Did a bass you played in a shop ever make you regret buying your main bass?

[fretmeister]

Don't think so.

 

The only bass that I do occasionally think about was a Warwick Fortress Flashback that was in the Birmingham Bass Centre in about 1996.

I had gone in there to to try a Hartke 410XL as they had one in stock and I was curious about the new fangled aluminium cones!

 

I didn't even pick the Fortress, it was just handed to me. I thought it was lovely. It has the silly 2-Tek bridge on it.

 

I've owned a couple of Warwicks since and even on the slimmer necks of the period they get too fat for me further up the neck so it wasn't likely to have been a successful choice, but it did sound very nice.

 

It was probably about 12lb though - couldn't do that these days!

[TrevorG]

Not without being twice the price and then it would be too expensive. Happened once with a Custom 5 string Sadowsky, before I found my (much cheaper) J to do the same job. Amazing instrument but not £4000 amazing! The J is a string  and £2000 less but is a beautiful player.

[shoulderpet]

On 01/09/2021 at 23:59, tauzero said:

Sort of. I went into Musical Exchanges in Birmingham in 1988 because I wanted to try out an octaver, and they handed me a Warwick JD Thumb to try it with. I didn't actually regret buying the Fender P I had at the time, but I immediately part-exchanged it for the Warwick.

Haha I think that counts as a yes

[shoulderpet]

9 hours ago, White Cloud said:

My Vigier Passion 3 is without a doubt the best instrument I've owned in over 40 years of playing. I owned an Arpege in the 80's ... a close second!

 

As for the OP's query, I'd say that although the grass is always greener on the other side, you really need the Thunderbird in your life🙂

Haha , this is not helping my resolve, doesnt help that imo the Thunderbird is one of the best looking basses ever, if it looked liked the Warwick buzzard or something equally hideous it would be a lot easier, always thought that the KIngs of leon bass player looks like a total Badass in the video for Charmer where hes rocking a white Thunderbird

[merello]

7string on here has a very rare bass that I am jealous of. He also has Yamaha 700 series from many moons ago (early Billy Sheehan in the BB style, not attitude) which is the easiest bass iv3 ever played.

[Passinwind]

On 28/08/2021 at 07:15, shoulderpet said:

Brought an Ibanez Mezzo bass during lockdown and modded it a fair bit (Seymour Duncan SPB-2 and series/parallel switch for the P pickup and gone fully passive), love that bass however....

 

Today I went to the local music store to get some strings, whilst I was there I thought I would try some basses so I asked if I could play some of the Thunderbird basses.

 

First bass I tried was an Ltd Thunderbird, plugged it in started playing and tonally I was floored, it was like the tone I hear in my head, unlike my P/J basses both pickups on full sounded fat and punchy and full rather than the tone getting thinner, everything that irks me about P/J basses was completely absent.

Plugged in the 2nd Thunderbird bass and same thing.

 

I brought the strings I went there for and walked out stunned and as much as I love the Mezzo bass I walked out feeling regret that when I brought my last bass I brought a P/J and not an Epiphone Thunderbird instead

Anyone has a similar experience?

 

Nope, my main bass was a gift. 😉

[Quilly]

Not really but I tried a Mex Player Precision bass in a shop and thought, this is way better than I expected, ultimately bought one.  

[chris_b]

Everything about musical instruments and playing them is an evolution. You think you have a "<name instrument here> for life" and then you find a better one or you turn a corner in your playing/technique and your world moves on.

 

Where ever your current bass sits in your world, there will always be a better one out there. That's an opportunity.

[Jus Lukin]

-

Edited March 15, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[Boodang]

Well, not quite regret but came across a cheap bass in my local store that rivals my custom Sei for feel and sound. Initially I was looking at the Fender Pastorious reissue (I'm a fretless player) but apart from the price it didn't have a resin fingerboard which for me would be part of the Pastorious feel on a bass. However... did come across a s/h Squier vintage modified fretless jazz at a fraction of the price and this has a phenolic fingerboard (aka bakelite) which has that hard resin feel. Long story short, feels so good I've replaced all the hardware (it now has Creamery pickups; alnico2 bridge and alnico5 neck pu, and Starr guitars stacked knobs) and it sounds awesome. All in under £600 and couldn't be happier. Goes to show! 

PS check out how many fretless basses have a resin board, there's not many.

[WinterMute]

I bought a Warwick Thumb 5 string in 1987 after playing a fretless one in Wapping Bass Centre that was a custom order for Jack Bruce, I bought a fretted one fully intending to get a fretless as well as soon as I had the funds, I never did and didn't play fretless for a long time.

 

I don't regret the Thumb, it was a fantastic bass for 20 years before I moved it on, but I should have bought the fretless as well, dammit.

[tom1946]

I bought an Ibanez Mezzo in Tango during lockdown, and I  it so much I bought another a few weeks later to play about modding it.

For £230 quid I think they're great.

[M@23]

On 07/09/2021 at 11:45, chris_b said:

Everything about musical instruments and playing them is an evolution. You think you have a "<name instrument here> for life" and then you find a better one or you turn a corner in your playing/technique and your world moves on.

 

Where ever your current bass sits in your world, there will always be a better one out there. That's an opportunity.

Yeah, interesting outlook, I agree it is an evolution. I guess that’s how some end up with 10+ basses.

 I’m about to shift my main bass of the last 3 years or so. It’s an utterly fantastic bass, and for cover band stuff I don’t think there’s anything better. Thankfully, I’m no longer in desperate need of a sub 7lb Jazz V. In fact, I’ll probably end up ‘downgrading’ considerably, to keep a Jazz V in the pack.

But, for where I am now, my Precision is the tool I need. Selling the Jazz allows me to buy an acoustic and get another project off the ground and free up some cash while I’m at it. 

[JapanAxe]

No, but…

 

I used to be Keef in a Stones tribute band, and bought a 1987 Les Paul Junior that looked and sounded great, although it was far from perfect in the playability department. I liked it a lot and ended up using it in another band in place of my CS sunburst LP.

 

A couple of months later I went to World Guitars to try a fuzz box, and the proprietor Jeff (RIP) handed me a Gibson CS336 with P90s to play through it. The guitar was phenomenal, but I was nowhere near having the funds to buy it. I bought the fuzz and left with a lingering yearning - if only I hadn’t bought that Junior!

 

Fast forward a year or two, I am browsing the WG website one evening, and there is the CS336 again, obviously traded back in. First thing next morning I phone WG. Yes they still had it, so I drove straight up there, confirmed the guitar was still awesome, and bought it.

 

Happy ending! I took the CS336 to a function band rehearsal and the singer made me promise to bring it to the gig - that’s how good it is!

 

[TrevorR]

Well, let's see... I bought this bass back in 1992 for 500 quid...

...and it's been my No 1 bass ever since. So I guess that my answer to the original question would be a pretty definitive, "NO!!!" That said, I have played a load of really, really nice basses but none that's likely to supplant this one in my affections. 

Edited September 10, 2021 by TrevorR

[Muzz]

Nope, I'd agree with the folk who said 'My basses are better than anything in a shop' (and getting basses custom built by Jon Shuker has meant I'm super-fussy about every detail) and 'I can't afford the new price of anything I might want in a shop'...

 

Having said that, the only two which came close were a Roadworn Precision in PMT donkeys ago (but the neck was waaaaayyyyy too big for me) and a BB2024 in BD, which was waaayyyy too expensive...and now I've got my Cheap As Chips BB414 modded, I don't need one...

[jazzyvee]

Nope.

Edited December 30, 2021 by jazzyvee

[Richard R]

I was in GG in Birmingham a while back and while my son tried out various acoustic guitars I messed about with their selection of basses. There was a matt black headless 5 string, possibly an Ibanez, which I absolutely loved the sound of. 

 

But I still, just,  hold to the rule that I can't properly play the two I own, so I can't buy another.

[jd56hawk]

Not in the past four years or so...and I've purchased all my basses online without even having the chance to try them put...10 of them!

[Saul Panzer]

Fortunately not, I got my original bass during the first covid lockdown so I couldn't really do any shop testing for a long time.
At this point it's just making an excuse to buy another bass, totally not replacing my main bass I just need that relic Sandberg for tone reasons or something.

[NancyJohnson]

No regret, but I played an off-the-rack sub-£500 Schecter at Andertons about three years ago and it was amazingly good.  Way better than everything in the bass room.

[Jeffb28451]

All the time. Why else would I buy another one? 

[leroydiamond]

A week after purchasing my dream bass, a Sadowsky nyc j bass, I popped into a shop in Dublin and they had a used, Lakland U.S.  Darryl Jones 4 string bass for sale. I picked it up and immediately fell under its spell. It felt like the bass was built for me, however at that moment I could not justify purchasing it within a week of purchasing the Sadowsky.

I regretted not buying it there and then, and few days later I phoned the store, with the intention of pulling the trigger on it. Sadly it had been shipped to a buyer in Australia. He who hesitates is lost. That Lakland model is like hens teeth to find. Still regret not taking it when I had the chance.  

[Martin E]

No. On the basis that most of the new basses I've tried in shops, at least in my price range,  have at best only had  a minimmul set up.  

It's only after an hour or so at home with some nut files, bridge and truss rod adjustment that you can tell if you've got a good one or not.

Edited January 23, 2022 by Martin E