What's your favorite bass to play?

[gearhed289]

I've been leaning toward my Les Paul Special a lot lately. It sounds great, is very versatile, and it's one of the lightest basses I own. But when it comes to overall feel, great looks, and killer tones, my '89 4003S is mofo #1!

[ram]

For me I think the Ric I started with is still the fave - '74 4001, followed by my newly acquired '93 4004L then by the 4003s5....

so, what Jim said, "Rickenbacker."!

[zoomduck]

Harry . Thats a nice looking Guild . Wish I still had mine . One of the Best sounding basses ever made !

[hieronymous]

Thanks Barry - I really lucked out with this one! Found it on the wall at my local GC. I don't like going in there, but every now and again...

[badeggs]

I broke a string at a gig once, and a bassist in the other band offered me his Warwick Corvette for the last bit of our set. It really impressed me. Smooth, lightweight, not at all like a 4001. It felt like it weighed 2 pounds!

That said, nothing tops a Rickenbacker. My 77MG flat-out crunches. It's got growl like it's swallowing handfuls of glass. And the age on the finish is sweet, almost a light "honey" color now. It certainly wasn't kept in a case all these years.

[jdogric12]

'85 4003 MG/BT.... until I get my 4002 in playable condition, that is. Good answer Dave.

[henry5]

" like my basses for the different feels and unique sounds they each possess, and my "favorite to play" is always changing..."

Me too. My current "go to" bass at home (not gigging much at the moment - in fact we're never gigging that much these days ) is my Sei 4, mainly because it plays like a dream and is light as a feather. Band-wise it tends to be my CS; why that is I'm not sure as I think my 72 sounds better and it's lighter too. The action on the CS is lower though. Ironically my 72 (my favourite Ric) and my Alembic (arguably my favourite bass) don't seem to see as much use at the moment; I'm not sure why re the 72, but with the Alembic it's mainly a weight issue.

[teb]

Tony, that's my old Frankenstein Gibson. It started as a used EBO when I bought it in 1971. First I had the fingerboard removed and replaced with a fretless ebony one. Then about a year later I had the body removed and a walnut LP body made. The recording engineers hated it because the mudbucker had so much boom and so little bite, so I added a P-bass pickup under the hand rest and wired the pickups separately - all the way out to different cords and different amp channels. I could then let the humbucker supply the big furry low end and dial-in the percussion needed with the P-bass pickup. We knew this crazy guy who was an electronics wiz and he did the wiring - tone and volume pots for each pup, a bass-cut cap on a switch for the humbucker when desired, a four-way (neck, bridge, both and standby) pickup selector knob and a master volume knob. For 1972, it was a pretty hot electronics package. It's an old hoss that's been through the wars, but it still plays pretty well and has an unusual sound. There is a short MP3 sample that shows the "composite" sound. It starts with both pickups then drops to just the P-bass, then just the Humbucker and finally puts them back together.

http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/Music%20stuff/stereo%20Gibson%20LP.MP3

...and there is an entire bootleg copy of an old album using it that you can download here. It was recorded before the P-bass pickup was added, so it's the mudbucker with every ounce of treble that we could possibly get added on.

http://akashaman.blogspot.com/2007/01/ship-contemporary-folk-music-journey-71.html

[alan]

Having recently aquired a Gibson T bird Studio 5 string, it naturally gets alot of my attention. But, I always come back to the 77 4001 with Toaster and flats. It's so smooth and dreamy. With the Rock band, it's my 06 4003, and GL Jazz as back up, no question. Btw, Todd, I really like that Gibson Frankenbass. I don't guess there's another even close to that.

[4stringnosing]

My ???? vintage Yamaha BB1200. (Seller told me it was a '73 but I don't think these were made back then and serial number decoder at Yamaha's site doesn't work!) My band insists on me playing my 4003 because of the tone, but I hate the way the edge digs into my right wrist (I'm now using a sweatband). Oh for a 4003s!

If I could string the Ric with Labella 1954 flatwounds instead of roundwounds (again band won't let me--dirty buggers!), then I'm sure I'd prefer playing it. To me, basses were meant to be played with flatwounds, just as they were meant to have 4 strings, and of course I know everyone here agrees with me on that!

[maplered]

My 4003 MG w/ a VP (bought from John Biscuiti ), my FG 4001C64 and my early 68 Jazz Bass.

[rickenbrother]

My favorite 4 string to play is my 4001S. It plays great, sounds great and the way a former owner re-painted it, I'm not worried about scratching or dinging it at a gig.
It's a toss up between my 4003S/5 Blue Beast and my trans red 4004Cii/5 as a favorite 5 string to play.

[cheyenne]

I have a '00 Carvin B4 which is a sort of quasi-jazz bass. Swamp ash body, lighter than air. A joy to play, very '80's hair band sounding.

I prefer the Rick tone though, so my fave Rick basses to play are as follows: '97 WHT, '04 BB, '01 DG, and '07 DCM.

In that order.

[ricaddic]

My 4001C64, and my Fender 60th anniversary Jazz Bass, but also love playing my fretless jazz bass as well.

[sloop_john_b]

I'm glad you still like that one, Carmen! I liked it too.