Do you use your “best” bass on gigs?

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I'm not sure which of my basses is 'the best' but I tend to take a couple of my JMJ mustangs to gigs as they sound great, are easy & comfy to play, and I probably wouldn't notice if they picked up a ding or two. My Ric 4003 and Gibson non-reverse thunderbird would probably be considered better basses by some, but I'd be gutted to get either one dinged.

[Sean]

I don't have a No.1 per se, they're all favorites for different reasons. 

 

With the "drive-time Rock covers" band, I use a pair of Spectors (a Euro 4 and a Euro LX 4) that have the same pickups, same pre-amps, same set-up spec, same Eb standard tuning and same strings. It's run/standby redundancy. They're tools, albeit very pretty ones, to do a job. 

 

With the "obscure covers" band, I use a Spector Euro 5 LX with a BBP35 as backup, although I would like to find a Euro 5 or NS5CR. All four are absolute peaches but they get used out in the real world. 

 

I have basses that don't go out at the moment but that's mainly because they aren't what I use in these bands. They've all been gigged in the past except the one Spector and that's just because it's new and I haven't taken it to jam night yet. 

Edited 1 hour ago by Sean

[Woodinblack]

All my basses are gigged, apart from the ones that need work or a couple of 4 string basses I have. However, not all basses go to all venues, there are some venues where I don't trust the loading and I wouldn't take the rarer ones. There are basses I play more at home than others but that is just based on where they are in the house, or how they sound.