How many basses are too many?

[Frank Blank]

On 29/11/2021 at 10:33, Reggaebass said:

I’ve had around 50 jazzes, not all at the same time…

I’m surprised the toilet isn’t in bits!

[Frank Blank]

On 29/11/2021 at 14:47, Bridgehouse said:

1x Natural semi-hollow with an oddball split coil 51P shape in it

I love, love, love this bass. I may need to get details so I can commission one, from, er, someone.

[Bridgehouse]

Just now, Frank Blank said:

I love, love, love this bass. I may need to get details so I can commission one, from, er, someone.

One day, if you came up with a suitable trade, I might just let you have it…

[Frank Blank]

Just now, Bridgehouse said:

One day, if you came up with a suitable trade, I might just let you have it…

I am going to try and get Jabba to build me a solid body based on that bass. Only if cake is a suitable trade.

[Bridgehouse]

3 minutes ago, Frank Blank said:

I am going to try and get Jabba to build me a solid body based on that bass. Only if cake is a suitable trade.

You ought to consider the hollow body - adds to the sound and makes it ridiculously light weight

 

And I meant a bass trade.. you can’t trade a bass for cake! I’d want to eat it, and keep it….

Edited December 1, 2021 by Bridgehouse

[Frank Blank]

8 minutes ago, Bridgehouse said:

You ought to consider the hollow body - adds to the sound and makes it ridiculously light weight

 

There was a hollow body jazz on here a while back, I loved the look of it.

 

8 minutes ago, Bridgehouse said:

And I meant a bass trade.. you can’t trade a bass for cake! I’d want to eat it, and keep it….

I know, but I’ll be down to three Jabba basses soon so I’ll only have the SS ACG left to shift.

[alyctes]

I have more than I know what to do with. 

That's too many.

 

I have enough that they take up too much space.

That's definitely too many.

 

[Frank Blank]

Oh yes, sorry, back on topic.

 

Eleventy five.

[Ander87]

5 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Yep, I’ve tried the “classic trio” a few times, but once the novelty wears off I’m left with the P, until the next time..

this is true. I’ve had very different basses and think P’s is where the game is at…. Actually considered pretty seriously modding a P, but I’m giving up on that thought I think after knowing that Js will introduce noise, MMs will take loads of real state…

 

whenever I plug them I forget about anything else to do on them lol. 
 

thinking a JMJ Mustang would be a nice addition… or an ocean turquoise metallic Jazz necked P bass from Limelight… although that’d be my 4th near same spec 🤣 but these basses change a lot depending on the electronics!

[Ander87]

6 hours ago, theyellowcar said:

Here you go

really nice bass, always loved it to bits and defo gaining value…!

[Bridgehouse]

16 minutes ago, Frank Blank said:

 

There was a hollow body jazz on here a while back, I loved the look of it.

 

I know, but I’ll be down to three Jabba basses soon so I’ll only have the SS ACG left to shift.

You really are going minimalist aren’t you? 
 

You’ll be back up in numbers soon enough

[SumOne]

For the sake of breaking up the echo chamber love-in with an opposing view:

 

Inequalities and over-consumption are two of the biggest problems on the planet, this thread indirectly celibrates both. 

 

It's might be small change to your environmental impact to have one Bass rather than dozens but it's more about the attitude and considering perhaps its not the best thing for the planet and fellow humans to over-consume. And perhaps as so many people struggle to just get by in the world it's naive or selfish to celibrate that over-consumption. 

 

 

 

(I'm saying this for the sake of argument, I have lots of unnecessary stuff - including more than one Bass). 

Edited December 1, 2021 by SumOne

[neepheid]

10 minutes ago, SumOne said:

For the sake of breaking up the echo chamber love-in with an opposing view:

 

Inequalities and over-consumption are two of the biggest problems on the planet, this thread indirectly celibrates both. 

 

It's might be small change to your environmental impact to have one Bass rather than dozens but it's more about the attitude and considering perhaps its not the best thing for the planet and fellow humans to over-consume. And perhaps as so many people struggle to just get by in the world it's naive or selfish to celibrate that over-consumption. 

 

 

 

(I'm saying this for the sake of argument, I have lots of unnecessary stuff - including more than one Bass). 

 

Two basses at least, chief, lest you have a bunch of people scold you for being unprofessional for only taking one bass to the gig...

[Stub Mandrel]

7 minutes ago, SumOne said:

For the sake of breaking up the echo chamber love-in with an opposing view:

 

Inequalities and over-consumption are two of the biggest problems on the planet, this thread indirectly celibrates both. 

 

It's might be small change to your environmental impact to have one Bass rather than dozens but it's more about the attitude and considering perhaps its not the best thing for the planet and fellow humans to over-consume. And perhaps as so many people struggle to just get by in the world it's naive or selfish to celibrate that over-consumption. 

 

 

 

(I'm saying this for the sake of argument, I have lots of unnecessary stuff - including more than one Bass). 

 

It's true. Even my laundry basket is a luxury.

 

I suppose this is an argument in favour of flatwound strings.

 

More seriously, I guess basses themselves are relatively modest in their environmental impact compared to most hobbies, particularly if they are made out of genuinely sustainably sourced timber. Certainly, you would need a lot of basses to be the equivalent of a second car.

 

[Munurmunuh]

21 minutes ago, SumOne said:

it's more about the attitude and considering perhaps its not the best thing for the planet and fellow humans to over-consume. And perhaps as so many people struggle to just get by in the world

Stop buying basses, close down the bass factories and free their employees to rejoin the ranks of the strugglers ✊

[mr4stringz]

32 minutes ago, SumOne said:

For the sake of breaking up the echo chamber love-in with an opposing view:

 

Inequalities and over-consumption are two of the biggest problems on the planet, this thread indirectly celibrates both. 

 

It's might be small change to your environmental impact to have one Bass rather than dozens but it's more about the attitude and considering perhaps its not the best thing for the planet and fellow humans to over-consume. And perhaps as so many people struggle to just get by in the world it's naive or selfish to celibrate that over-consumption. 

 

 

 

(I'm saying this for the sake of argument, I have lots of unnecessary stuff - including more than one Bass). 

I definitely try and reduce the impact by…mainly buying used basses! 🤣

[SumOne]

22 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

It's true. Even my laundry basket is a luxury.

 

I suppose this is an argument in favour of flatwound strings.

 

More seriously, I guess basses themselves are relatively modest in their environmental impact compared to most hobbies, particularly if they are made out of genuinely sustainably sourced timber. Certainly, you would need a lot of basses to be the equivalent of a second car.

 

 

The argument for the Laundry basket would be that you probably only own one and it does have a practical use and probably hasn't made much of an environmental impact.

 

 

Yeah, I imagine the environmental impact of producing a Bass is relatively small  - but not insignificant given that it needs quite specific wood (lets not get started on that though!) and metals to be mined, manufacturing, transport around the world of of something relatively bulky etc. Something at least to slightly consider - consumer choices do all combine to make the world we live in, everyone making small changes would have a massive impact.

 

 

14 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

Stop buying basses, close down the bass factories and free their employees to rejoin the ranks of the strugglers ✊

 

That same argument of 'buy unnecessary stuff or people will lose their jobs' could (and often is) said for over-consumption of anything. Just because people buy fewer unnecessary things doesn't mean that people lose their jobs, there will be more money available to buy sustainable and necessary stuff - perhaps at more equatable prices that reduce inequality around the world.

Edited December 1, 2021 by SumOne

[SumOne]

Just now, mr4stringz said:

I definitely try and reduce the impact by…mainly buying used basses! 🤣

Still though, if you and I bought a million used Basses each it has an overall environmental impact - it creates global demand for 2 million more Basses to be made.

[mr4stringz]

1 minute ago, SumOne said:

Still though, if you and I bought a million used Basses each it has an overall environmental impact - it creates global demand for 2 million more Basses to be made.

Maybe, just maybe I was being flippant…

[SumOne]

Just now, mr4stringz said:

Maybe, just maybe I was being flippant…

 

Maybe, just maybe I was just providing a light hearted retort with a highly exagerated example to what I assumed to be a flippant remark. 

 

 

 

 

[cetera]

How many is too many? Who's to say?!

 

I have 76. Would be happy to have a few more and will also be moving some of what I currently have on too...

[chris_b]

2 hours ago, SumOne said:

The argument for the Laundry basket would be that you probably only own one and it does have a practical use and probably hasn't made much of an environmental impact.

 

Err. . . . we have 2 laundry baskets! The planet might struggle  to recover!

[Ander87]

Hmmm yeah.... I see a point on not wasting, consumism etc etc but to be dead honest, I think an instrument is the closest 'soul purchase' a material item can provide. It's a connection to the instrument, it's feelings, a passion. I would see doing more recycling and getting an all electric car etc as matters to fix first (myself on the books, but also as a society). I also work on decarbonisation of heat networks, and if it helps that's something the UK pretends to be at the lead on (2050 zero net emissions goal and so on) but that other countries (Germany, Denmark) have been promoting and spreading for ages. The industry is unregulated even and there's absolute cowboys in here. This is a small example of how bureaucracy and delays pushed by developers, public authorities etc is a much bigger problem than instruments up and down.

 

Basses after all get sold second hand etc, I don't see any decent instrument being wasted in a bin, it'll end up somewhere. Of all things, I think this forum promotes a lot of savings by buying second hand...!

 

Aware the thread is getting political and polemical, but my two pence is there's more pressing matters needing fixing before we assess whether we have more basses than what is sustainable. From that angle, for me a sustainable amount of basses is that which won't make me miss payments or enjoy a cheeky takeaway or small trip, family visits and whatnot. As I grow older, it'll be the amount that lets me pay and provide for my kids, for my own savings, pensions etc etc.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Ander87

[SumOne]

1 minute ago, chris_b said:

 

Err. . . . we have 2 laundry baskets! The planet might struggle  to recover!

 

Seeing as a previous poster took it that I'm not able to respond to flippant remarks I feel I need to start this reply with 🤣 LOL etc. and to explain that I understand that is a joke.

 

....now that's clear and for for sake of discussion I'd respopnd by saying: 

 

It's the principle though isn't it? If people don't have the mindset to consider that the extra Bass or Laundry basket has an impact on the planet then that attitude probably extends to what food they eat, or having an extra car, or long-haul flights etc etc. combine that attitude to over-consuming and 'what I do doesn't matter' across a population of billions and it makes a massive difference.

 

 I'm saying these things for arguments sake and don't fully sign-up to that thinking, but I do think times and attitudes are changing. It's probably quite telling that the average age on Basschat seems to be 50's + , I imagine if this was a forum with teenagers on it a lot more would be agreeing with my comments.

[SumOne]

5 minutes ago, Ander87 said:

Hmmm yeah.... I see a point on not wasting, consumism etc etc but to be dead honest, I think an instrument is the closest 'soul purchase' a material item can provide. It's a connection to the instrument, it's feelings, a passion. I would see doing more recycling and getting an all electric car etc as matters to fix first (myself on the books, but also as a society). I also work on decarbonisation of heat networks, and if it helps that's something the UK pretends to be at the lead on (2050 zero net emissions goal and so on) but that other countries (Germany, Denmark) have been promoting and spreading for ages. The industry is unregulated even and there's absolute cowboys in here. This is a small example of how bureaucracy and delays pushed by developers, public authorities etc is a much bigger problem than instruments up and down.

 

Basses after all get sold second hand etc, I don't see any decent instrument being wasted in a bin, it'll end up somewhere. Of all things, I think this forum promotes a lot of savings by buying second hand...!

 

Aware the thread is getting political and polemical, but my two pence is there's more pressing matters needing fixing before we assess whether we have more basses than what is sustainable. From that angle, for me a sustainable amount of basses is that which won't make me miss payments or enjoy a cheeky takeaway or small trip, family visits and whatnot. As I grow older, it'll be the amount that lets me pay and provide for my kids, for my own savings, pensions etc etc.

 

This is all true, and like I say - I'm mostly saying things for arguments sake and I certainly have lots of un-necessery stuff.

 

Having multiple Basses is going to be very low down the list of un-necessary things that damage the planet, but it doesn't mean it shouldn't be considered at all. It's more about overall attitudes to consuming I'm on about, I think the 'look at all the 'stuff' I have accumulated will become quite an old-fashioned attitude over time.

 

On the second-hand thing, like I said earlier - if you buy a million second-hand Basses it just means there is now demand for a million more Basses to be produced as a million have been made un-available to others. It's good that a Bass is something that lasts and can get traded onwards but buying a second hand one doesn't mean there's no environmental impact....admittedly it makes the impact much lower than if they had a short single-use lifespan and I doub't even Thunberg would say people shouldn't get a second hand Bass because of the environment, she might say people should consider the enviromnment a bit in their consumer decisions though, and perhaps that it should be a consideration when looking to get that 20th Bass to sit on your wall - partly for the environment and partly due to changing attitudes about over-consumption.