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Visiting an old friend


bassbora
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I went to a band practice last night. We have not had much time of late due to conflicting diaries so we mostly just do the gigs. We have now a new singer so a rare chance to run through songs in practice setting was on. I am not much into buying and selling bass guitars and currently have 3 basses. I have two 5 strings and have mostly been using the one I bought 2 years ago.

To stop this rambling I used the old 5 string last night and I was blown away. I bought it as a student in the mid '90s and chose it for a reason. It could handle jazz soloing all over the fret board and chords along with classical pieces to Motown and anything else I might throw at it. I spent so many hours on that fret board. It was like a home. But I guess we all fancy a change so I had stopped using it until last night. I kept making mistakes because I was not listening to the band but to the core tone and possible variations thereof has I applied different right hand techniques. I remembered why I had chosen this bass all these years ago and what a pleasure it was to play it.

Have you guys had similar experience?

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Yes. My '66 bass was pretty much retired a few years ago but I dragged it out on Saturday, as I was doing a gig in memory of a very guitarist I last used it regularly with.

The neck is just beautiful on it, worn in and with an almost non-existent action. I would use it more but my finger style playing has worn two grooves in it, over the years, that I don't want to get any worse.

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I used to play my old Squier frequently, then since getting 'better' basses it's been stored away. Then when we did a couple of gigs in potentially rowdy pubs recently I decided to use the £200 bass instead of the £1000 bass. I'd forgotten what a great instrument it is!

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My old 89 P Bass was dusted off for a gig at Christmas. It had been retired for a number of years purely as I didn't want to risk gigging it (sentimental value etc.)

As the gig was a "safe" one (not public),I decided to bring it out and even restrung it with DR Sunbeams as opposed to my usual TI's. Wow, it was like coming home and I haven't put it back in its case since

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've owned a 1970 P since 1994, but i didn't really use it for a number of years in the early 2000s, partly when i moved away to college for a year and left it with a mate, and later when i left my band acrimoniously and wasn't interested in playing for about two years.

Then it needed a refret, so just got stashed for a long time when i wasn't gigging much. Finally had it back up to speed by about 2009, and been reminded what a cool bass it is.

In a way its taken me all these years to grow into it. When I was 20 i didn't really 'get it' so much, but now I'm a different sort of player in my 40s, its perfect for what i want.

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My first bass was a Hohner Rockwood P bass, a wonky old thing with a 'SALE' star sun-burned into the white pickguard from many months in a shop window. After buying my 2nd bass it moved into a case under the bed for the next few years until I sold it on for a few quid.

Getting it out of the case to take the photos I remembered the good times it had given me. Handing it over felt quite poignant - a lot of my mates kept their first guitars - but the buyer had the same look of joy on his face as I did when I first bought it. I don't miss it, but it was nice to revisit those memories for a few days.

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I have three Fenders , an SX and an ABG.

I usually play my MIA P, but whenever I use my MIM P, I am amazed at how close it is to the MIA. The neck is as slim as the MIA, it sounds the same. I don't even mind the white pickguard.

Then I play my Jazz and wow, different but tasty.

But why are we surprised when we go back to an old friend, I mean we bought it because it felt right at the time, right ?

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