Has anyone "switched" allegiance?

[T-Bay]

Thunderbird for many years, but now Jazz all the way. The dimensions suit me perfectly. I have a much modified Squier that owes me about £100 all in and a Fender Ultra that is perfect for me. This has killed my GAS, I look every now and again but nothing tempts me at the moment.

[Jonesy]

12 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Yeah was a kind of shakeup that affected the whole world, maybe I put everything a bit off kilter. 
 

Thinking on the content of this thread I did play both earlier and although I found the Jazz easier to play I enjoyed playing the Precision more, which to me is quite telling. 

 

Both of my Precisions (MIJ Hama Okamoto sig & G&L SB2 Tribute) have jazz necks. I prefer the feel of J necks, but the sound of a PBass. Doesn't stop me really wanting a Vintera 50s PBass with a really wide neck though!

[chris_b]

23 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Just wondered if anyone else had . . . .  a favoured type of bass they found that for whatever reasons another type ended up being more suitable?

 

I spent 25 years playing a 4 string Precision, then moved to 5 string basses. That was one big switch which is still paying dividends.

[Lozz196]

12 minutes ago, chris_b said:

 

I spent 25 years playing a 4 string Precision, then moved to 5 string basses. That was one big switch which is still paying dividends.

I bought a fiver last year, didn`t find the switch to be as difficult as I expected but I did find that I was hardly using the low B so moved it on. I`d def get another if the music I played required it. I did find that when I went back to the 4s I found them both more enjoyable and to feel like a childs toy after the size of the neck on the 5.

[fretmeister]

For at least 20 years I was all about the Status Basses. Loved them. Then as I got injured I needed lighter weighs. So I bought a Streamline. Easily light enough but the neck shape was so different to my older ones. It felt almost square in comparison. I couldn't get on with it.

 

So my long love affair with the brand came to a forced end. A real shame.

 

Then I went through tons of instruments trying to find the right thing. I am a creature of habit and when I get a comfy instrument the rest tend to gather dust. But saying that my new love - Sandbergs - use the same neck shape for J and P and even the new 'Ray inspired model so I can get a lot of variety and stick with a neck shape I like - and they will build any of their models in Superlight specs.

 

I've got a TT4 and a TT5, both Superlights at the moment and I've got a Lionel short scale in the build queue - also a Superlight. I believe it will be the first Lionel superlight they've done. Only 7 months to go until delivery!

[WinterMute]

I played a Warwick Thumb 5 for 20 years, sold it when I thought I'd done with playing bass, now have a couple of EBMM SR5s. a Bongo 5 and a beautiful ACG Krell fretless, I didn't plan on playing MM, it's just the way it came out.

 

I did plan the ACG, meticulously, and I may well drop the SR5 fretless and the Bongo in order to fund a fretted ACG in the future as Alan's work is so spectacular. So Warwick to ACG by way of MusicMan.

[chris_b]

3 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

I bought a fiver last year, didn`t find the switch to be as difficult as I expected but I did find that I was hardly using the low B so moved it on. I`d def get another if the music I played required it.

 

I see this a lot. So many people seem to divide up bass lines into 4 string songs and 5 string songs. I've never understood that.

 

I play everything on my bass, which happens to be a 5.

[Lozz196]

I think aside from one song I play in one band I could easily use a 3 string bass and forget about the G.

[pineweasel]

Moving to a 5 string after decades of playing 4 strings was my big switch too. I find I tend to play the music I knew on a 4 in the same way, i.e I don't use the B. But I'm making full use of it for any new songs I learn, which usually means playing above the 5th fret with minimal position shifts.

 

I'm an enthusiastic convert, the only downside being my small collection of nice 4 strings aren't getting played much.

[msb]

I picked up a fiver some years back but didn’t make the transition.

Still a four string guy.

[dmc79]

40 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

I think aside from one song I play in one band I could easily use a 3 string bass and forget about the G.

Mark Hamilton from Ash removed the G tuning post from his Thunderbird after realising early on that he never used that string. 
 

Mark Sandman from Morphine only needed 2 strings!

 

[Stingray5]

21 hours ago, Clarky said:

If @Stingray5 and @stingrayPete1977now chime in and say "Stingrays are not all that ..." I will have an attack of the vapours

Never gonna happen, mate! 👍😎👍

[Cat Burrito]

I don't feel any allegiance to any company as nobody is endorsing me. I played Fenders for years because it was all I had. These days I seem to be using my Ric the most but also have a really good Thunderbird, Hofner, Gretsch and Fender. I was happily playing my P-bass last night at home and really enjoying it. Variety is the spice of life, after all. 

[Vanheusen77]

I played almost exclusively P basses for about 15 years, last 10 years I change basses daily…

[gjones]

3 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

I think aside from one song I play in one band I could easily use a 3 string bass and forget about the G.

One day I'll challenge myself to play everything in my covers band set on one string.

 

I'm sure I could do it 😂

[Clarky]

I have a short scale Serek bass that weighs just 7 pounds and is incredibly easy to play. I have used that in recent gigs, including a more than 2 hour set. But at home I prefer noodling on my Precision. I have (sort of) rationalised that for gigs a short scale works for me in the heat of the moment and with an audience watching. Whereas a long scale just feels right when playing under no pressure.

[msb]

4 hours ago, Vanheusen77 said:

I played almost exclusively P basses for about 15 years, last 10 years I change basses daily…

 

Me too , after just playing a Pbass for so many years it seems I play just about everything but these days …

[ern500evo]

I’ve recently discovered I love the sound of a driven Jazz bass, so much so that my last 4 gigs have seen my Sire V7 get some game time whilst my Yamaha Attitude Ltd and Warwick SS1 have stayed at home! 

[Paul S]

13 hours ago, Vanheusen77 said:

I played almost exclusively P basses for about 15 years, last 10 years I change basses daily…

 

Gosh.  I make that 36,500 basses, not taking into account leap years.  Where on earth do you keep them all?

 

[eude]

17 hours ago, WinterMute said:

So Warwick to ACG by way of MusicMan

Warwick to ACG by way of Shuker for me.

 

I coveted Warwick basses for much of my youth, I finally got one and played it to death.

When I commissioned my first custom bass, a Shuker 6 string, I could barely play the Warwick when I went back to it, the ergonomics were a really bad fit for me, and I had just got used to it.

After that experience, it's been custom all the way for me, and I have very much settled with ACGs.

[Lozz196]

3 hours ago, ern500evo said:

I’ve recently discovered I love the sound of a driven Jazz bass, so much so that my last 4 gigs have seen my Sire V7 get some game time whilst my Yamaha Attitude Ltd and Warwick SS1 have stayed at home! 

I must admit I`m liking my Jazz on the front pickup, bit of drive, sounds great.

[ern500evo]

18 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

I must admit I`m liking my Jazz on the front pickup, bit of drive, sounds great.

I usually leave the pickup pan pot centred or biased slightly to the neck pickup, bit of mid boost, and through my Ashdown Hyperdrive pedal. Sounds great. Also come to realise that one of my favourite bass tones ever, is exactly that, a jazz bass through a drive pedal. The bass tone on Nancy Boy by Placebo 

[EliasMooseblaster]

Time to start splitting some hairs: not whole basses, but I have switched allegiance as far as pickups were concerned. I've always favoured quite a midrange-heavy tone (think classic Precision with the tone control up at 9 or 10), so I developed a dislike of bridge pickups, probably on account of the cheap, solid-state amps I was using for so long. Too burpy on their own, too scoopy when blended. I always defaulted to soloing the front pickup on whichever bass I was using.

 

Enter a regular salary, and a line of vaguely affordable valve amps from Ashdown. With a bit of warm, valve saturation, I gradually started to come around to some of those mixed-pickup tones. Then enter a Gibson Thunderbird, which I had to admit had quite a pleasant-sounding humbucker in the bridge, and a delightful growl when brought up just behind the neck pickup. Or a splendidly aggressive twang when fully on, with the neck backed off a bit.

 

I never run them at matched output though...too scoopy for my tastes, still!

Edited September 14, 2022 by EliasMooseblaster

[thodrik]

I have generally always used single coil basses. Recently I have been keen to buy a bass with a humbucker or dual JJ pickups in the bridge position, potentially a Musicman or Warwick Thumb five string.

I can generally change from Jazz to Precision to something else entirely without difficulty. 

However the main switch I have done lately is from using fingers to using a pick. After 24 years of playing it feels like a revelation!

[ped]

I started out on a P, and worked my way ‘up’ to modern sounding active basses from the likes of Pedulla, Vigier, Smith etc. then I came back down again via a Stingray and jazz to a P again, then back up to a point where I’m happy to own a range of instruments and enjoy what they all do individually. I like the idea of having ‘my’ bass and a unique signature but more often I’m realising it just depends on my mood. Currently I’m playing only my Mustang, but in a month I’ll be gagging for some Stingray, then I’ll probably spend some weeks on a J. Each time it’s like discovering a new instrument and helps inspire me to play.