GAS - Is It Just Us / Me

[Oggy]

Just putting this up to see what you guys think, and it's a wee bit slack at work today.

[b]GAS – Agghhhhhh.[/b]

Why is it that we Bass players suffer so badly with it? Well judging by this site we do.

I’ve been in ‘a few’ bands over the years and those six stringers don’t seem to suffer with the GAS problem nearly as much as us. From my observations the six stringers usually start out with a budget Stratocaster look alike or similar then progress to a reasonably pricy Fender Strat or Tele or a Gibson Les Paul and stay with it for years.

I’ve had 9 basses over the last 4 years and I’m still lusting after, and will probably get if finances allow, several more in the short to medium term. I just keep looking for that ‘perfect’ look, feel and sound. With each new purchase I think ‘Yeh, that’s it’ only to find that a few days, week or months down the road I’m suffering from GAS yet again.

Any one else noticed this lack of GAS in the six string community, or is it my imagination?

Oggy

[Schnozzalee]

Nah I've had it recently, your one o the guys with small hands like me! The way I see it, there not that many different tones to bass - Jazz, Precision, MM, Rickenbacker or Hi-Fi (status). Then you have your 4,5 and 6 strings. Then effects. Then amps. Its best I feel to buy a good amp (£1200 tops) a 24 fret hifi soapbar four string such as the Cort A4 which is extremely well built and comfortable to play and get one of those Roland V-99 which pitch shifts - turning a standard tuned bass to eb by the click of a button. The V-99 also imitates and combines effects including jazz,precision tones etc. Thats my assessment, coming from a guy with the same problem as you...but just spent 1k on a masterbuilt guitar...

[hillbilly deluxe]

I always have Bass GAS,but when i played guitar it was far more severe.

[Oggy]

[quote name='Schnozzalee' post='912933' date='Aug 2 2010, 04:18 PM']Nah I've had it recently, your one o the guys with small hands like me! The way I see it, there not that many different tones to bass - Jazz, Precision, MM, Rickenbacker or Hi-Fi (status). Then you have your 4,5 and 6 strings. Then effects. Then amps. Its best I feel to buy a good amp (£1200 tops) a 24 fret hifi soapbar four string such as the Cort A4 which is extremely well built and comfortable to play and get one of those Roland V-99 which pitch shifts - turning a standard tuned bass to eb by the click of a button. The V-99 also imitates and combines effects including jazz,precision tones etc. Thats my assessment, coming from a guy with the same problem as you...but just spent 1k on a masterbuilt guitar...[/quote]

Hi Oli,

I'm intrigued , "[b]Roland V-99 which pitch shifts - turning a standard tuned bass to eb by the click of a button. The V-99 also imitates and combines effects including jazz,precision tones etc.[/b]", is it a sort of TC-Helicon VoiceLive for Bass?

The idea of dropping to a B tuning at the push of a button has got my GAS going again .

What did you have masterbuilt? (Who, What (Pic's), Where and how are you finding it?)

Oggy

[Oggy]

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='913100' date='Aug 2 2010, 07:15 PM']I always have Bass GAS,but when i played guitar it was far more severe.[/quote]

Hi hillbilly,

So it's eased since you started playing Bass; why do you think that is? Less choice, more flexibility of tone on a bass, running out of cash?

I'm just living in hope that I'll find that piece of wood with 4 strings that'll satisfy my URGE to get a 32" Scale bass .

Oggy

[Lozz196]

[quote name='Oggy' post='913143' date='Aug 2 2010, 08:21 PM']Hi Oli,

I'm intrigued , "[b]Roland V-99 which pitch shifts - turning a standard tuned bass to eb by the click of a button. The V-99 also imitates and combines effects including jazz,precision tones etc.[/b]", is it a sort of TC-Helicon VoiceLive for Bass?

The idea of dropping to a B tuning at the push of a button has got my GAS going again .

What did you have masterbuilt? (Who, What (Pic's), Where and how are you finding it?)

Oggy [/quote]
The dreaded GAS - its with me all the time!
So far this year, 1 new 4x12, 1 Amp, 1 50s P-Bass, 1 Les Paul type gtr, 1 Fender pickup, plus numerous leads etc.
Although, have actually sold quite a bit, so prob just abt breaking even - til the next must-have, of course.

[Oggy]

[quote name='Lozz196' post='913155' date='Aug 2 2010, 08:35 PM']The dreaded GAS - its with me all the time!
So far this year, 1 new 4x12, 1 Amp, 1 50s P-Bass, 1 Les Paul type gtr, 1 Fender pickup, plus numerous leads etc.
Although, have actually sold quite a bit, so prob just abt breaking even - til the next must-have, of course.[/quote]

Hi Lozz196,

Conversation with my Missus:

[b]The Missus [/b] - When are you going to grow up and stop buying all those silly bass guitars and stuff, it must be costing you a fortune and you know we (her) need the money for our holiday and other uselless rubbish?

[b]My Answer [/b] - Come on now you know I've [b]actually sold quite a bit, so prob just abt breaking even[/b].

[b]The Missus [/b] - [size=4][b]YEH RIGHT[/b][/size]

Ringing any bells Chaps?

Oggy

[hillbilly deluxe]

[quote name='Oggy' post='913152' date='Aug 2 2010, 08:32 PM']Hi hillbilly,

So it's eased since you started playing Bass; why do you think that is? Less choice, more flexibility of tone on a bass, running out of cash?

Oggy [/quote]

I was obsessed with 60's british blues,( Green,Clapton,Webb)which meant vintage gear and tone,Selmer Croc Skin Amps,old Les Pauls.Telecasters.I must have owned about 60 -70 6 strings,30 - 40 amps.Started on bass,they also had to be vintage,i.e 68/9 ? P-bass,79 P-bass,70's Tele bass,60's EB3 etc.
I traded my old basses to fund a bass build and realised that i can get the sound i want out of gear that is'nt vintage.Even though i use a P-bass & a Jazz,neither of them are Fenders but are far superior in feel and sound to any that i have owned or played.And i can get the sound and volume i need out of my Marshall DBS rig.If i feel the need to play 6 strings,very rarely,i have an old Hohner L59,which nails that sound better than any Gibson Les Paul i've used.

[colleya]

[quote name='Oggy' post='912922' date='Aug 2 2010, 04:07 PM']Any one else noticed this lack of GAS in the six string community, or is it my imagination?[/quote]

Not a chance mate. The guitarists in my band are forever getting new kit. Mind you one of them runs a high end valve amp business and the other is his biggest customer! It's a symbiotic relationship.

One of them is currently whittling down his guitar collection from 23 to a mere 8! And he only gets seriously top end gear, I think he's got bat ears. Sounds b****y good though. They stay behind after practice to talk about valves and such.

I didn't have GAS until I joined this site. Same bass and one amp at a time for the last 16 years. Now I've just commissioned a 1x15 from our amp builder guitarist. First piece of brand new kit I'll ever buy. It's a slippery slope.

EDIT for order - posted the original form my phone and it got jumbled.

Edited August 3, 2010 by colleya

[Shaggy]

[quote name='Oggy' post='913187' date='Aug 2 2010, 09:11 PM']Conversation with my Missus:

[b]The Missus [/b] - When are you going to grow up and stop buying all those silly bass guitars and stuff, it must be costing you a fortune and you know we (her) need the money for our holiday and other uselless rubbish?

[b]My Answer [/b] - Come on now you know I've [b]actually sold quite a bit, so prob just abt breaking even[/b].

[b]The Missus [/b] - [size=4][b]YEH RIGHT[/b][/size]

Ringing any bells Chaps?

Oggy [/quote]


You must have bugged my house..........right?

[Oggy]

[quote name='Shaggy' post='913467' date='Aug 3 2010, 08:19 AM'] You must have bugged my house..........right?[/quote]

Hi Shaggy,

You have to be so careful with pillow talk these days, you never know who's listening

[b]Ditty for you[/b]

One of the funniest band conversations I’ve ever heard was between a lead guitarist and rhythm guitarist I played in a band with back in the 80’s.

The rhythm guitarist owned a small independent music shop so was never short of new gear to show off :snob: ; the lead guitarist (usually skint like the rest of us) played a very old Wilson through an original (really beat up and held together by tape and string) VOX AC 30, none the less he was a really great player and produced the goods .

One practice night the rhythm guitarist turned up with ‘yet another' change of amp. and guitar, some Yamaha posh amp and a a brand new Rickenbacker (like the one the guy in the Birds used to play. Anyway, just as we were finishing up the session the conversation went something like this:-

[b]Rhythm Guitarist to Lead Guitarist:[/b] Well what do you think?

[b]Lead Guitarist to Rhythm Guitarist:[/b] Think about what?

[b] Rhythm Guitarist to Lead Guitarist:[/b] My new state of the art Yami and the Ricky :snob: .

Look of intense consideration appears on the Lead Guitarists face and conversation continues:

[b]Lead Guitarist to Rhythm Guitarist:[/b] Well, If I were you I’d take the Ricky and beat the SH*T out of that Yami thing with it, it sounds like a bag of nails .

The band broke up shortly after that – wonder why ?

Oggy

[Schnozzalee]

[quote name='Oggy' post='913143' date='Aug 2 2010, 07:21 PM']Hi Oli,

I'm intrigued , "[b]Roland V-99 which pitch shifts - turning a standard tuned bass to eb by the click of a button. The V-99 also imitates and combines effects including jazz,precision tones etc.[/b]", is it a sort of TC-Helicon VoiceLive for Bass?

The idea of dropping to a B tuning at the push of a button has got my GAS going again .

What did you have masterbuilt? (Who, What (Pic's), Where and how are you finding it?)

Oggy [/quote]

Hi Oggy,

Yeah, check it out on youtube - its a £1k though the full package!! I'm not a fan of B strings so it would be ideal for me, it can imitate piano and you can imitate a guitar with your bass played underneath it together. Also has a D-beam (Jimmy Page!) Its pretty mental, I've always had a good experience with Roland too.

I bought 1/20 Masterbuilt Charvel Star based on the late 70's models with the Ziggy Stardust-esque bolt graphic, getting it shipped from the US. The guys from Fender paid Grover Jackson and his 4 employees from the Charvel workshop to come back and masterbuild 100 of their old models. Its my one six string weakness, anything 70's,80's glam rock always proves too much. The look is an acquired taste but the tone and playability is second to none! Instant Van Halen, WASP, Ratt, Europe, Motley Crue, Twisted Sister - you name it...the Roland will have to wait a lil longer...

[url="http://image1.dhgate.com/upload/200910/20/ff8080811aa5c55a011aa927db6929a3/productimg1256388396261.jpg"]http://image1.dhgate.com/upload/200910/20/...56388396261.jpg[/url]

Genz Benz Rig, Cort A4, Roland VB-99 will be my eventual 'final' setup. I also think the Fender Urge II would be a good buy for us, I felt the short scale coulda done with a little more and the 34" a little less, that said I do really like the tension of a 35" scale - this is going nowhere isn't it? I'll shut up now.

[Schnozzalee]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjC6ErK2uPk&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjC6ErK2uPk...feature=related[/url]

VB-99!

[Fat Rich]

I was doing a bit of drumming a few years ago, serious GAS attacks.... it's so easy to add a few extra noise makers here and there, then an extra bass drum and a few more toms. And some different sounding snares and some different hi hats..... then you've pretty much got two kits so you separate them up and realise two kits are really handy, one for gigging and one in the studio. But you need a few extra bits to finish them off... and the process starts again.

Then you get into electric vdrums and that's even more addictive, need a PA... and VST on the computer....

It's never ending!

Edited August 3, 2010 by Fat Rich

[Oggy]

[quote name='Schnozzalee' post='913813' date='Aug 3 2010, 01:12 PM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjC6ErK2uPk&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjC6ErK2uPk...feature=related[/url]

VB-99![/quote]

Oli - Aggggggggggggg

Holy $#*7, I want one -[size=4] [b]NOW[/b][/size].

I wonder if, down the road, they'll do the TC-Helicon trick? What I mean is; TC-Helicon bought out a floor mounted Voice processor (VoiceLive) - had every thing and it's dog on it, great bit of kit - bloody hard to drive (unless you're a tap dancer), later they bought out 'lesser models ie. VoiceDouble' with just some of the features on. I bought the VoiceLive and ended up selling it, at the usual LOSS, and buying one of the lesser models that had all I needed on it.

Making my bass sound closer to an upright would be a really nice feature to have, I'd also love the pitch shift.

What a great bit of kit though, I hope one of the members gets one and lets us all know more about it. Go on Oli - you know you want to .

Oggy

[Delberthot]

only 9 basses in 4 years - there's been times when I've bought and sold that many in a week.

I've owned about 70 basses - 60ish of them in the last 4 or 5 years.

I see something that I like even thought there's nothing wrong with the one I have or I get said bass that i like only to find it very disappointing (namely Rick 4003, Modulus Flea, Warwick NT5 Thumb) so it gets sold. I very occasionally buy a bass purely to sell at a profit.

I've owned 4, 5, 6, 8, 12 string, fretless, fretted, acoustic, semi acoustic, neck through, bolt on, set neck and so on.

I'm not sure if its my style or if I try to get the same sound from every bass I own but I sound like me on any bass so I may as well go for something cool and that's why I have my Epi EB-3. Looks good, does the job and I sound like me. Plus it does the closest Rick 4003 I've heard this side of the Yes Album despite having owned 4 of the buggers.

I'm finally happy after years of searching since that fateful gig in the Dobbie Hall in Larbert where I couldn't hear myself so sold everything which was at the time a black Stingray 5 string, Gallien Krueger 800RB and Trace 1153.

What do I have now? Check my sig - Gallien Krueger and Trace Elliot

[Golchen]

For me personally, guitar GAS is greater than bass GAS. I also think that Guitarists GAS more than bassists on the whole.

I've known bassists happy with the same bass forever, but guitarists always seem to be buying and selling guitars, amps, effects.

[rumblebum]

Oh, I'm very familiar with this problem - also applies to cars, 'puters, etc. - but, umm, what does GAS actually stand for?

[Low End Bee]

Gear Acquisition Syndrome..

In the last 3 years I've bought none and sold one.

I'm down to two!

[chris_b]

GAS is God's way of telling you that you're not doing enough gigs!

[Bilbo]

I really do think that people are often trying to 'buy' the things that only come with time and dedicated practice. Good technique comes from concerted investment, not from a 'fast neck'. An instrument will never 'play itself'. If you can't hear a flat five, your shiny new gear won't hear it for you

My thoughts are, firstly, why would anyone want to buy a bass that sounds like the one X plays? Most people are disappointed with these types pf purchases as they lack the playing skills of X so will never actually SOUND like them, even if they have the required bass. IMO, they would be far better off sitting at home with a credible professional instrument and learning to play it rather than spending time and effort knobbing about trying to find the perfect bass.

Whilst I have had other basses, I have pretty much played one electric bass for 24 years and one amp for nearly 10. I have issues with my playing (lazy intonation at times and a mismatch between my head and my hands) but the solution is more practice time and improved concentration, not new gear. I actually have more guitars than basses: Gibson ES175, Takamine nylon and Adamas steel string but I don't have GAS for gear anymore. I have MAS (musicality acquisition syndrome )

[cameltoe]

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='913265' date='Aug 2 2010, 09:59 PM']I traded my old basses to fund a bass build and realised that i can get the sound i want out of gear that is'nt vintage.Even though i use a P-bass & a Jazz,neither of them are Fenders but are far superior in feel and sound to any that i have owned or played.[/quote]

Bass Doc built?

Are they built from scratch or crafted from old fender parts? How much (if you don't mind me asking) does he normally charge for this service?

[lojo]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='919344' date='Aug 9 2010, 10:22 AM']I really do think that people are often trying to 'buy' the things that only come with time and dedicated practice. Good technique comes from concerted investment, not from a 'fast neck'. An instrument will never 'play itself'. If you can't hear a flat five, your shiny new gear won't hear it for you

My thoughts are, firstly, why would anyone want to buy a bass that sounds like the one X plays? Most people are disappointed with these types pf purchases as they lack the playing skills of X so will never actually SOUND like them, even if they have the required bass. IMO, they would be far better off sitting at home with a credible professional instrument and learning to play it rather than spending time and effort knobbing about trying to find the perfect bass.

Whilst I have had other basses, I have pretty much played one electric bass for 24 years and one amp for nearly 10. I have issues with my playing (lazy intonation at times and a mismatch between my head and my hands) but the solution is more practice time and improved concentration, not new gear. I actually have more guitars than basses: Gibson ES175, Takamine nylon and Adamas steel string but I don't have GAS for gear anymore. I have MAS (musicality acquisition syndrome )[/quote]

very true, but i think the majority of people like myself who play around with gear, do have a realistic view about there playing ability and what gear can do for it

I have said recently in a post, I could get by on a cheap bass, but at 41 i've worked hard and want a nice one, even if it is more toy than need, just glad I don't like sports cars or golf, think that costs more?

[Cat Burrito]

I was playing in 3 bands last year & now I'm down to one. I've had the reverse & have an anti GAS - I've settled into my kit & have been steadily getting rid of stuff, happily so. There are one or two things I'm vaguely interested in but I'm in no hurry & these will be trades if I do acquire them. I'm much happier now focussing on what I've got. I think GAS is a phase a lot of us go through. It's fun but nice when it passes

[OutToPlayJazz]

I'm just in the process of leaving the missus, so GAS is on hold while I concentrate on being a responsible adult and getting my new house sorted out!

Rich