Your Worst Bass

[fauxtoe]

Worse bass, and currently unstrung and unplayed is a Dean Edge 6 string fretless. Crappy electronics, crappy hardware, but doesn't play bad. Pretty sure I'm going to have to end up giving that one away to one of my buddies. It was great for when I played it often, but I haven't had the fretless bug in quite a awhile. I actually just gave away my Squire VM jazz fretless to a friend. The smile on his face was all the payment I needed Not everything needs to have a monetary value slapped on it.

 

[Kawai2g4b]

My Washburn B-200 Korean-made. It’s the most trebly-sounding bass, had a major neck stability issue, and the fingerboard was lifting at the neck. Somehow ended up fixing it.

Now it gets use doing Anthrax and other thrash covers because, sure enough it, it nails that sound to a T.

 

[Lizooki]

Ancient Washburn B-10 .... the Force 12 whatever thing. From the 70s or 80s?
I actually loved the active sound, and very adjustable with the pots-n-such.
I bought it with a bad neck scarf joint .... active bass with good hardware and electronics.
So, 20 bucks for tuners, pick-ups, all wiring and harness was a steal.

Then I decided to try to fix it.

I actually managed to remove the fretboard, fix the scarf joint and re-install the fretboard.
It was playable for a year or so, went trough a couple of different paint jobs .... EVH stripes, and red metal flake.
Now the neck need more work, just not worth it.
But still, the parts .......

 

[HardNHeavy]

Out of the 4 i own i just cant get the action low enuf to my liking on this build..might be due to the lefty neck, not sure..the truss is already tighter than a *expletive*...It sounds great...but......sighs

 

[jonesn4bass]

No picture at the moment (I'm at work), but it is an early 2000's ESP F-204 in "gunmetal blue." There is nothing wrong with the bass. It was my first bass when I was in my early teens and played in a metal band. It, and it's eventual 5-string brother, were my main gigging basses for about a decade. Sill love the neck, the feel, and even the sound - but it is beat to hell and way to aggro for my style these days. Not a bad bass, but I've moved on. I keep it because it has almost no resale value and plenty of sentimental value.

 

[Wesley R]

I don't have a worst bass. My basses have a worst player.

I challenge you sir, as occasionally I have delusions of adequacy.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

I wouldn't call this the worst, but the cheapest. This comes with me anywhere. Squire Affiniy P body w/ Squier Std J neck. It's played so much that it feels amazing. Doesn't sound great but sounds like a P should.

 

[Kevin Teed]

I challenge you sir, as occasionally I have delusions of adequacy.

There are many times when I think my basses team up and mock me! I am truly the weak-link in my bass playing chain.
Worst bass is relative. Sucky basses don't stick around long or aren't bought in the first place, these days. I guess my worst would be a '58 AVRI P-bass, but I certainly wouldn't call it bad.

 

[Bassworship1]

The worst bass I’ve ever owned was also one of the most expensive builds I’ve ever commissioned. About 4 years ago I commissioned Warrior to build my dream bass. I got every option I ever wanted and upon receiving it I was sickened to find the quality was absolutely terrible. All the inlays had gaps between the woods. The B string was terrible and floppy. Sent the bass back 4 times to have it fixed on issues such as glue build up and just terrible quality control. Each time the bass was sent back to me in the same shape. I finally washed my hands with Warrior after owning 9 of their basses previously before that one. Bass was a $5900 build and wasn’t worth $1000 IMO.

 

[Ostie]

Hmmm. Good question. I have a bestickered Washburn XB-100 that can be really hit or miss from one gig to another. I keep it for the stickers, mostly. View attachment 3796419

That’s one way to refin. No need to strip all that paint off!

 

[micguy]

None of my basses (to me) are anything I would ever call "worst". I do, from time to time, identify a "least used" bass, and then....I donate it to a local charity that places musical instruments with kids just starting out that can't afford their own.

 

[FugaziBomb]

I wouldn't call this the worst, but the cheapest. This comes with me anywhere. Squire Affiniy P body w/ Squier Std J neck. It's played so much that it feels amazing. Doesn't sound great but sounds like a P should.View attachment 3797518 View attachment 3797519

Daddy Kool, eh? Spend some time in St. Pete?

 

[Diminishedfilth]

Oh man, years ago I did a build with a MIM P-neck I got from a guy I used to play with. He got it from his brother, whom I guess has anger issues. He said he’d slammed the bass on the floor after he was having difficulty learning a new song, splitting the body to pieces. The neck looked fine, though, and he gave it to me for a 6-pack of Sierra Nevada. So I picked up a Warmoth body, SD pickups, CTS pots wired for series/parallel, etc, all great components.
Then I strung it up and tried to tune it... that neck was so far gone, you couldn’t even play Mary Had a Little Lamb on it. Tried every tweak I could think of, truss rod, saddle height, heel shimming, shimming the nut. Fixing one choke spot just seemed to create another one somewhere else.
Sold the loaded body for a minor loss, threw the neck in the backyard fire pit.

 

[Alfonso Alba]

I’ll kick it off! My “worst” bass is my ‘92 fretless peavey foundation. It’s really not a bad bass, but age gets the better of us all and the fingerboard could use a good planing. Being the case, it doesn’t get played as much as the others, but I hold onto it because it’s my first bass. This is the workhorse I learned my first songs on back in ‘04, played in my first band, used in my first lessons, yada yada yada. So, great player or not, it’s not going anywhere!

What a coincidence. My first bass was a black Peavey Foundation-5. I don't know the year but it looked exactly just like yours, even the logo, except that mine was a fiver. It wasn't well set up, intonation was off, and it hadn't had a change of strings in probably 20 years. I eventually was discouraged from learning bass and ended up selling it. I kind of regret that and wish I still had it, but my current basses are so much better, so I guess that makes the Foundation the worst bass I've owned.

Here's an old picture:

Currently, I have three basses: Squier VM Jazz Fretless, Fender Mustang PJ and Fender Kingman. I love all three and don't consider either as being worse than the others. Even if the Squier is the cheaper one, it's also the one I play the most.

 

[Standalone]

My gorgeous 1982 Ibanez Blazer P Bass. One piece maple neck that's nice and stable, lots of swirl and depth in the finish on the ash sunburst, complex and hot Dimarzio style pickup. Orange drop cap on the tone pot, rolls off the bass just right.

But...the jack crackles a little bit and needs replacement. Or maybe a little tweak. So it's my "worst." I'm a lucky guy.

 

[Standalone]

What a coincidence. My first bass was a black Peavey Foundation-5. I don't know the year but it looked exactly just like yours, even the logo, except that mine was a fiver. It wasn't well set up, intonation was off, and it hadn't had a change of strings in probably 20 years. I eventually was discouraged from learning bass and ended up selling it. I kind of regret that and wish I still had it, but my current basses are so much better, so I guess that makes the Foundation the worst bass I've owned.

I had a white five string with a maple board in college. It just never really had much life to it, I'm not sure if it was the construction or the pickups. I brought it with me when traveling abroad and wound up selling it to a shop in Belfast for reasonably good money. The Ibanez Roadster I later bought in London was my first high quality bass and I've been picking up vintage Ibanez ever since, thanks to that Peavey.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

Daddy Kool, eh? Spend some time in St. Pete?

We were there in 2016. C.J. Ramone was playing next door, got to meet and take pictures with him. After we said we came from NY, he got on stage said he has friends from NY, and sang Rockaway Beach for us! It was like we went back in time and saw them playing at a $1-beer-bar back in the day. Sad to hear the place is closed now.

 

[Thundertips]

What’s the worst bass you have in your collection, and why do you have/keep it? As always, pics are encouraged!

The worst Bass I have is an Indonesian Squier and it's not that bad. I'll never sell it.
You should've asked me this question before I got rid of all the really bad ones 13 years ago! Haha.

 

[BassComa]

The worst bass i have ever owned, and still own, is a Warwick Custom Shop instrument i ordered in the early 00´s. I wanted an 8-string bass and contacted several builders around the world and decided that Warwick with it´s true German quality would do the job with perfection.

When it was delivered i noticed that some of the tuning pegs touched each other too often during tuning. That was a sign of that what i had received was poopie. The bass were sent back to Germany and the neck got replaced. After a while i discovered that the truss rod in the new neck was impossible to adjust. So, once again the bass got sent back to Germany.

So now with the thrid neck attached i just gave up. If i had a chain saw i would saw it into pieces and just burn it. I dont have a fire place and i don´t have a chain saw so the thing is still alive but stuffed away in a closet.

BTW, the 8-string neck was in their line of necks, so i thought that they already had figured out how to place the tuning pegs. I was wrong.

Simply, the worst bass and the worst, most expensive buy i have ever did.

 

[John Webb]

Charvel P style bass. Can't get decent tone.....looks cool though.
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