Would you rather have 8 Harley Bentons or 1 Musicman/Fender (MIA)/Rickenbacker (etc...)

[lidl e]

Would you prefer a stable of cheap yet playable basses or one single "nice" bass?

 

Personally i'd prefer the single higher end bass for a number of reasons.  Looks, sound, playability, feel, components, familiarity, bonding. I think the sweet spot is around €1500-1700.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 31 by lidl e

[la bam]

I've often thought of this. 

 

In my experience everyone would do this.... 

 

1. Buy one high end bass. Love it. 

1.5 start lusting after 15 Harley Bentons.

2. Sell high end bass. Buy 15 Harley Bentons. Love them. 

2.5 start lusting over one high end bass. 

3. Sell Harley Bentons and buy one high end bass. 

 

~~~~~~~~

 

99. Sell Harley bentons and buy high end bass. 

99.5 start lusting after one high end bass. 

 

~~~~~~

 

I love my Harley bentons. I love how it's almost impossible to lose money on them. I love that you don't have to look after them that much or worry about them at a gig. 

 

I love how you can try all different variations of bass guitar without breaking the bank. 

 

They also sound great, look great and play great. 

 

Nothing stops my lusting after a high end bass again though.....

 

 

 

[neepheid]

Why does it have to be binary?  I have examples of both in my stable, and I enjoy them all, otherwise I wouldn't own them.

[kodiakblair]

18 minutes ago, lidl e said:

Would you prefer a stable of cheap yet playable basses or one single "nice" bass?

Much as I love this bass.

 

It lives in it's case as these two are better playing and sounding basses.

[lidl e]

1 minute ago, neepheid said:

Why does it have to be binary?  I have examples of both in my stable, and I enjoy them all, otherwise I wouldn't own them.

Just because!

 

I dont know. Just bass chattin' on a bank holiday friday afternoon.

[neepheid]

Well, I'll play along, although I'm an awkward bugger who has a foot in both camps.  I'd rather have the variety of owning many basses.  They're as interchangeable as my shirts.

Edited May 31 by neepheid

[lemmywinks]

Probably the one nice bass tbh. I only use active basses with a mid sweep (and it needs to go pretty low) live and AFAIK the HB don't cater for that. I'd most likely pick 3 Harley Bentons with my choice of pickups and preamp over any standard passive USA Fender though, as long I got to play them first obviously.

 

I love cheap basses, as long as an instrument has a neck/board profile I like and is well put together we're 90% of the way there, everything else can be changed.

 

[MartinB]

Let's see... according to Thomann, the cheapest Music Man is £2,666; the cheapest MIA Fender is £1,369; and the cheapest Rickenbacker is £2,222.
The Harley Benton equivalents are £162, £111, and £195 respectively.
So I'll take the Music Man please, and then sell it for sixteen Harley Bentons 😆

 

In all seriousness, if someone gave me £2,666 that could only be spent on basses, I'd be looking for two to five that cover different sonic territory (P with flats, MM, fretless, etc)
 

[lidl e]

1 minute ago, MartinB said:

Let's see... according to Thomann, the cheapest Music Man is £2,666; the cheapest MIA Fender is £1,369; and the cheapest Rickenbacker is £2,222.
The Harley Benton equivalents are £162, £111, and £195 respectively.
So I'll take the Music Man please, and then sell it for sixteen Harley Bentons 😆

 

In all seriousness, if someone gave me £2,666 that could only be spent on basses, I'd be looking for two to five that cover different sonic territory (P with flats, MM, fretless, etc)
 

Jeez, is a MM that much now! Shocking.

 

 

[Baloney Balderdash]

I would have a "cheap" custom bass made to my preferred specs.

 

I am very much a one bass kind of person.

 

That said my current main is a cheap budget Ibanez, that I even use with the stock pickups.

 

I have owned a couple of higher end basses, and 2 of them I loved to bits (the vintage 70's Rickenbacker 4001 that I was stupid enough to buy however I ended up hating, most expensive piece of absolute crap I ever bought), and very much regret being stupid enough to sell.

 

But currently I am not in an economical situation that allows me that kind of luxury, and I do love my cheap Ibanez too.

 

I also do actually own a Harley Benton GuitarBass (their take on the Bass VI concept), and I am truly impressed by the quality, pretty much flawless, perfectly leveled frets from stock, even the nut slots are cut perfectly, and even the stock pickups sounds genuinely great, the rest of the electronics however are kind of crappy quality though, and the tuners could be better as well, but that's the only "flaws" it has.

 

Edited May 31 by Baloney Balderdash

[fretmeister]

I'd prefer a single better quality bass, however I'm of the view that anyone gigging ought to have spares so that would force me to the Harley Bentons.

[Skybone]

Having flitted back and forth between inexpensive/expensive/inexpensive/expensive instruments for many years, I can honestly say that I'm enjoying playing my Ric more than I ever did playing anything else.

 

Though saying that, I'm in total agreement that there is absolutely nothing wrong with inexpensive instruments these days, and many are happy to gig with them. 

[Bassfinger]

My backup bass for live work is a modified HB MB4.

 

While the finish is decent it isn't up there with my more expensive basses and the components don't have flashy brand names embossed upon them, it does sound every bit as good as my poshest basses and feels comparably decent to play.  

 

So my answer would depend on whether I wanted a bass to soune good but also to look at, admire, or show off to my chums,

 

or...

 

...whether I wanted it to work hard for its living and give a top flight performance without leaving me constantly anxious about theft or damage. 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 31 by Bassfinger

[Franticsmurf]

Logic and common sense says one top end bass, partly because I would expect it to play and sound good and partly because I would get used to the nuances and so on of that bass. And for my one bass, it would be a Precision, because it works and is versatile enough for all the uses I would put it too.

 

But I'm a bassist and logic and common sense are alien concepts more suited to the keyboard/computer programmers. And I love new things. So I think that the one-bass-to-rule-them-all would eventually be replaced by a Fellowship of HBs (I'm straining the LOTR analogies here). 

 

In my real world, I have a Precision and a Sterling - both of which I consider to be my 'top end' basses. Currently the Sterling is resting and the Precision is out for the gigs. I have several cheaper basses for use as back-up, including a HB Guitarbass and a HB fretless.

[gjones]

Having owned high end Fenders and Musicman basses (some of which I still own) I've come to the conclusion that you can buy a cheapo Squier, or Sterling that is easily the equal of their much more expensive cousins.

 

These days the factories are all using automation, so whether the factory is in California or Indonesia, it really doesn't matter. 

 

I hate to say it, because I spent a lot of money on the USA built basses but I prefer my Sterling M4 Stingray to my USA built one and I prefer my Squier Jazz Bass (with a John East pre amp) to my Fender Elite Precision.

 

You live and learn.

 

 

Edited May 31 by gjones

[tauzero]

The basses I most like to play are my Seis and the Antoniotsai. That's not to say that I hate cheap basses, I just far prefer the necks on the costly ones, so it would have to be an expensive one for me.

[MichaelDean]

I get bored just playing one bass. I'd need a few. It's a shame they don't make a multi scale... I think this selection would see me right in about any given situation though. Could probably get rid of the blue jazz but it looked nice. 

 

 

I have no doubt that they'd hold up to gigging. Not too sure my wife would be that happy with the arrangement though! 😅

[Lozz196]

For me it would be one high end bass providing I wasn’t in a gigging band as would always want a backup.
 

If I were in a gigging band I’d be stuck with this either or situation as I know I’d sell most of the lower priced instruments in order to get at least one US Fender.

[stewblack]

Well, speaking as someone who owns several reasonably high end basses, and a ton of Harley Bentons too, I can honestly say the quality of the HBs is so good why not own as many of them as you can fit in your room?

I have and appreciate gorgeous basses which cost plenty and I often choose to gig a Harley over them.

Price seems almost entirely irrelevant these days.

[bass_dinger]

I stand with a foot in both camps. 

 

One Harley Benton PRS electric guitar, in case I need one. 

 

One Lowden acoustic guitar, because they were very good and pretty cheap when I got it 30 years ago. That replaced a 1970s laminate dreadnaught that was functional rather than excellent. 

 

Basses? Probably mid range - I settled on a brand that I liked and stuck with it.

 

Mandolin next - I have a reasonable instrument now, but will upgrade soon.

 

So, I prefer a few good instruments, eventually. 

[Paolo85]

For me, neither of those. In an ideal world, I would go for say three-four basses in the £350-£700 range, maybe with some modifications in some cases.

My modest opinion is that for a P or a J spending amything more than £400-£500 is not useful for practical purposes. But spending the extra-money compared to a HB gives access to more reasonable (or low) weigh, great tuners and better choice of pickups.

As for other, less common types of basses, there are less options so maybe it gets a bit more pricy. For semihollows a la Starfire, the next notch up after the Harley Benton HB60 cost £600+

I never liked much the sound of the (cheap) Ibanez Soundgears I have had, but I assume that in the £600+ range there would be better options available.

Still, I doubt I would feel the need to go for the top of the range. There's always the option to swap pickups/preamp...

 

 

 

[Grahambythesea]

I don’t need 8 basses of any type. I have 5 and that’s too many. When it comes to guitars I have 2 Taylor and a K.Yiari so pretty high end which I consider essential for acoustics.

[paul_5]

Of the two choices I’d rather have one awesome bass rather than lots of low end ones, but currently my stable is 3 mid-value instruments, all built to do 3 different jobs.

[neepheid]

20 minutes ago, Grahambythesea said:

I have 5 and that’s too many

 

Umm, move along, nothing to see here!

 

[chris_b]

I would buy the bass that sounds the best. . . . and an equivalent backup.

 

Having multiple less expensive basses doesn't interest me.