sh*te Basses - Discuss

[mcnach]

One of the worst basses I have ever tried (didn't own it) was a MusicMan Stingray. Incidentally, one of the best was a MusicMan Stingray
The bad one... was just in such poor condition, you would have never guess it was once a decent bass. The neck had lots of gouges, the body had gone to war... and lost, by the looks of it. The strings were some kind of rusty wire... it sounded and felt like crap.
So much of people's impressions are forged by the set up in a particular instrument, eh?

[Cairobill]

[quote name='Ashborygirl' timestamp='1359668096' post='1958643']

Modern Stingrays. Hate the bland maple necks, find the tone anaemic & a pale facsimile of a once great bass.

There, I said it.
[/quote]

Yes, fully agree about the modern ones. But have you tried a classic? Now THAT's a Stingray. Wonderful basses...

[JTUK]

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1360262310' post='1967754']
One of the worst basses I have ever tried (didn't own it) was a MusicMan Stingray. Incidentally, one of the best was a MusicMan Stingray
The bad one... was just in such poor condition, you would have never guess it was once a decent bass. The neck had lots of gouges, the body had gone to war... and lost, by the looks of it. The strings were some kind of rusty wire... it sounded and felt like crap.
So much of people's impressions are forged by the set up in a particular instrument, eh?
[/quote]

I always have to set the bass up for me.... but tere is only so much you can do.
But sure...I just do not get some people's bass, and that appiies to shops as well.
A local music shop has a bass up for a commiosn sale... it is in hideous shape.and has been FS for ages..

I have a good mind to give it a good working over...but even a change of strings will improve in ten fold, IMO
The guy who owns it must be clueless....

[LessIsMore]

My first and most sh*te bass was a Rosetti Bass 9 - blockboard body, jazzy Fablon stick-on covering with weird plastic trim around the body, 3 pickups, a curious rotary pickup selector switch, total rubbish. I planed the neck down in an attempt to make it more playable - why not, nothing to lose... I bought it off one of the hip guys in the 6th form, must have been '69 or so. Eventually sold it to another hapless fool lower down the school, when I bought a '61 P-bass with the cash from my summer job, which I still have. I should have kept it, if only so I could say I still have every bass I've ever owned. It was a wonderfully '60s object! Made by Egmond apparently.

[icastle]

[quote name='LessIsMore' timestamp='1360363924' post='1969557']
My first and most sh*te bass was a Rosetti Bass 9 - blockboard body, jazzy Fablon stick-on covering with weird plastic trim around the body, 3 pickups, a curious rotary pickup selector switch, total rubbish.[/quote]

As bad as that RB-9 was, Rosetti eventually became the UK distributors for Gibson, Vox and I seem to remember Ovation coming from them as well at some point.

With the exception of Rickenbacker, most of the high end gear seems to have gone from their portfolio these days.

[BetaFunk]

[quote name='fireblademalc' timestamp='1359992440' post='1963111']
Worst bass I ever owned was a 1964 Hofner Violin Bass, complete sh*te.
[/quote]
Never played one but i've hated these since i was a nipper and McCartney played one with the Fab Four. Other groups had lovely chunky Burns Bisons and double cutaway semi-acoustics and Megan from the Applejacks was the height of cool with a Fender Jazz Bass but there was Macca with that oversized violin.

[nicklathambass]

I had a Levin imitation P-Bass...
I think I was about 14 at the time. When I was in the shop playing it, the amp room was being used so I was just playing it unplugged. It felt nice! And I thought "oh it'll just sound like a P-Bass! Cool!"
So I bought it and took it home. I bought it with my birthday money that year actually. I took it out of the gig bag I got with it and plugged it into my amp... I played it and... oh god. It sounded like a toy. Awful. Not only that but if you gave it even the slightest of welly, it popped like crazy. Just an awful, awful instrument. Oh I also remember it being absurdly top-heavy. It was hard work holding the thing up while you played it! (That's what she said...)

The only thing I could say about it that's positive is that it didn't feel bad when it was unplugged. So I guess it would have been okay to warm up on? Or good for a beginner to get used to what a neck feels like... But the moment it's plugged in, I think the beginner would quit!

I took it back to the shop two days later. Hahaha.

[Phil-osopher10]

I played my mates peavey for about all of 30 seconds was so so bad, I just had to put it down.

[pete.young]

I've said this before in similar threads, but, Vox Wyman. Weighed a ton, sounded horrible, was hateful to play, looked hideous. Wish I still had it, it would be worth a fortune.

[yepmop]

A Bontempi Bass (Woolies Special) feckin awful, the action was higher than an electric pylon!! but it did its job before I did a "Who" special on it one practice session.

[fermented grooves]

My Squier P bass standard, sounds OK to me, but It won't stay in tune... Every time I pick this bass, it's a battle... Never ending tuning sessions. Ok, I exaggerate a bit, but the thing is, I won't sell it because I don't want to disappoint anyone.

So I decided to sell my US J bass and the SUB 4 so I'll put the cash toward a better P bass...
If anyone is intersted, please see the ad section.

Edited February 12, 2013 by fermented grooves

[Kev]

Never had any truly awful basses i don't think, other that an old 70's P bass i had a few years ago, made of plywood and had a warped neck, terrible.

I also briefly had a Status Energy bass i wasn't at all fond of, although i think that was more personal preference. Wooden neck, very flat shape and wasn't a pleasure at all to play for me. Pickups sound very thin too.

[GЯДИКФЯ]

stagg warlock copy that belonged to a friend. Had a guitar sized body, had the worst neck dive, sky high action and crap electronics

[4-string-thing]

My first bass was a "Top Twenty" Short scale with a neck like a (warped) baseball bat, awful sound from a terrible pickup that broke after a few weeks. I replaced it with an Ibanez pickup which improved the sound but a few weeks after starting work in 1978 I bought a Hondo II Rick copy. That was pretty awful too, so as soon as I could, I went and bought the S/H Fender P in my avatar.

[Ian Savage]

[quote name='GЯДИКФЯ' timestamp='1360520196' post='1971668']
stagg warlock copy that belonged to a friend. Had a guitar sized body, had the worst neck dive, sky high action and crap electronics
[/quote]

Oooohhhh, forgot about that, I had one of those as a spare; smashed the f*ck out of it after one gig because it wouldn't hold its tuning. There's a reason it only cost me fifty quid.

[Skol303]

[quote name='bassman344' timestamp='1359582226' post='1957147']I learned on a bass which was advertised in Kerrang magazine in the late 80s. I bought it around 1988/1989, the make was Axe. Any body suffer the same pain please let me know....![/quote]

YES! Good grief I remember those (big flash of nostalgia when I read that...). Didn't own one myself but I remember the adverts in Kerrang.

I think my worst is a Hohner Rockwood, which I still own and am about to 'upgrade' with a new paint job and pickups. I bought it off my brother along with a practice amp some years ago for £30... I think he paid the princely sum of £60 or so before that. It's got an MDF body (!) and a stupidly high action (playing it is like working one of those finger exercise thingies).

On the upside: it makes a suitably carefree project bass and actually has an 'ok' tone now it's been converted to a fretless and strung with flatwounds. Well, ok for a £30 bass

[Ruck]

Anything too lightweight like some Ibanez basses etc they are literally the sound of the string and thats it, i find anyway.

[Stag]

Epi EB3. Just... Crap.

[JohnFitzgerald]

I had a Wal once for a week and it was such a dissapointment that I took it back to the shop and exchanged it for a Hohner Jack which was ten times the bass that the Wal was.

I should explain.

It was a Wal Pro Bass, so far less of a proposition than a custom.
Nevertheless, I was so excited to get it in the first place and even more dissapointed when I got it to a gig and it was just dead.

Of course, there's a downside to me swapping it out for the far better Hohner.

I paid £350 for it in the early 90s.
I'd probably get close to that for the Hohner now.
Had I kept the Wal, I suspect I'd be adding £1,000 to that value now.

I should have kept it under the bed and accepted it as junk and sold it now.

The fact that it was a Wal would have been enough.

I had a similar experience with an Overwater.
Wanted to love it, didn't.

Thankfully, when I got shot of that the shop where I sold it was ravenous to buy it off me.

Edited February 12, 2013 by JohnFitzgerald

[ialma]

My first bass, Arirang korean jazz bass clone with refinished body and (discovered later) misplaced guitar pickups.
No need to mention the low action, let's say first time I unbolted the neck, the truss rod fell off the neck

[Stacker]

I still maintain: any EBO copy..............

Edited April 1, 2013 by Stacker

[chris_b]

[quote name='Stacker' timestamp='1364801365' post='2030906']
....I still maintain: any EBO copy..............
[/quote]

Couldn't sound as bad as the real thing!!

Absolutely the worse sounding bass I've owned.

Edited April 1, 2013 by chris_b

[Stacker]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1364802768' post='2030915']
Couldn't sound as bad as the real thing!!

Absolutely the worse sounding bass I've owned.
[/quote]

Hmm.... I've played an EB3's mudbucker on it's own and both Grant and Avon EBOs and the latter two were defo more sh*te than the EB3. And the Grant was worse than the Avon: a weak, dull sounding bass.

Edited April 1, 2013 by Stacker

[chris_b]

OK, I suppose the copies could be worse.

I've been a Fender man since I sold the EB0, so I guess any differences are lost on me.

[Stacker]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1364824963' post='2031280']
OK, I suppose the copies could be worse.

I've been a Fender man since I sold the EB0, so I guess any differences are lost on me.
[/quote]
Yeah, same here re Fender. I still remember turning up for a teenage band audition for a bassist. The Ad said 'We can give you TWO basses to use!' Guess what they were??

Edited April 1, 2013 by Stacker