Your best (and worst!) bass gear purchases of 2020?

[BassTool]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Outstanding fretless! What a lovely retirement present! Any big plans for how you're going to be spending your new found freedom? 

 Yeh it's a beauty, and I've got a few songs that'll use it in the set 🤞🏼At the start of the year when I knew I'd be retiring at some point midway through, I did plan on an old band of mine from 20 years back having one last hurrah, got the original lads to agree to reforming back in February, went out and bought a quality PA system etc...you can guess the rest @Al Krow😩 The planned holidays also evaporated..🤬

We managed a few rehearsals in-between lockdown/tiers then our drummer suffered badly with Covid...etc ☹️

All on hold for the time being 🙄

 

Plenty on at home though to keep me pottering☺️ and the prospect of being first time grandparents is coming in May '21 👍🏼 😄

[Mikey D]

Well I got the OC5 for 'birthday' as the first pedal to start replacing my pedal board from and funnily enough I yhink the C4 is next. It's that or an envelope filter. I'm still torn which way to go.

[DiMarco]

and

Edited December 26, 2020 by DiMarco

[LukeFRC]

15 minutes ago, DiMarco said:

and

Stingray best and Fodera worst? 

[DiMarco]

3 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

Stingray best and Fodera worst? 

Nah those two are my best bass purchases this year.

I don't do worst. But the Darkglass X distortion was pretty pish tbh. It didn't stay here very long! 🤣
Replaced it with an Alpha-Omicron so still a DG user.

 

 

Edited December 26, 2020 by DiMarco

[StickyDBRmf]

On 25/12/2020 at 11:45, PatrickJ said:

He didn't bring me a single bass related gift, the bastard

He might of caught me poking a box, though...

[StickyDBRmf]

Actually I'll be taking my mid-80's Chapman Stick to the luthier to have the frets I had removed re-fretted,  (fretless was an unwise decision for it, hence "worst" bass decision)). With the $ from the Stimulus Check, from April, haven't touched it. The Sticks have stainless steel fret"rails" these days, mine had jumbo nickel bass wire, what Emmett used from first production till he started playing with s.s. fabrications. My '08 has s.s. "rails". I'll talk w/ the luthier about it. He's well-known in this . neck of the woods and runs a school of guitar repair. I also may check out a Peavey Bass Combo - the relatively "new" Max series...like the 2x10 (or 2x8). I have 2 JBL-EON 515s that I thought would be a great idea for stereo Stick reproduction. It does work, if you're a Stick player that plays kinda "normal"...solo two-handed arrangements of Bach fugues (not that there's anything wrong with that). But for two-handed low-end altercations they just don't cut it. Not competing w/ a drummer and/or guitarist. When the day comes thru to get in a room and throw down, the JBL's won't satisfy. You can certainly HEAR them, but they'r not bass drivers (hence "worst gear" post...even tho it's been years). The only thing that would work w/ the JBLs would be an 18" sub and this 63yr old back ain't doin' THAT. Over-kill anyway. These days backline & line-out. There I've written it down now I'm committed...

[binky_bass]

An Ibanez ANB306 with an active Aguilar OBP-3 preamp. It has restored my faith that Ibanez are still building seriously high end basses that can compete with the very top echelons of bass luthiery. 

[bassbooty]

My 3 bass purchases in 2020 😀

[wateroftyne]

Best:

 

How I love it so.

[Foureyes]

Best: A 2008 MIM jazz bass for £200 I’ve always loved the jb but didn’t have the budget to go American! 
 

Worst: A fender ABY pedal. The b channel drops the volume so much it’s virtually pointless, I think I’m gonna have a try and modding it and see if I can improve it! 

 

[Foureyes]

10 hours ago, binky_bass said:

An Ibanez ANB306 with an active Aguilar OBP-3 preamp. It has restored my faith that Ibanez are still building seriously high end basses that can compete with the very top echelons of bass luthiery. 

That looks like a beautiful instrument. Does it play as good as it looks? 

[Hellzero]

3 minutes ago, Foureyes said:

That looks like a beautiful instrument. Does it play as good as it looks? 

It was mine before I sold it to Russ as our last pre-Brexit deal and I all I can tell you is : YES !

[binky_bass]

12 minutes ago, Foureyes said:

That looks like a beautiful instrument. Does it play as good as it looks? 

It does, it's a superb bass. The action is perfectly low and the Aguilar OBP-3 preamp with the USA Bartolini pickups are one of the best tone combinations out there. The purple heart fretboard feels great and helps add a good snap to the tone, the fret are individually bevelled and rounded at each end, which really makes fast movement up and down the fretboard a pleasure. It's a great bass indeed sir! 

[Woodinblack]

Additional purchases of the year since the november edition. 

An honourable mention goes to my new ABM600 evo IV, which for less than £350 as a B-Stock from PMT is more than worth it (It has a break on the tolex on the side, pretty small, first gig sort of injury).

Run it up loud once, still yet to gig it obviously due to a lack of gigs.

The BAM200 at the top though still doing sterling service for home practice. 

 

While I am here, I forgot the pictures of the other things, which of course means they don't exist..

The Shuker:

And the (replacement) EHB1505MS

Actually, that isn't the replacement, that is the original, but it looks remarkably similar!

 

[Al Krow]

5 hours ago, bassbooty said:

My 3 bass purchases in 2020 😀

That's a wondrous wad of Warwicks!

Are you a purely a Warwick man these days or perchance originally a Spector lover who has been led astray? 😁

[bassbooty]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

That's a wondrous wad of Warwicks!

Are you a purely a Warwick man these days or perchance originally a Spector lover who has been led astray? 😁

Thanks mate! Actually, I was a Spector lover before I discovered Warwick. 😂 But I discovered the  Warwick Streamer Stage II in 1995 and it has been primarily Warwick basses since then. Although a few Spectors have still entered the picture .... and then left the picture LOL. But these days yes, purely Warwick!

Edited December 27, 2020 by bassbooty
grammar

[12stringbassist]

I was pleased to get this Deluxe Jazz.
Bad purchase - none.

[Al Krow]

23 minutes ago, bassbooty said:

Thanks mate! Actually, I was a Spector lover before I discovered Warwick. 😂 But I discovered the  Warwick Streamer Stage II in 1995 and it has been primarily Warwick basses since then. Although a few Spectors have still entered the picture .... and then left the picture LOL. But these days yes, purely Warwick!

So in keeping with the spirit of the  thread, do have a favorite of the three 😊

[Al Krow]

7 hours ago, wateroftyne said:

Best:

 

How I love it so.

Nice! What's the story with this one?

[wateroftyne]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Nice! What's the story with this one?

NBD thread right here 🙂

 

 

[Al Krow]

Ah yes! I did dip into that thread but got distracted by some dude from Leicester hogging the limelight 😁

Btw - no question at all that it sounds better with rounds! (And it sounds great!)

Edited December 27, 2020 by Al Krow

[Woodinblack]

46 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Btw - no question at all that it sounds better with rounds! (And it sounds great!)

They have yet to make a bass that doesn't.

[Al Krow]

2 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

They have yet to make a bass that doesn't.

This one for sure and just about any fretless, surely?

[wateroftyne]

7 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

They have yet to make a bass that doesn't.

I disagree 🙂