Why own SO many basses?

[avvie]

This comparison led to my pickup orientation preference:

It's a great one. I did the same thing with an '85 Yamaha BB300 and it was my only bass for a quarter century until it got heavy. had no interest in owning anything else other than a cheap backup in case a string breaks. I'm now hoping to trade a nice Ibby for a cheap Squier P to do same thing with since I still have the pickups and electronics from that Yamaha.

BTT: Since the day that Yamaha got heavy I've been looking for a suitable replacement. I've had to buy and try lots of stuff so now I have too many basses. What I've figured out is that I like the Stingray sound and the P/J sound and I want to have a Jazz sound available though it's not my fave for gigging. As noted I also want my old EMG P/P sound back. I have 6 basses now; if I make that trade I'll still have 6 basses, and it's still too many but I can't let any of them go.

 

[Turn Em Loose]

Why own SO many basses?

If you have to ask, you'll never understand.

 

[Catbuster]

The economics answer would be capitalism driving consumerism and competition driving the market leading to innovation and new products, blah, blah, blah. But that's boring.

As a player, I love having options. I'm not forced to choose between a P, Jazz, Rickenbacker and Stingray or bazillion dollar custom like in the late 1970s. It's allowed me to find production instruments that I really like. So, I would say it's the idea of choice and innovation.

However, most of these days I just take a 4, another similar 4 and a fiver. I've found what I like and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Dan Knowlton]

Dan, I seriously wanna be YOU!!!!!

Nah! I'm an old guy, too many downsides to that. Seriously, I've been married to my wife for 38 years now and she is still my best friend as well as my wife. Since we have an 11 year-old I guess we are now DIOK's instead of DINK's (dual income, no kids) and having a kid later when you can still afford toys is a bonus. I'm not sure that bonus offsets trying to keep up with a kid that has been known to play two soccer games with a 5 minute break in between but it sure is nice having him.

BTW - she bought me a 55-94, paid for 3/4 of a Ken Lawrence Brase 5 and gave me the OK to buy the Regenerate and the Ken Lawrence Unity I just bought this year. As well as a Bassman 100T with matching 4x10 cab...

Dan K

 

[Pocket4]

Many, like several, is a sliding scale. I have trouble counting higher than 3, and maybe 3 is really my sweet spot for the number of basses. I am gravitating around 6 right now, but as others have said, they all have their place. I love how the choices and the mods taken in total really point to the one or two that I would see as "keepers". Great fun

 

[zontar]

I just thought I'd add that I know a drummer who has 4 basses.

 

[drumsnbass]

Nah! I'm an old guy, too many downsides to that. Seriously, I've been married to my wife for 38 years now and she is still my best friend as well as my wife. Since we have an 11 year-old I guess we are now DIOK's instead of DINK's (dual income, no kids) and having a kid later when you can still afford toys is a bonus. I'm not sure that bonus offsets trying to keep up with a kid that has been known to play two soccer games with a 5 minute break in between but it sure is nice having him.

BTW - she bought me a 55-94, paid for 3/4 of a Ken Lawrence Brase 5 and gave me the OK to buy the Regenerate and the Ken Lawrence Unity I just bought this year. As well as a Bassman 100T with matching 4x10 cab...

Dan K

You got a great wife there!

Mine just looks at the collection and doesn't say a word. She doesn't know what they all cost, but he knows they ain't cheap either!

 

[bassbenj]

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.

No, you can't buy one of EVERYTHING. But it works like this: You get into certain kinds of music/bass playing/sounds/tone etc. and want to learn more. Well obviously the way to learn more is to get such a bass and live with it for a while learning everything about it. Like say you want to get into the P-bass thing. Happened to me, so i constructed a nice PJ 5 string. Ok. But the secret is when you move on to the next interesting thing, you just KEEP the bass from the last interesting thing! Sure, you still don't have them ALL, but pretty soon you will have 40 basses! Trust me.