what would signature bass be?

[Frank77]

I already have it.

Hammersmith 5 string
Matte black
P bass style body
19mm spacing
35" scale
Alder body
Maple neck
Nordstrom P bass pickup at the neck
Seymour Duncan NYC pickup at the bridge.
Neck/Both/Bridge 3 way switch
Series/Inner Coil/Parallel switch for Bridge pickup
Volume and Tone
It feels great, sounds great, and looks great.
But the neck....
They even put "TF" in the serial number for "two fingers".
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That's a killer take on the "P-bass+", I dig it!

 

[Bass V]

the Epi Toby Std. is it, just a perfect design, then play with various PUs and wiring

 

[DJ Bebop]

This has been:

 

[VolverseLoco]

If I told you mine, I know I would probably get beat up here. I think I have over-expressed myself on what I would want, just in the last 4 days here too...so I bought the next best thing yesterday, a signature Dingwall. Yes sir ree bob, its got my 'signature' on the Visa debit card sales receipt!

 

[Thegrandwazoo]

Mine would be essentially the Ernie Ball Music Man Joe Dart signature Sterling, only it would retain the three-position (series, parallel, silent single) pickup switch and preamp from the normal Sterling and have an active/passive option with a passive tone control. It would have a three-coil Sterling version of the neodymium Bongo pickup. It would have a 10-14” compound radius fingerboard and jumbo stainless (or no) frets. It would have their new lightweight tuners and an ash body. It would be available in a satin oil finish with flame maple fingerboard and no pickguard like the Joe Dart bass, tobacco sunburst with cocobolo fingerboard and a Spitfire tortoise pickguard, or pearlescent black with a fretless cocobolo fingerboard inlaid with maple fretlines and a more subdued red tortoise celluloid pickguard, all with small (1/8”-3/16”) abalone dot inlays. All would have a two- or three- piece flame maple neck with an oil/wax finish and graphite stiffening rods. All would have a normal Music Man bridge (not the old one with the mutes or the new smaller one like the Stingray Special or the Cutlass/Caprice have) with top- or through- loading and Dunlop dual design StrapLoks. All would have black chrome hardware.

Good thread!

 

[Black_In_Mind]

It would probably be my current Schecter J-4.

Take a stock J-4, replace the black hardware with gold, replace the all-in-one pickguard with a standard jazz control plate, and add a thumb rest.

While it hasn't happened yet I will eventually be talking to the tech I usually have work on my basses about wiring a stereo out on the side output while also having a mono output on the control plate. I got the Idea after getting my Ric 4003 after many months of not knowing what to do with that unused output jack on my Schecter's control plate.

 

[Tommy V]

an Eastwood EUB1.. but neck-through, and fully bound in day glow red.

 

[Pings Bass]

6-string unlined fretless with G&L-type pickups and switching. Natural or burst.

 

[thabassmon]

Cool question.

My signature instrument would have the 34 inch scale and range of a standard electric bass, as well as include the range of a bass vi and extended to include the highest range of 24 fret baritone guitar.

6 strings
34 inches
30 frets
Drop tuner to a D1
Tuned E1,A1,D2,G2,C3,F3 top note at 30th fret B5
Neck/Middle/Bridge humbuckers with coil tap switches
3 band EQ, with sweepable mids. Passive/Active switch.
Individual piezo monorail bridges.
Piezo to MIDI ghost system.
3 vols magnetic/piezo/MIDI
3 outputs
(magnetic & piezo out)
(piezo only)
(MIDI out)

Finish in a great blue transparent (like the PRS finishes).

Four offered tuned
E1,A1,D2,G2 top note at 30th fret Db5
Five offered tuned
E1,A1,D2,G2,C3 top note a 30th fret Gb5

Future models to extend to a 7 string tuned BEADGCF with the drop tuner down to an A.

 

[Eddie LeBlanc]

I have 4 of mine, and they have this guys signature.

 

[Ghastly]

Maybe this one: Fender single coil slab p bass with customizations.

 

[Frndmoretti]

The same look a my old Giannini Sonic electric guitar. Fiesta Red or Surf Green.

To options:

Short scale with an old mustang style pickup (The Atomic, with atom markings) and long scale with a mudbucker on the P position (The Ray Gun) .

The neck would be built as a copy or my old Washburn lyon's one. I learned how to play on it and it's still my standard.

 

[basslicks]

For me it's a P bass with a Jazz pickup and an active/passive switch with a P bass neck. Luckily they already make that, unluckily it's expensive af! I love my Elite P, it checks all of the boxes!

 

[jamro217]

If I ever get around to it, the pile of wood and components in my basement will eventually become just that. The plan is for a fretless four string with three pickups and individual volumes, tones and toggles. The neck is going to be a Schaller humbucker, the middle and bridge two J pups spaced closer to the neck than normal. The bridge would be slightly closer to the neck than '60's spacing, just about where the top of the J pup would touch the bottom edge of a standard D and G half of a P pup. The middle would be dead center between that and the bottom of the neck pickup. The neck pickup will be at the 24 fret line and the fingerboard will angle down towards the top of the neck pickup mirroring the angle of the body cutaways. Two and two headstock with a design I hope looks pleasant and distinctive without looking corny or dorky. Haven't decided whether to go orange with a black fingerboard, or leave it maple and finish the body in another color.

 

[whero]

I'm going to start by saying that I absolutely love my Aerodyne Jazz Bass.

I love the "blackout" look, with the dark smoked hardware, no pick guard, the rosewood fretboard without inlays... plus the antique cream binding. Probably the only thing I'd change about it is the Strat-style jack.

My signature bass would be a '51 Precision, done in the Aerodyne style, with the Jazz neck from the Aerodyne, but the Tele-shaped headstock.

 

[Dabndug]

I would combine features from my three favourite basses - a ruby red Rickenbacker 4000 with a Lollar Horseshoe pickup.

 

[lizardking837]

What would your signature bass be?

prolly been asked before.. but why not an update..

Mine would be a skinnier.. fender P bass.. with deeper contours.. creme overwound neomagnet pickup.. aged tinted AAAA flame maple on Hard Maple body.. extra heavy brass bridge.. with satin nitro.. and an aged gold anodized pickguard no knobs and a strat style side jack.. with age orange tinted birdseye maple/Hard maple wood.. sanded worn in aging.. 12in radius but well rounded edge fret board.. big frets. light weight tuners.. a retainer on every string.. reversed headstock.. and a 1.5" brass compensation nut..

I don't care if you like my idea..

what's yours?

and just for hell of it what would you do to get it made by a company?

I'd love to see a custom version of my American P Bass. It would have an "aged" Inca Silver body, black pick guard and vintage tint neck. Time has been really kind to the finish. The body has a nice green patina and the neck is tinting itself really well.

I haven't done anything with the electronics, unless they've changed their pick up voicings since the 90s.

 

[friskinator]

It already exists, I had a luthier build it for me! It's funny, because I just replied in another thread that this bass makes me feel like "a signature bass was built for me, even though I'm a nobody!".

So here it is: A headless passive 4-string PJ! 34'' scale, swamp ash body, flamed maple neck with a 24-fret ebony fingerboard, and Hipshot hardware. The Aguilar pickups gives it a rather mellow tone, on the more vintage-ish side of the p-bass spectrum. Controls are master volume, master tone, and 3-way switch. I use the P pickup soloed most of the time, and the height of the J pickup is adjusted for just the right amount of "burp" I like to add on certain tunes. I have a boost pedal on my board that I engage when I go PJ, in order to keep the volume at unity with the output of the soloed P pickup.

Sounds great, looks great (at least I think so), dead simple, and super ergonomic. Bonus: It fits in a guitar gig bag, so it's much easier to carry when walking, or when riding the subway.

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Very cool! Are you still using the custom build you showed me when I was in Montreal? This one is from the same luthier, I assume?

 

[jackn1202]

Squier Jaguar, but instead of a PJ it gets three jazz bass pickups glued together at the bridge position. Individual on/off per coil, series/parallels, master vol master tone master on/off. Paint it mystichrome. 34” scale passive.

 

[Frank77]

Very cool! Are you still using the custom build you showed me when I was in Montreal? This one is from the same luthier, I assume?

It's actually the same bass, but with a different body! The SG-esque shaped one looked very cool but didn't work out ergonomically, even without a headstock...so I kept the neck and all the hardware and had him do another body with a more traditional geometry (i.e. upper horn at the 12th fret for a long scale, now I know the golden rule!), and NOW it's perfect!

The balance is unbelievable: When you put it on it naturally hangs in the right angle, and there is absolutely zero downward push at the end of the neck - with my other (headstocked) basses I can feel it in my left shoulder after a while, this one I can almost forget it's on.

So yeah, the first body was pretty much the result of me not doing my homework before sending the specs to the luthier, it's kind of embarrassing...but on the flipside now it's my absolute favourite bass to play, and even with the cost of a second body the total was still way less than what some folks pay for a higher-end factory-built bass, so no regrets. Too bad you only got to see and try the initial version with very bad ergonomics!