Basses that could have played better.

[NancyJohnson]

Seeing the Vigier that's just closed in the For Sale section got me thinking.  A guy I know had one, a Passion model - god knows where it is now, he's in Australia at the moment, might be with him, might be in storage over here somewhere - I really liked the look of it, the set up was horrific.  Action must have been at least a centimetre on the octave, possibly higher.  I offered to have a look at it, but he declined, despite saying how much he liked my rattly old Thunderbirds.  He really used to struggle up the dusty end.

 

Same story a mate in Milan.  Yamoto sapphire blue Gibson Thunderbird.  Beautiful looker, nasty front bow, strings not changed in years, my hands just felt dirty after a 45 minute set.  I played it in Milan when we gigged there.  Zero interest in getting it playing better.  Even offered to get the strings off and boil them at the venue.  Nope.

 

And in closing, guy I worked with years ago had a Rickenbacker; I think it was a 4003.  Mahoosive front bow on the neck, played like a donkey.

 

 

[TheGreek]

Ironically the worst set up bass I ever owned was a Wal.

[Acebassmusic]

When on holiday to Houston to visit friends I used to frequent all my old music shop haunts. One in particular, Guitar Centre on Westheimer, had a second hand Warrior Signature for sale at nearly $4k! Stunning bass that over a period of about 5 years I asked to play whenever I was there. Loved the neck, balance & small body size but the strings and setup were awful. The last time I was there I tried it again and it was still less than stellar.....but they had dropped the price slightly to $3,600. I decided that I had to get rid of the hankering once and for all so I offered to pay them for a new set of strings, battery and a tweak of the setup. If I really didn't like the bass after that then they just got themselves a free set of strings and a better playing bass (= more chance of a future sale). They half heartedly agreed and put on the new strings (without cleaning the fretboard etc!! ) tweaked the truss and lowered the saddles a bit. I sat down, plugged in and played a few riffs........WOW....it was an absolutely different animal!! It played and sounded wonderful. I decided to make them a "cheeky" offer of $3k as it had been sat in their stock for at least 5 years that I knew of. I thought, start low and you can always increase your offer......didn't need to, the manager accepted straight away! That bass was mine for the next 11 years and never let me down or dissapointed.

 

[rushbo]

It's probably just my dumb bad luck, but every Rickenbacker bass I have ever had in my hands has (IMO) played like a dog. In 1986, I was besotted with REM and with my pockets bursting with about two months wages, I spent nearly a whole day in Musical Exchanges in Brum, trying to convince myself I liked one of the 7-8 Rickys they had in stock. I couldn't. I left with an Ibanez Roadstar 850. The Ricky would have been a better investment, but I doubt I'd have had much fun playing it.

[gafbass02]

Everyone else’s bass I’ve ever played ever, I swear! I just don’t get it. Everyone else’s action feels terrible to me!

Edited January 11, 2023 by gafbass02

[Beedster]

2 minutes ago, gafbass02 said:

Everyone else’s bass I’ve ever played ever, I swear! I just don’t get it. 

Yep, same here 👍

[SteveXFR]

Last spring I had a play of a bass belonging to a member of a very successful rock band. I won't name them because they don't know their tech let me play it. It was set up horrible. It was a 60's P bass, looked beautiful but the action was about a foot high at the 12th fret. I couldn't play it be he does pretty well with it.

A guitarist I used to play with had a play of an old Ronnie Wood guitar and said that was awful with a really high action.

Maybe it's us amateurs who have got it all wrong with our low action 

[Chris2112]

2 hours ago, Acebassmusic said:

When on holiday to Houston to visit friends I used to frequent all my old music shop haunts. One in particular, Guitar Centre on Westheimer, had a second hand Warrior Signature for sale at nearly $4k! Stunning bass that over a period of about 5 years I asked to play whenever I was there. Loved the neck, balance & small body size but the strings and setup were awful. The last time I was there I tried it again and it was still less than stellar.....but they had dropped the price slightly to $3,600. I decided that I had to get rid of the hankering once and for all so I offered to pay them for a new set of strings, battery and a tweak of the setup. If I really didn't like the bass after that then they just got themselves a free set of strings and a better playing bass (= more chance of a future sale). They half heartedly agreed and put on the new strings (without cleaning the fretboard etc!! ) tweaked the truss and lowered the saddles a bit. I sat down, plugged in and played a few riffs........WOW....it was an absolutely different animal!! It played and sounded wonderful. I decided to make them a "cheeky" offer of $3k as it had been sat in their stock for at least 5 years that I knew of. I thought, start low and you can always increase your offer......didn't need to, the manager accepted straight away! That bass was mine for the next 11 years and never let me down or dissapointed.

 

 

Great story and a great bass! You got lucky there, I've always loved the look of Warrior basses and I imagine I'd get on well with one but I've never even seen one in the flesh. 

[White Cloud]

3 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

Seeing the Vigier that's just closed in the For Sale section got me thinking.  A guy I know had one, a Passion model - god knows where it is now, he's in Australia at the moment, might be with him, might be in storage over here somewhere - I really liked the look of it, the set up was horrific.  Action must have been at least a centimetre on the octave, possibly higher.  I offered to have a look at it, but he declined.

 

 

I'm genuinely surprised to hear this: Every Vigier I've ever owned had action so low it was practically underneath the frets!

[gjones]

I had a shot of the Alembic of the bassist in a renowned 70s Scottish Rock band and the action was shocking.

 

Even worse.........he played with flats and a pick.  😱

[tauzero]

A former band was doing some recording in Robanna's in Birmingham and I took in my Antoniotsai 5 (active) and Peavey Zephyr 5 (passive). I wanted to use the Tsai but the engineer had me recording in the control room and the vast amount of electronics in there finished up causing a buzz in it, so he offered me the use of a Fender P that was also in the control room. donkey the action was about 15mm at the 12th fret, I declined and used the Peavey (which was hum-free). Having owned a couple of Ps, I know they could play an awful lot better than that poor specimen.

[Doctor J]

I am continually amazed by how many people have learned to live with crap setups. Any instruments I've bought used usually come with ludicrously high action, starting at the nut and working all the way down the neck.

[Cato]

5 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

I am continually amazed by how many people have learned to live with crap setups. Any instruments I've bought used usually come with ludicrously high action, starting at the nut and working all the way down the neck.

 

I can cope with a high action. I learnt on a bass like that and in those pre internet days I never learned how to adjust it.

 

What trips me up me is basses with an action so low that anything other than a feather light touch causes massive fretbuzz.

 

My technique just isn't that subtle.

[Bolo]

I can set my bass up low but I don't want to. I have a strong grip and a heavy picking hand. A really low setup would be fretbuzz town and make me very unhappy.

[paul_5]

Borrowed a 70’s Ric from a friend to record through my Ampeg rig - sounded amazing but played like a real dog. 😞

[Waddo Soqable]

People don't seem to like Ricks, I've had a couple of 70s ones (many years ago before they went stupid prices) I have to say I liked them and wish I'd kept the last one

Sticking in my mind as a bass I hated was the Yamaha BB something or other, a thru neck thing ( I believe the same as Peter Hook used) I was fortunate to do a straight swap with someone my Yamaha for their Stingray, which was a great result! 

Another that I had briefly, hated and dumped ASAP was a Wal, again no idea of the model but would've been no doubt their cheapest bass, shiny black body 2 PUs. Horrible thing IMHO 

[KingBollock]

I know this isn’t an expensive bass, but it’s the only experience I have of this sort of thing.
 

I bought my dream bass over EBay, a second hand BC Rich Warlock NT. The action on it was stupidly high, and it had to have been right from the factory because everything was bottomed out. Flat neck and perfectly cut nut, but the bridge saddles were too tall, despite being as low as they would go.
My first thought was to replace the bridge, but I couldn’t find one that would be any better. It would have to be very low profile, 10mm maximum. In the end it was either recess the bridge into the body, which I didn’t feel comfortable doing, or grind the bottom off the saddles until they were half their original height, which is what I did.

 

It plays beautifully now.

[Bassman68]

17 hours ago, rushbo said:

It's probably just my dumb bad luck, but every Rickenbacker bass I have ever had in my hands has (IMO) played like a dog. In 1986, I was besotted with REM and with my pockets bursting with about two months wages, I spent nearly a whole day in Musical Exchanges in Brum, trying to convince myself I liked one of the 7-8 Rickys they had in stock. I couldn't. I left with an Ibanez Roadstar 850. The Ricky would have been a better investment, but I doubt I'd have had much fun playing it.

I lusted after a Rickenbacker bass during the mid 80’s, that was until I finally got a chance to play one…

I think the one I tried either had a twisted neck or someone hadn’t got to grips with the twin truss-rods, that and the fact that the strings have very little taper between the nut & bridge (imo) the spacing felt very narrow, coming from Fenders.

Years later, a friend of mine bought a lovely looking ‘Fireglow’ 4003, which I played a couple of times but still couldn’t get on with the narrow strings…

 

Another bass I always wanted was a Wal custom, but all the ones I tried, I couldn’t get on with the neck shape?
one particular fretless I nearly bought, had almost a ‘Vee’ neck, very uncomfortable in my hands…

[acidbass]

Aside from obvious faults/build issues - can't all basses be made playable with a good setup?

[bassbloke]

Guitar Center are renowned for shockingly badly set up instruments.  I've seen US fenders rendered unplayable because of the action.

 

On the flipside, a lot of bass players are just brutes.  We did one gig where opening band bassist begged for a quick go on my customised jazz.  He absolutely butchered the poor thing 

[fleabag]

Its odd to hear such expensive basses having horrid actions / setups.  I've had a few cheap basses in my life and all of them were fine. All basses need to be setup for the player because it's so personal.

 

I had an 80 quid Chase Guvnor  bass that was damn good. Set it up for my particular needs. Bit of a one trick pony tone wise, but that was it's only problem.  I had a Vintage MM copy and was also an excellent bass for the price. A few tweaks here and there. I fitted a UK Warman MM in place of the Wilky MM and it improved tone wise, but that's subjective anyway.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 12, 2023 by fleabag

[Waddo Soqable]

I'd agree 100% with @fleabag about the need to set the thing up to your own reqs. I'm also a fan of cheapo basses, much can be done to make these very usable at low or no cost. I've got a basic Squier PJ that sounds and plays great for what I want from it. 

The ones I didn't like were not set up issues, more along the lines of.. I thought they just sounded rubbish for what they were and /or I really didn't like the whole dimensions of the neck, fretboard schtick , so playing it wasn't an enjoyable experience. 

Some basses you just pick up and think "nah.." sometimes you come to that conclusion a little after you've acquired the damm thing.. 

[Old Man Riva]

23 hours ago, gjones said:

I had a shot of the Alembic of the bassist in a renowned 70s Scottish Rock band and the action was shocking.

 

Even worse.........he played with flats and a pick.  😱

Did it sound, erm, ‘loud ‘n’ proud’ though?!

[mr4stringz]

My first ever ‘proper’ bass purchase (after the dog of an Encore P copy and a far better Vantage PJ that I learned on) was a (at the time) fairly recently released natural finish Patrick Eggle Milan IV that I’d so heavily set my heart on at 18 (‘94ish) when some money was released to me that had been sat in trust. Spent £800 on it. A dumbass move. In my youthful ignorance, I had no clue the neck was a state. It didn’t last long.

 

I try and look at things positively where I can though. The massive desire soon after to get as far away from that bass as possible led me to proper Precisions, a habit I’ve only broken recently with the JMJ Mustang.

Edited January 12, 2023 by mr4stringz

[Lozz196]

I bought a 78 Precision off of my then bands producer. We were recording at his studio so as I was buying it from him I decided I would use my new bass on the day I got it. Well the set up was quite poor to say the least, and the round wound strings on it sounded much like a set of 20 year old flats, no life in them at all.

 

But it sounded great on those recordings, just how does that happen!