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Which Bass guitar would you record with

I own 7 basses. Of those, 5 are Fender. My #1 is an American Performer Precision P/J with no grease bucket tone circuit, and Aguilar's hum canceling PJ pup set. It's what I would normally record with, but... I recently re strung one of my Jazz basses with half rounds. I used it this past Sunday in a full band setting, working on an original that we want to record. If I were to record that song tomorrow, it would be with that Jazz and not my PJ.
My favorite bass to record with is a 1961 custom shop jazz bass with stacked concentric knobs. The tonal possibilities are endless
 
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I’m a P Bass convert - the perfect tone for me, especially recording.
 

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My favorite bass to record with is a 1961 custom shop jazz bass with stacked concentric knobs. The tonal possibilities are endless
Stacked concentric knobs should be the standard on any Fender bass that has two pups with seperate volume controls. I wished my Jazzes had them. It just makes sense.
 
My own FrankenFenduier - a bass I assembled myself with a Fender MIM body, Squier maple neck, full EMG electronics package:
Want a J-sound: full bridge pickup
Want a P-sound: full neck pickup
Want a MM-sound: blend the bridge pickups with a bit of neck-pickup.
 
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Clearly a P/J bass or random boutique bass for versatility.
Because if you don't know the style of music, choose versatility and kick in the nuts who ever say versatility means not great at everything.

Example:
I'm playing for the Drums club and the French music day at my work and we're are playing many styles of music on one gig.
Reggae, Rock, Alternative, Old School Jazz, Pop, classic Rock, 80', 90' ...
I need to have a agressive tone on one song and a motown tone on the next. No pedals, One amp.
My bass (PU configuration, active preamp) and finger placement is enough to switch between all that = Versatility
Not that i'm that good, just i'm there to enjoy and serve music.

P basses, MM, RIckenbacker.... No.
J basses... maybe.
 
Clearly a P/J bass or random boutique bass for versatility.
Because if you don't know the style of music, choose versatility and kick in the nuts who ever say versatility means not great at everything.

Example:
I'm playing for the Drums club and the French music day at my work and we're are playing many styles of music on one gig.
Reggae, Rock, Alternative, Old School Jazz, Pop, classic Rock, 80', 90' ...
I need to have a agressive tone on one song and a motown tone on the next. No pedals, One amp.
My bass (PU configuration, active preamp) and finger placement is enough to switch between all that = Versatility
Not that i'm that good, just i'm there to enjoy and serve music.

P basses, MM, RIckenbacker.... No.
J basses... maybe.

I do like the PJ configurational I think a 61 jazz bass stacked knobs solves all those problems also
 
Clearly a P/J bass or random boutique bass for versatility.
Because if you don't know the style of music, choose versatility and kick in the nuts who ever say versatility means not great at everything.

Example:
I'm playing for the Drums club and the French music day at my work and we're are playing many styles of music on one gig.
Reggae, Rock, Alternative, Old School Jazz, Pop, classic Rock, 80', 90' ...
I need to have a agressive tone on one song and a motown tone on the next. No pedals, One amp.
My bass (PU configuration, active preamp) and finger placement is enough to switch between all that = Versatility
Not that i'm that good, just i'm there to enjoy and serve music.

P basses, MM, RIckenbacker.... No.
J basses... maybe.

Is there a reason pedals aren't allowed?
 
If you all had one bass guitar that you absolutely had to record your album with. Which one would you choose?

1. Precision Bass (PBass).
2. Jazz Bass (JBass).
3. Musicman Stingray.
4. Rickenbavker.
5. P/J.
6. Some other brand or miscellaneous
Bass.

I’m curious to hear other bassist responses. And, Why? they would choose that specific bass if they could only choose that one.
Ibanez SR600E
 
The material is whatever “your” music is that you are writing for your album as written in the post and, the bass that “you” would choose.
I’m so sorry, I’ll make sure my next post is more helpful for answering this burning and important question.

I have three P basses, two Rays, a fretless Jazz, plus a few others you haven’t mentioned here. Each Precision is very different from the other, in my opinion, because of how they sound and how they inspire me to play, but I’m being asked to make a choice between models, not between P basses.

One inspires me to play more aggressively, one more restrained with attack and laid back and consistent with phrasing, and one more busy. And that’s just the P basses.

I don’t write songs, I come up with the bass lines where someone else has provided the structure, melody, and general feel. I rely on variety.

So I stand by my original answer, but I hope that this expanded version makes your day.
 
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