What makes a “Good Bass” good?

[Roadman]

I hope this will become a sticky some day, but anyway, here goes.

What makes a good bass good?

I understand the concept of a fine instrument. Exotic woods, hand rubbed finishes and the like, but that just makes a pretty looking bass.
I understand tone preference. If you are looking for the sound of a “Ric“, you’re not going to find it in even the best made “Musicman” or vice versa.
I understand the special X factor of the feel of a fine crafted, hand carved instrument forged from the wood reclaimed from the actual Mayflower. The mantra of “It just feels good in my hands” is a perfectly valid reason to play your ax of choice, I get that.
I even understand the pain caused by crappy pots, noisy pickups, and cheap tuners. However, once you get past the Kmart stage, what difference does it really make? I gotta believe that if you put a Squier, or a Rogue or whatever into the hands of Victor, or Geddy, or Les, or whoever, they would still make it sound better than me and 98% of the other guys on this forum.

I’m honestly not trying to shame anyone into justifying they’re $8000 purchase. By all means, play what you want to play. It’s all good. But what I’m asking is…What makes a good bass good?

Discuss.

 

[JimB52]

For me it's the neck, the weight and the electronics.

 

[Thunderitter]

My hands, my fingers, my eyes, my ears, my ability, my desire, my influences, my ambition and last, but by no means least, my dreams!

 

[Honk'n_down-low]

It is hard to articulate - a good Bass has a certain feel, resonance, sound. Speaks - it is Spiritual in some ways - I can tell you when you play a special one - you just know.

 

[smo]

For me;
Neck - it's gotta be slim and fast. And the tone has to be relatively even/flat, considering the on board EQ.

 

[Roadman]

It is hard to articulate - a good Bass has a certain feel, resonance, sound. Speaks - it is Spiritual in some ways - I can tell you when you play a special one - you just know.

I know what you mean. It's like finding a good woman. She may not be right for everyone, but she suits me just fine, ya Know?

 

[Jim C]

It's a mojo thing

 

[blipndub]

A good bass feels solid in your hands. No loose parts or rattles. A smooth neck with well set frets and details like tight tuning gears and bridge height adjustment screws that aren't sharp or floppy. I also want the knobs to turn smoothly with some resistance and the input jack to feel reliable and tight. I guess it comes down to quality components put together right.

And an old good bass feels settled, like things are where they are supposed to be and have been for a long time.

I swear one of the reasons I got rid of my SR5 was because the tuners felt cheap and rather than replace them I was just turned off by the whole thing. Probably stupid!

 

[KenToby]

If the bass fits your hands well and it produces a pleasant tone to you, consider it a GREAT bass. I've spent some $20,000+ chasing the answer to this question. One of my favorite basses is still my $175 SX75. I swapped the pickups for tone and set it up for fit and it plays and sounds on par with some of my $2K basses!!
Learn to ignore the headstock logo and trust yourself before you go by what you might hear. Enjoy the ride...

KT

 

[dabbler]

Every player is is going to have their own definition of what makes a bass "good". Some won't even be able to articulate exactly what "it" is. But IMO we all are looking for some level (there are acceptable compromises sometimes too) of:

tone
playability (including how it feels)
stability
maintainability
reliability
looks

For me the order of importance of those items is:

playability
looks
tone
stability
maintainability
reliability

Yeah, I put looks second. Why? I can fix a lot of the other things, and while setup can affect playability, I don't change neck profiles and the location of the controls etc. are design elements that are pretty much built into the bass.

 

[Tendollarcat]

I used to think this was about tonal flexibility.

All of the posts above mention the immediate stuff and it's all true - feel, finish, craftsmanship, playability, electronics and hardware all contribute to a good bass.

I've realised with time that the most important thing, along with these others, is a unique character in tone. A good bass, in the custom world, is unique. It's a combination of woods built by someone who knows what they are doing to achieve something special. While I used to think that my perfect bass would be incredibly flexible, I've now gone completely the other way and I want my perfect bass to have it's own personality - along with all of that other good stuff.

My philosophy has become that a versatile bass does lots of things very well. A great bass does what it does better than anything else. I'm always looking for the great characters now and that has nothing to do with price.

 

[PoundinThunder]

to me, my MIM jazz is amazing. i play other jazzes at guitar center (even the same one) and mine just sounds better to me, i have never tweaked it at all and it is perfect. i play some very nice basses while trying out new stuff at guitar center but end up not pleased by them. only a few make me happy and comfortable when i play them. i know my bass isnt the best but right now, its the best for me. i might get some Dimarzio super Js tho and see what those sound like. the last bass i played that i said i had to have was a Bongo. its all about the feel to me, i have to be comfortable. like when i play my bass, it feels warmer (temperature wise) than the basses at guitar center. my room is always cold too. i cant explain it. whoever said its like a woman was right. tho i prefer my one woman. i wouldnt mind having another bass or two as well as my current one haha

 

[Ely Lyonblum]

to get a little abstract, a good bass is characterized by your ability to express what you are thinking into the sound it puts out. whether that be a squire or a fodera, the bass has to streamline that process.
practically, a bass needs to be comfortable and versatile. beyond that it is completely subjective.

 

[Lon86]

Tone...tone...tone...neck, weight, balance, tone...tone...looks.

my $.02

 

[Thunderthumbs73]

I hope this will become a sticky some day, but anyway, here goes.

What makes a good bass good?

I understand the concept of a fine instrument. Exotic woods, hand rubbed finishes and the like, but that just makes a pretty looking bass.
I understand tone preference. If you are looking for the sound of a “Ric“, you’re not going to find it in even the best made “Musicman” or vice versa.
I understand the special X factor of the feel of a fine crafted, hand carved instrument forged from the wood reclaimed from the actual Mayflower. The mantra of “It just feels good in my hands” is a perfectly valid reason to play your ax of choice, I get that.
I even understand the pain caused by crappy pots, noisy pickups, and cheap tuners. However, once you get past the Kmart stage, what difference does it really make? I gotta believe that if you put a Squier, or a Rogue or whatever into the hands of Victor, or Geddy, or Les, or whoever, they would still make it sound better than me and 98% of the other guys on this forum.

I’m honestly not trying to shame anyone into justifying they’re $8000 purchase. By all means, play what you want to play. It’s all good. But what I’m asking is…What makes a good bass good?

Discuss.

I think if you're hoping for some consensus or very explicit defineables/deliverables, in which all other basses then are measured against as a bar of "good" then you might be dissapointed. Ditto for taking everyone's suggestions and turning around and trying to craft the "bass to end all bases" bass from those suggestions will be an exercize in frustration.

I'd say a good player makes a good bass good.

I've heard people do very musical and masterful things on a Danelectro bass on one hand, and people who can't make two pleasant sounding notes on a Pedulla. What is the value of a "good" bass if you can't do anything "good" on it?

You tell me. What makes a "good bass" good?

 

[Jeff K]

Tone...tone...tone...neck, weight, balance, tone...tone...looks.

my $.02

Well said. I agree totally...

 

[rcadble]

Tone, weight, neck, EQ, and looks

 

[Dave R]

First, playability. That's mostly neck, with some balance and weight thrown in. If it sounds good, but you can't play it well, you won't make it sound good.

Second is tone. Realize that you can affect tone a lot with right hand placement and technique. Much of tone is in the hands. Next, you can affect tone with EQ on the bass and the amp or console. But EQ can only color what's there, not make something that's not there.

Third is probably ergonomics, and looks. Distant third.

 

[vinxbass]

They way it sounds, plays, feels, unplugged, then when you plug it in "WAL-LA" - you knows it's just right.

 

[Twiggy Jr.]

a good player who likes his bass for the desired style of playing.
i still have my first bass, fender squier, and it's a GREAT bass for playing anything from standard tuning to dropped d down a half step.
it's not good for slapping.
AT ALL
but i still get what i want from it
i have an ibanez sr100 soundgear, which is good for any playing, but awesome for slapping
then again i have an ibanez edb 605 which is awesome for anything i want to do.
so, basically, personal preferences for the style you want to play...and if it sounds good