Wrong bass 20+years?

[Tonegasm]

Better late than never! Embrace the new discovery!

 

[nukes_da_bass]

Ken Smith worked well in the clubs before it got too valuable to risk being barfed on- someday I might get a Chinese KS and not worry about barf magnets so much.

My P/J5 cuts through better than anything I have used for years (definitely non-FMIC).

P Gets fat enough to groove, and the J adds enough mid and treble presence to fill whatever the drums cut out on me. Suppose I could always solo the J, but then I'd be a different bassist so we can't have that...

Looking forward also to gigging my SX J5 and the dirty looks I'll get.

 

[steve_rolfeca]

...If I take several basses out to play some night, I'll wind up not being 100% comfortable with any of them and switching around because I'm missing some high end here or some low end there that I THINK my other basses in the stand could have provided.

If I just take ONE bass, I adapt. I roll off the tone and play up by the neck to pull more lows, and use a pick by the bridge to get more treble. Got no choice, just brought the one bass.

Every bass I have has something it does REALLY well, and something it does not as well as another of one the herd. But, the Precisions and Precision-ish basses cover the spread better than most any other basses I use.

This.

P-basses are great, and crazy adaptible. I've played just about everything but Punk on a P-bass, and I'm told they're not bad for that, either.

But gear is only a small part of the equation when it comes to making music. At some point, you've got to just take control of the situation, and use what you've got.

These days, I take my fancy neck-through to the gigs where it ought to be the best fit, and my ATK305 to the gigs where it will be more appropriate.

In either situation, when we play a tune that's a bit of a stretch for that particular bass, I simply make it work. You CAN play punk on a coffee-table bass, and you can play gentle folk music on a rasty ATK, as well.

 

[Baird6869]

I just really enjoy trying different basses. In fact, I have owned 50 or so in the last 4 years alone.

I always end up back at P and Jazz basses though...

 

[stepswork4me]

I guess om on the opposite page... I've played for 20+ years and started on a P copy. I've yet to play a P or J that I've really liked.

 

[Bass Viking]

I can't be alone here.
I'm a (now semi-retired) pro player. Paid the rent with it- you know.

I've found that I've been playing the wrong bass, for my entire career. 20 +years.

I always purchased the most exotic, hand-built, crazy basses money could buy, because I believed that those instruments would give me the best sound.......................


So, it's a P bass, Dave.

Oh God no, not another one of those "Coming home to Fender/P bass" stories?!!!

I have a fairly large and varied collection of basses. I go through phases and if I neglect one I usually rediscover it at a later time. Should I ever get to the P bass phase my Peavey Fury has me covered.

Maybe the Pbass is the right bass for you NOW.

This.

 

[oddgrowth]

I played everything else but fender since 1986.

Last spring I picked up a '76 P w/a '75 neck. (I had actually owned a Steve Harris sig P briefly prior) - holy crap, I was floored.
It's the only bass I have used live for the past year now. It's perfect...absolutely perfect. I now own a '76 J also.

I also made the jump from Mesa to Marshall after 10 years.

Times change, people change, wants change, tone changes.

I'm 41, but I don't see retirement in my near future, thankfully.

 

[AMJBASS]

This thread is hilarious. I have had several Precision basses. Every time I sell one I end up looking for another. Its a simple design that works extremely well in so many settings. I bought a 60th Anniversary MIA P a couple of days ago, and had a session yesterday that I used it on. They sit so well in the mix for recording. Its a sound you don't need to do much to in the studio to have a great tone that fills out a track without getting in the way of other instruments.

 

[James Mobius]

whatever floats your boat. my first bass was a P, a copy by Hondo, but still a P bass. I can't think of anything less versatile. I'd never buy a real P bass. except for parts. the neck on my first custom fretless was originally a real P bass neck, I reshaped the headstock, the body I made for it is as different as imaginable from a Fender design. blah blah blah, ignore me. play what YOU like. it is a good idea to try different things out obviously.

 

[Muddslide]

Well, the old adage "Play what you like, like what you play" seems to fit here. Also, whoever said "The music is in YOU" was spot on.

When I was gigging my heaviest, about 1982-1998, I did most of my work on a P bass (most of it on a Tokai P-bass in fact) but I was always on that quest for something new or "better."

So, while I always had a good ol' P with me, I spent considerable time, money and energy acquiring and testing out 5'ers, 6'ers, fretlesses, basses with active electronics (hate actives personally) only to find out after years that the thing that suits me best, or that can cover all the territory I really care about is...a P.

Give me a fretted, passive, 4-banger P-bass. Don't "need" anything else for what I want to play. Just speaking for ME though.

I would dig on having a fretless again, but I don't know how much use it would get. Sometimes I think an 8-stringer would be cool, and it would be kind of nice to have a hollow or semi-hollow around to string with flats and get old schooly, but I'm a P guy at heart.

Heck, I could get by just fine with a pre-'57 P-bass with the simple single coil pup actually.

Different strokes...there's no "right or wrong" in all of this.