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Why own SO many basses?

How many basses do YOU own?

  • Just 1!

    Votes: 30 7.8%
  • 2-4

    Votes: 169 44.1%
  • 5-8

    Votes: 96 25.1%
  • 9+

    Votes: 88 23.0%

  • Total voters
    383
  • Poll closed .
Well, honestly it is in part due to an OCD tick I have. If I like something I usually have 2 or more of them as it affords spares should something happen to one. Or if there is an option, I usually want one of each. So Jazzes for example, 2 Geddys covers maple boards and I have 2 rosewood Jazzes too. 2 deluxe Jaguars (1mij, 1 cij), 2 maple Precisions (1 jazz width), 2 rosewood (1 jazz width), and so forth,etc, etc. It's a real medical condition with doctors and medicine and everything.:)
 
the guitar player in my band has over thirty guitars. Santa brought him a gibson les paul with a tremolo for christmas. awesome if that's what you want to do and can afford it.

I got more happiness out of borrowing the drummer's $40 squier affinity p bass, buying new strings for it and tweaking the setup into perfection ( near perfection . . . still buzzes above twelfth fret) that's what I used at practice today and it was a blast to play. Heck I live in a 1000 sq ft house and I barely have room for the dozen or so instruments I already have.

p.s. everybody knows St. Nick's a strat guy
 
I own five right now. One gets 80% of my playing time, two more make up the remaining 20%, and the other two don't get used, but stick around for sentimental reasons. I'll keep my #1 forever, and probably the two that don't get played, but the others would be gone in a minute if something better came along- but since they're not worth much, I guess I'll have to settle for buying more!
 
We are a species of hunters and gatherers.

hunter+gatherer.jpg
 
I currently only have 2, although I intend to get more eventually down the road.

I have owned a few different basses throughout my years of playing, but my first "big bad bass" was a 2005 ebmm sterling which I got when I was 16 and which I still own and will never give up. It is still the best feeling bass I've ever played (and it's MINE! ALL MINE! YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!). The other bass I currently own is my (new to me) modulus vj4 which came totally hot-roded out with tons of awesome upgrades. Also never going to leave my possession, it is the ultimate jazz bass IMO.

So, what has been on my mind in recent months is this:
"well... I have a phenomenal MM bass. I have a flat-out astounding j bass. What I need now to fill out the family is a fantastic P style bass... And maybe a dual soap-bar style of some kind eventually. Prolly a fretless of some kind down the road too."

So that's how my mind tends to work. I want one (the best one I can find!) of every iconic style of bass, so I can cover all the tonal ranges I love on all my favorite albums. But there's simply way too many kinds of "other" types out there to get one of literally EVERYTHING.

So my "necessary" list is: 1 MM, 1 jazz, 1 Precision style, 1 fretless, and 1 dual hum-bucker (soapbar) style. Oh and a fretless :cigar:. All active. Beyond that, it's just masturbassion ;).

2 out of 5 so far. Now, tube amps... There's no knowing what's around the corner :angel:.
 
For all intent and purposes I have 4 sub-short scale basses, but only 3 in my possession. I decided to take up the bass a few months ago because of the small basses available now. I looked at the Kala U-Bass, but the configuration was not to my liking. I contacted my ukulele store, U-Space in Downtown L.A. and Brad suggested I look at the Gold Tone GT MicroBass or Tanger, because since the U-Bass came out, other companies released what he considered better choices. I succumbed to acquisition syndrome and ordered the Gold Tone for $375.

A week or so later I contacted my uke builder in Vietnam and he said he could build me a ukulele bass to my exact specifications for $460. Again, caught up in acquisition syndrome, I designed a 21" scale fretless (with markers) bass in between the 20" Kala and 23" GT with the idea that I would cancel the GT. But, it was too late, the GT arrived. I asked Brad to put it up for sale.

Then I registered with Talk Bass and read a thread about converting a guitar to a bass. Still caught up in acquisition syndrome and wanting a solid body style, I converted an Epiphone Les Paul Express 22" scale to a bass (I actually wanted a small Fender Telecaster, but could not find one), total cost was $159.80. While in the process of that, I went to U-Space for a bass lesson from Brad and used the GT I bought, which I decided to take since I had no other bass to play, so that was #1 in my possession. I then finished the conversion of the Les Paul, so that was #2. I then discovered Blue Star Guitar makes small Telecaster guitars and contacted Bruce Herron if he could make me a 22" scale Telecaster guitar style bass, he said yes, so I ordered it, which will be about $550-600.

Then the custom ukulele bass I ordered arrived from Vietnam, that's #3, but the tuners would not fit the Pahoehoe strings I wanted to use, so I'm waiting for new tuners to arrive ($100). With the arrival of the custom Telecaster bass, that will be 4.
 
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