In my home office there are currently 6 basses. Over my, now impressive , 1.5 years playing the bass, I’ve bought and then sold (counts) a further 5 basses. I’m constantly looking on Facebook Marketplace and eBay for steals and deals…
All the current basses are different, not that they have been bought to serve a purpose, more that I think they look cool, sound good or in some way, fire my imagination. I’m learning what I don’t like, for example, I won’t be buying another Spector, having bought, then sold two. And what I do like…
The feel of the pink Ibanez EHB
The tone and feel of the Dingwall
The tone and feel of that 90s Hohner
The focus required to play the fretless
I needs a P of some type. I needs a Hohner ‘The Jack’, ‘cos I like headless basses! I needs the John Taylor Dingwall. I really needs a Kubicki Factor!!!
This is Deep and wide question.
I’ve been in both camp. Early in my active gigging (career) before Y2K, I only own 3+1 basses. Yamaha Motion bass, Spector Euro, and a Ken Smith Burner. I only gig with my Yamaha, the cheapest one. The plus one is for something I may have pick up from Guitar center to try out or friends’.
My major addition was the first BBNE2 that was a gift from my boss, signed and given to me by Nathan himself, though at the time I was not playing in 2006. If I did I’d have been too gunshy anyways, my ex-boss own a proper recording studio, I’ve been friends with several studio musicians but as a Chef not a musician.
Then came the lockdown and the elusive P bass quest. Well, the rest of my journey is pretty well documented here,
My personal philosophy on “A” bass is to have the narrowest capability, which is very rare and difficult to find because basses nowadays are so versatile. That’s why when I play at home or even at gigs I don’t make any adjustments, not set it and forget it, no adjustment at all, all knobs are at center detent. That’s what each bass sounds at rest. This is not something a bassist can do, it took me over a year to get over the bad habit of touching every knobs before even playing as most of us tends to do when pickup an instrument. Which lead me to the “Width and the Depth” of my collection. Every basses can sound like another bass pretty much, and every bass have unique sound at idle.
My depth is probably MusicMan. I probably own all of the models except for the early ones, though I own the first production year EBMM Sterling. Most of the rare ones I have, Sabre bass, Cutlass, Caprice, Sterling Neck through, Bongo HS Piezo, BFRs, Anniversary, Joe Dart(s), Fretted and Fretless. In all pickup configuration and recently acquired the most complicated widest pickup range in their lineup, the Big Al.
Do I have the space for it that’s the main question,
I set my budget aside for whatever from not spending on everyday excesses. A family of 5 (3 young kids) can easily spend a grand a week in food. At least half that for fast food. Luckily, my kids love my cooking and we have 2 restaurants I can cook for them at least 80% of the time so I can save some and set aside for my bass fund. Plus, twice a month I get to go party and play for free,
I think I would shift these around a bit. There’s instruments perfectly suited to professional use in the $500-$1000 range; however, from $500 to $1000 there’s still a noticeable bump in quality for most brands, and a much smaller bump from $1000-$2000.
A great example is the Yamaha BB734a (~$750) vs the BBP34 (~$1600); essentially the same instrument, same pickups, hardware, and woods, except the BBP is passive-only and has better color choices. Plus a bit nicer fit and finish, but not more than say 10-20% nicer (though you can tell). As a result, many pros tour the BB734a - it’s actually a better choice in several ways.
With Fender maybe 1.5x these numbers and Gibson maybe double them
Thanks for the responses so far, super interesting to hear peoples’ takes on this. I’ll add a couple things:
There is no wrong answer here! whatever floats your boat
Going “deep” does not necessarily mean more expensive models, just more investment in to one or a couple, with time, TLC, maybe upgrades, etc.
By going deep, the example I will give for me is I only own two basses; a Yamaha BB, and an SBV. I love both lines. I am especially deeply in to the Yamaha SBV line, a niche bass with a cult following that hasn’t been made in 15-20 years and so is geting scarce. I have upgraded my way to the top of one of the lines there, and I am improving it over time - hardware replacement, soon to get a stainless fret job for it, etc. I just love it.
I’m down to two basses I want in the world, and both are models of the two I own now.
me too. but I’ve always sold gear to buy other pieces of gear so I’m not so much in a huge collection.
Currently I own 5 basses, that’s very reasonnable in my opinion. Just enough to bring some variety : the Grabber with its sliding big single coil pickup and full maple construction, the Ibanez which is a short scale hollow bass with flatwound strings, and the more all-around P’s (Greenie for EADG/DADG and the Candy Apple Red one for BEAD/AEAD and other very low tunings) and the SBV 500 which is somewhat 110% of a J. It would be hard for me to own less basses, I kinda need this variety. I don’t have any plan but I will most probably add a few other basses in the future, for other uses.
I won’t count the guitars and amps because it would take a lot of time but I’m probably at least at 15-20 guitars and 20-25 amplifiers (mostly guitar amps), I think. But I’m an amp geek, you know. It takes what it takes.
I’ve always subscribed to the idea of spending a little extra to get something very nice, but not the ‘best’ and to own what you can practically use. I’m new to bass playing and currently own the acoustic bass guitar my wife bought for me to kick things off and one electric bass. Can’t deny that it’s tempting to acquire more, for sure. I got myself the electric (Jazz bass) as a reward for sticking with it for 4 months. I’ve been thinking one more at a year, most likely an P. After that? I’ll most likely trade one for another if there’s something I can’t live without.
can you be both? i’m mostly a music man guy but at the end of the day i only own 2 of them and don’t really want another. i’ve got 3 short scale basses (a ubass, a mikro and a stingray) to cover a variety of scale lengths. and i have a spector cuz i have decided i really like their sound. so all over the map i guess.
My basses depth would probably be the Stingray and Jazz bass I have all of Leo’s.
But really deep stuff would have to be the Stratocaster. Not only I have all of Leo’s creations from Fender, Mij Squiers, Squier, Music Man (Sterling) and probably the ultimate Stratocaster ever imagined by Leo the G&L Comanche. This last invention. And I could also feel @BozzerWolf as I own maybe 15 guitars and play 5 songs.
, 1.5 years playing the bass, I’ve bought and then sold (counts) a further 5 basses. I’m constantly looking on Facebook Marketplace and eBay for steals and deals…
but I’m probably at least at 15-20 guitars and 20-25 amplifiers (mostly guitar amps), I think. But I’m an amp geek, you know. It takes what it takes.
