You get a bass as a 1-time gift.

[MCF]

This is the deal:

1. You get one bass for free.
2. You can't sell\trade it (so price is irrelevant)
3. All your other basses are gone, and you can't buy basses anymore.
4. It is a bass company you never played\owned any of their instruments.
5. You choose a specific company \ luthier - but you can't choose the model you get.

Which company or high-end builder would you pick?

Thanks. I’ll pass.

 

[Clark W]

This is the deal:

1. You get one bass for free.
2. You can't sell\trade it (so price is irrelevant)
3. All your other basses are gone, and you can't buy basses anymore.
4. It is a bass company you never played\owned any of their instruments.
5. You choose a specific company \ luthier - but you can't choose the model you get.

Which company or high-end builder would you pick?

If I can't choose the model I would get what's the point? What if they built me an active 6 string fretless? It would be pretty much useless to me. So I'd have to pass and keep my basses.

 

[Altitude]

So, I get one bass. I choose the builder. The builder picks the specific bass, it’s the only one I’ll ever have going forward and I have to pick a builder whom I’ve never worked with before.

Sadowsky.

 

[LadyLoveStingRay5]

MTD or Fodera or Spector perhaps.
But I would rather have my StingRays.

 

[Eidolon0274]

Wal. Pretty narrow set of parameters on their builds, so I know what I'd get.

 

[SkylineFiver]

Fodera

 

[GIBrat51]

This is the deal:

1. You get one bass for free.
2. You can't sell\trade it (so price is irrelevant)
3. All your other basses are gone, and you can't buy basses anymore.
4. It is a bass company you never played\owned any of their instruments.
5. You choose a specific company \ luthier - but you can't choose the model you get.

Which company or high-end builder would you pick?

I'd say "no thanks" and walk away.

^THIS^, I think...
Much as I like - or, liked, in your scenario - playing bass guitar, I could scratch my occasional itch to play something with strings, with one of my 4 guitars. Or my old banjo, if it came to that. And, to tell the truth? I can't think of a bass that I'd want to own, that's made by a company that didn't make a bass I already own. I've looked at more company's products than I care to remember; and most of them either didn't make a thing that I wanted - or didn't make anything left handed, id I did want it. And, trust me; $$ had nothing to do with it, either...
So... thanks, but no thanks. I'll just play... oh, maybe my Rick 330 guitar, instead - and ride the tires off my Harley when the weather around here decides it ain't winter any more...

 

[CircleOf5ths]

Would probably choose Mayones or Fodera. I have been wanting to try one.

I've played and owned Fender, Sadowsky, Rickenbacker. If not for rule 4:

4. It is a bass company you never played\owned any of their instruments.

I would probably ask for a custom white Rickenbacker 4080 4+6 bass+guitar double neck.

 

[Deleted member 341607]

Upton hands down…

 

[PennyroyalWe]

I’d turn down this gift if I had the choice…

BUT! Assuming I don’t, I’d say either a Fender Custom Shop, or Nash, and I’d ask them to recreate as close to an exact copy of my current bass as they can (since apparently that one is going to disappear?).

 

[Clark W]

Would probably choose Mayones or Fodera. I have been wanting to try one.

I've played and owned Fender, Sadowsky, Rickenbacker. If not for rule 4:

4. It is a bass company you never played\owned any of their instruments.

I would probably ask for a custom white Rickenbacker 4080 4+6 bass+guitar double neck.

But you're not allowed to choose the model, only the maker, so you couldn't ask for the 4080 4+6 anyway.

See rule #5 You choose a specific company \ luthier - but you can't choose the model you get.

Which is why I would pass and just keep playing the basses I have.

 

[Maxi Funkl]

I've been to NAMM to many times I've tried a ton of brands.
Fodera Monarch Standard Dream Bass.
Runner up Redulla Rapture.

 

[bootstrap]

LEH.

 

[TDR1138]

I’ve always wanted to try a Wal…

 

[wysiwyg248]

Stenback, without a doubt

 

[J Wilson]

Pass. What if I changed my mind next year?

Nope.

 

[_One//Man//Mutiny_]

I’d roll the dice on Warwick and hope I don’t end up with a Star bass or a Vampyre as my only bass.

 

[bikeplate]

Im good. Thank u

 

[WI Short Scaler]

None, too many rules and unknowns.

And my personal choice is short scales. Although it seems there's more choices of those than ever, they're still in the minority. Not giving up the ones I have.

 

[slowjam98]

Stradi or Ritter. If I didn’t like the model, it would at the very least be a work of art.