Bass heads, what are you playing?

dawson said:
@peccary I can take a way worse photo than that: :ROFLMAO:

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Left: Japanese Squire 'Vista Series' short-scale MUSICMASTER BASS
*Got this one on CraigsList from a landlord who found it in a rental- turns out this 'Vista Series' is sort-of collectible 🧐 but it's also begging for a new pickup and paint-job..

Middle: Squire Classic Vibe Bass VI with Staytrem bridge
*These are just really cool.

Right: Epiphone Embassy full-scale Bass
*Lightweight, versatile and affordable!

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David Eden WT-600
*Got this for an absolute $teal the day the original owner was moving out of state. My band and I had no idea how much low-end we were missing until I got this- it makes the walls shake!
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Pretty sure the Vista is made in China
 
I want to come too!! :D

My main bass right now is an Ibanez SR1600D, but the one I play more often is my "testing bass", a P-bass partscaster with a Mexican Fender J neck, Nordstrand pickups, and a built-in tube preamp (because I'm obnoxious). LaBella white copper tapewounds on both, but the strings on the P were a limited edition "watermelon" finish that I picked up at NAMM last year.

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My main amp is the Genz Benz Streamliner 900 through an Eden 6x10 cab, but I also have an old Ampeg B-25 that I gutted and built a B-15 into the chassis that I like to noodle with at home.

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In the workshop I keep a GK Backline 600 on a Peavey 2x10 cab for testing pedals, since the vast majority of what I build is for bassists.

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I haven't put together a bass pedalboard mostly because I don't play bass in a band, but I have about a dozen bass pedals I cycle through regularly. Currently I'm stuck on one that's basically a modded JCM800 preamp that I've opened up the low end on, so I can get some sweet Lemmy-esque tones when I want to drive a bit. When I want to get completely nuts (Death From Above 1979-ish tones) I use a modified Soldano GTO for heavy distortion/borderline fuzz.
 
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dawson said:
@peccary I can take a way worse photo than that: :ROFLMAO:

6ELfkJ0.jpg


Left: Japanese Squire 'Vista Series' short-scale MUSICMASTER BASS
*Got this one on CraigsList from a landlord who found it in a rental- turns out this 'Vista Series' is sort-of collectible 🧐 but it's also begging for a new pickup and paint-job..

Middle: Squire Classic Vibe Bass VI with Staytrem bridge
*These are just really cool.

Right: Epiphone Embassy full-scale Bass
*Lightweight, versatile and affordable!

L6LsVKl.jpg


David Eden WT-600
*Got this for an absolute $teal the day the original owner was moving out of state. My band and I had no idea how much low-end we were missing until I got this- it makes the walls shake!
Click to expand...
I always wanted an Eden head. Love the sound.
 
andare said:
Pretty sure the Vista is made in China
Click to expand...

:oops: YOU'RE RIGHT..
It appears I've been telling lies to myself and others for years- how embarrassing!

*After some reading I found that Vista guitars were made in Japan while the basses were made in China, but they're often lumped together and generalized as 'Japanese' when you go googling for info'.

OG post's been corrected. Thanks for helping get my facts straight @andare!
 
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Sometimes I go for months without playing bass, then either just morph into picking one up everyday, or a friend drops by, or... The left one is a Turner Renaissance 5 string fretless. It uses bespoke TI strings, that are pretty much like classical guitar lower strings, but much bigger. Sound is via piezo, and the pre-amp that Rick Turner designed for it. It can really growl, just like the big boys. A friend asked me to play bass in his band, and this was the first bass I saw that intrigued me. I remember driving away from the guy's house I bought it from, wondering if I bit off more than I could chew, but the drummer and I really got along well, and since the whole band was guys in their 50s, no one was going to object to me doing everything on a fretless.

The Warwick is a Corvette, maybe some sort of limited edition (mainly due to the woods, I think—flamed maple finger board, typical wenge neck, swamp ash back and bubinga top. I got it for a very low price, used, and really disliked the pickups. Put in Bartolini's, and then changed the on board to an Alembic , and added some extra switches to control whether the preamp was active or not, and ... something else... (damn! I'll plug it in tonight...) I have an Eden WT400 head, and an Accugroove 12 cabinet, but at home (and for recording) I mainly play the Turner through a 6 inch speaker 1 watt amp I made as a travel amp—I never gelled with guitar through it, but for some reason, with this bass, it just sounds great— but quiet. That Accugroove cabinet is fantastic. I don't think they ever became popular.

Will post a second post in a few minutes. Technical issue here.
 
I'm surprised by two things in this thread (and from the bass players of this forum in general) the amount of fretless basses, and the amount of upright basses. What kind of music are y'all playing with these?
 
Harry Klippton said:
I'm surprised by two things in this thread (and from the bass players of this forum in general) the amount of fretless basses, and the amount of upright basses. What kind of music are y'all playing with these?
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All the musics, really. I started on a fretless 50+ years ago and never saw a reason to change, I've only played two gigs on a fretted one in all that time. So: jam band, blues, jazz, bluegrass, Americana, fusion, weirdo (someone called my original schtick "drunk Zappa'), anything but hard rock really. When I want to scratch that itch I just play guitar. :cool:
 
Harry Klippton said:
I'm surprised by two things in this thread (and from the bass players of this forum in general) the amount of fretless basses, and the amount of upright basses. What kind of music are y'all playing with these?
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I'm a genre slut. I'm at my core a classical musician but I've gigged maaany genres. I swim in funkier waters these days but I call it a "rock band" to avoid confusion. Played my fretless and upright electric in a few hip hop bands and even one time, a circus.
 
Mentaltossflycoon said:
That's super weird, my buddy who plays mostly rhodes had that same Kawai before he found his fender. The "weighted" keys makes them surprisingly heavy.
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Yep, that one lived in a bomber road case too, definitely easier as a two man carry. Those guys lived a couple of blocks from me and going over there to help load the keys and PA was a Sunday morning ritual for a few summers when we were doing the winery jazz circuit out here. I had it super easy on my end: a 112, lightweight head, music stand, and the EUB...done.
 
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1993 MIJ P bass, 7.25" slab rosewood board, ceramic pickup. Stripped and refinished in nitro and reliced. The oval neck with all kinds of nicks and scratches (authentic AFAIK) and the nitro finish is unbelievable.

I also have this Bronco that needs new tuners and a new pickup but I can't route so it's on standby for now.

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Also not pictured a Dakota red Squier Mini P which is a real gem.
 
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