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

Wow that thk
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"! :cool:

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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. :bassist:

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And then, there's the recent, untimely demise of Fender Japan. The thought of a world without Aerodynes is like a year without sunshine! :crying: 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! :cigar:

JB62-All%20Black%2003_zps1ai5ishy.jpg


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!!



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).
Wow that third pic of the all-black jazz without the pickguard?? Sweeeeet! I love it. Very close to my MTD Beast and I would snag that in a second. Very nice
 
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Depends on the motive:

Are you wanting the bass *because* it is discontinued, or

Do you want *that bass* and it just happens to be discontinued?

For me it's always been the latter, and after this week I'm GASSED up. Anything I might want, I have. Only addition might be an Eastwood Hurricane or totally trashed Magnatone X-10 I can defret.
 
show off more rare basses please!

Speaking of rare basses, I want the bass this guy's playing (about 3:14 to see it):

That's an Orange bass, not sure what the story is on that. I know they had a guitar starter pack or at last planned to at one point, but I can't find any of their basses or guitars for sell. I did see a white guitar just like that bass at my local mom and pop store last week, next time I go I'll see if the dude working knows anything.
 
That's an Orange bass, not sure what the story is on that. I know they had a guitar starter pack or at last planned to at one point, but I can't find any of their basses or guitars for sell. I did see a white guitar just like that bass at my local mom and pop store last week, next time I go I'll see if the dude working knows anything.
Nice, thanks! I look forward to hearing what he says about it.
 
Rare and exotic always has a draw on people. I admit part of what I like about my Matsumoku-built Westone bass is the fact that they aren't made anymore, and my Fender Modern Player Marauder guitar is cooler for the fact that Fender discontinued it.

I think it's also a marketing strategy that Fender is pretty good at. Releasing specials runs (FSR's) and the occasional weird model like Marauders or Blacktops, and knowing that some of us will sense these things won't last long. Which I'm cool with; keeps things interesting and you wonder what oddness will come out next.
 
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All my basses are kinda' rare, in the literal sense that there just aren't many... I like weird, often unpopular stuff I guess. :facepalm:

Here's two of my favorites - the Alembic Persuader 5-string isn't really discontinued, just an inactive model, (meaning they will still build you one) but Spoiler and Persuader 5-string are pretty rare in general. The red Gibson Thunder Series V is both rare and discontinued. I think they made about 1000 of them at the Nashville plant in early 1987 and halted production. A shame, because it was a huge leap forward for Gibson at building a more traditional-looking, ergonomically designed bass under 9 lbs.
 
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Over the years, I have regretted selling my brown solid body Westbury violin bass with the scroll headstock. I have never even found a picture of the model again. It was great other than the neckdive. Rare basses are cool. You can have a great collection of off the wall basses.
 
My bass(Ibanez SRX700) is discontinued..... kinda rare..... not overly desireable to most people but Carol Kaye and I dig 'em.

The rare discontinued bass that I really want though is a Reverend Rumblefish.

Reverend Rumblefish Bass

I would love to have a Rumblefish. Definitely at the top of my rare/discontinued list.

Another discontinued bass that I want (or want again in this case) is an Ibanez EDC700. I had one in the late 90's, fantastic bass and really liked the tone, but sold it. I should have kept it!
 
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Cool thread!
I've always liked trying out unusual basses,most of the time i might only keep them for a year or 2,but it's fun.
The best one i've had over the years was a '67 Epiphone Embassy,a really great sounding varation of the Gibson Thunderbird. I also had a Turner Model 1 bass (looked like Lindsay Buckingham's guitar).
These days my most offbeat bass is my'74 set neck Rickenbacker 4000,which is just a great bass overall.
And a 2013 Gibson set neck EB,which apparently are being discontinued after a 2-year run...the EB kind of reminded me of the Embassy.....
 
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I just double checked my collection. I have to admit that every single one of my guitars is discontinued and probably rare.

I don't know what the psychology involved is, but something like an american standard fender is very easy to pass on. There is a zillion of those, you miss one, next month a new one will appear. But when something that is either discontinued or a limited run appears at a good price, then it is a lot harder to say no, because you never know when it will happen again.