Why Do You Stick To The Same Type Of Basses?

[ugly_bassplayer]

After over 25 years, ive come the conclusion that a Pbass is my favorite followed closely by a Jazz bass.

Single P....I seem to dislike the PJ combo for me personally.

JJ set up is incredibly versatile, my jazz got my through school and I could play any style on it from fusion to straight ahead jazz, to latin ,top 40 and I can go on.

I can post pics if any are curious, but there's nothing really incredibly special to see
..except maybe my green Frankenstein. Jazz pj body with musicman stingray neck. Hole where bridge jazz pup was. Its green tint you can see the wood and all the battle scares of years of gigs and....hmmm.....maybe abuse.

 

[EmuBass]

PJ for sure - whatever brand or colour. Fretted or not ...

 

[Tommy V]

i played the same Jazz bass for 40 years, but only because it never broke..

 

[CallMeAl]

After about 20 years, I've settled on my J neck P bass. I love this bass, it just feels like home.

Up to this point I've played mostly Ibanez, Peavey, and Yamaha 2 pickup basses. When I got my first P bass late in 2018, I immediately fell in love with the sound, effectiveness and simplicity of the passive P pickup. But I wasn't clicking with the neck; that's when I realized all my basses up til then were 1.5" nuts (or smaller.) being in a gigging cover band, I really didn't want to take the time/go through the "sloppy" period of retraining my muscle memory- so I put a J neck on it and the rest is history!

I also own a Squier Precision Special, J pickup disabled and stock J neck; so it's basically a clone for backup.

Alembic to whatever ended in Z

Alembic to Ibanez? Or maybe Alembic to Zon?

 

[bolophonic]

WOW On the sunburst with the custom pickguard and pickup rings

You like? That one was made out of all the parts that almost went in the trash! Broken pickguard, microphonic pickups, balsa body, poorly de-fretted Affinity neck. It's a pretty wild sound out of that one! Thanks for checking it out.

 

[Leonid Nidis]

You like? That one was made out of all the parts that almost went in the trash! Broken pickguard, microphonic pickups, balsa body, poorly de-fretted Affinity neck. It's a pretty wild sound out of that one! Thanks for checking it out.

Design wise looks like something fender custom shop would do and charge 7000$ for Im serious

 

[mouthmw]

I'm pretty much only into classic looking basses, mostly Leo's work. I can't help it, just the sound and looks I like the best. Really helps with GAS too as I don't really go off-kilter at all. I've settled on 2 basses for quite a while now. Precisions and Stingrays. I keep em simple too - they're single H and single P models. I do dig PJs too, but I'm still more happy with a good ol' P. I like the wider P neck better than J neck too, so again, both of these basses do it for me. They've served me well both live and in studio.

My P basses both have EMG GZR pups (my favorite), gotta have one with rounds and one with flats. My Rays are stock, but 3 bander wears rounds for that raunchier, aggressive Ray tone and my 2 bander has flats for the old school Ray tone. Also, I only play 4-stringers.

I keep it simple - the ergonomics, looks and the unique voicings of those 2 basses speak to me and that's where I'm at home.

 

[Baa]

Nice shell/pearl pink. Reminiscent of Mark King's Jaydee Supernatural. Presumably yours is of similar vintage...and probably from the same factory as my original Westone Thunder I.

Thank you. Its a vinyl wrap a did because a wasn't too happy about the original red stain.
Your Westone is from the Matsumuko factory, as my are Vantages. Aria and some other brands too.

 

[chris_b]

I had about 20 years with my Precision then moved on to 5 string basses. For the first 15 years I played MM, Lakland and Wal. I'm now back to a P bass and, for the first time, a Jazz. While I have no problem playing any bass, getting back to a P and J feels like coming home, especially when they are both 3 tone bursts, with tort and rosewood.

 

[40Hz]

Unbelievable that before the first page was over, we've had three people totally committed to fretless! I'd have never thunk it.

TB can surprise you like that.

 

[Minimalist]

Some sort of PJ for me. Tried different designs in the past but with a decent PJ you can get a good sounds for pretty much any type of music.

 

[Skybone]

Why do I stick to the same type of bass?

They work for me.

 

[maxschrek]

 

[Bassdirty]

…. I've settled primarily on 5 string Ibanez ….

…….

Reasons I wound up in the Ibanez camp:
1. I love narrow-spaced 5s, and the 16.5mm spacing on the SRs is just perfect for me. I owned two very good 5s with 19mm spacing, and ultimately didn't care for them.
2. The neck feel. I like thin and narrow necks. These have that in spades.
3. Light weight and ergonomics. My 375 is one of the heavier Soundgear models, with its maple body, but even this one just weighs 8.5 pounds. My SR705F was about 7.5 pounds, and my one fretted bass, an SR505, is around the same. They all balance very well, and upper fingerboard access is great.
4. Sound. I love how these sound and how versatile they are.

…..

Agreed on almost all your points.. (mine aren't fretless).
The string spacing is the main reason I try others, but always come home to IBBY. Luckily they have hundreds to choose from these days.

T$

 

[2saddleslab]

Started out wanting ANYTHING but a Fender P bass since EVERYBODY was using them. After running thru some oddball basses [Kramer, Travis Bean, Hagstrom, Gibson EBO] I bought a 71 Jazz [hey, it wasn't a P bass] and when I plugged it in at band practice it was the 1st time the rest of the band noticed me. A lightbulb moment, that's why everybody plays a Fender bass.

Shortly after, I stumbled upon an alt-country band [decades before alt-country was even a thing] and the bass player was using what looked to be a Fender bass, but instead of the classic curves it looked more like a Telecaster. Turned out to be a Telecaster bass. This was a way for me to enjoy Fender bulletproof construction and still set myself apart from everyone else. Scoured the local pawn shops and bought a modded 75 Tele bass.

The Telecaster bass became my standard until I heard Keith Ferguson, of The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and learned about the history of early 50's P basses. Turns out I was a P bass guy all along.

Thru some kind of musical midlife crisis I decided to change everything up and go active, 2 pickup, strictly original, and ended ups w/ 7 ASAT basses.

Alas, I found I was happiest when I returned to my slab roots [w/ a custom Cabronita thrown in]. And it's been that way ever since.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Bought my first "real" bass in about 1978 - a new Jetglow 4001, because Chuck Panazzo used one. I used it for everything - rock, jazz, pit bands, etc.. Back then, new Fenders were not desirable. Several years later, I got a great deal on a Fender mutt.

When I first went to a music studio to record while in college (about 1985), I brought both basses, expecting my beloved Ric would be the one I used. But for every track, the Fender just sounded better.

I still have that Fender.

 

[fcleff]

My first real bass was a 1986 Yamaha BB300, which has been highly modified over the years. I've posted it several times so you may have seen it. At some point I picked up a custom Rarebird 6-string fretless and played that exclusively for about 10 years. Then I got the itch to slap again and in 2007 I picked up a CIJ Fender Geddy Jazz. It slowly became my #1. I traded the Rarebird for an American Tele guitar and went with the Geddy for about another 7 years or so. Then the SCTMMC got me on the G&L kick and I haven't looked back. So now, I have a Yamaha TRB 6II when I need it, a couple of G&L 5ers (one fretted, one fretless), my trusty BB300 (now a low range fretless), my Geddy Jazz, a Steve Harris P with rounds, a reissue Tele P with flats. I can cover just about anything I need. But I keep them all because they are the best basses for metal.

 

[retslock]

I stick with what works for me which has been for many years, a passive Precision. These days I still haven't strayed far from that basic style of bass although I'm now playing a custom built 5 string and an Ibanez SR655. They are pretty close to the P configuration with the Nordstrands and I get a decent P type sound and that suits my needs. I'm old school.

 

[13bass]

Posting this as hopefully a fun thread with without judgment, without whininess because someone doesn't want to play yours or my favorite basses. I'm in it for the pics and fun stories of why some folks have settled on only one type of bass or one beloved favorite for everything. So please don't muck up this thread with douchebagginess, but yes, I'm going to talk about why I ultimately stuck with Fenders or Fender "tributes." Please feel free to contribute stories about what made you stick with only one type of bass if you have, and leave the sniping at other brands to a million other threads. And post pics.

When I started, my first good bass was a new 76 Fender Precision. We had a store in Orlando with a great selection where I could play all the different types of basses out there from Alembic to whatever ended in Z back then and the P sounded and felt as good as any that I was willing to pay for. Nice bass, a little too wide a neck pocket but as good as any from that era once you deal with that. I'd occasionally paint it and mod it over the years once I decided the pickup wasn't doing it for me by itself, but it was my only good bass for 15 years and I couldn't wait to ditch it and get something more high end and "modern" back when "modern" was the proper term for a bass with now-45 year old technology. That's what I did. I totally didn't want to play Fenders just on principle of being too broke to afford anything else.

So once I got some money, I experimented with others. I've tried everything from hollowbodies to active neck-thru boutiques, the cheap to the sublime, and they work very well for me on some types of music, OK for others, and not too great on a couple types. The only thing I could bring and always sound great on everything no matter what it was were Fenders. I still have bouts of wanting to use a different type on a gig, but I've given it up. Love a good P, love a good J, but I've decided on the PJ format with Geezers for my number one all-around does-everything bass, though I usually stay on the P. I'm counting my P in with the PJ's, too, but a PJ always goes to first time meetings with new musicians.

In black of course. With Hipshot Bass Xtenders. Still got that 76 Precision too, though the only thing left of the original bass is the body. It's the one in flat black. Doesn't have to be a real Fender, though. My go-to is a Hammersmith PJ I got 3 years ago. But it has to be black and have Geezers. I have a pieces parts PJ with flats in seafoam green, but it almost became black 2 weeks ago until my wife ordered me not to touch it. So it can stay here for her whilst I rock the Black Brigade:

View attachment 3659163

Love the flat/satin black. Can't see myself ever wanting gloss again after I built my satin black Warmoth tele. Building a 30" short scale P bass now, and almost went with satin black, but decided on a bit of color this time, lake placid blue in a satin finish.

 

[lbbc]

I started on a Pbass 45 years ago when a Pastor asked me to start a contemporary Christian band in his church. I played guitar so he provided both the Pbass and an Ampeg amp. I never played guitar again in a band setting (divine intervention?).

I went through many basses after that.
Here are the ones I gigged with:

A 1973 Mahogany Aria Beatle Bass, Vantage, Epiphone AccuBass, Peavey RSB, Fender Deluxe Pbass, Blue Dawn Stingray, Montezuma Brown Rickenbacker, G&L ASAT, Carvin SB4000, G&L L2000, 1995 Alembic Rogue 5, Orange Gretsch 5440, 1986 Alembic Persuader, Dave Pushic Custom, Fender Japan Midnight Pbass, Ibanez AGBV200 Semi Hollow, and now back to Carvin...PB4.

The Alembic Persuader lives with my son in Idaho and the Pushic lives with another son in Ohio. Everything else was sold or traded to get where I am today.