I believe that the most versatile bass, especially mass produced, is the G&L/Tribute L-2000/L-2500. I feel that this bass provides the most sounds and works extremely well in the passive and active modes. I owned a Tribute L-2500 for several months and I now have a USA Peavey Millennium Five. The Peavey is great but it cannot deliver as many sounds as the Tribute. I suspect that I may be picking up another tribute of a USA G&L in the near future. Although I think that L-2000/L-2500 is the most versatile design. I don't mean to imply that is for everyone. G&Ls have generally speaking, a Fenderish tone. Others may not want that tone, for example, the Stingray is less versatile, but it has a distinctiveness that the L-2500 cannot match in my opinion. Some might prefer a 35" scale for a more taut B string. Others might want more string spacing on the L-2500. That said, I have to thank TB for making aware of this bass, because I think that it really is somewhat overlooked as the truly great design that it is.
'most' is subjective, but from what ive heard, maybe the G&L L2000 or a musicman Bongo. Something with 2 humbuckers and a 3 or 4 band preamp.
I havent played one but I heard that the Fender Stu Hamm Urge2 Bass is very versatile and it's not your average fender it has 24 frets 2 J pickups and a P-pikup in the middle so I beleive it probably would be
I see alot of people love Bongos. I think the dual humbucker Bongos sound great but I really don't like the position of the neck position humbucker. That pickup is too close to the fingerboard for me. I know one could work around it, but I wouldn't like a Bongo for slapping. I think the 55-94/55-02 is a great bass. That coil splitting switch on the big humbucker is the key to that bass' versatility. I think that the L-2000/L-2500 has a better P-bass sound and as far as I can tell, a much better passive sound.
I love my Stingray - a great tone in almost any situation or musical style. I have the 5-string version which offers the coil splitting capabilties of series/series+hum cancelling dummy coil/parallel. Without the switch I'd rate it a little less versatile, but still one of the "greats" ever made. Although I have to admit, those G&L's have captured my attention in the past 6 months or so. I love the look of them - very classy, looks comfy to play too. Like the Stingray, I thought I read that Leo Fender had input to some degree in the G&L's inception. I can see where they may have inherited a little of that Fender-ish tone and feel. It's hard to describe, but I know what you mean - you can definitely hear some aspects of that in the Stingray's tone. I've heard many positive things about the G&L's. I don't know of any place in town to try one out though. Maybe one of these days I'll pick one up, but I'll never part with my Stingray - she's a keeper.
lol Philbiker Stingray? They work in a lot of musical situations, but they have one basic sound, except the fivers, which have several basic sounds. IME, the most versatile bass is the Alembic Series 2, which with stereo electronics based on what's basically parametric EQ beats everything else like a dog. They'll do everything but dirty, and we have preamps and pedals for that. Second best are '80s Paul Reed Smith basses, which do SCPB, wicked dub tones, Stingray, out-of-phase quasi-Ric sound, and Jaco right off the bat before you start looking for new sounds. Then you turn the preamp on.
Again I have to vouch for the Fender RB5 signature series bass. The pickup configuration, and the switches allows this bass to mimic many different sounds.
Here are some related products that TB members are talking about. Clicking on a product will take you to TB’s partner, Primary, where you can find links to TB discussions about these products. Browser not compatible
