What do you hate about your favorite bass?

[TimWilson]

Just like even the most amazing Baywatch babe has gotta have grungy toenails or something, your favorite bass probably has one single feature that just barely keeps it from being the perfect bass.

Whenever I hear the sound of my treasured MM~SR~HH4 or ~HH5 basses, I sigh with great relief that my search for 'the tone' is over. They sound amazing, record like monsters, and feel like a part of me. And they're both drop-dead gorgeous...

...except for that %#$@%$ one single dorky-ass tuning key hanging alone under the headstock. Did Leo Fender use the CBS money to get super drunk? What possible logic could have led him down this kooky path? It's the only flaw on my otherwise perfect basses.

What're yers?

 

[Archangel_Bass]

haha liked lol. theres something about all of my basses that bugs me. my warwick vette nt bubinga, badass tone, but it looks like the upper horn is a wang. my yammy trb 6pII again great tone great look but the finish is so perfect im afraid to gig with it in the seedier places. the one that really has no flaw imo is my ibanez srx 695DX beatuiful everything and relatively cheap. not that anything mentioned before is a flaw but sometimes i wonder......

 

[RicoDirenzo]

Carvin LB76 is my favorite.......I hate the fact that I don't have 2!!!!!

 

[thehangingmist]

my only gripe is that fender basses do not have 22 frets or so. i dont like 24 much but 22 are often needed imo, they are amazing basses there should be more neck on them!

 

[bassist4dalord]

The action on my Squier P-Bass is unbelievably high. Strings are 1/8" off the fretboard at the 12th fret.

Why don't I just get it set-up, you ask? Well, I'm a broke college student. I play more than enough to justify dropping $30 or so for a set-up, but money is tight.

Why don't I learn to set it up myself, you ask? Too much work

 

[kcole4001]

I hate the fact that some other doofus has beat on them, putting scrapes and dings in the finish, and worn the frets.
My own finish and fret wear I can handle, even the odd scrapes and dings are somewhat acceptable.
Eagerly awaiting the imminent purchase of a brand new 4003 MID!


(Obviously, I'm firmly outside the relic camp)

 

[Hoover]

Not sure which is my favorite, so I'll list the main flaws of my three faves:

- Schecter B/4 ...those open coils on the pickups hurt my thumb when I anchor it on them

- Rob Allen MB-2 ...the elbow bevel on the upper bout isn't deep enough, so the top binding cuts into the underside of my forearm

- Modulus Graphite Quantum-6 SPX ...string spacing is too narrow to execute certain right hand techniques that I enjoy on my other instruments

 

[j.kernodle]

My Ken Smith BSR5M.

Wow, good question, but there's absolutely nothing that I hate about it. I've gone through so many basses over the years that I had a pretty darned good idea of what I wanted in my ideal bass. Played some smiths a while back, and knew that was the feel and sound that I wanted. I love the neck profile, the finish, the looks, the weight, the design of the hardware, the electronics, the placement of the pickups and most importlantly the sound.

OTOH, my other basses.

My MIM P-bass, love the sound, but poly finish on the neck is sticky.

My Czech Spector, great tone in the mix, great looking, but the strings are so close to the edge of the neck that I've gotta be careful fingering notes on the E and G string to prevent "squirting" off the side of the fingerboard.

My EBMM Sterling... Necks a little thicker front to back than I'd prefer. Sounds great live, kinda unforgiving when recording though. Lots of string noise and sounds a little thin recorded direct.

 

[jaywa]

78 Fender Precision - crappy CBS finish (crazing, checking, chipping); also of course the obligitory "dead C" (5th fret G string). And even with a J bridge pickup added I still can't get a decent J bass sound out of it which can be kind of annoying sometimes since it's my only bass and I can't afford a Jazz or StingRay to go with it.

That's about it.

 

[plankspanker13]

Why don't I learn to set it up myself, you ask? Too much work

Visit BassPlayer mag's site and learn how; it's in the archives there. As long as you have a tuner, screwdriver, allen keys and a bit of time, it's really not too much work at all. I do my own setups and tweaks, and rarely do I have to spend an inordinate amount of time and energy.

As for my peeve about my favorite bass (which is the JB-2, and not the limited edition 'wick), it is the fact that Hipshot has yet to make a matching Xtender key for the proprietary G&L tuners, or the fact that G&L does not offer a 5-string version of the model.

 

[RickenBoogie]

There's not much i don't love about any of my 3 basses, but, the 2 Ric's have only 20 frets, which I've certainly learned to live with over the years. To the point that one of them is tuned D standard, (so between the 2, I've got it covered). My 3rd bass is a Fender, and it's got 22 frets, I honestly can't find one thing about that bass that sucks, even a little. All 3 sound phenomenal.

 

[finalrequiem]

I'm in love with my fiesta red road worn jazz but I wish it wasn't road worn. I can't wait to put my own wear on there... When I picked it up and started playing it and realized it was giving sex a run for it's money I knew I had to have it. I think relics look neat but have never had a desire to own one. I like to be able to say the wear is all mine... Oh well, eventually it will be lol!

 

[MarshallLaw]

i hate the neck dive on my Gibson EB-0.

 

[Bernin]

I hate the fact that I don't get to gig it more

 

[Kipaste]

The action on my Squier P-Bass is unbelievably high. Strings are 1/8" off the fretboard at the 12th fret.

Why don't I just get it set-up, you ask? Well, I'm a broke college student. I play more than enough to justify dropping $30 or so for a set-up, but money is tight.

Why don't I learn to set it up myself, you ask? Too much work

Dude, you only need to spend fifteen minutes reading instructions on the interwebz and then five minutes adjusting until you find something that fits you. You wouldn't wan't to pay 30 bucks every time you try differend strings? And I don't think 1/8" is actually that high anyway.

/rant

My main player at the moment is an upgraded Miller jazz.
the biggest problem is the badass bridge. The strings are slightly wider apart than they are on my traditional fender bridges. The difference is too small to even really measure, but I still notice it every time I change basses. It's also the wrong colour.

 

[pbass6811]

The ONLY thing that bugs me about my Spector Forte 5 is that it's not as loud as my SR 5HH.

Now, my SR 5HH has a LIST of things that now irritate the crap out of me, that I won't get into because it's not my favorite bass anyway...

I also love my Spector Euro 4LX. I just wish it was a USA NS-2.

 

[Webtroll]

I don't like that my favorite bass is active. It sounds great (Warwick LX5), but I don't use the EQ at all. If I could keep the sound of the active pickups with a passive setup I'd be marginally happier with it.

 

[marwady]

my only gripe is that fender basses do not have 22 frets or so. i dont like 24 much but 22 are often needed imo, they are amazing basses there should be more neck on them!

Get an American DLX...they have 22

 

[Johnny Crab]

The E string and G string start to sound like ka ka(no sustain, totally different tone than the A and D strings, etc.) quickly when string life nears its end. I've two identicals, except color, so one ALWAYS has newer strings than the other.
Yeah, change strings more often but.....

They aren't shaped like Thunderbirds, they're Les Paul clones.

Other than that, find me some more of them Japan.

<RANT>

The action on my Squier P-Bass is unbelievably high. Strings are 1/8" off the fretboard at the 12th fret. Why don't I just get it set-up, you ask? Well, I'm a broke college student. I play more than enough to justify dropping $30 or so for a set-up, but money is tight.
Why don't I learn to set it up myself, you ask? Too much work

What if you are out of the country, have a gig the next day, only could bring one bass on a private jet, and a neck gets strange during soundcheck the day before?
Set a towel on that Spartan table in your room, pull out the tools, loosen strings, adjust truss rod(in this case 1/4 turn tighter did the trick).

Retighten strings, reset action & intonation, play for about an hour, and let the neck "get used to" the new setup.

Keep an eye on the setup for about a week or two to be sure the bass "likes" the new setting. Sometimes further adjustments may be needed. </RANT>

Sure beats being screwed at a gig or paying someone when you can't afford it.

 

[Darkstrike]

I can't think of one downside to my Fender Roscoe Beck IV, Roscoe LG-3005, or Roscoe SKB-3005, and I've tried hard.