and that’s how it begins…
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Lol, at the end of the day it’s what the current situation that support the current beliefs. When I had 2 bass in rotation and a few in storage I never thought I needed more than my 5 string to do anything and for the longest time didn’t bother to acquire anything when clearly I could have scored some serious vintage gears like 62-64 p basses and 70’s jazz basses crazy Kramer I did acquire one the BBNE2 as a gift.
Now with all the basses, I can see the other side of having a collection. I can tell you without hesitation there’s very little difference in sound and tone you can get from a $75 p bass with a little love to a $2000 p bass. If all you need is something to play and record.
That said if you are a touchy feely pervert, the high end stuffs offer much better satisfaction. They usually look better as well. If I don’t buy them with my extra hobby funds I’ll blow through them in a couple of weeks on dining out and got nothing to show for, 
I sold a $2200 stingray and bought a set of knives that I used once. Just like basses the cheap(er) one with pedigree can perform just as well as the masterbuilt hand forged ones. My set of Kai pro knives cost me a couple of bills and they are like light sabers. It cost 10 times less than my Shun premier set from the same company.
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I’ve been called worse by better. 
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I’m at 6 basses, a nice pedalboard, amp and cab… and still I spend most of my time playing my latest bass directly into the DAI with headphones on. But don’t ask me to sell, I think I might have some hoarding issues along other OCD 
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Seriously, selling my amp and going amp-free was one of the best gear decisions I ever made
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With all the weekly jams I attend this would not work for me. 3 this week alone with no PA to plug into.
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Hi ‘Buzzers,
My name is CC, and I’m a tone-a-holic.
My initial attempt to learn guitar got very badly derailed by my toneaholism. Pickups. Pedals. Guitars. The secret midnight tube amp chat groups. The quest for my very own copy of the Radiotron Engineering Handbook ($12, with notations in it from some engineer at Motorola in the early 60s), omg. Finally designing and building my own amps. I probably blew $3k and a thousand hours of tinker time before I could even play a song. Sadly, absolutely no embellishments here, all true. I didn’t even mention the signal generator and tektronix oscilloscope….
Not gonna do that again. So I bought a bass that lobster says is a Swiss Army knife full of forks (it’s the one where he starts with all the knobs in the middle, says “not bad”, then dials full cut on all three active controls, then turns up one at a time to full boost and complains about not getting vintage fender tones) and a rumble 40. Between the two I have a blender, 7 active tone control knobs and four gimmick switches. Should do me, right? Gah.
I’ve already replaced the speaker in the amp (nice improvement) and I’ve got some low tension flats to put on the bass. Oh… and there was that B1 four I bought, but only for the headphone capability and drum tracks. Honest. Really.
But I’m gonna try really hard to hold off on bass #2 until I am truly badass, with an actual repertoire.
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This is so interesting.
I only ever had one bass to practice on.
I have more than one now, but only one is in the “play me” stand at a time.
The others are in their bags.
Each bass has a very specific and different mission, so knowing which one to pick is usually pretty easy.
As in:
Q: “Which bass should I practice on / play / bring to the rehearsal / session / record… etc”
A: “The P Bass, obviously.”
I mean, there’s humor in that, but it’s also pretty much been my life since getting the P Bass.
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I guess that’s it then. Time for me to put everything else back in their bags.
I’m stuck on my P-bass as well for now, but I might get back to one of the others… hopefully 
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And maybe get another profile picture…
No intention to copy, just happenstance.
[Edit: done 
]
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For me, it’s my double-bucker Jazz-y bass. But my P bass runs neck-and-neck with it. My modern tone-a-rama bass with the fastest neck isn’t far behind the other two. Variety is the spice of life.
Plus, I love to play my basses.
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I’ve had other Ps before and other basses, but since I got my custom P, I don’t need them as much. Everything is like, let’s see how it sounds on the P. I plan to downsize just because I don’t need it anymore
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Yep, it all depends on your priorities.
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It would be a dull world where we all had the same vibe
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It would be a dull world where I have the same vibe every day.
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I totally get it. I still play my 54P more than any other, even the Stingray Special. It just plays and sounds so good. I MAKE myself play the Stingray to justify the costs. I could probably live with just the 54P, truth be told and be totally happy.
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I wholeheartedly believe that the mythical P bass unicorn is a self fulfilling prophecy, in some way similar to the Coke Classic story. It’s the way things get done since the beginning of electric bass invention, it was the only choice then it became the norm because that’s what audiences got used to.
Engineers prefer to work with something that’s safe and familiar, us. Bassos know what we like but to others maybe too new or out there they usually advise against the idea. Until you are big name then you’d be declare avant-garde and tone innovator.
That’s what happened with Jaco, his secret sauce that everyone was talking about when it comes to tone is bridge pickup. It just goes to show you that even bassists are afraid to step out of the norm. Half the people couldn’t believe that he shared the secret but I’m sure to Jaco it was like, you guy’s never experimented?
If every top 10 songs ever recorded were played by a Hofner violin bass then that would be the norm and no one will be talking about the one trick pony P bass.
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I don’t believe it is a self fulfilling prophecy. It is that way because it does in fact work. Some times old wives tales are true. I think this is one such case.
The P bass has enough punch and enough highs while leaving room in the mix for vocals and other instruments. Engineers are pragmatic, though conservative, they will change if something else gives them less work.
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I have three basses and for practice I rotate them so I have something that feels different in my hands. Also during (foundational) practice I never use effects because it can cover up my mistakes. I become more selective (which bass and effects) if I’m working on a specific concept or song.
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If you want to learn to play bass at the fastest rate possible, limiting your gear variation will assist in this.
Making things vary like swapping to very different basses will increase the time required to get to any skill level.
However, nobody can tell you how much longer it will take, or how much more or less enjoyable the process will be.
I sacrificed the fastest way possible in order to have more toys and I still tend to use the same main bass.
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