Your best (and worst!) bass gear purchases of 2023?

[MacDaddy]

I've only bought 2 bass related things this year.

TGI Ultimate Gig Bag, which was bought for Shuker no 3, and is the best purchase because there is plenty of space at the top for my tuners which face down, rather than across.

 

 

The other purchase is also best 😁

A Pocket Pod, which is an amazing practice tool. Utterly convenient, portable and easy to use.

 

[TrevorR]

1 hour ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

Thanks, Loz, that's great.  A wide range of sounds is ideal.  I'll check one out.

Bought an I-90 a few years ago and it was very nice. Good build, great sounds but it sadly soon went back as it had a fault. Replaced to with an EHX Bass Clone which I love and also has a wide range of tones from 80s shimmer to 90s wobble-wobble.  One thing about the Eden pedals is that IIRC they take a 15V power supply (15!).

[TrevorR]

Very few bass purchases for me this year too… a TC Electronics UniTune clip on tuner (x2 coz I liked the first one so much) and some Newtone Bass Strings - both residing firmly in the Best category.

[Baloney Balderdash]

Got to be my NUX Melvin Lee Davis Bass Preamp + DI, which got 3 different digitally emulated bass amps of really high quality to chose from, as well as 8 great stock IR cab sims, with the option of loading an additional 8 3rd party IR cab sim files of your choice to the pedal.

 

Pretty amazing preamp, as said really high quality, 32bit AD/DA converter, 1ms latency, and at a pretty amazing price too for what you actually get.

 

 

 

 

 

Now an essential, and main tone shaping, part of my "amp-less" setup.

 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[tauzero]

Best may be the Pedulla series 2 fretless 6 - something has just come in which may beat it, haven't yet done NBD on it though so the unveiling awaits.

 

In non-bass-dedicated gear, the Alto TS408s that have replaced my RCF710As are excellent. Mrs Zero prefers the sound of them (I could live with either). And they're about 2/3 the weight. Plus I've now got a BCF2000 to give me physical controls for the XR12.

[Merton]

8 hours ago, Merton said:

Happy February present to someone else…? 😜

Sorry @AndyTravis, that was mean 😘

[KingBollock]

I was going to mention my Epiphone Thunderbird here, but then I remembered that it came a couple of days before the year started. So the only things bass related that I have bought are new machine heads and knobs for said bass. Oh and some black acrylic sheet to make new scratchplate and a truss rod cover for it.

 

Many of my other hobbies have been getting most of my attention, I haven’t even played bass since April (when I, coincidentally… bought and electric drumkit).

 

I haven’t play with other people for over twenty years, and I have kept up playing regularly all that time. But more recently there has been interest by musicians and things started looking up. But things are going so slow that it’s drained my inclination to play.

[40hz]

This has been my quietest year in 10+ years with regards to purchases and sales. I'd put that down to finally finding a bass that just does everything at a 9/10 level, so this gets my best purchase award.

 

A somewhat rare-ish 1995 Warwick Streamer Bolt-On 5 - the much higher end precursor to the LX's of the past 25 years. It's made from light, beautifully figured French Cherry wood and hand carved in the older, curvier, thinner and much, much nicer Streamer body shape. Twin MEC J's that give it superb versatility, and crucially, gobs and gobs of Warwick 'Growl'. 6 months with it and I've nary even looked at another bass, which has never happened with me with a Bass, ever - I've historically spent 99% of my time in the 'for sale forum' 🤣

 

Honorary mention goes to the Zoom B6 - Due to this wonderful little unit, I've done my first ever backline-less gigs in 20 years of playing bass. A true one box solution for the gigging musician. It's the best MultiFX/modeller for Bass I've ever used. It's so flexible and the quality of the FX engine is a whole new world compared to pedals of yore - the Synth engine being it's particular forte.

 

Although small, my worst purchase would be a set of DR Hi-Beams, purely because I've never once bought strings that have been faulty out of the packet (until this year). There were two G-strings in the packet and a missing D in place of the extra G. The A-string was as also as dead as a dodo. Total Rubbish.

Edited December 14, 2023 by 40hz

[Al Krow]

10 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Got to be my NUX Melvin Lee Davis Bass Preamp + DI, which got 3 different digitally emulated bass amps of really high quality to chose from, as well as 8 great stock IR cab sims, with the option of loading an additional 8 3rd party IR cab sim files of your choice to the pedal.

 

Pretty amazing preamp, as said really high quality, 32bit AD/DA converter, 1ms latency, and at a pretty amazing price too for what you actually get.

 

 

 

 

 

Now an essential, and main tone shaping, part of my "amp-less" setup.

 

 

 

 

Reminds me a little of the TC Spectradrive? What's the drive like on the NUX?

[nilorius]

2023. - best buy - 2x Aguilar SL112, nothing bad this year.

 

[MichaelDean]

I bought a 60cm spirit level just this week as a cheap fret levelling beam. It's flat, a decent length and less than £20. So, I did my first fret job last night! Stuck on a strip of sandpaper with the superglue and masking tape trick. It was surprisingly easy and pretty rewarding. Not a perfect job - I should have re-checked the frets with the fret rocker before crowning, but now I know for next time.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001KOTNVW

 

The worst thing I bought was some cheap strings from Amazon. I was disapointed to see that the Fender nickel roundwounds had gone up to £20+, so I bought some Adagio roundwounds for £13.50 as an experiment. Not worth it. They've gone dead quicker and felt quite rough for a while.

[Charlie C]

Best purchase for me this year, a 25 years old Vigier Excess fretless ! 

[cetera]

It's been a great year for gear purchases with nothing bad tbh.

 

Best gear purchases were definitely the four Ltd Edt Spector Euro X basses I got in the custom order I organised with Bass Direct.....
 

a used Gallien Krueger 700RB-II head...
 

...the fabulous Di Cosimo 800RB pedal (basically a classic GK800RB head in pedal form)..
 

...and a beautiful 'plum crazy' Spector NS Dimension HP!
 

Edited December 14, 2023 by cetera

[Grahambythesea]

I haven’t bought anything this year, but was given the Spector Coda so does that count?

 

[chris_b]

This year I've looking for a special lightweight bass. I bought 4 (Cort, Ibanez, Lakland, Sandberg), 1 amp (TH700), 1 pedal (Sadowsky SBP-1), Mono Vertigo, and Sleeve gig bags, a strap and 2 sets of Dunlop strap locks.

 

A busy year. All very good purchases, but none of the basses have made themselves indispensable, so I'll probably sell them all next year, and try again.

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by chris_b

[neepheid]

Lots of contenders this year (zero chance of doing back-to-back gear abstenence threads, I'm only human!)

 

Ultimately though, despite buying some interesting and fine basses, I think my best purchase(s) this year is a new rig consisting of Markbass Mini CMD 121P IV and Markbass NY121 cab.  Great sounding rig.  Honourable mention goes to the Tecamp Puma I bought after borrowing it when my amp died - that's a great sounding amp.

 

[Ed_S]

Best is probably the Stingray 5 Special which I got at the start of the year and has become a favourite. Took a bit of stick in another thread for being prepared to pay an admittedly stupid retail price for it, but it was what I wanted and I still have no regrets.

 

Honourable mention goes to a set of EB cobalt flats that have made my Jazz V sound just right.

 

Worst by default is a Sandberg Cali Central 5. Very nice bass but it developed a finish problem and needs sorting under warranty. I’m sure it’ll be dealt with and work out fine in the end but it’s just a bit disappointing in the interim.

[ped]

2023 was the year that I joined a really great originals prog rock band so purchases came thick and fast as I built a pedalboard. 

 

Best:

 

Valco KGB Distortion pedal, it just has everything I could want and finally I'm able to get that lightly driven sound I like without the higher strings sounding too fizzy. Love it.

 

Worst:

 

I thought early on that i might enjoy a small multi effects pedal to use with the band, leaving my fairly old and rare pedal collection at home. I bought a Hotone Ampero Mini and although the clean sound was nice, the rest of it sounded pants, in particular the envelope filter and the octave were unusable. I sold it for a bit of a loss but the new owner is happy, maybe it's better on guitar.

 

[Burns-bass]

My aluminium double bass was my best purchase. Finally started gigging on DB and really enjoying it.

 

Worst purchase was a Cali Compressor. £260 to make me sound worse.

 

 

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 14/12/2023 at 12:21, Al Krow said:

 

Reminds me a little of the TC Spectradrive? What's the drive like on the NUX?

Well, it is nothing like the TC Spectradrive.

 

About the only thing they got in common is that they both pedal form bass preamps.

 

It's an original product, not a clone of anything, as with most of NUX's products, and it's Melvin Lee Davis's signature preamp, developed in co-operation with him.

 

As said it got 3 different great digital amp emulation of great quality to chose from (more is claimed to be added in the future), and is IR cab sim compatible as well, featuring 8 great stock IR cab sims, with additional 8 empty IR user slots, giving the option to load and use any 3rd party IR cab sim one should wish (the IR section also features an adjustable respectively HPF and LPF that can be added after each of the 16 IR cab sims independently).

 

The drive sounds great, but I haven't actually tested out its full range, I just have it dialed in to deliver a low gain overdrive blended with clean signal at an about 50/50 ratio, just adding some nice warm tube like grid and extra harmonic complexity and depth, using it as an integrated part of and to enhance my basic "clean" tone, which it, like the drive section of most pedal form preamps really, does function best as, rather than as a standalone extra drive effect (I got other pedals for that).

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Stub Mandrel]

So many nice goodies.

 

Slightlt taumatised by seeing basses with stickers on the scratchplate though...

 

Not much this year, mostly just pa stuff, tuners and leads. But I did get this and I guess it would win for me in most years...

 

[Simon C]

Best: a set of strings.

 

Worst:  the same set of strings

 

  I’m still in the gear abstinence thread. Unlike some of the naughty people above who joined and are now owning up to a music store and a half of gear purchases (we know who you are )😜

 

 They (I.e the strings not the naughty people, who I’m sure a fine upstanding people in real life) were much closer to “worst” than ”best”. They pretty much made my fretless unplayable.  They will get a reprieve on my short scale at some point.

 

 Only 2.5 weeks to go.

[Paul S]

I haven't bought much gear this year but this is the best buy: a Gibson SG Standard, 2021 in mint condition from BassBros.  For some inexplicable reason I had always avoided buying a Gibson SG bass but, now I have, I find it is a perfect fit for me in terms of playing comfort, weight (7lbs), how it sits in the mix with my blues/rock trio.  I have an old '76 Eros EB-3 shorty that comes a very close second but this just takes the tape.  The dymanics are massive: it can sing, it can growl, it can thud.  Love it.😍

 

[TheGreek]

I bought several nice basses this year - all very good but none stand out head and shoulders above the rest, such was the quality of the purchases.

 

I did manage to acquire an Ashdown EVOII 300w head and a couple of cabs at a very reasonable price earlier this year. "Worst" purchase was a Tanglewood Acoustic bass - nothing wrong with the bass per se  but who actually uses an acoustic?

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, TheGreek said:

"Worst" purchase was a Tanglewood Acoustic bass - nothing wrong with the bass per se  but who actually uses an acoustic?

 

I used mine to play a song live once.