How many basses are too many?

[Machines]

1 minute ago, Badscrew said:

Too many is when you're afraid bringing one more in the family

 

Same applies with girlfriends.

[uk_lefty]

Have you tidied them all away as best as possible? If you're still tripping over one, check the bass is ok, don't worry about your foot pointing the wrong way. If you're tripping over one and damaging the bass you have too many.

[Misdee]

Too many is a few more than I already have. All of which are absolutely necessary.

[Jeffb28451]

My Wife asks, “ How many are enough.” ? 

[Ander87]

Well. I'm back to 3 basses for 2 bands, 2 of which can do back up for each other and the other one a short scale to spice things up or when we need more space in the boot.

[cdog]

Bringing this old thread back to life, and kind of following on from what @SumOne was saying, I currently have 7 and find myself a bit overwhelmed by them all. When I'm at home I end up playing one for 10 minutes, then swapping over to another, then another and get more obsessed by their different tones than with getting on with playing.

I wonder if other people find this and how you deal with it?

[SpondonBassed]

1 minute ago, cdog said:

I wonder if other people find this and how you deal with it?

 

Simple.  Just buy another bass that covers all the tones you think you'll need.

[Misdee]

10 minutes ago, cdog said:

Bringing this old thread back to life, and kind of following on from what @SumOne was saying, I currently have 7 and find myself a bit overwhelmed by them all. When I'm at home I end up playing one for 10 minutes, then swapping over to another, then another and get more obsessed by their different tones than with getting on with playing.

I wonder if other people find this and how you deal with it?

It's an endemic problem when you have a nice selection of gear. Choose one as your main bass, get to know it well. Look at the other ones while you are practising on that one and count your blessings.

[Franticsmurf]

I have 10 basses of which I count 2 as my 'main' gigging basses. I like having the choice, though and I have gigged every one of the 10 over the last three years or so. My main band plays a wide range of covers which change quite frequently as we tailor the set to the function we've been asked to play. The feel of the set determines which of the main basses I use. For example, we play a long festival set every year which is usually heavier and rockier and for this I use my Sterling 34HH. We also have a regular Christmas gig for the Local Crown Court service and as this is a more laid back affair, the P Bass comes out. As we are a large band (13) if I know the venue is small I'll bring a headless bass and if space is particularly tight (I can think of two venues we've played several times) I have my Ibanez short scale headless. 

 

I like to have a spare guitar at gigs and it recently occurred to me that if I'm making the effort to match the main guitar to the gig, I should also match the spare to the main guitar. So I have a Squire PJ to use at 'Precision' gigs, and an incoming Sire Z7 to use at 'Sterling' gigs. 

 

The full list:

Sterling 34HH

Fender Precision

Ibanez EHB100S

Squire PJ

(Sire Z7)

Hohner 'The Jack'

Spirit XZ2

Ibanez GSR 205 (5 string)

Ibanez SR300

Ibanez AGBR 200 semi acoustic

 

Edit: And a Harley Benton Fretless Jazz which I've used in rehearsal and on recordings but not gigged.

 

Edited Thursday at 19:48 by Franticsmurf

[Stub Mandrel]

There's actually a precise formula:

 

 

Too many = how many you have now + 2

 

That means there's always room for one more...

[Stub Mandrel]

I rotate my practice bass but often end up back with my 40th anniversary Squier P.

 

I try (often unsuccessfully) to gig one of my favourites and one of the others. I've managed to gig all my basses except the two Kay short scales, and one of those has done an open mic. Some have only done short sets or a few songs.

 

My main bass from the early 90s got its first full gig (rather than one or two outings for the odd set) in 30 years last weekend. 

 

So I rotate basses slowly but do have my favourites. 

[Geek99]

I still have two. One active four and an active/passive 5 with separate tone controls for each mode, so you can get two sets of tones out by flicking active/passive 
it is enough 

[tauzero]

I have quite a few. However, when I don't know how big the venue is or I know it's small, I'll take a fretted headless, if I've got room then I may take a headed bass instead and that will be a choice from a selection of three or four. For open mic nights I'll take any one of a dozen, generally 5-strings but occasionally a 4 or a 6.

[LeftyJ]

It's interesting this thread was revived just now, because I've been asking myself this question a lot for the last two weeks. My car is dying and needs replacing soon, and financially it comes at a bad time so I figured I'd need to let a few guitars or basses go but I have a hard time deciding which ones: I quite like the range of different tones in my arsenal, but I barely have an active band anymore and little desire to find one. So realistically, I could do with very few instruments. When I ask myself "Which one do I play the most?" the anwer is usually simply "The most recent one I bought". I have a few favourites that are very versatile but don't excel at one type of tone or character, and I have a few with a very defined character that do a certain tone very well that I happen to like, but it's usually the latest acquisition that gets played the most. Currently that's my Fender Mod Shop Jaguar.

 

I know I have too many because a few of my guitars and basses mostly stand in my rack unused. When I do play those they always bring a smile to my face though: because of how they sound or play, or because of memories of former bands and gigs. My left-handedness adds to my hoarding instinct, because I have found that seller's remorse is a right pain in the butt and lefty guitars and basses are extra hard to replace because they can be so rare. It took me 10+ years to find two "identical" guitars to two I foolishly sold once. Would I risk that again? 

 

 

[Woodinblack]

16 hours ago, cdog said:

 When I'm at home I end up playing one for 10 minutes, then swapping over to another, then another and get more obsessed by their different tones than with getting on with playing.

 

I just pick one and play it. Next time I am playing chances are I will pick a different one and play it. Unless there is some compelling reason, I don't actually swap basses once I have started playing (like I was planning to take a different bass to a gig or if I want to see something is easier to play on some piece or not)

[BigRedX]

I play the bass I'm going to be using with my band at the rehearsal and gig. IMO there's little point playing anything else. Once every 3 or 4 months I'll do a rehearsal with my backup bass to make sure that I can still play all the songs on it, and I haven't written anything new that can't be done on both basses.

[cdog]

19 hours ago, cdog said:

Bringing this old thread back to life, and kind of following on from what @SumOne was saying, I currently have 7 and find myself a bit overwhelmed by them all. When I'm at home I end up playing one for 10 minutes, then swapping over to another, then another and get more obsessed by their different tones than with getting on with playing.

I wonder if other people find this and how you deal with it?

Another thing I think about is that lots of great bass players are strongly associated with a single bass that they used for most of their career: Duck Dunn, James Jameson for example. If they managed with a single bass who am I to need loads of basses. I guess it's because instruments were more expensive back then, but did the gain anything from from having a single bass?

[Lozz196]

I think so, with just one instrument - or a fave that inevitably gets played instead of the others - you really get to know it. I have a few Precisions all of the same series, yet my fave one which I’ve had 10 years feels so much better to play, even though they’re all set up pretty much the same. I just instinctively know where/when to back off or dig in as appropriate on it.

[crazycloud]

15 hours ago, cdog said:

but did the gain anything from from having a single bass?

"Beware the man who only has one gun. He probably knows how to use it!"

 

I currently own no firearms, but have many basses. Make of that what you will.

[Terry M.]

I had five at one time,two always got ignored. Then four,one always got ignored. three is the magic number for me. I can't think of a single scenario where one of my 3 can't/won't do the job. I could even go down to two and say the same thing. The prices of both new and used basses is getting a bit silly now anyway in a lot of instances and the "wheel" is not exactly being reinvented. Rolled fingerboard edges for example mean very little to me in the grand scheme of things.

Edited 3 hours ago by Terry M.

[neepheid]

On 29/11/2021 at 10:06, neepheid said:

I went on a diet and I currently have 4.  At one time it was probably up at 12.  I would say that as long as they're all getting played then fair enough.  Instruments != ornaments.

 

Who do I think I am, issuing diktats?  Own as many basses as you like as long as it isn't harming anyone.  I guess the potential harm is chiefly financial, but I guess you could hurt someone if a bass fell on someone...

 

It's fun to see what I had to say years ago when a thread gets reanimated like this...

 

Pleased to say that in nearly four years my attitude hasn't changed.  Only the numbers...

[Misdee]

There's a big difference between the two hypotheses "How many basses is too many ?" and "How many basses do you need?"

 

How many basses is too many depends on your personal circumstances. If you're John Entwistle or Geddy Lee then in excess of 250 basses is  perfectly okay. If you're living in a  bedsit and struggling to make ends meet you can probably manage with less than that.

 

How many basses you need depends on your musical circumstances and is related to the question "Which bass do I need?" In other words, you might need to be judicious in your choice of basses, considering your needs and preferences and bearing in mind the limits on how many you can have at one time. 

 

As for myself, I can be perfectly happy playing just one bass, probably a Jazz Bass, if I've got a P Bass as well then there's not much else I really need or want on a regular basis. Add a fretless and a decent five string and I can amuse myself for any foreseeable future.

 

Any additions beyond those are really just icing on the cake. Anything more than that and you're into having a "collection", and a collection is more often than not, an entity in itself that can become burdensome.