2026 Gear Abstinence Thread

[bass_dinger]

The rules:

"- Maintenance/setups that only involve work on existing aspects of your bass (ie no purchasing a preamp to add to it)

- Breakages. If something breaks through no unusual intervention of your own, and is unable to be repaired, you may replace it."

 

It seems to me that repairing the pickup would be maintenance; buying a new pickup would fall under the category of breakages.  Interestingly, the rules set out no limit on the cost of the replacement, so @neepheid needn't restrict himself to something cheap.  No need to wear the hair-shirt.

 

By way of a precedent, in 2023 I purchased a Washburn bass in bits, without a finish, and with a twisted neck.  The new neck (fretless, with the old one being fretted) and the refinishing and the rebuild were all judged to be repairs, in a previous challenge. 

 

[tauzero]

21 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

 

Now I have decision paralysis!

 

No natural wood option. I'm out.

[tauzero]

4 hours ago, neepheid said:

I have a scenario to run by you all (and I'm just speculating at the moment) - I have a Yamaha SB500S with a knackered neck pickup.  I didn't break it, it arrived that way, it's second hand, it's no longer in production.  I have the broken pickup with someone just now attempting to repair it, but should that fall through what would be the collective's thoughts regarding ways forward?  You can't realistically get an exact replacement pickup for the current, broken one, but it is basically a J pickup in a bespoke Yamaha housing, because Yamaha.  If the broken pickup is unsalvageable, would I get a pass from the jury if I was to get a Tonerider or something similarly inexpensive to replace it with?  It's not like for like (other than dimensions), but I wouldn't be using this as an opportunity to procure some fancy, boutique pickup.  I just want the bass to work properly again.  I hope the OG pickup gets repaired successfully, that is deffo Plan A, just formulating a Plan B...

 

Thoughts?  No wrong answers (including "wait until next year, play your other basses")

 

That's a repair, and reasonably close to like for like. I'd give it a pass.

[Mrbigstuff]

14 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

No natural wood option. I'm out.

Buy a beige one and draw orange lines on it. Hey ho AAAA flame maple 

[SteveXFR]

DR Dragonskin strings for my Spector. Nice bright, zingy tone and they feel nice.

 

Boss CEB3 Chorus pedal. Put infront of my Two Notes Revolt, a bit of chorus with the dirt channel engaged on the preamp, absolutely disgusting tone. It really makes the distortion stand out and adds a nice bit of bottom end.

[neepheid]

8 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

DR Dragonskin strings for my Spector. Nice bright, zingy tone and they feel nice.

 

Boss CEB3 Chorus pedal. Put infront of my Two Notes Revolt, a bit of chorus with the dirt channel engaged on the preamp, absolutely disgusting tone. It really makes the distortion stand out and adds a nice bit of bottom end.

 

Is this a confession?

[Stub Mandrel]

4 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

No natural wood option. I'm out.

 

Can you have toneplugs?

[Geek99]

9 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Can you have toneplugs?

Yes if you use old plastic (1962 seems to be a good year…) and it has to be US made because their plastic is different and better (somehow) 

 

 

Edited 25 minutes ago by Geek99