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

[dmccombe7]

10 hours ago, deepbass5 said:

Best Buy   It has to be this, the bass was bought on the rebound, I missed a Lakland i wanted.  I wasn't looking for one of these but the spec's pulled me in.  Light with the deepest bottom end passive. I don't need the active EQ on this. A great endorsement when you get something you didn't want or lust after, but find it to be just what you always needed. 

 

I was looking at those when i came across one fitted with WAL pick ups and a similar style pre-amp. That would be a fantastic buy.

Gorgeous colour match body and neck.

Well done sir.

Dave

[rwillett]

I have a number of good and bad buys. 

1. I have to say (at the risk of being expelled, excommunicated and otherwise labelled as a heretic) that the purchase of an 87 MIJ Strat from here, was one of my best buys of the year for me. Its a dammed fine guitar that just begs to be played. It's no showroom queen and it's all the better for it. It's great for songwriting so I actually play the bass more as well.
2. A songwriting course in Kendal. I learnt so much from Ann Marie I want to do it again. 

Worst purchases

1. Some crappy Fender guitar cables. Buy a decent cable from @Chienmortbb and just have done with it.
2. The MS1-Vave Bluetooth adapter. Junk. 
3. Any purchase that I thought would short circuit me having to learn how to play bass guitar properly. I'm still learning and I expect to keep learning until the day I stop and there's nothing wrong with that. 

Am looking for a decent acoustic for next year and a decent precision to see what all the fuss is about. I also wouldn't mind a es355 if one fell in my lap. 

 

Rob

[kodiakblair]

Purchases were scant this year 🙂

 

Bought 4 lipstick pickups for a build and I replaced the Herrick quad-coil in my Bonnywood 51 with a great single coil from China.

 

Sold by 7th Song, I imagine that's the dynasty not anything music related 😀 It's a cracking wee thing, cloth push wires, white string wrap, alnico 5 slugs; best of all it's just 6.7k DCR so closer to Fender single coils from 70 years ago than the 9k/9.5k which others market as 'vintage voiced'.

 

Just £17 inc delivery, I call that a result 😎

[Jaydee Bass Mafia]

Best Purchase: My 2023 Jaydee Classic Series 1 Supernatural in cherry red purchased from Bass Direct.

It's the first bass in Bass Direct's Mark King bass history video.

(...basically, an exact replica of Mark King's SA 003)

 

Worst purchase:  Any electronics under the Harley Benton name

Edited Friday at 17:10 by Jaydee Bass Mafia
Added photos

[BassTool]

My Vigier Passion ii, it's been joined at the hip with me during 2025 gigs, absolutely love it ❤️

 

 

For anyone who missed it in Build Diaries, it was transformed from being originally fretless to fretted here:

 

 

 

[BassTool]

And this pedal...

 

After my Sansamp FlyRig failed spectacularly mid gig, and was going to cost me more to send back to New York to repair than I paid for it....😳

 

....I bought this Zoom B2 four.

Does the job, bass still goes bom pa pom 👍🏼

 

 

 

[MichaelDean]

First place for me goes to my Fazley jazz bass. It just needed a small truss rod tweak and the frets could be polished, but it was a bargain at £63. 

 

 

Honourable mention to my Spector Icon and Sonicake Pocket Master. My pocket master has meant I've done a lot more practice since I've had it. And I think my Spector will come into it's own when band practice resumes next week. I need to tweak my next Newtone order though. The same gauge strings don't work between my Dingwall and the Spector. A bit too much tension on the high strings and the low ones are a bit loose.

 

[bassbiscuits]

I’m not yet sure what category this will fall into, but I bought this secondhand back in November for my youngest lad who wants to start learning. 
 

Pearl Export 4-piece kit, some bits in great condition other bits needing some TLC. Luckily it’s all pretty mechanical stuff which is my sort of level of understanding and ability to fix. 
 

It won’t go to waste in this house full of musicians even if he doesn’t take to it, so I’m hoping it comes in the “best purchases” category. To be continued…

 

[rwillett]

1 hour ago, bassbiscuits said:

I’m not yet sure what category this will fall into, but I bought this secondhand back in November for my youngest lad who wants to start learning. 
 

Pearl Export 4-piece kit, some bits in great condition other bits needing some TLC. Luckily it’s all pretty mechanical stuff which is my sort of level of understanding and ability to fix. 
 

It won’t go to waste in this house full of musicians even if he doesn’t take to it, so I’m hoping it comes in the “best purchases” category. To be continued…

 

 

Were the ear protectors somebody else's best purchase of 2025?

[bassbiscuits]

2 hours ago, rwillett said:

 

Were the ear protectors somebody else's best purchase of 2025?

Good spot! They are from when we took the kids to festivals when they were little. Very handy tho….

[Al Krow]

20 hours ago, bassbiscuits said:

I’m not yet sure what category this will fall into, but I bought this secondhand back in November for my youngest lad who wants to start learning. 
 

Pearl Export 4-piece kit, some bits in great condition other bits needing some TLC. Luckily it’s all pretty mechanical stuff which is my sort of level of understanding and ability to fix. 
 

It won’t go to waste in this house full of musicians even if he doesn’t take to it, so I’m hoping it comes in the “best purchases” category. To be continued…

 

 

I was kinda wondering whether any of this (other than the MB rig in the corner) could properly be regarded as "bass gear"? 

 

Well there's maybe an argument that there's a kick drum in there...

 

😅

[Mediocre Polymath]

19 hours ago, rwillett said:

 

Were the ear protectors somebody else's best purchase of 2025?

I've had a pair in a little metal container on my keyring for years. Used them only a handful of times, and never felt like they were particularly essential.

 

Then in November I went along to a gig at Alexandra palace and the support act had the worst sound mixing I've ever heard. They were this absolutely dreadful techno/metal hybrid duo, just two guys and a lot of pre-recorded synth stuff. They sounded like they'd gone to the sound guy's desk and just pushed every eq slider from 30 Hz to 200 Hz all the way up. It was just a wall of punishing mush.

 

It was the first time I've ever been able to clearly perceive a sort of standing wave – there was a point near the back of the room where the bass was reflecting off the wall and creating a nauseating out-of-phase throbbing effect.

 

My ears started to hurt immediately and so I popped in my earplugs. It was such a relief. I was the only person from the group I went with who wasn't half-deaf by the time the main act came on.

[rwillett]

9 minutes ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

I've had a pair in a little metal container on my keyring for years. Used them only a handful of times, and never felt like they were particularly essential.

 

Then in November I went along to a gig at Alexandra palace and the support act had the worst sound mixing I've ever heard. They were this absolutely dreadful techno/metal hybrid duo, just two guys and a lot of pre-recorded synth stuff. They sounded like they'd gone to the sound guy's desk and just pushed every eq slider from 30 Hz to 200 Hz all the way up. It was just a wall of punishing mush.

 

It was the first time I've ever been able to clearly perceive a sort of standing wave – there was a point near the back of the room where the bass was reflecting off the wall and creating a nauseating out-of-phase throbbing effect.

 

My ears started to hurt immediately and so I popped in my earplugs. It was such a relief. I was the only person from the group I went with who wasn't half-deaf by the time the main act came on.

 

I had to do that at a Motorhead tribute band, Motorheadache. That's exactly what I ended up with, a headache. I kept moving further and further back and eventually put silicon ear plugs in. Other people were quite content to head bang in the bass bins. My ears were ringing at the back and my stomach was moving in time with the bass, so no idea what they were feeling. I have a little container as well I take to gigs for the same reason.

[Richard R]

You don't get these problems at Fairport Convention gigs.

 

Though if you are sat at the back you can be blinded by the lights reflecting of the sea of grey hair in front of you. 

 

[Kiwi]

1 hour ago, rwillett said:

 

I had to do that at a Motorhead tribute band, Motorheadache. That's exactly what I ended up with, a headache. I kept moving further and further back and eventually put silicon ear plugs in. Other people were quite content to head bang in the bass bins. My ears were ringing at the back and my stomach was moving in time with the bass, so no idea what they were feeling. I have a little container as well I take to gigs for the same reason.

Boots do wax earplugs which are vastly superior at noise blocking if you stuff them in right.  I bulk buy fifty to seventy quids worth whenever I visit the UK because we can't get them in China.

[Stub Mandrel]

45 minutes ago, Richard R said:

You don't get these problems at Fairport Convention gigs.

 

Though if you are sat at the back you can be blinded by the lights reflecting of the sea of grey hair in front of you. 

 

 

Back in the day when they did the 'heavy' version of Matty Groves it could be a bit wild.

[Richard R]

They still get quite heavy, or at least muscular wiith Peggy's bass way up in the mix, just not obnoxiously loud.

 

Back to the topic...

 

[snorkie635]

3 hours ago, Richard R said:

You don't get these problems at Fairport Convention gigs.

 

Though if you are sat at the back you can be blinded by the lights reflecting of the sea of grey hair in front of you. 

 

Genuine story: I have a mate who plays in a duo around pubs. The name of the duo: Grey Hair and Nae Hair.