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What do you love about your bass?

#41
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2011 Rickenbacker 4003: I always wanted one, and while I know a lot of Ric-wanters wind up disappointed, this bass is everything I hoped it would be, looks, feels, and sounds exactly like I wanted it to, and is my main player for everything.

1985 Westone Spectrum: This bass was a gift from my mom in 1985. It is my first real bass, and the one I learned how to play on. I played in my first band with this bass, and it is a beautiful, solidly built Matsumoku instrument with a sound all its own.

My mom isn't into music, but I am sure to always let her know how much I appreciate her for this great bass.

2011 Squier VM Jaguar: Stacked knobs, block inlays, and a matching headstock on a Jazz neck for $300, and a beautiful finish with a tort guard, how can you go wrong? The pickups sound great, it is what I use when I need that Fender P sound. Plus it's cheap so I don't worry about taking into questionable bars.
 
#43
Over the decades I ended up with 9 electrics and one upright, some were cheap, some were not, but all play well, stay in tune well, they all have very good tone for what they are, and none of them cost me a fortune.
 
#44
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Ibanez Iceman ICB200 (2004 Korea):
Huge plank of very resonant mahogany
Slim and solid maple/rosewood neck that's bound & blocked and beautifully made
Humbuckers!!
Gold hardware that works perfectly
Monster Tone
Sexy metal looks
Has a penis that's also a convenient place to hang your headphones between takes in the studio


Ibanez SR500 (Korean):
Simply the most comfortable bass ever made, in every way
Fat and versatile live and especially recorded sounds
 
#45
'83 B. C. Rich Bich: What's not to love? Hand built by Bernie Rico & Neil Moser with a Kalher bass trem. (I'm not aware of another handmade Bich with a trem.) Plays great, has a nice wide neck and sounds great no matter if I play metal or country. Though doesn't quite have a country look.

'83 frankenstein bass: Schaller shedua J bass neck, Warmoth alder back routed body, Badass II bridge and Bartolini PJ pickups. Not a huge fan of J bass necks but is a very good polite bass.

'92 Ibanez EXB404: Found it on Ebay as sort of a basket case. The body was stripped with some sort of oil finish on it. The hardware was mostly broken. The frets looked like they had never been polished and the fingerboard was dried out. After assembling with spare parts to complete it, it has become my main player. Nice wide/thin neck and has a lot of bark and growl.

'98 Homemade bass: I bought a Carvin bass neck, maple body wood, EMG 35DC pups and an original Badass bridge. I set out to build a bass that sounded just like Scott Smith's (Loverboy) Spector bass. Got that tone but can also growl better than any bass I've ever played. It's being refinished now but that is a whole other story...:mad:
 
#46
I've got a few 4's and 5's. But lately I've been playing my Soundgear SR505 above all.

Reasons? It's probably the lightest bass I own weighing in at 7.5 pounds. I'm starting to develop arthritis in my lower back and have no problem standing with this bass strapped on for an hour at a time. For me that's huge. It's also very easy to play and with the preamp I can make adjustments when I go from fingerstyle to using a pick. It also sounds pretty good and the low B comes in very handy. I've said it here a few times and I'll say it again: the low B on this bass will knock a wall down.

I also love my Fender 4's...2009 AM STD Jazz and a 2011 MIJ Classic 70's P bass. I love everything about these two basses. They sound great, they weigh about 8.5 pounds each and wow, but do they play!!

But right now the 505 gets my full attention.
 
#48
2012 Stambaugh Singlecut Fretless
In many ways, it is the bass I've been lusting after for years. It is a chambered, 5 string, with two single-coils and a piezo bridge. Beyond all the tonal variations that the electronics allow, the bass really responds to every nuance of my playing (good and bad).
 
#50
Carvin SB5000 - its just the perfect match up of build quality, neck profile, great sound, great playability and price. I always feel like I got away with something when I remember it only cost me $1,084 new. I've been playing this model non stop for over 3 years.
 
#52
Never owned a lot of basses but I've played and tried a lot of them. My favorite has to be my ibanez ATK 300. It plays wonderfully and sounds like a dream to my ears. I can get so many tones out of this bass. I've always been able to be heard in a band with it and it plays well through all the amps I've plugged into with it. It's just an all around solid bass. My squier P is no slouch either. The tone I get out of it is one of my favorites. My ATK is the love of my life to date as far as basses go though. It didn't cost me a months pay either.
 
#54
2012 Ric 4003 Maple-Glo:

1. I love the way it looks(Pickup cover and all)
2. I love the endless tonal possibilities-even with Flat wounds I can get very close to the. Lee & Squire sound. With the Zoom B3 I can nail any sound I want.
3. I love the feel of it in my hands. I sometimes play right at the neck joint and it's like heaven.
4. I like the compliments I get on the sound.
 
#55
Fender Standard Jazz Bass (MIM) 2003, black body white guard, with DR light stainless steel strings

Love:
- no deadspots whatsoever :hyper:
- neck is slim
- great sustain and resonance unplugged :cool:
- comfortable contours, good ergonomics
- dark rosewood on the fretboard
- balances well on the body
- tuning is smooth yet firm
- it's naturally roadworn, so I don't worry that I'll ding it :D
- trussrod turns smoothly and is easy to adjust (at headstock)
- easy to set up

Dislikes:
- raised polepieces (get in the way of my plucking fingers)
- hex screws in the way when palm-muting
- back of neck is gloss (not smooth; but gonna fix that with some sandpaper soon)
- neck is baseball thick front-to-back
- poly body isn't as smooth as nitro or natural
-fretwork isn't perfect
 
#57
Jbassrockboy said:
Hey Mike

Can you spare us a pick of your S R

I have stuck with Fender but so often tempted on the Ibanez

Do you use it live?

Are you happy with the tone?
Click to expand...

Sorry...I can't post a pick because I don't own a camera.

I LOVE Fender basses. (How can you not??) My AM STD Jazz is a total dream machine to play, as is my MIJ P bass. They're both very good sounding basses as well.

But the situations I'm in calls for a 5 string. Not that I HAVE to use one....nobody's forcing me to, but that low B comes in very handy and I do use it live. I play once every three weeks at church...the B handles those "church-y lows" very well and I also use it for my every Thursday night gig. I used my Fenders when I first started that gig, thought I'd try the SR and the guys LOVED it!! Once again, that low B works quite well in some songs.

I like the tone of the bass and the onboard preamp is very flexable. Comes in very handy when I'm going between fingstyle and a pick. The only thing I don't like about the preamp is how "zingy" the treble response can get if you're not careful. So I generally keep the treble on my amp as well as on the bass itself pretty low. Seems to help tame it all out. As I also mentioned, the light weight of the bass is a huge help to me with my back problems. Also, there's no noticable dead spots on the bass either. It's very even sounding.

As much as I prefer passive basses (and always will) the SR505 works very well FOR ME and for the situations that I'M IN. I also have an AM STD 5 string Jazz bass but I'll tell ya....even with a wide strap the weight of that bass gets to me real quick. I've had back problems on and off for years but lately it seems to be getting worse.

So some of my prefering the SR is a matter of sparing myself of further injuring myself. If I didn't like how the bass sounded then I wouldn't use it and would try for something else. But I'm happy with it and it's working quite well for me.
 
#58
What i love about my bass(es)?....everything!....BECAUSE

-I did my homework on researching them before buying
-I would put my best effort forward to try one (or at least similar) first
-I knew that i played genres suiting the type of bass i was buying
-That you will NEVER see an ad from me on here that says "Just picked this up from a fellow TB'er and its just not what i'm looking for"
-That you will NEVER see an ad from me on here selling a bass that i have owned for 3 weeks
-That you will NEVER see an ad on here from me saying "This is the best bass i have played and the tone is unreal...but i have to sell it cause my wife says "thin the herd"
-That you will NEVER see an ad from me on here selling a bass and using the previous owners for sale thread

Thats what i love about my basses.......:bassist:
 
#60
Fender FSR Jazz.
I'm in love with the neck, (just the J profile in general I think) and I'm happy with the action.
It's my favorite bass I've owned thus far.
Always looking forward to to next time I get to play it.

tl;dr: playing in 1st position is a dream.
 

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