My year of living, erm, monobassically.

[discreet]

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' timestamp='1363951886' post='2019982']
Or, if you want to give yourself a challenge, sell the lot and get a custom bass.
[/quote]

Or a ukulele.

[OliverBlackman]

While I own 3 basses I always practice on the 5 string because I really want to learn it inside out. It's a lot easier for me to go from a 5 string to a 4 string rather than a 4 string to a 5 string.

Are all songs recorded with a 5 string? Hell no, but that doesn't mean you can't use it to add something extra when you fancy it.

I completely agree that those top guys know how to get the best from their favoured instrument, because they have become so used to them.

[mcgraham]

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' timestamp='1363951886' post='2019982']
If you can afford to keep them all, then keep them .[i][b] Or, if you want to give yourself a challenge , sell the lot and get a custom bass.[/b][/i]
[/quote]
Good point! You need to be sure of what you want/stubborn enough to stick it through with whatever custom specs you end up ordering, but if you get it right, you create something extra-special.

The one I use now as my main/only bass was ordered to create a fretless as amazing as the fretted I got before it (still better than any fretted bass I've ever played, but the fretless is EVEN better than the fretted). It's totally me, and it's intimidating enough no-one ever asks to borrow it

[Norris]

Glue them all together into a 4-necked monster!

[Lozz196]

Sadowsky - it`s got to be the most versatile of the bunch, so unlikely you`ll ever be in the "Oh, now I need xxx" position.

[Rayman]

Sell them all and buy the Precision back. Easy.

[xgsjx]

I've been a 1 bass guy since I started playing bass almost 30 years ago. Started with a Vox bass & then got my Ibby in '91 which is still my main bass.
I've still got the Vox (in pieces in the shed) & I've tried quite a few other basses, but it's the bass that does what I want it to & feels comfortable in my hands.
So the answer is, whichever bass feels most comfortable in your hands & allows you to play freely & sounds how you want to, is the bass that you should stick with.
it might be one of the basses you have, it might be still in the shop/luther's. Only you know that answer.
If you don't need to sell the others & want to keep them, pop em away & just bring em out if really needed (e.g. your "one" bass fails you).

Good luck with it.

[Owen]

I was told by the keyboard player recently that he couldn't hear the difference between any of them.

Significantly closer to the truth than any of us would want to admit! Are there differences? Obv yes, but in the mix to an ear that does not care, not really much of a difference.

I would keep the Sadowsky.

[lojo]

Dougal I thought we decided last week the punters dont miss the baselines, so sell em all.

[lowdowner]

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1363978695' post='2020538']
I was told by the keyboard player recently that he couldn't hear the difference between any of them.

Significantly closer to the truth than any of us would want to admit! Are there differences? Obv yes, but in the mix to an ear that does not care, not really much of a difference.

I would keep the Sadowsky.
[/quote]

Maybe, but I don't play for my keyboardist, I play for *me* and when I like the sound I feel good and play better and the audience gets a better ride

[4 Strings]

Which one do you have a personal feeling for and would most miss?

Sell the others, buy a Stingray and see if you prefer it.

Then sell the one you like least.

[ead]

Is one allowed one fretless and one fretted bass in the new world order?

[dougal]

Thanks for all the feedback so far. Most thought provoking, as I suspected it might be.

Quick straw poll shows the votes as:

Sadowsky IIIIIIIIII
Buy a P-bass III (I just sold the P-bass, didn't work for me)
Buy a custom bass, or a ukelele: II
ACG I.5
ricky I.5

t-bird I
Buy a 5-string ACG I
Buy a stingray I (I just sold the ray, like the P, just didn't work for me)

The standout winner is the sadowsky. Which is as I suspected it would be, and if my head was screwed on right, would be what I would choose to go monobasstastically with. But it just seems a little... obvious. A little too far away from the fire & brimstone of the old testament, which is I think, what I'm looking for.

The nutter in me says go for the gibbo, but put the east u-retro I have lying around in it (would involve routing to fit it)

The masochist says the ricky, and then spend years and thousands sorting a dual rig... one for each pick-up.

The conspicuous consumer wants me to buy this, http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Xotic_XP4_3TSB.html , because damnit I'm worth it, and it will do everything I want. Probably. Until next week when I lust after this: http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Lull_P_Gold.html , because it's the [i]only[/i] thing that will make me sound like I want....

yorks5stringer: Yes, it's a stereo ricky.

LukeFRC: ACG. absolutely lovely to play. but my fingerstyle leaves a little to be desired in the upper mid-range so tends to sound a little bass heavy / boomy (not that the keyboard player would notice). But it has been the bass that's pushed out the Fender P, a sadowsky J and a stingray as it's just better than all of them. The neck is superb, the balance is just so, it's as light as a feather and I don't have to think when I'm playing it.

mcgraham: Fair point; but the other part of this is that I want to settle on a bass for a year: it may be the wrong bass, it may be the right bass, but the revoloving door over the last 5 years has had me have: an NYC sadowsky, 2 Japanese sadowskys (P & J), a US p bass, a Jap sting p-bass, one gibbo t-bird, a peavy grind 6-string, a 4003, an f-bass 5, a stingray, a jap jazz, an ashbory mini bass, an acg jazz, a sadowsky 5, a custom gw 5, a modulus flea bass, a bongo 5, a dingwall jazz, a warwick streamer fretless, a warwick thumb 5 fretless, a wishbass p-nut fretless, a carvin lb75-P, and a stingray 5: which, quite frankly, is not why I'm playing bass. That sounds more like a laundry list than a bass collection. Although I'd be lying if I said it hadn't been fun.

lojo: We did. But I was very drunk. And as I'm [i]slightly[/i] less belligerent now, and willing to give them one more chance...

[4 Strings]

So, what's it to be?

[eude]

My vote would be for the ACG, but I'm a little biased, however you're used to having a 5 string, then I guess it would have to be the Sadowsky.
The vote for buying an ACG 5 string isn't a bad one though, there's some gorgeous stock ones available right now, which would give you a bit more flexibility than the Sadowsky with your preferred build quality...

Eude

[longtimefred]

i would go for the Gibson or the Ric. Live on the edge, be a man and clobber each bass line you play with it.

[SoVeryTired]

Put me down as another 'sell them and buy a 5-string ACG'.