I placed a bid for €100, but this afternoon I got the message that the bass was already sold.
But this evening, the owner told me that the sale did not materialise, and if I still wanted it, it was mine. So yeah…
Now, this does pose a problem – my wall (and probably my spouse) will accommodate three basses. So one has to go.
If I’m realistic…
… it’ll be the fretless Harley-Benton.
I know, this is the instrument that got me back into playing the bass again. But… what with me having really small hands, I have trouble enough reaching the E-string with my pinky.
But below (physically above) the E-string lives a B-string. There is no fornicating way my pinky is going to get at that B-string even at the 7th fret position – I have trouble getting there with my other three fretting fingers. The only use I could get out of that B-string is if I lay the bass flat on my lap and play it like a steel guitar, but with fingers. Sooooo…
if this Harley Benton doesn’t fit you, I don’t see why you’d want to keep it. from my point of view, selling it and getting a better (better for you) instrument is nothing else than an upgrade.
otherwise, I’m wondering if you could place your bass holders in a different manner on your wall, because 4 basses is not that much …
There is, of course, this discrepancy between what you want and what you need.
Consider the following:
I want a bass that growls
I want a bass that sounds punchy, but relaxed. Think “Motown”.
I will probably re-want a fretless, but one with 4 strings (I don’t really have much use for a B-string).
1 is currently the Gregg Bennet J-bass. 2 is the Cort; it has punch, it can be snappy, but it’ll happily be non-snappy, and sit low-down in the mix, fulfilling low-end duties without attracting too much attention.
Now I’m thinking that, with a bit of midrange help from the preamp in the Zoom, the TRBX can growl with the best of them.
Since I am a lover of thin necks (small hands!), I will probably prefer the Yam neck over the Jazz neck. So, unless the Jazz does something that the Yam doesn’t, this may mean that, in time, the Jazz might be… redundant?
If I find out that this is the case, it may have to relinquish its place in favour of a new 4-string fretless.
Even if it has sentimental value to a certain degree because it brought you back to the instrument reading your train of thought for the decision I have to agree that you should sell it and maybe replace it in the future.
However the decision should not be made because of missing wall space in my opinion.
Seriously: the alternative would be above the guest bed. I guarantee you that this would lead to an incident in which a guest is heading the instrument out of its bracket, leading to injury and possible instrument damage. I could probably get away with a guitar there, because a guitar stops existing a fair handful of inches before a full-scale bass has ran out of length.
Then there’s two plasterboard walls left. One of them is above a radiator, which will warp the instrument; the other one is directly in the path of any incoming human traffic.
If anything, this arrangement keeps GAS at bay.
Lastly, there are a few aphorisms supporting my line of thought: Fear the man with one gun, for he knows it well. Man with one watch, always know time. Man with many watches, never sure.
I’m suggesting to sell the bass you feel like you don’t want anymore and if you find a good deal on one that you want that you create a ceiling mount for it!
I could technically do that. Unfortunately, this is a loft, with a relatively low ceiling. You care to try out how hard mahogany is against your skull?
In my mind it was hanging so low you would rather bruise your knee / would clearly see it in the way but after all it’s probably no different than having an instrument stand on the floor in front of the wall taking up space.
Not as aesthetically pleasing but handy is an instrument stand for multiple instruments so you can just put them in line on it.
Okay - you won. Ceiling mount is not practical.
The multi instrument stand is still viable though I think. I already admitted that is not very aesthatically pleasing - just handy.
Well my cats like to scratch the tapestry from the wall so I think a wall mount might be dangerous for me. One of them likes to scratch gigbags (every kind of bag and backpack really) they so far didn’t touch any of the bass guitars.
… if you want to keep your Harley Benton but don’t really play it, why don’t you just keep it stored somewhere in a gig bag ? I guess it does not have to be on the wall like the instruments you always use ? and it would be a way to keep the 4 basses
There’s no shame in coming to the realization that you simply don’t like 5-strings. I bought one, gave it a chance for a couple months, and decided exactly that myself.
That feels… just wrong.
It would reduce the bass to an item in a collection, rather than a device to make music. I would also have to take it out of the gig bag to look at it, or it would be further reduced to ballast…
It doesn’t feel right.
Also, my chances of ever playing it even marginally proficiently are close to zero. Playing an E-major triad on the A-and D-string requires some microshifting already - even though I have, by now, realised quite a bit of additional spread, the pinky is just too short to make it to the 9th fret. And on a fretted bass, you have a wee bit of leeway – I can use my index bang on top of fret 6, and then put the pinky down halfway between fret 8 and fret 9. Try that on a fretless and the audience will gasp in sheer agony over me being a quarter tone flat…
So what I’m going to do is finish B2B on one bass, and then decide if I’m going to get a somewhat shorter-scale fretless, or a full scale 4 string.
help