Your best (and worst!) bass gear purchases of 2025?

[Len_derby]

1 hour ago, casapete said:

I’ve acquired one of these too this year, mine is in black though.

Nice little basses. 

I hope you bought it at a car park meet-up, Pete, as I did mine.

We’re both specialists at that. 😆

[Al Krow]

I've had a lot band related purchases and very little purely bass focussed, this year. 

 

Tops for me goes to the RCF 932A PA speakers which were an upgrade from our previous RCF 912A and 732A sets of speakers (which me and one of singers respectively had). The 912As - excellent on bass, 732As - excellent mids for guitar and vox. The 932As provide the best of both worlds.

 

Managed to pick them as B-stock for less than the cost of my bass backline and we put the whole band through them, none of us using backline, without needing a sub-woofer even for the smaller outdoor gigs we were doing earlier in the year.

 

Worst - none so far, fingers crossed. (I did buy a Fuzzrocious Lil Fella which I've not really used due to finding some great drive and fuzz tones on my Boss Multifx, and which I'll probably put up for sale at some point but not because it's been a disappointment). 

 

 

@Acebassmusic - my Elrick Expat in action (through the 932A). Lovely bass! 

 

Edited yesterday at 16:36 by Al Krow

[Acebassmusic]

25 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

OMG I love that Elrich! I've had mine (the "cheaper" Expat Czech made one) for 4 years and totally love - fabulous bass and my mainstay for gigs.

Hearing you on some of your videos helped me decide to give it a chance and I bought it untried. Thanks.

[Al Krow]

5 minutes ago, Acebassmusic said:

Hearing you on some of your videos helped me decide to give it a chance and I bought it untried. Thanks.

 

Is it living up to expectations? I know you've had same fantastic basses over the years!

[casapete]

41 minutes ago, Len_derby said:

I hope you bought it at a car park meet-up, Pete, as I did mine.

We’re both specialists at that. 😆

Actually no! A friend gifted me the Jaguar, which was very gratefully accepted.

[Bleat]

3 hours ago, casapete said:

Nice looking bass. How is it regarding not feeding back, any good?

 

As it is pretty much brand new, I haven't really had the chance to test it at high volume as of yet. I am playing it into my audio interface wearing headphones so no feedback issues! It does have a notch filter in the preamp which is a nice addition. I will give it a test run through my big bass rig to see what happens! I am downsizing that to a mini rig so may have another best (or worst) purchase to follow. 😎   

[Cosmo Valdemar]

Worst was a brand new Gibson NR Thunderbird. Stunning to look at, and probably the best sounding 'bird I've ever played, but that neck shape... nope. Felt totally wrong. 

Back to the shop it went.

 

Best is this, because it's absolutely amazing.

 

 

[Jackroadkill]

I think the only things I've bought this year have been a pair of 15" speakers for my old Sunn cab.  They sound cool and shift some serious air, so I guess they're my winner.

[chris_b]

8 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Overdone the spend there, Chris……

Too right. No cutting corners. They were both Duracell!!

[Al Krow]

9 hours ago, neepheid said:

Honourable mention go to the Boss XS-1 Poly Shifter - hands down the best pitch shifting pedal I have ever heard in terms of preservation of tone and tracking.

 

Ditto ^^

 

My only "regret" is that I'm liking it so much, I'm already tempted to move it on...to get its bigger sibling the XS-100

[YellowLedBetterBass]

2025 has been a weird one. I started the year as the rhythm guitarist in a mildly successful covers band. That band went on to fold in late Feb/early March, and then reform in May with a few new members. We'd auditioned bassists but they were all terrible, and in a "if you want a job done right" move, I went over to playing bass - something I haven't done in a band for a decade.

 

Thus, my best purchases have all been purpose-bought bass gigging equipment. First of all (and probably least interestingly) a wired IEM set up using a pair of KZ ZSN Pro 10s and a Behringer P2.

 

Then came the first bass I'd bought in about 7 years. A cheapy, a shorty. Something to bridge the gap in feel and size between an electric guitar (as id been playing for 5 years) to standard size electric bass. I present my Squier Bronco:

 

After this, and having played it for 4 paid gigs, I couldn't help myself when I saw this come up for a very reasonable price on reverb. A 2010 Mexican Standard P Bass, something I can say might be a forever bass, I absolutely love it.

 

Overall, a pretty busy year. Not pictured are a Tonex One (which I'd used as ampless solution first for guitar, now for bass), a Boss ME-50B, and a TC Electronic 250w 1x15 combo. Oh, and a Behringer XR18 mixer, which I see as more of a band purchase than a personal purchase.

 

And as for the band, we've been busier now than we ever were. I think "breaking up" and removing those whose hearts weren't in it was the best thing that could've happened to it. The group we've got assembled now are much more talented, focussed, and having a whole lot more fun than the last lot were.

Edited 17 hours ago by YellowLedBetterBass

[Kiwi]

I have a clear winner for worst - the Boss SY300.  It's not a bad pedal but severely limited in what it can do which wasn't clear in the very limited support documentation or YT videos.  And now I can't sell it and free up cash for other things.

[Acebassmusic]

9 hours ago, Al Krow said:

 

Is it living up to expectations? I know you've had same fantastic basses over the years!

Yes it is 👍 It's very easy to play, nice neck profile, weight and balance. Its also very flexible tone wise. I don't normally use the neck pickup on its own but with this one I'm quite happy to. I've used it in both my classic rock and soul / funky bands and it fits in great with all of them. I've decided not to use it in the rock band any more as they still have Sex on Fire in the set and as such don't deserve the Elrick! 🤣

 

Thank you and you're right I have had some stunning basses over the years (way above my pay grade!) and this one is one of the very best!

[markbunney]

Best - Ibanez EHB, currently my favourite bass.

 

Worst - Markbass CMD combo which developed a fault and had to be returned.

 

Edited 16 hours ago by markbunney
Typo

[Kiwi]

7 hours ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

Worst was a brand new Gibson NR Thunderbird. Stunning to look at, and probably the best sounding 'bird I've ever played, but that neck shape... nope. Felt totally wrong. 

Back to the shop it went.

 

Best is this, because it's absolutely amazing.

 

 

I bought a near identical 5 string version earlier in the year. The seller said 'low action'.  It had the same preset neck relief the other examples I had played.  I'm going to get the fingerboard replaced.  It's a little brittle sounding and quiet perhaps due to the Lusithand RB800 inspired onboard electronics, but the B string is super tight and the neck is fast preset neck relief not withstanding.  It's a marmite thing right now.

[Downunderwonder]

No GAS here.

 

Best purchase, a Delonghi EC885m espresso machine upgraded with Hugo IMS unpressurized filter.

 

Worst purchase. A bad back.

[Marvin]

BEST.

 

I'd have to say the Genz Benz NX212t I bought on here... and the Bugera Veyron M1001. 

 

MOST DISAPPOINTING:

 

A used Ashdown RT500 head from G4M. It was packaged in just a cardboard box, with nothing to protect it. It was supposedly a MK2 but was actually a MK1. And to top it all it didn't work. I did get my money back fairly promptly and an apology. 

 

WORST:

 

A brand new tuner pedal from Andertons that worked powered by battery but not from 9v mains power from my pedalboard. Returning it was a pain. If it was picked up from the house the return was free, however I'd have to pay postage if I wanted to return it myself. Anderton apparently don't provide returns labels. Also their returns procedure is naff. If I hadn't asked where the returns labels were a collection wouldn't have been arranged. Luckily one of my sons was home.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

5 hours ago, Kiwi said:

I bought a near identical 5 string version earlier in the year. The seller said 'low action'.  It had the same preset neck relief the other examples I had played.  I'm going to get the fingerboard replaced.  It's a little brittle sounding and quiet perhaps due to the Lusithand RB800 inspired onboard electronics, but the B string is super tight and the neck is fast preset neck relief not withstanding.  It's a marmite thing right now.

Gibson or Vigier? 😆

 

What's wrong with the fingerboard, can you not get a low action?

[BassAgent]

Well, best gear is an ex aequo between a childhood dream and a vintage gem. First off a bass I've wanted to own since I was 12 (which is over 20 years ago): a walnut JB5 Custom by André van der End, a Dutch luthier. It popped up on a Belgian website and shortly after New Year I drove there to pick it up. It's heavy, it doesn't play as smoothly as my Lakland JO5 but I love it. Amazing feeling to own that bass now. I've replaced the black hardware with chrome since buying it.

 

The other one is the 1973 Mustang I bought from the original owner. Excellent condition, excellent sound. Took it on tour to Germany in May and it fit perfectly into the Northern soul band sound.

 

I don't think I've bought bad gear this year. Maybe the Optogate that I still haven't figured out how to use yet.

 

[Mediocre Polymath]

My best bass purchase – also my only major one – was the battered Hohner "The Jack" that I bought off here in June. It gave me a fun project to while away the summer afternoons and has turned out to be a really lovely bass.

 

Here's the "before" pic.

 

And here's the after:

 

I've been pleasantly surprised by how good it sounds. My expectation was that it would be light, practical and a bit bland. And, well, it sort of is, but in a good way. I've never played a bass with p-bass pickups much before (these pickups are reverse Ps in humbucker cases), but I'm starting to get the appeal. 

 

My other fretted bass has a MM pickup and a really aggressive sound. It sounds amazing when everything's just so, but can be very finicky. The Hohner just sounds, er, solid, I guess. A nice smooth sound, almost like it's been compressed and tweaked already. I can just run it straight into my interface and be perfectly satisfied.

 

The worst purchase would be Montana Color "Fire Red" paint. This turned out to be a shade of red no-one's ever seen in a fire or indeed anywhere outside of the Barbie dream house.

[Kiwi]

3 hours ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

Gibson or Vigier? 😆

 

What's wrong with the fingerboard, can you not get a low action?

Vigier, the fingerboard has a preset relief carved into it which means it's thinner around the upper frets than in the lower ones.  It's completely unnecessary because if a player wants high action they can tweak a truss rod.  But a preset neck relief means there's no way to make the action lower than the relief.

[SteveXFR]

My best purchase was my Spector Euro 4 LX from a member of this forum. Not only does it look amazing but it feels great to play and the tones I can get from it are brutal. 

My worst purchase was a Behringer sansamp clone. The first one didn't work at all, the replacement just sounded crap. The worst drive sound I've ever heard. Nothing like a sansamp

[Cosmo Valdemar]

4 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

 

My worst purchase was a Behringer sansamp clone. The first one didn't work at all, the replacement just sounded crap. The worst drive sound I've ever heard. Nothing like a sansamp

I'm glad it's not just me, I bought one and had to send it back as it was so awful!

[Cosmo Valdemar]

4 hours ago, Kiwi said:

Vigier, the fingerboard has a preset relief carved into it which means it's thinner around the upper frets than in the lower ones.  It's completely unnecessary because if a player wants high action they can tweak a truss rod.  But a preset neck relief means there's no way to make the action lower than the relief.

I see. I'm aware of the preset relief, I thought you meant yours had something wrong with it! The action  is very low on mine as it is. I think the previous line of Vigiers with the graphite neck had a completely flat relief.

[binky_bass]

Two 'Best Purchases' for me, nothing particularly bad this year...

 

First is a Warwick Streamer LX that I got from eBay for an absolute steal. Needed new tuners (which I got from here!) and new strings, which I had, other than that its in exceptional condition and sounds brutal with that awesome Warwick growl. 

 

 

The second, was a Tamburo Opera Stave 7 piece kit with a full suite of Meinl Custom Classic Dark cymbals. This is an astonishing kit... FAR better than I deserve, but I love it.