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What Bass Was The Biggest DISAPPOINTMENT?
- Thread starter plangentmusic
- Start date
MIJ 75ri Fender Jazz.....in my 13 years of playing it's the only bass i couldn't get a good tone out of. Great looking bass and well made but never sounded good. Tried different strings, new pickups but nothing helped.
I have tried many times to like Fender basses. Don't know what it is by I just can't find one I love. Over the years I've played countless Fenders (MIM, US, Japan, etc) and want so bad to fall in love with one of these Leo game changers.
They just feel too mass produced to me. Obviously there are many quality Fenders made. But they just don't do it for me. Yet anyway...
They just feel too mass produced to me. Obviously there are many quality Fenders made. But they just don't do it for me. Yet anyway...
That question should just be erased outright from these forums... it's not about how good a bass is or isn't, it's about free market economics, and if it works, it works.
Discussions of whether people like a certain bass or not or whether it is worth it to them are one thing but the quoted question just seems too obvious for people to keep asking it.
I have tried many times to like Fender basses. Don't know what it is by I just can't find one I love. Over the years I've played countless Fenders (MIM, US, Japan, etc) and want so bad to fall in love with one of these Leo game changers.
They just feel too mass produced to me. Obviously there are many quality Fenders made. But they just don't do it for me. Yet anyway...
I know exactly what you mean. It's the same for me. Which is why I build my own take on the F-J thing.... the Über-Jay. Shameless plug...I know....
I wanted to love my MIA Fender Jazz but ended up liking my MIJ PJ Aerodyne a lot more. Also Ibanez basses from SR 706s to BTBs... ended up favoring ESP LTDs for the money.. The B414 415 & 416 basses are awesome and sound even better if you replace the neck pickup with an EMG DC.
Music Man Stingray Classic. Currently own MM stingray 5 and love it. Could not get a decent sound no matter how I tweaked the Classic. Have owned 6 MM basses at one time and was impressed with them all. Maybe just a lemon.
- Aug 30, 2003
- 1,479
- 457
- Disclosures
- Engineer & Owner, Sonic Nuance Electronics
always wanted an alembic epic,based on the fact that it was an alembic and in my price range....hated it from the word go. just could not get a sound that i really liked through my amp,so it was cheerio to the epic.
My PRS Bass. I simply can't get used to it. I love their guitars, but the bass doesn't do it for me.
The Epic was one of my disappointments many, many years ago. Beautiful bass, wasn't my sound. Also, the preamp ate batteries like a fat kid eats cake. Traded it for my Rick 4003, which also didn't live up to expectations.
For me it was a Modulus Flea 5. Beautifully made, cool looking and extremely stable. But sonically it was kind of a one-trick pony, and slapping really isn't my thing. Also, it cemented my dislike for wide, flat necks. My left hand would cramp just looking at it. Traded it at a loss. I'd give another Modulus a chance if it had a J-profile neck.
My biggest disappointment was with a luthier whose name i will not mention. About 7 years or so back i had paid for a custom bass, sent my specs and got a bass back. Shortly afterward the fretboard came off and needed to be replaced (issue #1).. got the bass back and the guy did a shoddy job replacing the fretboard (issue #2). So after being upset for a while (a couple years actually) i finally got him to re-do the bass according to upgraded specs, and he used the old specs for the finished product. weighs about 15 lbs and is virtually unplayable (issue #3). The guy was a hell of a woodworker, i'll give him that much.. just not a good bass builder.
Looking back, I would take my dearly missed $200 Peavey Foundation over the Zon Sonus, Warwick something or other, Jack Casady, Brubaker 5 string, G&L Asat hollowbody and 2 1970's P-basses ( The WORST). I've since owned a great P-bass (80's Squier) but sold it as I'm perfectly content with a MIJ Jazz and a Sterling now.
Can't say I hated it, but the only bass I ever got rid of quickly was my first one - a 1972 Fender P-bass bought new. The neck was enormous - far too big for my 15-year-old hands, but there was a cosmetically dinged (and very comfy) Jazz in the store and they let me have it for the P and about $15.00 a month later. Six months later I got a Ric 4001 I kept for 20 years. That experience - and the limited tonal palette - kind of put me off Precisions for good. Never owned another one since, but I have played some nice ones in studios and music stores.
I never have owned a bass I just plain hated but I've never bought anything on a whim - I am a picky shopper.
While shopping for a reasonably priced five recently I played one of the MiK Tobias Kingstons for about three minutes before putting it back on the wall, laughing. A pathetic thing it was - the low B flopped around like a dying fish and sounded like a slow, ripping phart in a mud puddle; not that the E was that much better.
I never have owned a bass I just plain hated but I've never bought anything on a whim - I am a picky shopper.
While shopping for a reasonably priced five recently I played one of the MiK Tobias Kingstons for about three minutes before putting it back on the wall, laughing. A pathetic thing it was - the low B flopped around like a dying fish and sounded like a slow, ripping phart in a mud puddle; not that the E was that much better.
