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'Letting go' of basses


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7 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Just spent the last few hours trying to decide (mentally) which of my basses I should sell.

If you have no other option, just keep the 2 basses you play the most and sell the rest.

That's what I did and I don't even notice that the others have gone.

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5 hours ago, chris_b said:

If you have no other option....

I do though. I have the option of keeping them, which will inevitably lead to acquiring more. I’m not complaining; I have a great life with a wonderful wife who does not object to any of my obsessions. I just wish I didn’t care as much.

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38 minutes ago, Chiliwailer said:

Uh? You were thinking of selling the gilded white Ltd Ed with passive switch? 

I’m beginning to worry about you brother 🤣

I know. Crazy isn’t it. Out of all the basses I settled on that one. There’s no hope of letting any of the others go 🙄

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I've had a cheap (RedSub/Gear4Music) 5-string fan-fret up for sale on a Facebook group and finally it got some interest and I got it out of its case to check it over and have a play... and now I'm thinking whether I really do want to see it. For what I paid (less than £200) it's a pretty stunning bass. Only reason to do so is to help fund a pair of Chowny SWB-1s - fretted and fretless - but its sale is not essential... Would it make me a complete jerk to just tell the guy I've decided to keep it?!?

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2 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

I just wish I didn’t care as much.

That is very recognisable. I found it helped talking myself into a state of mind that is directed towards the future. There's a certain freedom to be had when the collector in me, or the completist for that matter, is not allowed to govern my actions.

It helped when the money went to something else I felt was important, like certain books.

Truth be told, after selling 15 basses, I don't really miss them, though admittedly a certain Neptune Blue StingRay crosses my mind every now and then, whilst my beloved Bongo Dargie Delight doesn't.

Other people's mileage will vary.

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12 hours ago, Paul S said:

And there are few feelings worse than being the architect of your own misery.  

Paul - I totally love that. Gonna be my 'thought for the day'!

I replaced a rack that could hold 5 basses for one that could manage 7. But I somehow managed to not get rid of the 5-rack!! 

Schoolboy error.

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I split with my missus a few years ago and the resultant legal bill resulted in me having to sell quite a few really nice instruments. Once I made the decision that many had to go, I found it quite liberating, to be honest. I still miss some of them (a battered but very playable Stingray and an irreplaceable PRS EB spring to mind) but life goes on. I still have my old ESP 400 Series, which is the one I truly don't think I could do without and remain a bassist, as well as a few others. Now that all that business is behind me, however, I find myself browsing the For Sale section as a potential customer again thinking "Ooooh that looks nice!", digging the same old hole for myself 😂

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Going back to the original posts, I think I'm fortunate in that despite suffering (like the rest of us) from periodic GAS, I've always been of the mindset that it's always better to trade up and not generally regret what's left the building.

The only bass I let go that I now have a pang of regret about is a Bongo 5HH.  I just wish I'd had the strength to persist with it.

I can easily survive on the four I have right now; these easily trump the dozen or so Gibson Thunderbirds that trickled through my hands over the last 10-15 years.

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Had my 75 jazz from 1983 until 2006 ,pretty much my main bass all that time 

Sold it because I needed the money for company shares .They've gave me 10 fold back and I realised the bass wasn't the wonderful thing I thought it was 

Now nothing is more than a guitar to use and enjoy and sell if I so wish .

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Two years back I sold few of those that I did not play so much and were not so special. I also reversed few trials to original (like an Ashula) and sold them. I still have few that I could sell but they are in such a shape that their price is just too low (my trials and tests are sometimes quite harsh). I should disassemble them and sell as parts (necks, pickups etc.).

All in all, I still do have few (eight, that is) that I keep. Some are more suitable for certain gigs than some other. And few are somewhat rare to ever get back (an Affirma, two series II Passions).

Now I know what I want, but such an instrument rarely exists. My selection takes care of most of my needs: a 5-string, a fretless extra long scale, those stay-in-tune carbon necks, a light weight one... If I could get a fretless 5 and a fretted 5 with suitable scale, 19 mm string spacing, ergonomics, and... but no.

It really is nice to take another bass from her case and start playing. "This has very good (actually just different) playability, and..."

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