We were just talking about this a little in the Show Us Your Basses thread and I thought it merited further discussion.
Have you named any of your instruments?
I mostly haven’t, even my main Cirrus I’ve had for nearly a decade is nameless. The only bass I’ve named is my sunburst P-bass with heavy gauge LaBella flatwounds… it’s just missing the pickup/bridge covers and some foam and it’s pretty much a Jamerson rip off bass. So I affectionately call it “Funk Machine Jr. Jr.” as an ode to Jamerson’s “Funk Machine” + Everything Is Illuminated (there’s a dog named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. in that book/movie).
For me, maybe it all harkens back to the Toast Machine tried and true method for naming things: Go with the obvious, and put ‘The’ in front of it.
So.
I’ve got “The Modulus”
“The Jaguar”
“The P-Bass”
Then I have some guitars… the closest any of them have to a name is The Peavey Horizon electric guitar I have. It’s called “The Horizon.”
hmm… but they’re still all, clearly, objects, not named characters.
Y’all? Any bass namers?
I do name things, not just basses. (I blame my mom; I believe she thought that if she taught me to anthropomophize my belongings I would take better care of them. She wasn’t wrong, but it also resulted in my not being able to get rid of a lot of my silly stuffed animals as I grew older!)
ANYHOO
My current bass doesn’t have a name yet; I’m waiting for it to name itself, in a manner of speaking.
My first bass sort of did this: we were getting ready to resume lessons or practice or something, and as I reached for my bass the words “Alright Gertie, let’s go!” popped out of my mouth. And I thought, “Huh, guess her name is Gertie now.” (Gert/Gertie/Gertrude). It seems to fit, because she’s a little old, a little rough around the edges, a little tinny-sounding…
I’m hoping my gorgeous new Ibanez names itself soon!
Y’all got me to remember - I had a very, very shitty Jeep Cherokee once upon a time. I still loved him, though.
His name was Chester.
Don’t know how I knew, or found out. It just became obvious over time.
Hmmm, interesting. I have not named my guitar, bass or drums.
I think the only thing I have ever named beside my son was a couple of motorcycles I owned. Now you got me thinking. I will see if a name appears this weekend. Gonna rain all weekend so I see a lot of jamming!
I don’t name anything else, but somehow all 3 of my basses acquired names! The first red Schecter is named Lipstick - I dunno, she’s kind of wild The project bass got named Frankie, she’s like Frankenstein, just kind of soldered together, a “mad creation”. My fave bass, the Ibanez SR870 is named Boo, it’s just an affectionate name I’ll use with girls I like when texting them, so why not my best bass too?! I know, kind of dorky
Hello new bassist here. I got an Ibanez Talman (TMB30) this past June! It’s a very sleek and sexy-looking black bass.
Well, I had just gone through a recent breakup and was spending so much time playing with it that I once referred to it as my new Bae. Now when I go jam, my friend will also refer to it as Bae, so it has become official
Alice, Charlene, Stickers…all of my guitars get named, mostly named after women as they have so much in common with the women that have passed through my life. They like a lot of attention. They’re easy to spend money on. They like to occasionally show up in a club and make a lot noise.
Mhhh. Someone even told me “now that it’s official you have to name it” or something like that but the thing for me is… It’s “my bass” and that’s it now.
But it feels good to have done the footwork and found one I really like. It really feels like my bass.
The build kit okay… That has kind of a name but it only works in German. There’s a verb “basteln” which means to do handicraft. So I call my build kit bass the handicrafted bass. German result: gebasstelter Bass.
The second s is just a pun. Correct would be “gebastelter”.
My new fender bass is known by her initials, TMIFCB, or if I am introducing her formally, then her full name is the Ten Months Interest Free Credit Bass.
Edit: or the “If My Wife Asks It Came Free With The Amp” bass
Some of mine have names,the ones that see the light of day,
the 76 J Bass is “Jazzy”
the 76 P Bass is “The Wreck”
the 79 P Bass is The Beast"
the 79 Rickenbacker is “Ricky”
the Warwick Thumb is “Woody”
the 76 Mustang is “Sally”
Thanks for having my back @PamPurrs.
After all the joking on this thread and on other threads previously that I got my bass free, I think we should make it official.
I’ve named it Freebie The Fender.
I need to get that name made into a metal badge in the style of the Fender spaghetti logo font, and stick it on.
The project bass got named Frankie, she’s like Frankenstein, just kind of soldered together, a “mad creation”. My fave bass, the Ibanez SR870 is named Boo, it’s just an affectionate name I’ll use with girls I like when texting them, so why not my best bass too?! I know, kind of dorky 
new bassist here. I got an Ibanez Talman (TMB30) this past June! It’s a very sleek and sexy-looking black bass.
