Why am I so obsessed with discontinued/rare basses??

[FishDub]

I don't know why but i seem to be obsessing way too much lately with my axes.
-80s Tune Bass Maniac
- Steinberger XL2
-MTD Beast
I love all three to death and took me years to find all of these. The mystique of the rarity and them being discontinued seem to lure me away from all other awesome possibilities out there but somehow seemed to win the race in the final round. Can anyone else relate to this?

 

[20db pad]

I'm really into the bass that Darryl Jones plays with the Stones that he made himself. He's talked about maybe going into limited production for over a year. Keith Richards has a Tele that Darryl made as well. As for now, there's only two basses that he made and he won't sell them. I asked.

 

[FishDub]

I'm really into the bass that Darryl Jones plays with the Stones that he made himself. He's talked about maybe going into limited production for over a year. Keith Richards has a Tele that Darryl made as well. As for now, there's only two basses that he made and he won't sell them. I asked.

View attachment 671151

Yup that's nice.. I don't know why but since I have acquired these my gas has seriously decreased

 

[jazz Bass 74]

I know how you feel. I picked up a Steinberger XM-2 several years ago. While it might not be a particularly valuable bass, it is cool to have a unique instrument which will likely never be produced again.

 

[FishDub]

I know how you feel. I picked up a Steinberger XM-2 several years ago. While it might not be a particularly valuable bass, it is cool to have a unique instrument which will likely never be produced again.

View attachment 671157

Wow that is nice! Always wanted to try one of those

 

[bearfoot]

Sure, the search is part of the fun. For a while, I was obsessively searching for the great elephant itself, the Ernie Ball Earthwood. I found a few of them, too, as well as Guild B50s and B30s, and a very rare Harptone ABG. I ended up with a relatively uncommon Cort ABG, that has a very deep body like the Guilds.

The Cort was a major score - badly listed on ebay so it didn't come up in normal searches, I got it for $175 shipped, and though a "B stock" this was a $1000+ bass, with a perfect neck and intonation.

Like you, the GAS subsided after that. Fate had spoken, and I found the instrument I was supposed to have.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I wanted a Fender Blacktop bass, but had picked up a Warlock bass in the meantime. I was deciding if I wanted to keep the Warlock or get a Blacktop, & then I discovered that the Blacktops had been discontinued. Well, that sealed the deal & I bought a used one as fast as I could.

The ASAT is a limited edition Savannah model, which has also been discontinued. Only 50 were made.

 

[scourgeofgod]

I'm kinda the same way, discontinued stuff is usually interesting and different than the same old. Out of the 2 basses and 3 guitars I currently own 1 is a prototype, 1 is a limited run special edition, and 2 are just no longer produced in the forms that I own. You can get a similar versions of each new, but there are still definable differences, really just cosmetic differences though. So kinda.

 

[FishDub]

Nice set of axes, that asat is quite intriguing

I wanted a Fender Blacktop bass, but had picked up a Warlock bass in the meantime. I was deciding if I wanted to keep the Warlock or get a Blacktop, & then I discovered that the Blacktops had been discontinued. Well, that sealed the deal & I bought a used one as fast as I could.

View attachment 671158

The ASAT is a limited edition Savannah model, which has also been discontinued. Only 50 were made.

 

[FishDub]

Sure, the search is part of the fun. For a while, I was obsessively searching for the great elephant itself, the Ernie Ball Earthwood. I found a few of them, too, as well as Guild B50s and B30s, and a very rare Harptone ABG. I ended up with a relatively uncommon Cort ABG, that has a very deep body like the Guilds.

The Cort was a major score - badly listed on ebay so it didn't come up in normal searches, I got it for $175 shipped, and though a "B stock" this was a $1000+ bass, with a perfect neck and intonation.

Like you, the GAS subsided after that. Fate had spoken, and I found the instrument I was supposed to have.

Yeah I'm hoping the gas stays at bay for a while!

 

[Kaden Daniels]

I know why thier rare and discontinued basses

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Ok, tell us why "they are".

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Nice set of axes, that asat is quite intriguing

Here are the specs for it, pretty unique.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[Joshua Pickenpaugh]

I can relate: two basses on the list are a Yamaha Motion 5 string (which I've only seen Nathan East play in his instructional video, released eons ago) and the green wavy-looking bass that Chris Squire played in the "Owner of a Lonely Heart" video. Just cool looking, IMHO.

Oh, and a white Steinberger with a TransTrem.

 

[BassFishingInAmerica]

I know how you feel. I picked up a Steinberger XM-2 several years ago. While it might not be a particularly valuable bass, it is cool to have a unique instrument which will likely never be produced again.

View attachment 671157

This is the bass I want most right now. Not sure what your definition of "not valuable" is, but it's more than I can afford.

 

[20db pad]

I can relate: two basses on the list are a Yamaha Motion 5 string (which I've only seen Nathan East play in his instructional video, released eons ago) and the green wavy-looking bass that Chris Squire played in the "Owner of a Lonely Heart" video. Just cool looking, IMHO.

Squire's green bass was a Mouradian - I'm not sure if they make many of them anymore. I think the Yamaha Motion 5 was a prototype or limited production model - a Yamaha rep told me that many moons ago. Turns out Nathan uses that bass on a lot of the stuff you hear from him because it's his favorite. Apparently Babyface offered him a pile of money for that axe but Nathan wouldn't sell.

 

[kenneffdupriest]

I so want an E series Fender from the 80's. Had one, Placid Blue, and let it get away from me. This will not do

 

[FishDub]

I can relate: two basses on the list are a Yamaha Motion 5 string (which I've only seen Nathan East play in his instructional video, released eons ago) and the green wavy-looking bass that Chris Squire played in the "Owner of a Lonely Heart" video. Just cool looking, IMHO.

Oh, and a white Steinberger with a TransTrem.

Hey man I know that video of the Motion bass he used. I always thought it sounded sweet so I zoomed in on it several times and I assumed that his must have been custom made. It has two j pickups and possibly a different eq which I have never seen that model for sale. The only Motion basses I have seen for sale have those beefy humbuckers. Just a vague assumption I guess

 

[Malak the Mad]

I don't know why but i seem to be obsessing way too much lately with my axes.
-80s Tune Bass Maniac
- Steinberger XL2
-MTD Beast
I love all three to death and took me years to find all of these. The mystique of the rarity and them being discontinued seem to lure me away from all other awesome possibilities out there but somehow seemed to win the race in the final round. Can anyone else relate to this?

First, to address your primary question, "Why am I so obsessed with discontinued/rare basses??". I think the answer lies within the end of the question…"discontinued/rare".

It reminds me of a line from one of my all-time favorite movies; "You and I are merely passing through history. This…this IS history!"

Second, can I relate? Hell-to-the-eff-yeah! The first bass I ever, ever wanted turned out to have been discontinued a few years before my search began. But with some persistence, a lot of fruitless calls and emails, and not to mention a creative way to scour the web, I finally found "My Sexy Beast"!

Eventually, I even managed to get the whole trifecta! So what if I don't even play six-stringers! Call it out for what it was…a fairly inexpensive birthday present to myself. Besides, it looks smokin' hot and it'll be nice to have around if any of my friend's kids want to learn on it.

And then, there's the recent, untimely demise of Fender Japan. The thought of a world without Aerodynes is like a year without sunshine! But rather than just sit back and watch the ship fade away into the distance, I jumped on a listing for something that turned out to be much more rare than simply being discontinued. After doing some research (many thanks to archive.org for giving me the tools to do it), I found out it was a 2008 Limited Edition bass. Some ancient, Japanese Luck God must've been lurking in the background during all of this!

So what if it's afflicted with the classic "Fender G-string Dead Spot"! It's super-rare (on any continent), sounds great and looks even better!!

I wanted a Fender Blacktop bass, but had picked up a Warlock bass in the meantime. I was deciding if I wanted to keep the Warlock or get a Blacktop, & then I discovered that the Blacktops had been discontinued. Well, that sealed the deal & I bought a used one as fast as I could.

Same here. I bought a White Chrome Pearl Blacktop Jazz body from a local TB'er to go along with my black model for exactly that same reason. And to further the "discontinued" groove, once I get an appropriate neck for it, I plan on turning it into it's own little tribute to the '80s-era Fender Japan Jazz Bass Specials (much like the Duff-sig model).

 

[mindwell]

For me, it's basses that intrigued me back when I didn't have disposable income that I can now afford, which aren't produced any longer: Warwick Fortress Flashback 5, Jerry Jones Longhorn, Lakland USA Jerry Scheff, and Steinberger to some degree. These are my GAS, and the trick for me is to sit patiently on my money while waiting for one of them to come along.