What is your priority in a bass guitar?

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

If I don't like the appearance, nothing else is going to make me want to buy it.

You walk into a shop and naturally you are drawn to the ones you like.

From there you look at the price tag to see if you can afford it. If you can, you pick it up, play it and if you like the comfort/tone/playability etc then you buy it.

If you can't see any basses that you like the look of or that you can afford then some compromise would have to be reached.

[Mr Fretbuzz]

For me it's tone first, then appearance and brand :-)

[blablas]

I went for Appearance, first and foremost it must be left handed.

[mcarp555]

[quote name='blablas' timestamp='1397230368' post='2422066']
I went for Appearance, first and foremost it must be left handed.
[/quote]

+1

So obvious, I never mentioned it.

[redstriper]

Tone is by far the most important for me, but I only recently realised this fact.

My favourite bass is an ugly, heavy, hard to play old beast, but it sounds great so that's the one I play.
I have bought more attractive, expensive, comfortable and playable basses from many brands, but I always prefer to play the old beast with the best tone and I haven't found anything that even comes close (yet).

I used to think it would be ok to sacrifice slightly on tone, in order to have a lovely, easy to play, comfy new bass for gigs where no one else would notice the tone anyway.......... But it isn't.

Edited April 11, 2014 by redstriper

[Dave Vader]

This is my favourite, it sounds amazing, plays beautifully, and keeps making me play it over and over again.
But it is not a looker...

[GrammeFriday]

This is not an answerable question - most people take all of these factors (and probably more besides) into consideration, and in various complex ways. I's a pity we cannot rank our choices from the list above - that would give a more realistic picture. Still, it's generated some thought-provoking discussion!

[eBassSix]

#1 for me is sound/tone, but I want to put playability in that slot too...of course, the amp you run through affects so much of your sound as well. Ok, I guess sound and playability (how comfortable/easy to play on it is) are almost equally important, to me. They are my top priorities, before the appearance of the instrument. I've seen a bass I really didn't like the look of at first, but the sound and ease with which it lent itself to being played/slapped on sold me! I'd absolutely buy it, if I had the money right now!

[sirmuppet]

It depends on the circumstances. If I were in a shop looks would make me pick it up. Sound would be the next factor and then playability. The balance and feel are probably last for me. I have 2 thunderbirds, when I first started playing them they were really hard to play due to the shape, now when I pick them up it's like coming home.

All that said there have been times where I was handed a bass to play which I would never have picked up and thought wow. The Lakland DJ4 I had for a couple of years is one. I sold that to buy my Ric 4003 which again I was handed to play. That bass was difficult to play as I was so used to thin profiles but after a weekend I was used to it and it feels great.

So really I couldn't say one over another as I can over come certain aspects providing I'm getting what I want from the instrument as a whole.

[cytania]

Subtlety, expressiveness, touch dynamics.

Can it be soft and clean for one song then rasping, thumpy and klangy for the next? The bass responds naturally to how you want to sound.

[Spike Vincent]

My priorities are very simple.
Is it a black left handed Precision with a jazz profile neck that I can afford?