Classic Basses or Wooden Wonders

[JBassist]

jazz,precision,stringray vs all those weird usally wooden designs

[lemmywinks]

I like a nice Jazz but i'm gonna have to go with more modern designs. Although all my favourite "modern" basses seem to be from the nineties.... Must be getting old!

[charic]

Ive put classic but ONLY coz I have a real hankering for a white thunderbird..

[XB26354]

It's funny you mention this. After playing for 25 years, owning everything from a Ken Smith 6 to a Status headless 5 to numerous Warwicks I've ended up with a Sadowsky RV5 and an American Standard Precision Bass 5-string - so basically a jazz bass and a p-bass. Why? because the p-bass has such a rich, natural sound, even down to the open B, and the Sadowsky just snaps. They're light, very comfortable, balance perfectly and sound brilliant. I feel like a luddite, however I like my 5-strings and don't really hanker after vintage Fenders - played a few and I always miss that low B

[Bassassin]

You need a category for both. And what's wrong with plastic, or metal? My Tokai Talbo looks great next to my P's & J's & Rickenbuggers!

Jon.

[Cat Burrito]

I'm very set in my ways & like traditional looks in all musical equipment. Each to their own though

[thisnameistaken]

I usually go for something a bit guitar-looking, Fenders or whatever, but I've had bad experiences with them so my main bass is a Warwick Thumb. But I don't think it looks like a flashy bass at all. It's quite small, it's fairly dark brown, there's no quilted top, no high-gloss, no pointy horns, no gold hardware, no LEDs, etc. Nobody really notices it.

[GreeneKing]

Not at all a 'loaded' question then

'Classic' vs 'Strange/Weird'

In terms of J/P vs others I'd say the range of the others varies so much that the question is skewed.

Conventional vs Unconventional?

Why not embrace it all for different reasons would be my response (so I didn't vote).

[lozbass]

I just love basses - classic, vintage, old, electric, weird, cheap, acoustic, expensive, exotic, modern. - I think a 'both' category would be useful in the poll (not that it would really tell us much - one player's classic is another's new and strange).

[BigRedX]

What exactly constitutes a classic? Something before the 60s? before the 70s? before the 80s?

You've included the Stingray as a "classic" so time-wise your cut off point can't be earlier than 1976, and at that time the Stingray would have counted as a strange new design.

The great thing about bass, is that there's still plenty of scope for development and improvement, so today's weird may well be tomorrow's classic.

[Shaggy]

Guess my sig speaks for itself. I've tried and owned modern boutique basses - and some I've admired hugely - but for whatever reason fail to bond with them. If I were any kind of virtuoso I'm sure it would be the reverse.

Edit: Ah, think I've misunderstood the Q here. Well I guess a T-bird and a Magnum are in many ways "stranger" than a Fodera or a Ritter, so not sure what my response is TBH!

Edited July 28, 2009 by Shaggy

[OldGit]

[quote name='BigRedX' post='553526' date='Jul 28 2009, 08:23 AM']You've included the Stingray as a "classic" so time-wise your cut off point can't be earlier than 1976, and at that time the Stingray would have counted as a strange new design.[/quote]

No it wasn't .. the active electronics were a bit revolutionary but the shape was considered a normal development of the other solid basses around at the time.

[BigRedX]

Admittedly it's over 30 years ago now, but I seem to remember a detailed International Musician review when the Stingray was first released going at length about how this new design had improved all the faults of the original Fender designs but wondering if some of the features (the 3+1 headstock for one) were too revolutionary for the majority of bass players.

[crez5150]

Sorry but Graphite all the way for me....

[Dom in Dorset]

I abstained on this one!
I tend to go for retro but I do like some modern designs, Ibanez SRX series and the Jet King is of course a modern retro. For many years I played a Hohner stick bass.
What I don't like are long thin horns (sorry Lemmywinks) basses should be solid creatures.

[bh2]

Call me old fashioned but Fender all the way.

[OldGit]

[quote name='BigRedX' post='553558' date='Jul 28 2009, 08:49 AM']Admittedly it's over 30 years ago now, but I seem to remember a detailed International Musician review when the Stingray was first released going at length about how this new design had improved all the faults of the original Fender designs but wondering if some of the features (the 3+1 headstock for one) were too revolutionary for the majority of bass players.[/quote]

Ha ha how that reviewer would laugh nowadays ....
It was seen as evolution rather than revolution, I seem to remember...

[charic]

[quote name='bh2' post='553578' date='Jul 28 2009, 09:11 AM']Call me old fashioned but Fender all the way.[/quote]

Old Fashioned


Gets coat

[bh2]

Heh... I am (another) old git though but!

[JTUK]

Classic..

Even if my next bass is custom, it'll have a Jazz template.

The body will have a nice grained feature and the neck will be birds-eye maple with stringers ..

Jazz single coils on a 5 string

[spongebob]

I love my classics - jazz and now a Jaguar!

The 'newest' bass I own, shape-wise is a Rickenbacker 4004. Actually, the body shape is pretty much the same as the 4003, pups look like a 4002, but the fancy new colours give them a new look!