What does your signature bass look like?

[christhammer666]

pretty much a replica of the matt freeman precision but with heavy pick marks on the plate above the e string

[BigRedX]

6 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

I haven't seen a thread on specific wear patterns. I was asking about any marks your playing leaves on the instrument. 

 

Weirdly, I also bite my nails and generally the two guilty fingers are bent over. The pattern is a bit of a mystery to me, but there it is. 

 

Looks like I'm not alone in just reading the title and not the actual content of the OP.

 

So to answer the actual question my signature instruments wouldn't have any wear patterns. If my instruments get to the point where the wear was actually noticeable I have them refinished/refurbished. I've already done it twice once with a guitar and once with a bass although in the second case the wear had been inflicted by a previous owner, I also took the opportunity to have it refinished in a colour that was more to my taste.

Edited October 30 by BigRedX

[Baloney Balderdash]

I actually gave this quite a lot of  thought:

 

A custom made 4 string, 28,6" scale, bass, with a slim modern C profile, bolt on, clear satin finish, 5 piece laminated Jatoba/black Ebony (just 2 relatively narrow layers of Ebony in between 3 wider layers of Jatoba) neck, with graphite rods enforcement and a double action truss rod, a tilted 2+2, gold plated tuning mechanisms, classic B.C Rich inspired, headstock, but overall slightly more narrow, and with the "devil horns" slightly shifted, so that the upper slightly larger "horn" is sitting a bit more forward than the slightly smaller and slightly retracted lower "horn", and a 24 medium jumbo stainless steel frets, 12" radius, figured Ebony, fretboard, with an ESP LTD F-204/F-1004 style inspired Mahogany body with a spalted maple top, in a transparent matte black burst finish, with a blood red solid circle figure with a black OM sign in the middle, placed approximately right above the bridge, and equipped with an EMG Geezer Butler reverse P pickup in the neck position, and in the bridge position a gold plated DiMarzio Relentless Middle reverse P pickup with a gold plated series/parallel switch, with an active stacked LPF/HPF tone filter control for each of the 2 pickups, and an active pickup blend control, equipped with knobs made of solid transparent red plexi glass encapsulated in hollow gold plated cylinders with a thin spiraling gold rib going upwards around them, gold plated steel mono rail bridge pieces, milled from solid brass, with a string spacing of 17,5mm (or perhaps instead even a wammy/tremolo bridge with 17,5mm string spacing), and an accordingly more narrow neck, with a 38mm wide graphite nut.

Equipped with Elixir Nanoweb guitar strings of the gauges .074 - .056 - .042 - 030, and tuned to tenor bass, A standard, tuning, as in the upper 4 strings of a 6 string bass tuned to regular B standard tuning.

[police squad]

I wonder if the custom shop could replicate this bass of mine

The wear under the G string is casued by my third finger digging in when I play with a pick (mostly I play with a pick)

This bass has done a lot of gigs in its 34 years with me. The wood is actually gouged out, not just the finish

It's actually a '73 not  a'75 (I have the original bridge with the long screw for the G string intonation)

[ahpook]

18 hours ago, bassbiscuits said:

...some horizontal long surface scratches across the front from reckless pick playing.

 

 

 

This !

 

[Steve Browning]

2 hours ago, police squad said:

I wonder if the custom shop could replicate this bass of mine

The wear under the G string is casued by my third finger digging in when I play with a pick (mostly I play with a pick)

This bass has done a lot of gigs in its 34 years with me. The wood is actually gouged out, not just the finish

It's actually a '73 not  a'75 (I have the original bridge with the long screw for the G string intonation)

 

This is exactly what I was after. The gouges on my '66 are really quite deep. One of the reasons I semi-retired it - to prevent the gouges getting any deeper.

[police squad]

11 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

 

This is exactly what I was after. The gouges on my '66 are really quite deep. One of the reasons I semi-retired it - to prevent the gouges getting any deeper.

I have an almost immaculate P bass special from about 1981, I had this as my lounge bass but realised that I was starting to gouge ths one as well, so put it away.

Good band name

Gouged Out!!

[Skybone]

Probably:

 

[uk_lefty]

Loads of dints in the headstock from clashing with right handed guitarists when we wonder about on small stages.

[Steve Browning]

4 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

Loads of dints in the headstock from clashing with right handed guitarists when we wonder about on small stages.

Should I ask what your signature guitarist looks like?

[prowla]

Some of mine have my logo on them.

[paul_5]

I made my own. These days it’s sporting a tort plate, but that’s just because it’s cold out!

[tauzero]

Do the <50% of us who read the OP and not just the title get a special prize?

[LeftyJ]

If my instruments have any signature wear, it's from standing in my rack for too long in neglect... I'm not even kidding. Some of my guitars and basses have a light spot on the back of the neck where my rack blocks the sun. I have too many and only have a few in active rotation 

 

Currently it's my Sandberg Lionel, my Status S2 Classic 5-string and my Music Man Silhouette Special that get all the playtime. 

[franzbassist]

I'm very lucky to say already have it. My Franz Sirius DC, which features a chestnut top from a tree that came down in my parents garden.

 

 

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 30/10/2024 at 17:07, Baloney Balderdash said:

I actually gave this quite a lot of  thought:

 

A custom made 4 string, 28,6" scale, bass, with a slim modern C profile, bolt on, clear satin finish, 5 piece laminated Jatoba/black Ebony (just 2 relatively narrow layers of Ebony in between 3 wider layers of Jatoba) neck, with graphite rods enforcement and a double action truss rod, a tilted 2+2, gold plated tuning mechanisms, classic B.C Rich inspired, headstock, but overall slightly more narrow, and with the "devil horns" slightly shifted, so that the upper slightly larger "horn" is sitting a bit more forward than the slightly smaller and slightly retracted lower "horn", and a 24 medium jumbo stainless steel frets, 12" radius, figured Ebony, fretboard, with an ESP LTD F-204/F-1004 style inspired Mahogany body with a spalted maple top, in a transparent matte black burst finish, with a blood red solid circle figure with a black OM sign in the middle, placed approximately right above the bridge, and equipped with an EMG Geezer Butler reverse P pickup in the neck position, and in the bridge position a gold plated DiMarzio Relentless Middle reverse P pickup with a gold plated series/parallel switch, with an active stacked LPF/HPF tone filter control for each of the 2 pickups, and an active pickup blend control, equipped with knobs made of solid transparent red plexi glass encapsulated in hollow gold plated cylinders with a thin spiraling gold rib going upwards around them, gold plated steel mono rail bridge pieces, milled from solid brass, with a string spacing of 17,5mm (or perhaps instead even a wammy/tremolo bridge with 17,5mm string spacing), and an accordingly more narrow neck, with a 38mm wide graphite nut.

Equipped with Elixir Nanoweb guitar strings of the gauges .074 - .056 - .042 - 030, and tuned to tenor bass, A standard, tuning, as in the upper 4 strings of a 6 string bass tuned to regular B standard tuning.

I suppose more in the spirit of this thread, it would be a 28.6" scale bass, with visual mods like these Ibanez Mikro Basses:

 

Something involving matte black finish, and pickups with red covers, and some sort of ornamentation/figure on the body above the bridge.

 

Edited November 30 by Baloney Balderdash

[TrevorR]

Mine would be made by Sandberg and look a lot like this… not that I’ve ever played a bass like this or have any excuse to buy one, but IF I WAS…  might go for a trans raspberry red though, but I do like this blue burst!

 

 

I would be going this way because even after 20 to 30 years of play (40 in the case of my Aria!), none of my basses are particularly beaten up or with visible wear in need of relic-ing in a copy. Aside from the odd little ding here or there … but no “wear marks”. They’re all in good condition. So for a signature bass I’m doing the wish list thing…

 

Edited December 1 by TrevorR

[shoulderpet]

On 29/10/2024 at 17:02, Steve Browning said:

Mine are probably traumatised, but I have managed to fool some people all of the time!

When I had a Hofner if I was struggling with a song I used to switch the Bass slider switch on, instant mud that means no-one can tell when you botched a note or six.

 

I feel I should also mention that they are actually surprisingly articulate basses with the Bass slider off and both pickups on.

[shoulderpet]

On 02/11/2024 at 19:22, LeftyJ said:

If my instruments have any signature wear, it's from standing in my rack for too long in neglect... I'm not even kidding. Some of my guitars and basses have a light spot on the back of the neck where my rack blocks the sun. I have too many and only have a few in active rotation 

 

Currently it's my Sandberg Lionel, my Status S2 Classic 5-string and my Music Man Silhouette Special that get all the playtime. 

That's a nice problem to have. I currently have a Gretsch junior jet ii and a bass I put together from parts, would love another bass but don't really have the space so it will have to wait until I have shifted the parts bass (the Gretsch is staying)

[Russ]

I already have them.  

 

Maruszczyk Frog 6A

Swamp ash bodies, quilted ash tops with "ceruse" finish. 

Roasted maple necks

Ebony fingerboards

Delano Xtender pickups w/ramp

Noll 4-band EQ, with series/parallel/singlecoil switches

Black hardware (with coloured knobs to match the ceruse colour - blue on the fretted, red on the fretless)

Luminlay block inlays on the fretted, Luminlay side dots on both

 

I guess people have been taking notice of my basses, as I've noticed that Maruszczyk have subsequently built several others to the same spec!  

 

[Rexel Matador]

This is mine. The bridge and pickup look oversized because the body is very small. The fender was too much wood and my back just can't handle it anymore. It's still fairly new but wear is creeping in at the top of the pickup, where my thumb tends to rest, and on the headstock where I keep bashing it on cymbals in a cramped rehearsal space.