How Many Of You Play Bass?

[Steve OnmywaytoLA]

I played upright and electric bass for about 40 years. Mostly jazz and classical. Smashed my left index finger in a door about a year ago. Now I'm a drummer....

 

[James Hart]

Wow! A seven string Killer Bee? Don't see too many of those. Nice collection

Thanks, Fred built it for me 2006, I had to ship it back so he could take it to Winter NAMM 2007. My 2 Tele style basses were built for me by Chris Benavente a couple years earlier.

 

[Steve OnmywaytoLA]

Thanks! But the real star there is the Ken Lawrence - I would put him in the top 3 bass builders in the world. Fodera, Jens Ritter and Ken! Unfortunately for bassists, he accepted a custom order by some unknown hack guitarist by the name of James Hetfield (HUGE grin there!) and he now has a backlog of 3 years building slots and most of those are the guitars. In addition to building, he is a well-known inlay artist. View attachment 538272
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Those basses are gorgeous! But if you show up with an 11 string bass for a gig you're looking to get fired for playing too many notes even before you even get it out of the case.

 

[Steve OnmywaytoLA]

I was at a bass event called "Bass Quake" in the bay area about 20 years ago and I was trying out a Bee bass that was at their display booth. Bryan Beller saw it and wanted to play it so bad he was giving me evil looks like "come on man! put it down!"

 

[James Hart]

I remember that show... I was a moderator on Talkbass back then, hung out at the dude pit forum too.

 

[Tubwompus]

I got bit again!
Played bass last week at an impromptu little jam and the musician whose place where it happened had a ‘60’s Ampeg B-15. Lawd, I’m in love! All I needed was to go on safari for yet ANOTHER freakin’ vintage amp. But man, what a SWEETIE!!!!!
Somebody slap me.

 

[JimmyM]

I got bit again!
Played bass last week at an impromptu little jam and the musician whose place where it happened had a ‘60’s Ampeg B-15. Lawd, I’m in love! All I needed was to go on safari for yet ANOTHER freakin’ vintage amp. But man, what a SWEETIE!!!!!
Somebody slap me.

B15 is watt for watt the best bass amp ever made. I had a 64 that I sold earlier this year. Loved it but I went modern with a PF50T.

 

[Lazmo]

For more than 10 years I’ve been lucky enough to have a mates Fender Bassman 135 and 15” Seager bins living in my music room along with his P bass. That rig has provided the bottom end to countless jams, rehearsals and parties.

Anyway, we have had a sea change and I needed to get my own bass setup.

Regarding the actual bass instruments I have an EB3 copy that is nice, if a little bit one dimensional, as in it has just one great tone, but I have since picked up an Artist MiniP short scale bass which I am very happy with… see a few pages back. Plays great, particularly after a setup, and covers a lot of ground just with a twist of the tone knob.

Amp-wise… after much research, I picked up a Warwick Gnome 200watt Class D head. It’s about the size of a paperback, and although it is quite hefty for its size, it is seriously light as a feather compared with the Bassman. Look I know stuff all about bass, but funnily enough, if I set the tone controls the same as the Bassman, the Warwick sounds fantastic.

On the cab front, I still have access to one of the Seager bins, but I am looking at going with a Lorantz 1 x 12 bass reflex cabinet, which I’ll build. I’ve used his speakers in my PA and they sound awesome and handle serious power effortlessly.

Since getting the MiniP I have been playing a lot of bass. The fact that I can jam to music (Spotify) without using tab/music makes bass playing a lot of fun.

Here’s the Warwick.

 

[Lazmo]

I’ve decided I needed a bass to be able to fix parts on some of my mixes.

So Dan, how did you go fixing those mixes?

 

[Bmusic]

Bass is my main instrument actually

 

[Hulakatt]

Hmm... been playing drums for 25 years, bass for 22 and guitar for 20. I can play without having to think on drums and I'm getting there one bass.

Just finished rebuilding my parts P Bass I built when I first started. It was a snowball project, I meant to originally just replace the body but then ordered new pickups, some new hardware and then the old neck didn't fit so it all got a bit out of hand. Sounds pretty dang good through the Bassman and with either an Ampeg Scambler or Univox Superfuzz clone. Now, it's the P! Bass.

 

[Hulakatt]

B15 is watt for watt the best bass amp ever made. I had a 64 that I sold earlier this year. Loved it but I went modern with a PF50T.

I had an early 60's B-15 for awhile and, while it sounded great, it was quiet enough to be unusable live. I've been using various Fender Bassman amps for everything for a long time and always been happy with tone and volume. It's at the point where I feel they're kinda underrated as actual bass amps!

 

[JimmyM]

I had an early 60's B-15 for awhile and, while it sounded great, it was quiet enough to be unusable live. I've been using various Fender Bassman amps for everything for a long time and always been happy with tone and volume. It's at the point where I feel they're kinda underrated as actual bass amps!

I can’t do the Fender tone stack on bass. And the B15 is low power, sure, and even though I would struggle occasionally, I did a lot of gigs with it, and PAs can make up for anything.

 

[Hulakatt]

I can’t do the Fender tone stack on bass. And the B15 is low power, sure, and even though I would struggle occasionally, I did a lot of gigs with it, and PAs can make up for anything.

If I was doing lower volume gigs like jazz or sets with an acoustic guitarist or even recording, I'd be all over a B-15 but it just couldn't handle the volume I needed and I did run a DI off my board to the PA for a little bit but I just ended up going back to the Bassman. I guess it helps that the Bassman is one of my favorite guitar amps as well.

 

[JazzDrumGuy]

I just picked up my 3rd bass. I saw an ad for a high school kid selling a Squier jazz bass plus amp for $175 obo. My 10 y.o. was interested so I went to see it. 3 strings, dirty and crackling pots thru a crappy guitar amp. Sounded like a.m. radio!

I told the mom thanks but no. She understood. As I was pulling out, my kid was giving me "the look". So I went back and asked how much for the bass alone? Well, I got it for cheap! I bought some Fender strings on Amazon for $20. I took the bass apart and fully cleaned it and blew out the pots and electronics that had gunk and (cat?) hair! All chrome was cleaned using hot water and Dawn and rusty parts cleaned as best I could.

It turns out it is a rare Korean Squier. In the early 80's, Fender outsourced first to Japan to compete with other brands, then to Korea from '86 - '89 before going to China, Taiwan, Indonesia, et al.

This is an 88/89 to the best of my knowledge, all U.S. parts, Schaller tuners, fantastic chrome, light body, rosewood neck and plays like a dream!!! Black with an aged white pickguard! I found some used for $500+. I had no clue!

It sounds way better than my other Squier jazz bass and stays in tune with no scratchiness. I will probably swap the pick guard out for a red tortoise.....

But now the kid wants to play trombone!!!!!

 

[swarfrat]

Of late I'm actually focusing on bass. After 30 years of guitar and two months of bass I'm not ready to identify as a bassist just yet but..I'm loving it and putting most of my practice time in there. Im trying to pull a couple songs together for an outdoor thing at church this fall but other than that I'm 100% on bass.

I feel like I finally came home.

 

[swarfrat]

I *really* wanted the boxes holding up the PF-500 to say Ampeg. Badly. But the Hartke could not be passed up once I found it. I had a line on a 210PF for $250 but the guy never would respond (and I'm not actually crazy about the look of the PF series cabs) I think this probably comes a bit closer to the really tight but dense and muscular bass thing I was shooting for. I actually have to cut it a bit, but even then it's not bloomy.

 

[INeedDrumLessons]

I switched over to Helix for guitar and have been using it for bass as well. I've been pumping it through the PA and also into a Headrush FRFR. It seems to do the trick for now.

 

[Core Creek]

I just got my newest bass - a gift from my father-in-law before he passed away. Got my first gig with it Saturday night.

 

[Dan K]

I got bit again!
Played bass last week at an impromptu little jam and the musician whose place where it happened had a ‘60’s Ampeg B-15. Lawd, I’m in love! All I needed was to go on safari for yet ANOTHER freakin’ vintage amp. But man, what a SWEETIE!!!!!
Somebody slap me.

I hate to say this and cause GAS, but the HX Stomp has a really good emulation of the B-15. Nowhere I play allows amps on the stage except for jams. That being said - my Accugroove/MEsa tt800 or Genz Benz Streamliner 900 or Glockenklang HeartCore is not going anywhere!