Hi all,
old boy here!! 47 years young, semi retired from gigging due to work commitment. I spend most of my life on cargo ships these days. I've never lost the love for the bass, so I shall continue to pursue this passion for as long as I can.
I have owned a lot of basses and guitars in the last 30+ years, usually keeping what I liked, and selling on those I didn't like. From cheapo's to boutique, lots came and went and I guess it never ends until you find what suits you. I can never say this is what I have and that's it! Even my personal preferences have changed after time but presently I own 4 definately "keepers", plus one more on the way (maybe 2 more, if luck has it) and these are:
2 x twenty years old Paul Reed Smith's first generation, built between '89 to '91 a 4 and a 5 [b](see pic 1)[/b] The 4 strings is the seafoam green alder body, bolt on maple neck / fingerboard, the 5 strings one is the whale blue with mahogany back, quilted maple top, and fixed mahogany neck with brazilian rosewood fingerboard. (both basses have 3 single coils plus hum cancelling dummy coil in the back of the body, active / passive bypass switch, 1x Volume, 1 x 5 positions rotary pickup selector, 1 x bass 1 x treble which work in both passive and active mode)
2 x Ernie Ball MusicMan, [b](see pic 2)[/b] a translucent red StingRay 5 maple fingerboard, to which I have fitted an Alnico Duncan Basslines pickup, and a Bongo 5 in sapphire black, double humbucker and piezo system, which is a killer.
The one which is on the way, it's also an EB Music Man, this time a 25th Anniversary 5 strings, HSS model, one humbucker and 2 single coils, with rosewood fingerboard [b](see pic 3)[/b] All going well this will be with me on DEc 21st. Fingers crossed. It's on one of our company ships loaded from a far land where they speak like us but funny like, so it might suffer the odd day loss through the various stops along the way.
The other one I am considering is a cheapo, sometimes you get some real stars in the budget range and the one I have set my eyes on, which I intend to use as a beater, it's a Squier classic vibe P bass 1950's lake placid blue maple board, [b](see pic 4)[/b] I've tried it in a shop on Denmark Street and was very impressed by the vintage feel emanating from that one single p/up, if you haven't tried one yet, please have a go, they are well worth it for the price, at around 290 quid.
[b]PIC 1[/b]
[b]PIC 2[/b]
[b]PIC 3[/b]
[b]PIC 4[/b]
Cheers and look forward to check out the forum some more when time permits.