Fralins make all the bad mods I’ve done or inherited OK.
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What's your "Beater" bass?
- Thread starter wraub
- Start date
This below is my real beater bass. It's the one I take away on holidays or camping trips with a little Blackstar Fly amp for sound. The neck has been on and off more times than I can remember as I pull it apart to put in a travel bag for flights.
It actually plays quite well, sounds good and holds tune but I won't be upset if something happened to it. The paint job is a rattle can effort that never really cured properly so there's still a bit of stickiness to it. I just got back from a week's holiday and on one day it got left in the car in the sun all day. Black car, black upholstery, hot day. I had to basically peel it off the inside of the gig bag!
There was no concern or cursing.... that's what I built it for.
As for actual gigs or backyard BBQ jams, I'll take any of my other basses. If I'm really concerned I might take the Jag Short Scale, but all my basses have some dings and more won't bother me.
It actually plays quite well, sounds good and holds tune but I won't be upset if something happened to it. The paint job is a rattle can effort that never really cured properly so there's still a bit of stickiness to it. I just got back from a week's holiday and on one day it got left in the car in the sun all day. Black car, black upholstery, hot day. I had to basically peel it off the inside of the gig bag!
There was no concern or cursing.... that's what I built it for.As for actual gigs or backyard BBQ jams, I'll take any of my other basses. If I'm really concerned I might take the Jag Short Scale, but all my basses have some dings and more won't bother me.
I don't have a "beater"
There's no reason for me to have a ratty old bass or one that I wouldn't treat with the same care as the others.
There's no reason for me to have a ratty old bass or one that I wouldn't treat with the same care as the others.
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I have three early 80's Ibanez Roadstar basses that are all somewhat beat up, but I love 'em. I like to think of them as "naturally relic'd".They all play like butter and sound great. I wouldn't feel the least bit ashamed to bring them to a gig or recording session. The most beater-ish is the white one, an '84 that has been rode hard over the last 36 years. The tort pickguard is relatively new though.
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Being a confirmed Ibanez only bass player I love your collection. BTW, I have a playroom I'm setting up for practice. I've wanted to do the hanging bass route but needed more support behind the hangers. Your board behind the hangers solves that problem. Have you thought of adding a padded board behind the bodies of the basses to keep them from bumping into the walls or is that a non-issue? BTW Thanks for sharing your collection!
stiffest neck of any bass I've EVER owned, I can set it up for E-Standard, then down-tune to B-Standard, & it remains playable!
Squier Jaguar. Cheap but plays and sounds great but also not worried if it gets a ding or two.
Peavey Palaedium whose neck bowed. Plays enough in tune to use for busking and other hazardous duty.
approximately $200 USD in pre-owned parts
stiffest neck of any bass I've EVER owned, I can set it up for E-Standard, then down-tune to B-Standard, & it remains playable!
Hey @Killed_by_Death ! Good to see ya. I had one that was perfect and I foolishly sold it. I bought a second one last year but the frets are swelled out and sharp and the neck is warped and the truss rod nut is stripped. I'm thinking of sending it to warpedneck.com to have them file the frets, install a new truss rod nut, and straighten the neck. I can't believe how excellent that bass sounds for a passive! I thought it was a MM style pickup but it's more like a soapbar pickup according to size-- it's smaller than a standard MM pickup. Enjoy your GSR100EX, they don't make 'em any more.
Being a confirmed Ibanez only bass player I love your collection. BTW, I have a playroom I'm setting up for practice. I've wanted to do the hanging bass route but needed more support behind the hangers. Your board behind the hangers solves that problem. Have you thought of adding a padded board behind the bodies of the basses to keep them from bumping into the walls or is that a non-issue? BTW Thanks for sharing your collection!
Never had an issue with the bodies hitting the wall. I'm not much of a handy man. The boards are door jambs that I bought at Lowes and screwed into the studs in the wall.
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I don’t have any beaters. I have players, and they’re all good enough to play a gig. I don’t beat on my basses. I take care of them. My 2001 Jazz has been played at many gigs and it still looks like new.
As far the bass I care the least about and wouldn’t be too upset if it were lost/stolen/irreparably damaged, it’s this Harmony bass. Paid $30 for it, plus a set of $20 AlNiCo pickups. Short scale, E string tuner is partly broken (but holds tune fine), the frets are uneven so it has a few that buzz. Thin plywood body, and slightly neck heavy, and the pickup can’t get as close to the strings as I’d like. Still, it works in a pinch and it looks kinda cool. It’s the only bass I wouldn’t bother putting in a hard shell case to get to a gig.
It weighs 10 pounds 3.2 oz and has 1 3/4" nut width, 34” scale length.
Someone who didn't play bass but decided that they were going to learn to play like Jaco bought it and had it defretted, added the J pickup and had someone cut the lower horn deeply for his idea of best access to the upper fingerboard. It's not badly done but really why do folks do these things?
It was real cheap and plays beautifully and was built with the highest craftsmanship and materials and still rocks in its current state.
This is my Beater bass for those times I don't want to take my alembic, for jam sessions etc. It's made in Vietnam and called Atlas Galaxy Shark bass. I upgraded the electronics post purchase to two sets of ACG EQ02 filter based preamps which gives me a low and high pass filter on each pickup plus a blend and master volume. I went for the filters so that it feels familiar to my alembics in the way I would use the bass. Pickups are two humbuckers with dual and single coil switch. Brass nut and thick slab of ebony on the fretboard and 35" scale length. I've only gigged once with it.
I'm not absolutely sure about the woods but the back I think is alder and the neck is maple and mahogany and the top is a laminate of Ebony, maple and mahogany.
These pictures are pre electronics upgrade. The bass now has 5 dual gang pots.
I'm not absolutely sure about the woods but the back I think is alder and the neck is maple and mahogany and the top is a laminate of Ebony, maple and mahogany.
These pictures are pre electronics upgrade. The bass now has 5 dual gang pots.
My latest: they said you'll not beat it. Screw them, I thought. That's exactly what I'm gonna do, in my own peculiar way
The earlier option would've been Mournblade, a burly Bacchus BOB 950 active five. Neither were cheap but both still present pretty well, almost unadulterated. So it's moot, I guess. It's a toss up. But the new Jazz, still unnamed, is certainly getting some air.
The other day, I nabbed my first genuine beater (guitar) in aeons, the second Chinoise contraption in the shed — a brand new artist brownburst 58 X. Very 335 — I got it out of curiosity, something I could leave lying around, but also 'cause I was wanting to replace one, not too dissimilar, that I regrettably traded away, decades ago. Cheap as chips, it was, but it's no slouch
Does the stage thing with aplomb so I can leave the jazzbox in the case.I also got a tele, in the same vein. On the strength of early auditions, I might call it "The Terminator." Both have what thy call Bullbuckers, on board — modeled they are, I'm told, on the SD Jazz JB set. I haven't AB'd them with the ones I already possess but they play the same game. That's a fact.
So, beaters abound
. These things are migrating too. So you'll be able to check 'em out stateside, one of these days, if you get the urge, when the coast's clear.
Jaco didn’t need a beater bass. Oh, wait
None are really beaters, but the mutts are considered expendable compared to the '68 P or the Rics. Currently the number of mutts is eight, so picking one specific bass as the "most beaten" would be difficult.
