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What do YOU look for when buying a bass.?

#41
A few of these acronyms that are being thrown around are a little confusing, Can we start an acronym thread. FSO? WAL? VVT? ASAT
Here is what I think they mean
FSO- For Show Only
WAL- Bass bought at Walmart
VVT- Virtual Variety Tuning
ASAT- Acrylic Shine Active Tuning

How did I do?
 
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#42
DRut said:
A few of these acronyms that are being thrown around are a little confusing, Can we start an acronym thread. FSO? WAL? VVT? ASAT
Here is what I think they mean
FSO- For Show Only
WAL- Bass bought at Walmart
VVT- Virtual Variety Tuning
ASAT- Acrylic Shine Active Tuning

How did I do?
Click to expand...
Wal is a name brand. (Most DEFINITELY not found at Walmart lol)
Fso is fender shaped object.
Idk about rhe rest
 
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#43
1. Tilt-back headstock (i.e. no string trees)
2. Top-load bridge (no string-thru bodies or bridges)
3. 5 string minimum, prefer more than 6 though
4. Straight neck with low action
5. Sounds good to me in my contexts
6. Is a good buy (unless I have $$)
 
#44
1. 30 or 32" scale due to shoulder arthritis
2. Weight below 10 lbs.
3. 22-24 frets
4. Playability...if able to try out first
5. Visual appearance...if it's ugly, no sale
6. I love boutique or "interesting" basses
7. No FSO...I know they are the "standard", but I want something different.
8. 4 string only!!
 
#45
I guess as the OP I never chimed in.
I go for looks first, as a beginner if I like the way it looks then I will be inspired to pick up my bass and practice.
Next is value I am always looking for a good deal. When I first got out of the Navy you could still buy used American Fenders for less than $700. now in Los Angeles they are priced at $1000 and up.
Im still trying to develop tone so I dont focus too much on that, I prefer to play with flats and let my amp even out my tone. i figure anything I dont like can be changed or modded.
Im a pretty pig guy so weight hasnt been an issue for me yet but I also dont do gigs yet so there is that part.
 
#46
DRut said:
I guess as the OP I never chimed in.
I go for looks first, as a beginner if I like the way it looks then I will be inspired to pick up my bass and practice.
Next is value I am always looking for a good deal. When I first got out of the Navy you could still buy used American Fenders for less than $700. now in Los Angeles they are priced at $1000 and up.
Im still trying to develop tone so I dont focus too much on that, I prefer to play with flats and let my amp even out my tone. i figure anything I dont like can be changed or modded.
Im a pretty pig guy so weight hasnt been an issue for me yet but I also dont do gigs yet so there is that part.
Click to expand...
Being inspired by looks isn't a beginner thing. I still do it 30 odd years later. Having a pretty bass absolutely gets me to practice more.. it dies have to sound half decent though. Bad tone is a buzzkill.
 
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#47
DRut said:
I know this is highly subjective and I'm not looking for advice, I'm just curious.

For those of you with multiple basses or GAS, what do you look for when you decide to buy another bass?
Playability (what does that mean to you), weight, design, uniqueness.etc
I have 2 basses a pass and a jazz bass , I'm about to go out and buy another bas simply because I like the way it looks. (I think a lot of basses are works of art). It's an ESP5 string fretless. I dont Neeeeeeed it just something new for the family.
Once again I'm not looking ifor advice on buying the bass , just asking what makes you guys pull the trigger when you splurge on a new bass
Click to expand...
Well...
It's kind of a multi-stage process, I suppose. 30+ years ago, I made a list of the basses I wanted. It consisted of particular basses (like, Gibson Thunderbird); specific brands (like, "Gretsch"); and the rest were basically just types (like "short scale neck-thru"). However, they all had to be;
1. Left handed
2. 4 strings
3. At least reasonably well made and playable; and
4. At least worth what I paid for them. And,
5. No bass could fill more than one spot. Which, in the end, made for a large herd. Like, 28 of the things.
Other than that? I didn't much care about color; And, for the "types" category? The make was immaterial; neither was any other feature besides the type. Although, I have taken advantage of a bass's other features on more than one occasion. Like when I moved my '95 Alembic Epic from the "Active Bass" spot to the "Long Scale Set Neck" spot, because that spot was proving hard to fill. The "Active" spot, OTOH? That one took about 15 minutes of searching to find one that was a left handed, 4-string, very well made bass. And reasonably priced, as well...
Of all the criteria, "Left handed" was by far the hardest requirement. It took 15 years of looking to find a left handed Gretsch bass (a '94 G6119B-O-LH Broadkaster); and to this day? It's the only lefty Gretsch I've ever seen... Some of them I had to wait years for, because they only recently made lefties. And, some of them I had to have made.
But, my herd is finally complete. Birdsong delivered my lined fretless Fusion Bass a couple of bays ago; the last empty spot in the "Bass Herd" ("Short Scale Fretless") is now filled. While there are 2 or 3 "Unicorn" basses I'd love to get my hands on - say, a lefty Gretsch White Falcon Bass - I'm not looking all that hard for them. I'm just going to concentrate on playing the ones I do have - and enjoying that a whole lot...:cool:
 
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#49
DRut said:
asking what makes you guys pull the trigger when you splurge on a new bass
Click to expand...
I always look for inspiration - if the bass has a certain something that keeps me coming back to it and pulls different things out of me as a player.

For me, ergonomics are probably the biggest piece of that - if the bass is uncomfortable (high action, too heavy, bad balance) or unpleasant (sharp edges, "razor fret") I'm unlikely to play it for more than 10 seconds.

A great sounding bass will draw me in, but I tend to be much less concerned about how it sounds because there is SO MUCH that can be done to change how a bass sounds...and there are a LOT of great bass sounds!
I love everything from my P-Bass with flats to my Dingwall with bright rounds.

Looks will never sell a bass to me; I've never bought a bass just because I thought it looked cool, but there have been basses that I didn't buy for aesthetic reasons.

But it all comes back to that nebulous idea of "inspiration":
I've sold plenty of great basses - they were well made, played well, sounded good...they did everything right, just didn't grab me in a unique way.
 
#51
When I'm in a shop I have to like the look of it first to get me to take it off the wall, but the neck (radius/profile) is the most important thing to me. It has to feel good in my left hand before anything else. I usually spend a few minutes just playing unplugged to see how something feels to play. Then the ergonomics of the body are considered. (How does my right arm rest on the body? Is it comfortable?) Either of those areas would be a deal breaker if there is not love connection.

If all that is going good I'll plug it in to see how it sounds. Pickups and electronics can be changed pretty easily, so I don't worry too much about that, but if you don't get along with the neck and body you are going to have a pretty rough go. But, if you don't like the look of the bass, then you probably won't want to play it that much.
 
#53
DRut said:
I know this is highly subjective and I'm not looking for advice, I'm just curious.

For those of you with multiple basses or GAS, what do you look for when you decide to buy another bass?
Playability (what does that mean to you), weight, design, uniqueness.etc
I have 2 basses a pass and a jazz bass , I'm about to go out and buy another bas simply because I like the way it looks. (I think a lot of basses are works of art). It's an ESP5 string fretless. I dont Neeeeeeed it just something new for the family.
Once again I'm not looking ifor advice on buying the bass , just asking what makes you guys pull the trigger when you splurge on a new bass
Click to expand...
Tone is primary. Does it sound different than my other basses? How so? Usefully different?, then, playability. A great sounding instrument can usually be made to play very well, but an instrument that honks or just doesn't have that certain something tone-wise is hard to overcome. Having written that, giving a decent setup to a poorly-setup instrument can often bring it to life, tone-wise. I really don't much give a rat's behind what it looks like, unless it's road-worn, which I'm very much not interested in.

John
 
#55
sigh..

after many years of owning many things and playing professionally, here's what i look for.

6 strings
33, or 34 scale.
16-17mm spacing at bridge
stable neck - whether thats reinforced with steel, carbon, 5 piece wood, or even a special piece of maple that just don't move. i don't want to tweak it constantly.
reasonably level frets/working truss rod. I need to be able to set 1/16 string height at the last fret, and .010" neck relief. some basses can do even better (rare) and many can't quite get there.

some varient of J bass pickup placement, the neck pickups on a lot of 6 strings are not where a j bass would put it and i don't really mind. a total deal-breaker is the bridge pickup location, it has to be 60's location.

I also do play plent of 4 string j or P basses or whatever, but if i'm "really" shopping, this is the list. pretty much none of it is negotiable, either.
 
#56
Depends upon whether it makes my nipples hard. It can be color, style, weight or simply I don't have one like that. Now in the perfect world I'll sell off the least liked bass in order to acquire this one. But not always.... Its kinda sad too cause I probably made multiple improvements to it just to make it worthy of being in the collection. And oddly enough its the pure fact that I have so many and I play them all is the only reason I don't buy more than I do. I love the variety, the characteristics of each one. Well.... until something better comes along.
 

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