Your best (and worst!) bass gear purchases of 2019?

[Doctor J]

It was nice to buy again in 2019 after a few years of enforced selling. Best buy, probably this 89 SR1000 which From Japan. It was advertised as having dead electronics and a non-functioning truss rod. The electronic problem was a frayed wire at the jack and a slightly stiff truss rod was easily overcome. After a clean and a fret-job, it's a beast.

I am really loving this 91 SB900. I've been looking out for one of these for a long. long time. Again, it needed a clean and a bit of work but it's so light comfortable. The neck is amazing.

 

Edited June 25, 2021 by Doctor J

[Al Krow]

I would look away right now Mr D. Bass5 - the Ibbys are coming in thick and fast...😁

Both those Ibbys really are very tasty, doc - you've clearly got an eye for a bargain!

[dave_bass5]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

I would look away right now Mr D. Bass5 - the Ibbys are coming in thick and fast...😁

Both those Ibbys really are very tasty, doc - you've clearly got an eye for a bargain!

Haha, don’t get me wrong, as with Yamaha bases i find most 'meh' looking at best. It was the fanfret 5 string  that caught my eye. Nothing else. 

Edited December 14, 2019 by dave_bass5

[Al Krow]

Wonder if Santa is going to be bringing that much wanted special item for a few of us? Guess we will be finding out very shortly! 

[BlueMoon]

20 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Wonder if Santa is going to be bringing that much wanted special item for a few of us? Guess we will be finding out very shortly! 

Yeah, Bas.............my boy is meant to bringing your old HX Stomp with him and I'll need to look surprised when I unwrap it!  

[Guest]

My worst gear purchase has been a gear4music bass.  Technically Mrs Bassfinger bought it so I shouldn't be j grateful. and it did get me playing bass.

My best gear purchases have been the bits needed to make said  donkey sound halfway decent.  Flat wounds, Entwistle pickups, and a new nut have made an improvement put of proportion with the 40 quid spent.

[caitlin]

Best: A few lessons to get me comfortably started on bass. A couple of books from trinity with good tunes to learn and backing tracks. A REALLY nice DSL strap which makes my neck heavy bass a joy to play.

Worst: NOT buying a 5 string.

[dave_bass5]

3 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Wonder if Santa is going to be bringing that much wanted special item for a few of us? Guess we will be finding out very shortly! 

I’ve already stumbled upon mine, a Fender 25LT Rumble combo. Got to practice my surprise face as I rip the paper off in the morning. 

[Mickyk]

My best and only purchase this year is this beauty. Its like I'm a different player tonally. Shame the Neighbours didn't think the same, to the extent that they have moved house, albeit it on the same street. We will see what the new ones think of it. 😁😊

[Burns-bass]

Best purchases were an FSR pink jazz bass which is just sublime in every way and a handmade MK upright EUB.

Worst was probably a Markbass combo which was very noisy and a set of roundwound strings which, like all rounds, sounded awful new and worse old. 

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, dave_bass5 said:

I’ve already stumbled upon mine, a Fender 25LT Rumble combo. Got to practice my surprise face as I rip the paper off in the morning. 

Defo need a selfie of that face 😂 

[Al Krow]

14 hours ago, Mickyk said:

My best and only purchase this year is this beauty. Its like I'm a different player tonally. Shame the Neighbours didn't think the same, to the extent that they have moved house, albeit it on the same street. We will see what the new ones think of it. 😁😊

Lovely bass! Not surprised you're loving it. Is it the 1024X or 2024X? 

[stewblack]

It's difficult to say what was my best or favourite purchase. 

This is because I'm old and can't remember what I've bought. 

I suspect it will turn out to be the Yamaha BB. A seriously good bass. 

[Shaggy]

I'm pretty sure it was the very 1st year since joining Bassworld (pre-Basschat) in 2004 that I didn't buy a bass.  Yay!  

Best - a Nordstrand Bigman 4 pickup bought on BC to put on my Warwick LX Jazzman Streamer.  Absolutely transformed the bass to a tone monster; superb. 

Worst - a Jazz bass pickguard on eBay from China that looked decent.  When will I learn......

 

[Mickyk]

4 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Lovely bass! Not surprised you're loving it. Is it the 1024X or 2024X? 

Al Krow,The Bass is a 424x bud.had it it 3 years or so now,it's the amp im bangin on about.

[Al Krow]

13 minutes ago, Mickyk said:

Al Krow,The Bass is a 424x bud.had it it 3 years or so now,it's the amp im bangin on about.

Haha - I completely got the wrong end of the stick (although I guess I could be partly be forgiven just based on the pic)! Your 424X looks great btw  

[Stub Mandrel]

7 hours ago, Shaggy said:

Worst - a Jazz bass pickguard on eBay from China that looked decent.  When will I learn......

It's a lottery but the prices can be silly cheap. Took me two tries to get a Jazz pup cover that wasn't completely wonky, the bridge cover took a few minutes on a linisher to get the right shape but the scratchplate looks great (even if it needed a tweak to fit a Squier..)

[krispn]

Fender TB600 and Fender 800Pro. Both cracking amps, both fantastic value and two different amps but each eminently giggable. They share a similar power section but the TB has a classic vale pre front end, the 800Pro much more neutral with a three band semi-parametric eq. Both amps have features unique to each model - TB has overdrive, classic fender tone stack and a single sweepable mids channel, the 800Pro is designed as a clean/high headroom amp with fixed bass and treble controls (think Thunderfunk) with built in comp but both have a room balance which is like a global tilt eq to help manage dodgy stage/room etc. 
 

Both are heavier than a class d but at 14kg approx it’s no hardship to carry in a rack case or bag and dare I say it the heft is there. The 800pro can do1200w at 2ohm which makes me shudder at the power and headroom available if the grunt coming out of my 212 @4ohm is anything to go by. Just ask the poor neighbours!

Super easy to dial in a usable tone and equally easy to fix errant noises/rattles/rumbles on the fly (within reason)!

800Pro pictured below. 

[Skybone]

My Ashdown AMP300 210 combo (MAG Evo III). Not the lightest amp, but it sounds pretty good to me.

[Al Krow]

On 25/12/2019 at 12:55, stewblack said:

This is because I'm old and can't remember what I've bought. 

Do you ever end up buying the same thing twice? I used to that with CDs all the time...

[Deedee]

Best purchase? There have been several that I've been very impressed with - Stingray Special 4HH, BF Four10 and very recently the Helix HX Effects. There was also an old Status S2 which was great but has only prompted me to lust after a later version with a mid control and wraparound LEDs!

Worst purchase was an old Ibanez MC924. Bought it from overseas and found there was a problem with one of the pickups. I instantly fell out of love with it, got the pickup fixed and sold it on. ☹️

[krispn]

30 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Do you ever end up buying the same thing twice? I used to that with CDs all the time...

And pedals 😀

[Al Krow]

51 minutes ago, Skybone said:

My Ashdown AMP300 210 combo (MAG Evo III). Not the lightest amp, but it sounds pretty good to me.

Is that the same one that @Mickyk was "bangin on about"? If so, that's quite a lot of love for this particular combo in the space of a couple of posts!

@Deedee - we need some pics please! If you had to choose just one of those as your 2019 best purchase which would get the crown?

[2elliot]

On 14/12/2019 at 15:04, Doctor J said:

It was nice to buy again in 2019 after a few years of enforced selling. Best buy, probably this 89 SR1000 which I got for €180 including shipping from Japan. It was advertised as having dead electronics and a non-functioning truss rod. The electronic problem was a frayed wire at the jack and a slightly stiff truss rod was easily overcome. After a clean and a fret-job, it's a beast.

I am really loving this 91 SB900. I've been looking out for one of these for a long. long time. Again, it needed a clean and a bit of work but it's so light comfortable. The neck is amazing.

 

SB900, one of, if not the best bass I played in the 90s. Never got to own one but it had a fantastic neck. I haven't seen one for years. Great buy. 

[Al Krow]

Just now, krispn said:

And pedals 😀

Haha - very true! Also Yamaha BB basses - I've now had two BB 425s and two BB 1025s.

But at least with pedals and basses it's deliberate and I've never ended up with a duplicate at the same time.

Certainly not true for me and CDs - I'd go into HMV on Oxford Street and think "Oh I like the look of that." Well er yes, you liked the look the look of that the last but one time you were in the store too mate. Lol! I ended up resorting to listing out my CDs on a sheet of paper I carried around. All feels so long ago now. Spotify has totally killed off my CD purchases these days. Probably a good thing in my case.