When did you get a custom/boutique bass?

[Accurmi]

Question for those who own custom/boutique basses.

At what point in your playing career did you decide to get your custom/boutique bass?
Was there a defining moment?

Ever since I discovered them I can’t keep my eyes off them! Such beautiful pieces of craftsmanship...

 

[elgecko]

About two years after I started playing. It's still my main bass twenty-five years later.

 

[MEKer]

2007--started playing bass in 1972 so that's lemme see...35 years later. Only one and have no hankering for another. Completely satisfied with my stable of a meager nine basses as is. Makes me feel like this guy in the gif below.

Interview Job GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

 

[KohanMike]

I started playing bass ukulele four years ago, and within two weeks of that I ordered a custom acoustic from Bruce Wei Arts in Vietnam, mainly because of his prices and that he made me two really nice ukuleles in the previous year. I sent him detailed drawings from the little I knew about bass ukes having looked at the Kala U-bass. It served me well for a couple of years, but a few little annoyances that I didn't think of for the build finally forced me to put it away and buy a Rondomusic.com Hadean acoustic bass uke.

 

[JimmyM]

First one in 91, second one in 96, both made by a local place called the Guitar Factory, who are two guys who used to work with Michael Tobias when he lived in Orlando. Excellent basses in that neck-thru active style. One's a 5, the other a 4 with a Kahler whammy. Both have EMG active PJ's and BQC preamps. Still have them, too. Weren't all that expensive as customs go, either. I could have made them a lot more expensive had I gone for more exotic woods than mahogany. Very easy to play and killer tone very much in that Fodera Monarch/Spector NS-2 tonal family. You asked if there was a defining moment about how we knew it was time in our development to get customs, and there was a big one for me...getting approved for student loans after I finally decided to go to local college, and finding out they could make me a bass and still leave me some money to bank!

But every time I used a Fender with the bands I was working with, no matter what band it was, it just sounded and felt right, whereas I was doing a lot of stuff that the GF's were unsuited for. Tried to fight it for years...my only good bass (and most of the time my only bass) for like 15 years was a Fender and I kind of resented not being able to afford some really cool different basses that I could use instead. After the GF's I even bought a few other vintage and vintage style basses I thought would work as well as a Fender...they were very nice, too, although much cheaper than the GF's. But none of them worked like a Fender P or J where I could use them on everything and sound right with every band. But I keep them because they might be good for certain things I might do in the future, and even though it's been probably twice in the last 15 years that someone requested it, it's not a bad idea to keep a 5-string around.

Here they are with Buffy:

 

[Jeff Scott]

Question for those who own custom/boutique basses.

At what point in your playing career did you decide to get your custom/boutique bass?
Was there a defining moment?

Ever since I discovered them I can’t keep my eyes off them! Such beautiful pieces of craftsmanship...

Pssssst...... Hey, come over here kid, I got this thing you gotta see...................

 

[Bob_Ross]

Does the original Steinberger L-2 count as "boutique"? If so, I got mine in 1982 after I'd been playing bass for 8 years.
If that doesn't count, I got my semi-custom Modulus Graphite 6-string in 1988 after I'd been playing bass for 14 years.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Does the original Steinberger L-2 count as "boutique"?

Nah, that was just some furniture designer who wanted to shock the world with his bizarre contraption. Regardless, I would not consider it a boutique instrument, more a Sci-Fi experiment in minimalism, utilizing new and unused before (in the musical instrument world) materials.

 

[Passinwind]

Question for those who own custom/boutique basses.

At what point in your playing career did you decide to get your custom/boutique bass?
Was there a defining moment?

Sure, the first moment I had enough in my bank account to cover one. In my case that was 1977, about five years into playing bass. And I owned that bass for 40 years before finally selling it to a collector when the weight finally became too overbearing for me.

 

[chris_b]

I had been playing bass for 30 years (mostly the same Fender Precision) before I got my first "boutique" basses, a US Lakland 55-94 and mk3 5 string Wal. I'm now playing Lulls and Sadowsky's. I could live with cheaper basses but the feel and tone of these instruments has been a revelation to me.

My step up to these instruments coincided with the move to playing 5 string basses.

 

[Biggbass]

For me it was when I finally had the disposable funds to acquire one. But it was not necessary to my playing level or activity. I can easily handle everything with my less expensive MIM Fender RW bass.

 

[bikeplate]

Started playing at 16. Had a Steinberger L2 at 17 and an Alembic at 18

 

[Rib 13]

I have one custom, a JIL Arachnid that I dont play that much (shown here several years ago and i was also over 50 pounds heavier ) . I still have it...Its a great bass (Bartolinis, taps, series/parallel options) but I mostly play 5 string these days...Not sure why I dont play it that much other than my other basses call to me more

 

[kesslari]

I’d been playing for about a year. Knew a great luthier and he offered to let me build a bass with him and help him out in his shop.
That was a great bass and I kick myself for selling it.
I sold it to get a Tobias (only way I could afford one) directly from Mike when we were both in L.A. Which I also stupidly sold. Seeing a pattern?
It selling my Zon.

 

[Rib 13]

First one in 91, second one in 96, both made by a local place called the Guitar Factory,

nice basses....I remember them...music store, i think it was right off I-4.....they were behind or adjacent to the music store...brick building?

 

[micguy]

I got mine the second I stopped building it - about 4 years ago.

OK, Ive futzed with little bits on it since then - I'm never sure when a bass is really "done".

 

[JimmyM]

nice basses....I remember them...music store, i think it was right off I-4.....they were behind or adjacent to the music store...brick building?

Yep, Music City was its name.

 

[BurtMacklinFBI]

I have one custom, a JIL Arachnid that I dont play that much (shown here several years ago and i was also over 50 pounds heavier ) . I still have it...Its a great bass (Bartolinis, taps, series/parallel options) but I mostly play 5 string these days...Not sure why I dont play it that much other than my other basses call to me more

View attachment 3136001

Holy cats, it's Son of the Mothman! Somebody catch it before it lays it's eggs in his brain!

 

[Nephilymbass]

Question for those who own custom/boutique basses.

At what point in your playing career did you decide to get your custom/boutique bass?
Was there a defining moment?

Ever since I discovered them I can’t keep my eyes off them! Such beautiful pieces of craftsmanship...

Maybe not considered boutique to people who drop 10 grand on Foderas and Ritters but I started playing bass at 14, started working at dominos pizza at 15 and played peavey, Ibanez and a Mexican p bass in my teens and then when I was a general manager at papa Johns I bought my first high end warwick when I was 19. So about 5 years in. I’m 37 now and and have gone back to school twice. Once for emergency medicine and then for surgical technology. I don’t make a ton of money but outside of gear and trying to be a good father and husband I’m not a very materialistic person. I bought a $90k house and drive a cheap 4 cylinder car which allows me to spend a considerable amount of money on gear. Over the years I owned several high end Warwick’s including what I consider their hero basses the thumb nt5 and Nt6 and I’ve also played other expensive basses like Dingwall, Ken Smith and Roscoe for example. Im a rock guy at heart though and with most Of the music I play, the venues I play in, and the studios I can afford to record at don’t really call for them. But I respect the craftsmanship and very much like the innovation they bring to the bass world, kind of like how I respect companies like Mercedes for inventing technology that eventually found its way into my wife’s Toyota.

 

[2112]

For those that consider Wal boutique... I got my first Wal in 2002... a 1990 or 1991 black Geddy Mk1. Which, while in a fugue state, I proceeded to sell in 2007 or 2008:

My next Wals I picked up in 2016 (a natural maple fretless Mk1) and 2017 (a red Geddy Mk2). But I definitely want to get that first Wal back... and there are many, many other specimens I'd love to get my hands on (I mostly blame TB for this...).