Your favourite feature

The FEEL man, it's gotta have that FEEL.

 

Tone is #1

 

in my case, the bass is left-handed. i refuse to rock it hendrix style.

 

Physical dimensions "aka FEEL" are more important to me than differen materials. Nut width, string spacing, and scale length are more important.

 

Nothing consciously tangible. It feels "right" or it doesn't. This sounds trite and not my intent, but that's how I measure it.

 

May seem strange, but a good arm contour.

 

The feel the feel not just one thing ,but the feel of it all!!!

 

The way I choose my basses is seeing if it feels right. I remember just holding my bass in the store and knowing it was the one. That said, if I didn't like the tone I wouldn't have bought it.

 

I put a j neck on my p bass, so........ Yes. I agree completely.

 

OK,I like the string to body space,so when your popping,your finger tip just touches the body & it's at the perfect spot to pop for smooth effortless playing.that's just one of the things I like.

 

When I add a bass to my stable, I tend to have a specific use in mind for it. Therefore, string count and pup configuration would be the most important considerations out of the items on your poll. That said, I don't have a "favorite" string count or pup configuration; it's all about the application I have in mind. Neck joint also factors into this for me, but less so.

Fretboard material? I tend to prefer dark colored woods, just aesthetically speaking. But I do have a P bass with a maple fretboard, and it's sexy as hell, so there's an exception to every rule.

Nut width and string spacing? I currently have 7 basses, and I couldn't tell you these specs for any of them. As others have said, I just go with whether it feels good to me or not.

 

1. Feel
1. Tone

Equally important.

2. Quality

Including: materials, hardware, construction, reliability, ease of maintenance. It's not far removed from #1 though. I can't be the only one who has had a great sounding and playing bass fall apart on them or be more trouble than it's worth.

3. Price

If I can't afford it, it doesn't matter how great it is.

4. Appearance

Purely aesthetic, no bearing on 1-3, but it does matter. I tend to prefer non-Fendery designs.

Specific features I like, but seldom find on one bass:

Thin neck, 24 frets, full access to all frets, neck through or bolt on construction (maybe coincidence but the 2 set necks I've owned were the great sounding, playing, falling apart basses I mentioned above), low profile neck joint (not a big ol square blocky thing), no face dots.

If it feels and sounds great, is high quality in materials and construction (for the price), and looks good, things like type of wood, brand of pickups, etc. aren't important to me. Shopping online though I find those details help give me an idea of what the bass will sound like. Bartolini or Alembic electronics, I'm probably going to like how it sounds.

 

I voted for "Others". You left out fretboard radius, it might not be that important to most players but I have found that it definitely affects the feel.

Other equally important features to me are neck shape, width at the nut, balance, body shape, neck angle, scale and weight etc. Of course then there's the choice of wood and pickups/electronics....So many features are important to me so....I could never vote for just one, I pretty much need all of them and of course it has to have great tone.

 

This.

 

Tone.

 

All needs to come together.
Balance would be up there for me, though.

 

It's not because what's already in isn't comprehensive, it's just that I know pretty well what turns me off of a bass (neckthru construction and fretless fingerboard) but many are the things I really dig.

Bolt on construction and fretted, but then "power"!!!

Oh yeah, I seek it thru many tricks like equalizations, stomp boxes and, certainly, pickup configuration, but that doesn't mean I cannot play without stomps or that a different pickup configuration, as long as it's loud enough, doesn't work for me!

For example I prefer alder bodies, Jazz bass body in particular, Precision bass neck design, 4 string (even if I have many 5ers)
fullstep dowtuning and a Hipshot bass extender, to go like this: (C)D, G, C, F

I prefer 34" scale and just got a 35" 5er and a 30" Beatle bass.
I prefer maple fingerboards (especially bird's eye/flamed maple)
and prefer a dual split coil (Precision bass) pickup configuration

But then three out of my six 5ers are G&L L2500 which, with dual ceramic MFD humbuckers, are loud enough for my needs

So, yes, it's gotta bolt on, fretted, and "powerful"!

Cheers,
Wallace

 

A lot of these are important, but I realized that string spacing is most important for me, so that's how I voted. I just don't feel comfortable on narrow string spacing. For some reason I'm not that fussy about other factors such as neck thickness or profile. Heck, I'd rather deal with extreme neck dive than narrow spacing.