What influences your bass purchases?

[musophilr]

Sound (or sounds - versatility), playability, design/build quality - reliability. Colour would be a consideration if there were a choice between two otherwise equal instruments, or if it was so hideous as to be puke-worthy. But I bought my silver RBX375 without even noticing the colour, the instrument satisfied me in every other respect.

[bassmachine2112]

What a good question.
Here,s my take on it-put the kettle on,this might get long.oh and an ashtray if your allowed to mention that nowadays.
I got my first bass which was an Avon jazz in white,big long bass.My mate said why do you have old man country and western strings on it-flatwounds I now know.So on went some Rock strings-roundwound and the action went sky high but I got on with it.Nowadays I would tweek the truss rod but ignorance is bliss.
I didn,t like the look of it but it sounded quite nice through my stack-voxterion valve amp and a selmer gothic wardroad cab which had a 18" speaker.Got a selmer treble n bass for the big cab.
Then punk started-rickenbacker starting calling but I still enjoyed rock so that was a thunderbird then.I went to see the stranglers-black n maple P-bass then.
By the time I had saved up £270 for a Ricky they were outa fashion and nobody played them,not even Geddy.I needed a guitar so I traded for a les paul and got an aria for bass moments.
I took the plunge and got my Ricky again,not the same one but a new one-why,cause it looked so good in jetglo.
Next up was a musicman,ended up with a SUB cause I liked the look better to me with punk leanings than the full on one and saved me some cash.
Thunderbird never went away but I shied off with the tails of the headbreak and I wanted one in black.
Tracked down a black thunderbird and went to try it out but next to it was an epiphone t-bird pro 4 which looked so good.
I tried both out and ended up with the epi-great bass and the head is still attached.
Next up will be a black P-bass with maple neck and it will not be a F.Tony Butler signature by vintage looks the favourite at the moment with Wizard thumper in the engine room.
Looks -hell yes and they sound great as well as looking the dogs danglers.
Here,s a question with no disrespect to anyone-Beyonce or Susan Boyle

[Blademan_98]

Playability for me.

The weight is an issue now too.

Colour is not an issue nor is name on the headstock!

[Mylkinut]

Playability, closely followed by sound. Looks do come into it - anything with enough white and chrome to give me a rock on will usually do the trick.

[scalpy]

Obviously sound first, but I'm not one for that kind of body shape with that neck- it just smacks of teenagers photoshopping their ideal woman together, never as a good as they'd hope. A good instrument just feels good, the character has to be complete. If it's in sunburst- even better.

[RhysP]

Price.

I've got less money than I've ever had in my life, so how much something costs is paramount.
Unfortunately the basses I play are just too expensive for me to even consider buying one now, even secondhand.
I'm just thankful I got my hands on a couple of fantastic basses while I had the money.

[velvetkevorkian]

When I have bought basses (not had a new one in a while now) it was generally because they offered specific features at an attractive price- cheap 5 string, cheap 5 string fretless, moderately expensive 7 string. I didn't have my heart set on any of them specifically before they popped up for sale. All bought sight unseen, so playability, sound etc basically secondary, although if they didn't play OK they probably wouldn't have lasted long.

[ead]

The salutory learning point for me was my Rickenbacker. I had always loved the look and on top of that some of my favourites bassists played them. After 4 years of squirrelling away spare cash I eventually saved up enough to be able to afford a lovely Jetglo 4003, as apart from Mr Squire's white one there is no other colour - ducks behind the sofa...

The neck was sweet and stable, the bass was in grest condition and I could live with the frankly weird bridge, but the real nightmare was that I couldn't find a comfortable position for my right hand. As a finger style player taking the pickup cover off would have worked, but in doing that you loose the whole look imo, so after much agonising I sold it (at a modest profit which helped a bit).

When I was trying it out the first time (about 30 minutes or so of playing) I was not focussed on this in particular, more worried about drooling over it pre-purchase. Now I try to be more objective and try to use all my senses when afflicted by GAS.

Colour wise my preference is for natural wood, but as only one of my basses is finished in this way I will now claim that I am cured of the "must have one" thing - I hope . I'm not a big fan of blue basses or guitars for some reason, completely irrational I know.

[Lozz196]

Looks are a great part of it, but the sound has to be there, as does playability. I love Black Precisions, with black pickguard, and maple neck. Unfortunately, I never seem to get the sound I want from maple-necked basses - it always has a slight "toppiness" in the upper mids.

So I can`t have one - boo-hiss!

[shizznit]

Not bothered about looks. I have owned a few Warwicks and lets face it, they are not that pretty! I am more into the tone, playability, value for money and balance/comfort.