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

[stoo]

Best was a P bass kit off ebay... been wanting to try a scratch build for ages, but wasn't confident enough to have a first go at finishing and fretwork on something that'd take a lot of effort to replace if I messed it up.

Turned out way better than I thought it would.... 

 

 

Worst was running out of excuses not to do the next one from scratch

[DGBass]

26 minutes ago, Homatron said:

Is it good for metal?

I would say so, if fretless metal is your thing.

[Homatron]

Best purchase:

(Not technically a purchase yet, but it's a foot in the door)

 

Worst purchase:

70's Seamoon Funk Machine circuitboard clone. Enjoyed building it but I never managed to dial in a sound I liked.

Ended up reusing the housing for my DIY Fuzzrocious Ram the Manparts stripboard build.

 

 

[MostLow]

Best: - 2012 MIJ Fender Jaguar bass (ok, I swapped the pickups for Fender CS 60s, but it sounds great).

 

          - 2024 Epiphone Jack Casady bass. Although a longtime Jack and hollowbody fan, I avoided this bass due to my 'made in China' bias, but after trying one that was well set up I took the plunge and don't regret it.

 

          - Fender Super Bassman. Haven't band-tested it yet, but the 'vintage' channel sounds amazing, and loud.

 

 

Worst: - Orange OBC 115 cab. The sound is not my thing and farts out way too early.

 

            - Accugroove 'El Whappo' 15/12/6 cab. Sounds good at lower volume but can't hold it together in a big room.

 

            - Orange AD200. Sounded great at first but then developed problems and it's been back to the shop twice now.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 03:04 by MostLow

[SteveXFR]

After selling all my gear last year, all my gear has been bought this year. 

The worst is easy, a Fender Mexican standard Precision. I think it was just a bad one, I've had a few before but this one just sucked. I couldn't get a decent setup on it and it always sounded weak so its gone now.

Best purchase is either my Spector Euro 4 LX which sounds incredible and is really nice to play and was a great price or my Yamaha BB1100S which I picked up for £450 and is the nicest playing bass I've owned and sounds great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HeadlessBassist]

I almost forgot the very best purchase of 2025 - A trolley which saves me carting amps and cabs around. Sadly, like a Dalek, it's still foiled by stairs! Perfect for when you're almost 56!

 

[Leonard Smalls]

3 hours ago, HeadlessBassist said:

A trolley

I bought an allegedly 160kg capacity folding sackbarrow... Not sure what it will actually carry, but I can now bring Markbass 4x10, 4u flightcase with amps, psu and compressor plus flightcased Helix all at once (though you need to bungy 'em!)...

[Owen]

42 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I bought an allegedly 160kg capacity folding sackbarrow... Not sure what it will actually carry, but I can now bring Markbass 4x10, 4u flightcase with amps, psu and compressor plus flightcased Helix all at once (though you need to bungy 'em!)...

I have had one of these for nearly 30 years. I would not be without it. When it eventually breaks I will buy another. Unless I go first. Mine is a Ruxxac. 

[neepheid]

1 minute ago, Owen said:

I have had one of these for nearly 30 years. I would not be without it. When it eventually breaks I will buy another. Unless I go first. Mine is a Ruxxac. 

 

Are we taking bets?  A tenner on the sack trolley!

 

[Stub Mandrel]

Number 1 has to be the Sire P10.

 

 

Next my rather fine orange-coloured pedal board (with matching bag).

 

 

Number 3, lovely little Joyo 10W bass amp with Bluetooth for playing along to stuff.

 

 

Honorable mention, the Kay Gremlin I tarted up a bit, well quite a lot of setting up epecially, that's now quite fun to play.

 

[dmccombe7]

18 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I bought an allegedly 160kg capacity folding sackbarrow... Not sure what it will actually carry, but I can now bring Markbass 4x10, 4u flightcase with amps, psu and compressor plus flightcased Helix all at once (though you need to bungy 'em!)...

Got one of these from Screwfix and its an amazing bit of kit.

I strapped a car mat to the base to stop scratching the bottom of my Mesa cabs.

It still folds up ok with the mat on it.

Dave

[SimonK]

Best was the Warwick I always wanted to pair with my equally 90s Trace Elliot stack, and gave me an excuse to try out five strings again (purchased from another forum member). To be fair there is an element of never buying something you have longed for as it doesn't quite live up to expectations (it feels a bit fragile compared to my Stingrays), but I'm enjoying the five strings:

 

 

Worst was a GP12 head that we still haven't manged to fix despite working through the circuits, and I paid about £50 more than I should have for it... but I'm hopeful we will get there!

 

[NHM]

This year I've changed my rig from all Fender Bassman to Ashdown ABM with a LFSYS Monaco which has been a fine upgrade, but the best investment has been to go wireless. The freedom to move around without a cable and to go FoH to have a listen has been a revelation. And that's all I have bought, so therefore the ABM/Monaco must be my worst!

[lozkerr]

22 minutes ago, NHM said:

The freedom to move around without a cable and to go FoH to have a listen has been a revelation.

I went wireless about this time last year and the feeling of freedom was fantastic! Still have to keep an eye on stage position during songs that need effects or BVs though - I expect I'll get caught out sooner or later...

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, SimonK said:

Best was the Warwick I always wanted to pair with my equally 90s Trace Elliot stack, and gave me an excuse to try out five strings again (purchased from another forum member). To be fair there is an element of never buying something you have longed for as it doesn't quite live up to expectations (it feels a bit fragile compared to my Stingrays), but I'm enjoying the five strings:

 

 

Worst was a GP12 head that we still haven't manged to fix despite working through the circuits, and I paid about £50 more than I should have for it... but I'm hopeful we will get there!

 

When i bought my Thumb bass in 1989 i tried it thru a TE410 combo and it was a perfect match. Absolutely stunning combination. Still stands out in my memories to this day.

Unfortunately i've tried TE kit since and over the years never quite captured that tone from 1990 ish.

Dave

[Owen]

On 01/11/2025 at 12:48, Owen said:

On the spur of the moment, I bought a Moog Sub Phatty. It appeared in the classifieds here and was "local" to where we were at the time. It turned our 5 hour journey home into an 8 hour journey. My wife is extraordinarily patient. I had been thinking about a small, monophonic synth for a long time and realised that the asking price was less than I would expect to spend on a bass. I have been messing with synth pedals for years, but this showed me that there is a reason keys played bass sounds different. Having all the controls in one place and accessible immediately has made playing and manipulating it very easy. Don't get me wrong, I am not doing Stevie Wonder bass (more is the pity) but I can do what I want with remarkable ease. It is SO much easier than doing a poor imitation on bass guitar. 

 

Am I going to keep it? I am not sure about that. Now that I have experienced it, I suspect that a midi keyboard running into Logic will provide all the synthy goodness I will ever need. But it is certainly my best ever impulse purchase. 

But is it my best purchase? No, that was the Eich Bass Board. It is a total game changer.