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What brand has all your loyalty?

#81
I have 16 basses, including a DB, but always go back to my first love:
Vantage VP710B.
I have 6 of those :)
I have two tuned BEAD, one with flats and the rest are EADG. They are spread over two rehearsealspaces and my home.
For amps i prefer Hartke and my go to strings are D'Addario XL170.
IMG_20191213_200526_139.jpg
 
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#82
I own basses from several different manufacturers uncluding Fender, Spector and Alembic basses, Fender, Gibson and Gretsch guitars but Ampeg is the only brand of amps and cabs I use for bass. I'm currently looking at different guitar amps.
 
#83
Sam Dingle said:
Fender has mine. An obvious choice. They have everything that I need. I'm at:

American Standard Jazz Bass with rounds
American Standard P Bass with flats
Elite 5 string with rounds
77 Music Master with tapewounds
Mexican fretless with flats

what company are you committed to?
Click to expand...

I have some brands I like, but none has my 'loyalty'.
I have a soft spot for Mesa, for Sandberg, I like MusicMan products (just not in love with their head guy, but who cares), and Schecter, also Barefaced... John East preamps, and John himself is super nice and helpful (I guess John East s the closest I've got to a 'loyalty badge')... But my pocket is free to go with whoever makes what works best for me at any given time.
 
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#85
I've got two fender jazz basses, if I were to get another bass, it'd probably be a squier P of some sort with a geezer butler pickup for kicks. It's honestly just a familiarity thing at this point, though on the used market, I'd grab a base model Ibanez soundgear or yamaha BB series in a heartbeat too. I'm not about to pretend fender makes the best bass ever or the only one worth buying, but it's fine enough for me.
 
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#86
I'm in and out of stuff from various makers, and often have too much stuff to boot, but here are several that have remained in my stable, or whom I associate with superior musical performance and quality control, over a very long time...in short, you can't go wrong with their stuff!

Audiokinesis. It was a lucky day for bassists when Duke LeJeune decided to branch out from hi-end audio...
Sadowsky.
Lakland/Carl Pedigo
Xotic (before Hiro Mirura left the company)
DR Strings
Genz Benz (and by extension through Andy Field, the Mesa Subway line). Probably should include Genzler as well, but I have no ownership experience.
Yamaha...the breadth and longstanding quality of their instruments and electronics, at all price points, is astounding...and then the motorcycles and outboard boat engines, to boot? Unreal!
Thunderfunk
Nordstrand pickups

Honorable mention: EBBM. I've never kept an EBBM product for long, and can't rock the 17.5mm spacing on their 5-strings, but the quality of their product, particularly at the price point, is undeniable.

Honorable mention: G&L. Again with the narrow-spaced fivers, but really good for the money.

And finally, Alembic. Not my cup of tea as a player, but for quality, aspiration, innovation and customer service, arguably in a league of their own.
 
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#87
Sam Dingle said:
Fender has mine. An obvious choice. They have everything that I need. I'm at:

American Standard Jazz Bass with rounds
American Standard P Bass with flats
Elite 5 string with rounds
77 Music Master with tapewounds
Mexican fretless with flats

what company are you committed to?
Click to expand...

Eden to the grave, and I have enough of it to get me there...

Fender because it’s the definitive electric bass sound
 
#93
Mesa has always marketed consistently great products—but it comes at a pretty high price. That’s as far as I’ll go on the loyalty thing. There’s always another product that scratches an itch more perfectly.

I resist giving unqualified allegiance to brand names. The foundations of those brand names aren’t immutable. Companies change hands and business practices morph in all manner of ways. As they say in commercials, ‘Past performance is no guarantee of future results.’
 
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#96
Rilence said:
Loyalty to a 'brand'/corporation in anything is ridiculous...
Click to expand...

IMO it depends on how you define brand loyalty.

I will gladly continue to purchase products from a company where I have had good customer service experience, good user experience, and deem the product to be a good match for my wants/needs. I continue to buy DR strings because I know they feel and sound how I expect, I have tried others and keep coming back so I will continue to purchase those. Same could be said for a number of repeat purchase type products in any facet of life/work.

If you're interpreting loyalty in the sense of creating a bubble/blind spot to other options, or to the point where people feel the need to tribalize and defence their product choices then yes, I would say that's beyond necessary. I own a number of fender instruments and ampeg amps. I know they work for me, like the feel and sound. That's about it. In both cases most of them are older than me, only one of the fender products was bought new and that one was the cheapest of the bunch (and has been modded quite a bit). I don't feel the need to represent or defend either brand in any way, and certainly have and use products from other manufacturers with more frequency than either fender or ampeg.
 
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#99
Fifteen or so years ago, I would have said that had loyalty to Ibanez, D'addario, Boss, Electro Harmonix and Hughes & Kettner. Because that's what I used.

And while I still do use those brands, I also use and like products from Line 6, Source Audio, Sonuus, Thomastik Infield, Visual Sound.

And I'd like some products from Acoustic Image, Empress, Fractal Audio, iConnectivity, Marleaux, Nord, Pöllman, PRS, Ritter, Singular Sound, Sound Sculpture, Strymon, Veillette and Warwick

So I guess my loyalty is gone when I realised that no "one" brand does it all.
As I get older I realise I am more about function and innovation rather than tradition.
 
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#100
When I find something I like I really just stick w that brand. Fodera for sure. Just constantly impressed not just by their quality but their attitude to craftsmanship.

In terms of accessories I’d also say MONO, Ergostraps, and MXR, but that’s just because the positive experiences I’ve had have kept me from feeling compelled to try other stuff. (An I f it ain’t broke thing.) Ironically I have never really cared what kind of amp I use lol.
 

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