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Basses You've Owned and Hated


WHUFC BASS

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On 26/12/2018 at 00:45, mr4stringz said:

Wouldn’t say hated but I’d lusted after a Ricky for years. Bought a 4003 in around 2002. It felt lovely (other than the pain of fingerstyle with the stupid pickup and surround), looked stunning but tonally did nada for me. 

Played it occasionally, kept it 3 or 4 years and sold it on at a profit. I’ve still often thought I should give one another go for some reason though...

I had the exact same experience with a beautiful black one. 

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I wouldn't say hate but I didn't get along with my Ibanez ATK700. The neck was so chunky I couldn't get through a set without getting hand cramps, shame because the body was one of the most comfortable I've played. 

 

The offending bass as shown... 

FB_IMG_1552891072233.jpg

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On 26/12/2018 at 08:37, DrDrill said:

Had a Wal i didn't get on with, bought it for £400 and sold it for £450! so can't complain and a Fender Sting signature pbass which I hated for no particular rational reason.

Know exactly what you mean about Wal..couldn't get on with it..way to heavy..I also bought for £400 but sold for £350..so you were quids in😀

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  • 2 months later...

Epiphone Thunderbird Pro V

I got one a few years back to try a "bird". i liked the sound and style but it seemed to me that Epiphone hadn't taken the time to make it into a propper 5 string and had just pushed the 4 strijng design. The B string was noticibly quieter than the others and I couldn't fit my favourite b string guage through the bridge...

I then found that I couldn't get replacement pickups to fit without major surgery so it had to go.

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Well, my two favourite basses (Rickenbacker & Warwick) seem to feature here! I've never sold a Ric I've had (including one which was my 2nd bass) and I've a couple of Warwick Corvette 5-strings which I really like.

As far as basses which haven't worked out for me, I could say:

  • A Warwick Rock Bass 5-string; the neck was the wrong shape for me and it hurt my fingers to play it.
  • An Aria Pro II SB 700; it was a nice bass, but it was very big, quite heavy, and didn't do the sounds I was trying to get it to.
  • I've had a couple of cheapies, eg. a Squier Precision which weren't very good, so they can have a (dis)honourable mention.
  • I had a Hohner The Jack headless, it was black and I had a red strap, so it matched our outfits in a club band I was in. It did its job, but it never sounded great and wasn't fantastic to play. I replaced it with a Washburn Status, which was a stepping stone to a real Status Graphite headless.
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On 18/03/2019 at 06:38, MDWagstaff said:

I wouldn't say hate but I didn't get along with my Ibanez ATK700. The neck was so chunky I couldn't get through a set without getting hand cramps, shame because the body was one of the most comfortable I've played. 

 

The offending bass as shown... 

FB_IMG_1552891072233.jpg

Why didn't you change the neck?

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Another vote for Ric here, albeit a half-hearted one. I had a fireglo 4003 from the early 90's. I loved the look, adored the sound but it was the most uncomfortable bugger to play. My playing style didn't get along with the slab body and bound edges and that wretched pickup mounting ring.

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2 hours ago, prowla said:

A Warwick Rock Bass 5-string; the neck was the wrong shape for me and it hurt my fingers to play it.

I had one and it was one of the best I've played. Fantastic sound and really playable. I'm a bit of a Spector fan so it's probably understandable but it just goes to show, one man's plank of wood is another's Chippendale (not the male stripper type, I hasten to add).

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1 hour ago, hooky_lowdown said:

Why didn't you change the neck?

Cost, lack of basic wood working skills and I like the body and neck of a bass to remain a unit unless it's already a franken build 

Edit: I also like having a neck pickup which this bass didn't have 

Edited by MDWagstaff
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1 hour ago, WHUFC BASS said:

I had one and it was one of the best I've played. Fantastic sound and really playable. I'm a bit of a Spector fan so it's probably understandable but it just goes to show, one man's plank of wood is another's Chippendale (not the male stripper type, I hasten to add).

Aye - as I mentioned, I have a couple of other Warwicks which I like. 🙂

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14 hours ago, Pinball said:

Epiphone Thunderbird Pro V

I got one a few years back to try a "bird". i liked the sound and style but it seemed to me that Epiphone hadn't taken the time to make it into a propper 5 string and had just pushed the 4 strijng design. The B string was noticibly quieter than the others and I couldn't fit my favourite b string guage through the bridge...

I then found that I couldn't get replacement pickups to fit without major surgery so it had to go.

I believe there was a manufacturing fault with the first run of Pro V thunderbirds where the wrong pickups were fitted (I think the same pickups as the 4 string version were mistakenly fitted) which resulted in low volume on the B strings. There was a program to replace the pickups under warrantly at the time, and the issue was corrected on subseqent manufacturing runs. I have a later one (which has the front strap button at the heel of the neck rather than the top 'horn') and the B string works well. The neck is rather wide though.

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This topic seems to be a bit like what should the bass be, just the other way around.

I have hated most of my basses, so they have gone. Now I have the best the most suitable four stringers there are: Vigier Passion II and a hand made fretless 4. All other lack something like the Modulus 5 does not have a 19 mm string spacing.

After playing bass for quite a long time, I now have specs for my dream basses (fretted and fretless). It may be, that some day some of my dear instruments have to go and I get an allrounder or two. But before that I need to play with my ten basses (or something) that have some exceptional details.

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4 hours ago, PocketMan said:

Just about every P Bass I've ever owned. 😁 Other people sound great with them, but not me. I own one now, a Mexi standard from about 2001, and it's just about tolerable... 😋

I've got a P-bass which I made from Parts; I really like it!

kKN2Otr.jpg

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Warwick thumb 5NT. Has the worst neck dive on the planet! Mediocre sound, to my ears.

Bongo 5. Didn't like the painted neck rear. Didn't take long for it to wear off. A bit heavy. Sounded good though.

G&L L5500. Came with a loose first fret. And the treble control didn't work. Neck was loose in pocket. A friday afternoon bass!

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8 hours ago, Chris2112 said:

Was that blue Jazz a Warmoth build part of a pair formerly belonging to a BassyBill of these parts?

The Warmoth Jazz was indeed part of a pair (the other being a fretless), but I'm not sure of the previous owner; I bought it from Big Deal in Wolverhampton.

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On ‎27‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 21:02, Painy said:

I had a Korean Spector Legend 5 string once that just sounded utterly insipid - literally the most MEH sound ever. It also felt really flimsy like it was made of balsa wood even though it wasn't especially light. 

 

Wow, that's weird; a little while back I bought a Legend Custom 5 (and a Spectorcore Fretless 5) and that Legend is the least flimsy instrument I have ever played. http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Spector_legend_5_custom.html is the one.

I was initially sold on the 'Core and wanted a fretted that was in the same ballpark both layout-wise and sonically; that way, I could spend more time playing music and less time twiddling knobs. The Legend was it. Anyway, just done some recording with those basses and although the fretted sounded OK when I was playing it, on the two tracks for which I used it, when listening back to the straight DI track, it sounded amazing. I just need to play it more, really.....

 

To get back on topic - the only bass that I've owned and dislike rather than hated was my very first, an Eko violin bass that was pure 60's tat. Chipboard body that was covered with a woodgrain vinyl top, weak sound, pushbutton pup selectors off an accordion or somesuch... when I bought it I was so excited, but as time went by and it made very few of the sounds that I wanted it to make, I became remarkably disenchanted. Well, at 17, I wasn't going to blame myself, was I.....?

Eko bass.png

Edited by mangotango
adding photo
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50 minutes ago, mangotango said:

I became remarkably disenchanted.

That's more like it. If you haven't experienced the cheap 60s basses, you're missing a reference point for bad.
My first bass was a Vox quite like the pic. Short scale, guitar tuners so all the knobs broke off and pliers were required for tuning. bent neck, no truss rod and fingerboard was plywood. Couldn't call what it made a sound - old flats on and you got a bump of air with a hint of pitch in it. It was only my absolute conviction to one day get a Precision that kept me going. Truly really awful

(the one in pic was auctioned recently for £220... why oh why?)

 

lot0002.jpg

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1 hour ago, mangotango said:

Wow, that's weird; a little while back I bought a Legend Custom 5 (and a Spectorcore Fretless 5) and that Legend is the least flimsy instrument I have ever played. http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Spector_legend_5_custom.html is the one.

I was initially sold on the 'Core and wanted a fretted that was in the same ballpark both layout-wise and sonically; that way, I could spend more time playing music and less time twiddling knobs. The Legend was it. Anyway, just done some recording with those basses and although the fretted sounded OK when I was playing it, on the two tracks for which I used it, when listening back to the straight DI track, it sounded amazing. I just need to play it more, really.....

Change the pre-amp out for an EMG BQT and you have a superb sounding instrument. Even better than it sounds now.

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1 hour ago, Soledad said:

That's more like it. If you haven't experienced the cheap 60s basses, you're missing a reference point for bad

 

(the one in pic was auctioned recently for £220... why oh why?)

 

 

Exactly. Youngsters nowadays don't know how lucky they are with the basses out there, yadda yadda....but it's true.

And yes, lots of those cr@ppy old basses are now up for sale out there at silly prices.

"Yeh, but they're retro..."   Errr no, they're rubbish.

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2 hours ago, Soledad said:

That's more like it. If you haven't experienced the cheap 60s basses, you're missing a reference point for bad.
My first bass was a Vox quite like the pic. Short scale, guitar tuners so all the knobs broke off and pliers were required for tuning. bent neck, no truss rod and fingerboard was plywood. Couldn't call what it made a sound - old flats on and you got a bump of air with a hint of pitch in it. It was only my absolute conviction to one day get a Precision that kept me going. Truly really awful

(the one in pic was auctioned recently for £220... why oh why?)

 

lot0002.jpg

I bought this one at a car boot sale a year or two ago; I'm trying to strip off the paint ad get it back to original...

FCWlKE4.jpg?1

(The touch where the kid who owned it wrote "Fender" in gold Sharpie is especially inspirational...)

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