Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
What's our Holy Grail?
- Thread starter roller
- Start date
-
- Tags
- holy grail les paul
I'd say and extremely early Rick 4001. That and the Rickenbacker 3261RM (the export version of the 4005 bass, with an f-hole!).
I just saw this today on FB bass gear page, a Sandberg Forty Eight. This is my "Holy Grail".............today.
Talkbass Holy Grail : a bass that will allow you to play anything you want with no effort, practice, study, dedication, or sacrifice at all. It always sounds great in a bedroom, den, or living room no matter what horrible sounding amp so popular now is used.
It will also appreciate in value by $500 when you go to flip it 3 weeks after you buy it.
It will also appreciate in value by $500 when you go to flip it 3 weeks after you buy it.
Last edited:
I don't believe there's any sort of consensus.
A lot of people don't even value old basses.
Bryan R. Tyler
TalkBass: Usurping My Practice Time Since 2002
Staff member
Administrator
Gold Supporting Member
Supporting Member
- May 3, 2002
- 28,948
- 20,935
- Disclosures
- Reviewer: Bass Player Magazine
Only $65 shipping. Something’s telling me they’re not putting the fully insured value on it…
375K and they can't throw in the shipping? What the hell?
That said, if you could afford to buy it in the first place, you could probably just go get it.
that's right, credit where due. that his focus was on the steel guitar side of it keeps Tutmarc high in my book, and his bass would be the closest thing to the Grail to me. it's got immense history, super rare, and actually plays and sounds ok. I've long considered making a somewhat modernized version.
I don't think there's a direct comparison. Anyone paying that crazy money for a guitar is a wealthy collector who may not even play. Ultimately, owning an instrument like that is bragging rights and basking in reflected glory. Since there's not a popular mythology of bass like there is for guitar, the demand isn't there. And I hope it stays that way. I like the idea that a really expensive bass competes with a compact car, not a compact house.
Last edited:
This is a false dichotomy, because even the "holy grail" of a '59 Les Paul is not universally accepted as such. A 1950 Broadcaster or a '54 Strat could give it a run for its money. As such, a late '50s P-bass or a '61 stack-knob Jazz would be at the top of most people's lists. Other models have been mentioned in this thread, so a single example of the 'ultimate' bass is just as much in the eye of the beholder as a guitar.
.
My guess would be either one of the earliest Precisions single coil basses or maybe a prototype of those (Supposedly Entwistle owned No.2), an original 66 slab body split coil Precision bass, or one of the jazz bass prototype with the p-90-like pickups (supposedly a few of these are around 1959 Fender Jazz Bass Prototype - Appeared on the book 'The Fender Bass' by Klaus Blasquiz)
