Bass you just couldn’t get on with?

[KingPrawn]

I recently owned a Jeff Berlin 5 string by Cort. It had all the right ingredients good hardware, pickups etc. However i just hated it! From the moment I plugged it in and played it, it was basically a plank. For me it lacked presence or character.It really didn’t make sense as I’m sure there are loads of players using them. It’s not as if Cort are not a reputable manufacturer I was so glad to move it on. I know we can be fickled bunch at times, so I was wondering what bass you’ve owned that just didn’t work for you?

[LukeFRC]

Every Fender Jazz bass I've owned, and I've tried a few...
Sound brilliant
Look even better
Love the sound...

Play in a band with them and I'm like, "argh where's that nice sound gone?"
I want to love them, but can't

[uk_lefty]

Warwick Streamer LX. Great bass "on paper", really high spec but I just couldn't coax out a tone I liked as much as what I could get from a big standard Mexican fender jazz. The Warwick pops up for sale every now and then (being a lefty you do spot the old ones coming back up!) and I have been tempted to re buy it just to see if I was missing something...

[charic]

Pretty much any Ibanez, the necks just feel wrong to me

[Lozz196]

I`ve had exactly the same experiences as Luke, Fender Jazzes, just don`t work for me.

[Highfox]

For me it was a Warwick Star bass, sitting down no problem, but standing up and with a strap I just couldn't get on with the strap pin location, so used to it being on the horn!
A 5'er as well, l I tried but didn't persist. Stingrays I like but can never stop fiddling with the on -board eq and drive myself nuts, so tend to avoid them in a band situation.

[Highfox]

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1508310296' post='3391173']
Pretty much any Ibanez, the necks just feel wrong to me
[/quote]
Crikey, they are fast becoming my favourite basses, the old 80's and 90's jobs

[LewisK1975]

Seems to me that Basses 'speak' to me through their neck dimensions.

Anything too small and it just feels wrong to me.

It's not just about nut width either, the only Jazz bass I've retained is my 1975. Obviously it has the 1.5" nut, but having the U shape neck makes it feel substantial in the hand, so it works for me.

I've also got wider nut Basses, which have deep necks (Yamaha Attitudes), and shallower necks (Fender RW Precision).

Seems as long as the neck has enough wood, then I'm happy.

[Steve Browning]

Music Man Stingray. I had one for a while, loved the sound but just couldn't get on with it.

I concluded that the pick-up (I am someone who anchors their thumb on the pick-up cover) was just too further back than a Pbass one and the string travel was different at that point and so it felt 'odd' when plucking the string. I'd live with it for a nice fretless but the regular Stingray is not for me unhappily.

[charic]

[quote name='Highfox' timestamp='1508310680' post='3391182']
Crikey, they are fast becoming my favourite basses, the old 80's and 90's jobs
[/quote]

I wanted to like them for a long time but then necks are just too small for me to play comfortably and I tend to get cramp eventually.

[Guest MoJo]

Rickenbacker 4003. Huge disappointment

[Guest MoJo]

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1508310296' post='3391173']
Pretty much any Ibanez, the necks just feel wrong to me
[/quote]

I'm assuming you mean the SR range as the ATK and BTB don't share the SR's super slim profile necks. I have a GSR200 that I often gig with a that has a wider neck than my previously owned SR300E and SR400

[charic]

[quote name='MoJo' timestamp='1508313211' post='3391204']
I'm assuming you mean the SR range as the ATK and BTB don't share the SR's super slim profile necks. I have a GSR200 that I often gig with a that has a wider neck than my previously owned SR300E and SR400
[/quote]

Nope! The ATK I haven't tried. The BTBs are still too shallow for me though

[BigRedX]

Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz.

I was playing in a band whose music was calling out for some fretless bass and to that end I'd bought a cheap Acrylic Bodied Wesley that had already been de-fretted for £70 off eBay to get me started. I'd seen nothing but positive reviews for the Squier both on the bass forums and in the musical instrument magazines, where the overall tone was that the VMJ fretless was just about the best fretless bass you could buy for under £500. One Saturday I spotted a Squier in a local music shop, and after half an hours playing I paid my £209 and went home with my new bass.

Unfortunately playing in a music shop for half an hour is not really a decent real-world test for any instrument. The first thing I noticed when I got it home was that it didn't hang comfortably on the strap, and I had to pull the whole bass over in order to reach the G string machine head - something I never had to do with my 36" scale Overwater. Next I discovered that in comparison with all my other basses including the cheap Wesley, the Squier sounded thin and weedy, and in rehearsal with my band I really had to pump the volume up when I used in order to be heard.

So I embarked on a round of upgrades. First came the Badass Bridge which made a slight improvement, followed by a J-Retro pre-amp, that allowed me to overdrive the input to my amp in all sorts of new and "interesting" ways, but still didn't make the bass sound as full or fat as my other basses. Finally a set of Bartolini pickups which were supposed to be darker sounding than the standard J-style models started to get me into the right ball park as regards sound, but by that time I'd get fed up with all the other short-comings of the bass like the huge (in comparison to my other basses) body and the awkward neck joint that seemed to be constantly in the way when I was playing up the neck, and the fact that for me it just didn't hang comfortably on the strap, and so I went back to playing the Wesley until I go the opportunity to buy a second hand Pedulla Buzz at a very attractive price.

I'm sure that there's nothing actually wrong with the Squier, but 3 decades of playing basses that owed very little to Leo Fender's designs - Burns Sonic, Overwater Original and Gus G3 - meant that I wasn't ready to step into the past and put up with design issues that even the Burns, originally made in 1960, had improved upon.

[BassBod]

Warwick Thumb - lovely things, until you stand up, then realise it’s a headless design but someone in marketing said put the headstock back on (don’t worry about the balance..it looks better).

[Phil Adams]

Ibanez BTB1605.

[ricksterphil]

Sire 5 string - which I've just sold. Lovely bass, very well made and a great sound - I now know I don't do 5 strings. Just thinking about that big wide neck gives me nightmares!

[stingrayPete1977]

[quote name='MoJo' timestamp='1508312980' post='3391200']
Rickenbacker 4003. Huge disappointment
[/quote]

That's nonsense there's nothing worse about the 4003 than the other models they make, they're all terrible

Edited October 18, 2017 by stingrayPete1977

[PawelG]

[quote name='LewisK1975' timestamp='1508311210' post='3391186']
Seems to me that Basses 'speak' to me through their neck dimensions.

Anything too small and it just feels wrong to me.

It's not just about nut width either, the only Jazz bass I've retained is my 1975. Obviously it has the 1.5" nut, but having the U shape neck makes it feel substantial in the hand, so it works for me.

I've also got wider nut Basses, which have deep necks (Yamaha Attitudes), and shallower necks (Fender RW Precision).

Seems as long as the neck has enough wood, then I'm happy.
[/quote]
I feel the same. I like playing around on Jazz Basses but nice, fat P Bass neck feels right every time.

I didn't get along with Marleaux Votan X-Tra - amazing quality, great looks, it just felt artificial, plastic.
Also, I don't do 5 strings very well.

[Guest MoJo]

[quote name='Phil Adams' timestamp='1508315294' post='3391237']
Ibanez BTB1605.
[/quote]

That's the one I wish I hadn't sold

[dave_bass5]

Lakland DJ5. Loved the look but never got on with the tone. I even had it converted to a PJ but still never got on with the basic tone. Even compared to my Squier CV Jazz it seemed to lack definition and clarity. Definitely not a Jazz/P thing, as i had been using my CV Jazz up to the point when i got the Lakland.
Gutted i got rid of it now, as my sonic tastes have changed.

[Phil Adams]

[quote name='MoJo' timestamp='1508317372' post='3391253']
That's the one I wish I hadn't sold
[/quote]

Bought on impulse as I had decided to devote my remaining years to 5 strings, and DV has wrongly priced it making it irresistable.
Scared me half to death, it was so beautiful, and everything that I wasn't. The weight was a surprise, after the comparative lightness of the SR series, and I soon realised it was better to man up and admit that I'm useless on 5's than to waste time trying to get properly used to it.
Traded it for one of the last Fender US Precisions, and haven't looked back (after swearing I'd never have another Fender!)

[kendall]

Oddly enough - the P Bass. Always loved the tone of a good P bass. But I cannot get on with the necks, I have small hands and just find it too uncomfortable after playing for 10 mins or so.

I remember sitting in a shop with a Steve Harris Blue Sparkle P Bass, I really wanted it, looked great, sounded great, but just couldn't get to grips with the neck. Even considered a hand transplant but that seemed a bit OTT.

[PaulWarning]

any bass that's right handed seriously never got on with a Stingray I had, wanted to, lovely looking instrument but could never get the sound I wanted.
On the subject of Rickenbackers, never a fan, clackerty clack, I heard one at Butlins the other week, Duncan Reid (ex The Boys) was playing one and he got a lovely low mid tone out of it that cut right through the mix, I was amazed

[obbm]

About 20 years ago I bought a Fender 5-string Jazz from the USA. My first 5-string and I hated it. The neck was so wide that I just physically couldn't get my hand across the fretboard. It was moved on very quickly.