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What makes a bass great?

#221
Garry Raines said:
I also play a J Plus. Been my only one for the last 25 years. It is an active 5er that is very versatile. I don't play much slap stuff, so it covers everything I want to do. Nice narrow neck. Haven't played anything else that feels like it.
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Yep, my 4 string Plus is still the best playing bass i’ve ever had.
 
#222
Good thread.

I ask myself this a lot. Why is it that in the time I've had a Stingray, a Sandberg and (my current bass) a G&L SB-2, my Indonesian-made £250 Squier CV Precision "backup" is the one that's stuck around? These beautifully made high-end basses, I'll move them on no problem, but I can't imagine selling the Squier.

On the other hand, I'm still looking for The Bass and am apparently too much of a snob to accept that it might be a Squier.
 
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#223
Honestly, I don't know! I used to think a long neck was important, long strings like an upright for good, clear low frequencies. Than, at an open mike, a guy had a tiny bass literally the size of a ukulele and it sounded good. He let me try it and it was real easy to play, go figure. Then people say the wood is important. Then at an open mike, a guy had a bass that was nothing but neck, pickups and an outline of a bass, no wood. It sounded good and I tried it. It weighed next to nothing. One time I heard a really good bass player play a $10,000 Alembic and that was one of the few basses I ever heard that sounded better than all the rest. I told him, you have the growl of a Rickenbacker, the punch of a Fender and the lows of a Gibson all at the same time. He let my try in on break and it weighed a ton! But I'm not going to play in bar bands for the rest of my life just to buy one :.), my $200 used Squire with a nice set of flat wounds works good for me.
 
#224
I have debilitating bass confusion right now. I love my $299 SUB bass. It has a great feel but sounds meh. On a costly impulse I bought a P bass, and in my room it sounds great but at gigs, little difference. It’s so gorgeous though, it’s rewarding just to gaze at it. Finally, I have a beastly Peavey T-40 I bought in 81. It’s an overbuilt novelty but I’m emotionally attached to it. At some point I suppose I’ll find peace and stick with a favorite. Maybe I need to buy a few more.
 
#225
My first "quality" bass was a 64 Fender Jazz Bass I bought used in 1966 and I loved it. Then I joined a band in late 67 with a Hammond organist whose musical knowledge was far above mine and the low end of his Hammond pretty much washed out whatever I played so I tried/bought an Epiphone semi hollow body with a bass boost. It was boomy and worked okay until we went into the recording studio and realized how noisy (slappy loose EB3 string tension) it was and quickly replaced it at the request of our engineer/producer with a Fender Precision Bass. It recorded great and my hands which are relatively small got accustomed to the feel of the neck. Late in my career I added a B.C. Rich Bass (got a great deal from a player that was getting out of the business) and a Travis Bean Bass that was given to me by the manufacturer when he came into a club I was playing and saw me playing the B.C.Rich Bass because he considered them to be his primary competition in Los Angeles where we were. The B.C. Rich had a good feel and I suspect it might have recorded well because the pickups looked like Precision Bass pickups (which are quiet). The Travis Bean had a shorter scale than I was used to but that made my nights easier playing 6 sets a night in a Show/Cover band. In closing my 68 Fender Precision Bass was the one I used for the majority of my career and it never failed me. I used to call it the M1 of electric basses because it was easy to work on, simple in design and never broke down. An M1 is a semi-automatic rifle that was used by the U.S. Military from WWII through the early years of the Vietnam conflict for those same reasons.
 
#227
What makes a great bass for me is that before any of those interchangeable things it has to have a good neck (adjusts easy and stays where I put it), level & smooth fretwork, comfortable fingerboard edges (rolled), proper set up, string spacing etc, etc. The other things are not so easy to define...like it just sounds right every time I use it at a gig; because it almost always sounds good at home! Of course color, shape and those aesthetic things have to be there too. My go to basses are my Mexican 60's J bass and my Squier VM P bass. Both have had the frets taken care of as well as fingerboard work. They simply feel really good in my hands. I have 4 others but these two in particular satisfy the most number of things that make them just right. The others each have something that is lacking just a bit...but still too good to get rid of.
 
#228
My first bass was a CBS? Reissue of a 1962 jazz. It was heavy and I loved that bass. A friend of mine talked me out of it. I regret selling it more for sentimental reasons than playing it. But since then I've owned numerous basses and last year built my first and probably only Warmoth Gecko medium 5 string. I'm selling the rest of my basses and you should sell yours as well. It's the definitive electric bass with active electronics. It's too bad I'm currently playing keys, mandolin and guitar in my 3 rock bands. But alas working 60 hours a week doesn't allow time for another group where I can play my Gecko. But Hey! It's ready!
 
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#230
You know I have 5 basses right know, there all hanging on my bedroom wall or in a stand where I can see them. Like old friends, they all have there own story, strengths, and weaknesses. They make me happy to see them every day...I’ve given in to it, embraced the fact that I’ll never be a great player, but enjoy our time together. New friends always welcome!
 
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#232
if you got a bass you don't like i accept donations send it to me.
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#234
My greatest bass is my 2005 Squier Affinity Jazz. I have upgraded to Fender noiseless 60s jazz pickups and have shielded the body cavity to reduce buzz. Tuners and bridge are stock. The frets have been dressed and it’s professionally setup with LaBella flats. Despite buying more expensive instruments, why do I think it’s so great?
1.) Tone—I love the thump
2.) Ease—it was my first bass so I am accustomed to the frets and the strings
3.) Player—although I am still just an amateur I sound the best on this bass
4.) Looks—it is candy apple red
5.) Feeling—as I said before it was first bass. My wife gave it to me as a gift when I needed a distraction from some professional failures. So I LOVE THIS BASS.

When I have more time to play the others maybe they will become great too ?
 
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#236
Joe Nerve said:
Lots of great responses, but I REALLY love this one :). I think I agree.
Click to expand...

I think that’s why my Ripper always seemed like enough bass. It has a neck solo setting and that can push plenty of low end and the mid cut filter means you can keep a lot of mids or dial back to a deep woody sound. I’ve used that one setting on nearly all of my tracks over the years that have an electric bass part.

Otto
 
#238
Joe Nerve said:
As the years go by and the basses pile up in my closet, I have to humbly admit that I no longer have a clue regarding this.

I think I finally get it when I see someone playing an OLD, no name POS and being completely content with it. While sounding great at the same time.

When I first started playing bass, all basses sounded the same to me, and I'm starting to feel the same way again. Admittedly, that might have a lot to do with the fact that for the past 2 years I've been using IEMs... and well, all basses are pretty much sounding the same :). Or that I'm going deaf :)? But I can still hear them... in my house... and in the gigs where I'm not using IEMs.

I own far too many basses and I'm reluctant to sell because I feel like I'm going through some sort of temporary insanity here. I therefore thought I'd open the topic up to conversation. And to add a little to what inspired this post...

The last bass I fell head over heels in love with was my Rickenbacker. I can't put a D-tuner on it, so I don't use it with my current band. Since then I've purchased TMB 30, A Caprice, a Jazz, a Mustang, and most recently dropped a big fat chunk of dough on a Huntington 3.

I play all these basses at my gigs, and whenever I'm not playing my Mustang, I wish I was playing my Mustang. And this is going on for a while now.

I paid $400 for that Mustang, new.

I can't lie to myself anymore and felt I needed to make that admission openly.

What's going on here?

Help me please to understand :).
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