What are you most picky about?

[lark_z]

Black or sunburst, flats, 41mm nut, 19mm string spacing at bridge, no neck dive, passive.

 

[lomo]

I have a few absolutes.....
Must be: <9 lbs, 5 string, 34" scale, 18-19mm @ bridge.
Must NOT have: any kind of sparkle finish, gold hardware, a pseudo signature or symbol indicating it's a "celebrity" model.

 

[scott sinner]

-like OP, low action. I like to play through the whole dynamic range and want no more than 2mm to 1.5 mm at the 12th without excessive buzzing at mf. Have my own fret files and all my basses are like that.

-no non gray scale or earth tone colors. This one isn’t so much a preference as I have mad synesthesia. Anything brightly colors can screw with my pitch. Kinda hard in the world of course, I basically have to play with my eyes closed but it is nice to not do that when I can control the environment. This includes gold hardware unfortunately. I literally changed perfectly good gold hardware on a guitar before.

-don’t like short scale. Don’t know why. 34 is good but I even have some longer.

-super picky about my amp. Have been using some combo of GK head and Hartke speakers for 30 years.

That is about it. A lot of the stuff I hear here that seem to be deal breakers never even cross my mind like weight, maybe I should…ain’t getting any younger (but I got weirdly stronger somehow in my mid 30s…no idea why)

I don’t have a big string preference except that Ill stick with something just so it doesn’t change my setup.

 

[Groove Doctor]

What am I picky about?

EVERYTHING !!!

 

[ahbradot]

Nowadays, I prefer sitting down while playing. A good seated position in a comfortable chair or stool.
I also want to be as far away from the drummer as possible. Oh yeah, you can also include as far away from a screeching guitar amp as well.
Sorry if my age is showing. I’ve lost too much hearing and I want to save what little I’ve got left to enjoy the sounds of beautiful bass tones, ocean waves, birds in the wind through the trees.

 

[coyote1]

+1 on low action. I actually like a little fret buzz as it suits my tone which is fairly aggressive fingerstyle and I dig in reasonably hard.

Ergonomics are also very important - no point having a cool bass if it hurts your hands and/or back playing it for hours. My Spector is the heaviest I have at around 9.2lbs so have bought a 4” strap specifically for it. Wouldn’t want to go much heavier.

Yeah, those are big for me also. Oh wait, I’m playing upright…. never mind…..

 

[Joshua Pickenpaugh]

Being a Pickenpaugh, I should be picky about a lot of things. But I'm not.

The only thing I can think of is like you, Jimmy. I like low action. I like the amp to do all the work, not my fingers.

 

[Hummergeist]

String height. Neck diving. Staying in tune.

 

[two fingers]

Mone is an odd one these days. I gotta have somewhere to prop my thumb.... but not just one place.

I like passive basses, and usually leave my tone knob dimed. I coax all kinds of tones out of my basses using technique. I play with fingers, a pick, thump with my thumb, pluck with the side of my thumb, etc. But I also move back and forth from plucking by the neck to plucking by the bridge.

My P basses get a Zero Mod thumb rest so I can prop my thumb a little closer to the bridge. The rest have two pickups so it's not an issue.

 

[Frodolicious]

Lightweight (8 lbs or less), passive, the neck profile (my hands like the G&L #8 style neck). Lots of folks like black, but I like a white transparent finish! Everything else I can work with.

that leads my tastes to kind of expensive, but I have a great bass that fits all of these criteria!

 

[felis]

Neck - radius, width and thickness
Weight
Scale

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

Here's my list:

---Super low action and light strings. I'd rather there be a slight fretbuzz than sacrifice higher action. So I get every bass I have as low as I possibly can, and never use anything heavier than 40-100 or 40-120 for 5 string, even when playing flats.

---Neck radius. Between 9.5" and 12" seems to be my comfort zone for a 4, though I just got a Yamaha 5'er with something like a 24" radius and it feels good. But any rounder than 9.5" and I can't bend strings without choking out or raising the action. And that ain't happenin'.

---Light weight. I wear the term "weight weenie" like a badge of honor and don't care if you he-men "Just go hit the gym" types like it or not. Wasn't always a weight weenie but a chronic should problem, due to a heavy-as-heck Jazz I used to own on a 2" seatbelt strap, put a stop to that. I've got a limit and I do my best to stick to it, and since I've got light basses that I love already, I see no need to buy any that are going to make my shoulder worse.

---Black. If it's not black, it must go back. I don't mind other colors interspersed with the black base color, but a bass has to have black as the base color for me to buy it these days since I scientifically proved that I look the best with a black bass. Any bass you might see in my little collection that's not black was grandfathered in before the testing.

And you?

Nothing in the back of the neck that is not smooth. Finished or not. Nicks and dings will be filled and smoothed.

2 pickups with either individual controls or a blend knobby and individual tones.

 

[john_g]

String tension. I like light strings with some give. I played with a pick for the first 22 years and never cared, but the past 14 years I play mostly with my fingers and its become an issue for me. Im generally good with anything else.

 

[r_bnks]

Picks: Only 0.73 Dunlop tortex. I seriously can't play with anything else.

Strings: 45-105 Rotosound RS66 stainless rounds. That's what I started using about 15 years ago. Never looked back.

Action: I like a nice medium action. I play a little hard and still get a little fret buzz with my action but I don't mind. Like it.

Pick guards: I don't like them. I don't have a single bass with it. The lack of the pick guard would be the must if I'd ever buy a new bass.

Headstock: Matching or black headstock is a must.

Hardware: Black on everything except on Spector. On Spectors I like gold.

And last: 4 string basses only.
I think that's it.

 

[TNCreature]

My Strap. It must be a wide, neoprene strap with a little give.

 

[TheSeagoats]

Picks. I use Clayton acetal rounded triangles for all my instruments, using different thicknesses for different applications but always the same shape and material (.63 is the most commonly used for me, but sometimes I go up to .80 for bass playing). They just feel the best for me, and there's something about the shape that works for me, traditional shaped picks just feel awkward for me. Picture taken from Sweetwater's website.

 

[Koshchei]

Here's my list:

---Super low action and light strings. I'd rather there be a slight fretbuzz than sacrifice higher action. So I get every bass I have as low as I possibly can, and never use anything heavier than 40-100 or 40-120 for 5 string, even when playing flats.

---Neck radius. Between 9.5" and 12" seems to be my comfort zone for a 4, though I just got a Yamaha 5'er with something like a 24" radius and it feels good. But any rounder than 9.5" and I can't bend strings without choking out or raising the action. And that ain't happenin'.

---Light weight. I wear the term "weight weenie" like a badge of honor and don't care if you he-men "Just go hit the gym" types like it or not. Wasn't always a weight weenie but a chronic should problem, due to a heavy-as-heck Jazz I used to own on a 2" seatbelt strap, put a stop to that. I've got a limit and I do my best to stick to it, and since I've got light basses that I love already, I see no need to buy any that are going to make my shoulder worse.

---Black. If it's not black, it must go back. I don't mind other colors interspersed with the black base color, but a bass has to have black as the base color for me to buy it these days since I scientifically proved that I look the best with a black bass. Any bass you might see in my little collection that's not black was grandfathered in before the testing.

And you?

I agree with you on everything but colour, which is secondary.

 

[Hounddog409]

Here's my list:

---Super low action and light strings. I'd rather there be a slight fretbuzz than sacrifice higher action. So I get every bass I have as low as I possibly can, and never use anything heavier than 40-100 or 40-120 for 5 string, even when playing flats.

---Neck radius. Between 9.5" and 12" seems to be my comfort zone for a 4, though I just got a Yamaha 5'er with something like a 24" radius and it feels good. But any rounder than 9.5" and I can't bend strings without choking out or raising the action. And that ain't happenin'.

---Light weight. I wear the term "weight weenie" like a badge of honor and don't care if you he-men "Just go hit the gym" types like it or not. Wasn't always a weight weenie but a chronic should problem, due to a heavy-as-heck Jazz I used to own on a 2" seatbelt strap, put a stop to that. I've got a limit and I do my best to stick to it, and since I've got light basses that I love already, I see no need to buy any that are going to make my shoulder worse.

---Black. If it's not black, it must go back. I don't mind other colors interspersed with the black base color, but a bass has to have black as the base color for me to buy it these days since I scientifically proved that I look the best with a black bass. Any bass you might see in my little collection that's not black was grandfathered in before the testing.

And you?

All care about is tone. As long as a bass can be set to factory specs, im good.

If it sounds good, the bass is good.

I could not tell you the radius, shape, nut width etc of any bass i own.

 

[Snibborwocky]

Weight and string action definitely (around 9lbs +/- is my limit, low string action a must). I'm also in the 40-100 string gauge club as it just feels perfect when I play. Over the past few years I've also become quite picky about the hardware on basses. I usually swap out factory tuners and bridges for Hipshots.

 

[JakobT]

This^^^ Except replace the word black with Fender.

No reason it can’t be both.