting is not "Hoarding", hoarding is a condition folks have no control of. We collect things we appreciate and enjoy,folks hoard old newspapers and garbage.

The basses we play are tools . I've been using the same claw hammer for 30 years,I have others but the Estwing is always on my belt. It's the one I know will do the job.

Enjoy the basses you play and enjoy the basses you have for simply for enjoyment.

I feel so much better about my my 15 basses! But somehow I feel like I need to try harder.

Truth be told, I have one more Drake on the way and I could easily live with just my soon to be 4 Drakes. But I don't have to downsize yet and I owe nothing, so I don't need to sell.

I'll just keep enjoying them, maybe give one away to some one who needs a good instrument. Or not.

 

[Trouztrouz]

Don't worry about what the audience thinks. Play for the joy of it.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

2 separate things going on here @Dr.Cheese. A love of basses and collecting basses is not the same as playing bass.

Including my "collection" of Peaveys I share the house with 59 basses,and a cat Now I rarely play most of the collection same as we don't play every record in a collection. If it was fine china you'd never dream of using the Royal Doulton tea set. Collecting is not "Hoarding", hoarding is a condition folks have no control of. We collect things we appreciate and enjoy,folks hoard old newspapers and garbage.

The basses we play are tools . I've been using the same claw hammer for 30 years,I have others but the Estwing is always on my belt. It's the one I know will do the job.

Enjoy the basses you play and enjoy the basses you have for simply for enjoyment.

That is very insightful.

 

[Watchootognbout]

I have three.And I'm trying to convince myself to sell off this one.

 

[Shannon]

2 separate things going on here @Dr.Cheese. A love of basses and collecting basses is not the same as playing bass.

Including my "collection" of Peaveys I share the house with 59 basses,and a cat

Playing bass is well and good, but you can play the CAT!?

Respekt - you haz it.

 

[kodiakblair]

Playing bass is well and good, but you can play the CAT!?

Respekt - you haz it.

That's him as my avatar, I'll never be brave enough to try. Would you ?

 

[GlennRH]

In his book "Face The Music," Paul Stanley of KISS shares two similar insights:

1. He got to have sex with many, many gorgeous women, often much more easily than guys who knew the same women and only hoped for sex with them. Despite this, he found mutual love with the right woman elusive and far more satisfying.

2. After amassing a fantastic collection of wish-list guitars, he found life no better. After selling off the collector guitars, he felt more free. He continued to enjoy playing guitar the same as if he'd never had any rare and special guitars.
​

Third point (from me): For nearly everybody in nearly every audience, the nuances of the bass player's tone, the number of frets on the bass player's neck, the number of strings on the bass, whether the bassist plays fingerstyle or slap or with a pick... these things get noticed superficially for a fleeting moment, if at all.