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Technically you only need 2 basses, a Precision and a Jazz. However, you really need a Stingray as well. Then you'll have every tonal palette covered. Oh, wait, but if your Precision has flats for the whole Motown vibe, then you're going to need another Precision with rounds so you can do punk, grunge and rock tone. Actually, you need a Fender Telecaster bass as that has a humbucker pickup and will sound different to anything else. While you're at it, you need a fretless as well and you might as well get a fretless Precision, Jazz and Stingray. Have I mentioned short scale basses, oh no. Ok, so you will also need a short scale bass for when you are older and your neck and shoulders are buggered. So to summarize, you need 1 x Precision with Flats 1 x Precision with Rounds 1 x Precision Fretless 1 x Jazz with Rounds 1 x Jazz Fretless 1 x Stingray 1 x Stingray Fretless 1 x Telecaster bass 1 x Mustang Short Scale So the answer is 9, you need 9 basses. I've used logic, a little bit of science and maybe a little bit of bias 😂

You only need one bass....... Nah.... not really!! 😂🤣😂🤣

I had one bass once. It was about 45 years ago and immediately prior to that I had no basses 😎.

Ok, after some research, I discovered that the bass player was Ladi GEISLER, a guitar player using a technique of his own to get the "knack bass" sound. Check this excerpt from his Wikipedia page : "From composer and big band leader James Last, he bought a late 50s Gibson EB bass guitar, with which he developed his legendary "Knack bass" sound that would become an integral feature in the Easy Listening orchestra of Bert Kaempfert. Later, he used a Fender Jazz Bass model. Most recently, he used a Fender Precision Bass when he was invited to live or recording sessions. Geisler's knack bass sound was a treble staccato bass guitar sound in which the bass string was plucked with a pick and immediately suppressed to cancel out any sustain." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladi_Geisler

My impressions of the members here is that the majority of us are past our midlife crisis and are pretty much financially stable. Many of us have, or have had, high end equipment costing thousands of pounds which realistically won't pay itself off from our income as musicians, however we are at a stage in our lives that we can treat ourselves to quality gear in our hobby/interest. Whether we "need" more than one bass is immaterial - I can't take my money with me when I die so I'm going to do what I "want" to do with it and spend it on the most important person to me - ME!! I don't drink, take drugs, drive a fast car or bike or have wife/children to spend it for me - my gear is possibly my only real eccentricity though to be honest I do hoard a lot of stuff I probably don't "need". Not hurting anybody else though... If I want to buy another bass, I will!!

13 at the moment , and I’m looking at another one because 13 is an odd number 😁

Taken int total, there is no way you can accuse anyone of over playing on this album. Jaco's lines are no busier that James Jamerson's on 90% of the Motown stuff. His melodic inter-playing is exquisite. Even 'Dry Cleaner' is just a slightly funked up 12 bar really. I get that some don't like it but 'overplaying'? Not to my ears. I have been listening to the S&L lp for four decades and it remains my favourite album of all time. I like a lot of Joni but I LOVE the Shadows and Light album because of the band who are, to my ears, one of the most musical enembles ever to have graced a stage. Greater than the sum of it's considerable parts.

"Everything is nice....but more is better"..

I don’t know about needed , but if you can afford it, and it’s something you like, go for it, just because you play at home doesn’t mean to say you can’t have an expensive bass 🙂

It's only a bit more practice that separates us... @Matt P is going for 20" radius and - based on that hand radiusing ebony is a quick very slow way to insanity - I've ordered a couple of extra radius templates for their wonderful radius routing jig. In the meantime, I routed the slot for the trussrod: And, based on the fact that for all the 'nice-to-haves', the one 'must-be-able-to', is that it must be able to fit in the Hiscox case, a quick check: Phew! I will be pondering a while to make sure I haven't forgotten anything before I cut anything, but I'm pretty sure I can cut the side profile of the neck now...

I'm a bass player predominantly, well I used to be back in days. Now I own more guitars than basses. I don't play in any band. I don't smoke or hand my money to pub landlords, so technically I invest.

Realistically you only ‘need’ one bass as long as you like playing it and it’s reliable. Actually you should probably have a spare if you’re a gigging bassist. Oh and then you can have one with rounds and one with flats. However if they’re both P basses for instance then you should probably have a Jazz, well 2 as you’ll need the rounds and flats combo. What about a Ray, EVERYONE has a Ray.... etc... I currently have 15 I think. I use them all and love them all. Do I need them all? Yep. Am I still Gassing after basses...... Yep 😂 Buy what you like/can afford and be happy but always play bass 😁

I think the only option is to fill up your bedroom walls with every conceivable configuration type and colour that you like and budget for some quality wall hangers and space for all the hardcases 😂 Ultimately it’s your decision and your quest for the tone you like. Do you need more? Of course not... do you want more? ... why are you here if you don’t! 😃 most importantly what ever you decide. Enjoy playing.

Ebonizing the fretboard on my BBPH:

Oh dear, I just posted this on the short scale thread. The ebony board on the fsr was the clincher for me

14 then. 😆

I'm old enough to have paid his wages, once. 😎

'Darling, cheese head, I was yards too greasy' 😄

I see those bastards at Lucozade have hijacked my idea for a new hotstep band by using my favorite Ini Kamoze track in their stupid TV adverts. Which was going to be the opening song in my set, but now any millennials in the crowd would be all "Oh, its the Lucozade song!"... so basically thats ****ing ruined it. 😟

I remember the first time I upped the ante and had two basses...I reckon I was 16 or 17. Living it laaaarge. An Ibanez Roadster (RS924) and a Gibson Grabber G-3. One was great, one was terrible but quite aerodynamic on at least three occasions.

Looks like I forgot to post pictures of my Limelight bass. Its a replica of a 1960 Fender Jazz Stack Knob Fretless in Sherwood Green.

Agreed. One of my guitarists often boasts about his fourteen guitars. Problem is most of them are cheap rubbish. He should sell off 12 of them and make sure he has two or three good quality and reliable instruments for the bands he's in. And reliable amps and pedals. IMO of course.

Who doesn't like to own nice things? As long as you can afford it and you've got space, why not! The other way to look at it, if you buy 2nd hand, you'll not be losing money - especially if the basses aren't getting battered from gigging etc! As an aside, I look back and cringe over the years I did some quite massive gigs with no back up bass. Literally one loose wire away from a disaster! From about 2017 onwards, I've always carried a backup. Not worth the risk.

Oh dear. This (normally as a thread) never ends well 😂

Not helpful either, but if one likes "A Swingin' Safari" then one might also like "Zambezi" and "Africaan Beat" off the same album, and at any rate I'd direct one's attention to "Living it up" from "Living it up!". On the positive side, this stuff isn't hard to listen to, and you'll be well-protected from anything artsy. 😀 I lurve it.

You can only play one bass at a time. In nearly 20 years gigging, I've never needed a back up bass (or amp, or pedals).

Unless you subscribe to the less is more school of thought, therefore, less is better. Combine the 2 and we have a nice infinite, self perpetuating loop. (Sorry, I’ve been in the DoI thread and become more obtuse than normal). Get on topic, Ez! Ahem... Downsizing to one is a noble quest and by ordering a bass that covers many bases (pun intended) you could achieve your goal. However, what you could end up with is a very bass that will do everything, but doesn’t do any one brilliantly. You say you gravitate to one bass, what sort of bass is that? Do you pick up the others at all, if so, which one/s and why? It could be that downsizing to 2 would salve your conscience and free up some cash (if required). Perhaps try putting the less used ones away in cases and out of easy reach for a couple months and see if you miss/needed them? Ultimately, this is Basschat and GAS rules. Therefore, don’t downsize, buy more! 😁* *please feel free to ignore paragraphs 1, 2 & 4

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Finally... protection!

It does sound weird, but I think he's been there and done the commission build thing and if he was still taking orders, he would have more work that he's prepared to do. He now builds what he wants to build in the knowledge that they will sell. I don't see a list of unsold basses on his web site.

@fleabag I’d recommend a courier that @walshy uses for anything bass related. The driver who collected a bass from me put it specifically in his cab as a “passenger”.

New bedroom player here. Started almost 1 year ago to the week, and I now seem to have 4 basses. The 1st one was a Hofner Ignition, because it was what McCartney used. Then whilst awaiting a pre-order I bought a Harley Benton P-bass, because I couldn’t wait for.... .....the pre-order to turn up, a Betsy J-Bass, due to Guy Pratt. A couple of weeks back I bought a 2000 Stingray in Teal, because it’s the one Rory MacDonald from Runrig has. Now fitted with flats. I think that will be me for basses, maybe.

Now see what you've started ......

I managed to catch a date on the Shadows And Light tour, a week or two before the video was shot IIRC. The perspective is likely to be a bit different here, but from my viewpoint Pat Metheny had just been voted Guitarist of the Year in numerous US publications including Guitar Player, and I found his playing to be a bit overly restrained if anything. I admired that a lot at the time though and I still think it's pretty cool. For a concert in a big old hockey barn it was about as good as it gets in any case.

Some people spend a fortune on tobacco over the years. Some collect basses. I know which I would rather. I've been nicotine free for over fifteen years now. I need to be doing something less harmful with my fingers these days.

I only need 1 bass, but I can appreciate why many people like to collect basses for the sake of ownership. If you have the money and having more than 1 bass gives you enjoyment in life, then why not. Having said that I do have more than 1 bass, but they're different number of strings with some being fretted and others being fretless, so each one serves a different purpose. I wouldn't want to have two 4-string fretted because then by sales instinct would start to tingle.

AAAAARGH! 😬

I wasn't going to cover any Des Decker songs you tool.

How plush is the bedroom?

Start at the beginning, with Max Bennett and Wilton Felder on basses.

A normal person would suggest selling one to make it 12 but you and I know that is the most ridiculous suggestion ever. We all know that you only sell a bass because you are replacing it with another, you don't just sell a bass right

think some peeps could be surprised on the benchmarks set by Dub Reggae bass players & their bass lines ,, easy on the ear, easy if you follow the top notes , yet plenty of those lines are swinging jazz turnovers , then, they twist the progression on the fret board ,, & you slowly realize you will not be able to play the line,

I love that tune - appeared on the radio (Light Programme) very regularly in the 60s alongside the occassional Beat record, Cilla, Lulu and Acker Bilk. The bass line is great and a perfect example of "The Knack" bass sound. I had thought it was duplicated with a double bass. This style was used in the US studios - Carol Kaye talks about using a "Dano bass" for the tic tac sound (which she sometimes played), whilst other musicians duplicated on "string bass" and "Fender bass" - so no doubt the Dano is a good means of getting the sound. As is a Stingray (particularly one fitted with mutes) where you can boost the bass on the EQ if needed. On left hand muting, I thought everyone did that as part of playing a bass guitar - you can control the level of muting with your fretting hand very effectively - unless it's just the way I learned to play/developed my bass playing style - I've always muted with both hands - dependent on the sound required!!

I can’t help either, but likewise, this was part of my childhood too. My Dad was a big James Last fan. He took me to see James Last at the Royal Albert Hall (I think 😬). I bet he had some Percy Faith in his collection as well? ‘Theme from a Summer Place’ was a popular selection.

This will be of no help, but Bert was a feature in the young Ez’s household too. Other regulars included: James Last, The Ted Heath Orchestra, The Peddlars and Glenn Miller.

I bought a pair of these. Not only have they vastly improved my playing speed and technique, they could also come in useful for hitting annoying punters and/or fellow band members.