MY number one has to be my CIJ Geddy Lee signature Fender Jazz Bass made in 2004. It's my fourth Geddy Lee I've owned.
Story of it is that I previously owned three Geddys, all at different points of my life as a bassist.
The first one was great, nothing wrong with it, but I sold it for reasons I forgot why.
The second one I sold it because the bridge saddles were poorly filed and the nut wasn't filed properly. Frets were also slightly worn. Gone it was.
The third one was almost a keeper; it was an amazing bass but I was in a Precision-hype at the time so I sold it to get a Mike Dirnt P. Bad choice, it was, as I immediately disliked the Dirnt P and sold it ASAP to find another Geddy Lee bass because it was the bass I've always wanted since I was in grade 10.
Story of my current Geddy goes like this. I found it on sale on Craigslist for $650 back in January of 2015. I offered him $600 for the bass at first through text and he said okay that works but I figured, "Why not try to pretend to be another buyer and offer him $500" so I emailed the thread without sending him my number and offered him 500. He said only if the person offering $600 backed out.
So I backed out on the text thread and he said okay to the email offer of 500. I pretended that my phone wasn't working well so I couldn't text properly so I met him at a public place at a specific time through email. There, I bought the bass for $500 with a softshell case.
The bass was filthy dirty. Strings were hairy (how does that even work?), frets were nasty, everything was just caked with dirt and grime. So I took it home, took the whole bass apart, and spent 3-4 HOURS cleaning every hardware part, frets, neck, body, pickups, cavity, etc... It was a gruelling job but after I finished, it looked almost brand new except for the obvious chips and dents and the fact that the tuners didn't really have that "new shine" (I call it natural vintaging). It looked beautiful. I picked it up, slotted new strings on it, plugged it in, and played it.
It sounded beautiful. It was amazing. I bonded with it immediately. I knew it was
THE Geddy Lee bass for me and that I found my permanent no.1.
It's almost our first anniversary together; we went through so much, including someone thinking I owned a real '72 Jazz until they saw the Geddy signature on the back of the headstock...XD.
Here she is, almost a year later. Everything on it is stock except the strings, the bigger tone knob, and the holes on the pickguard that are purely for aesthetics. Gonna plan to reinstall Custom Shop 60s in the bass once my tax return comes but the stock ones are doing well for now!
