How many basses do you have

[lbanks]

'74 Gibson Ripper
Fender Jazz Bass Special
Kramer The Duke
Wishbass 5 String
Conklin GT-7
Lightwave Classica 5ver
Galveston 12ver
Cort Curbow Fretless
SD Curlee
Alembic Orion

[bigbadbill]

Currently only 72 Rickenbacker and Seibass custom 4 string by Martin Petersen. As people are no doubt sick of hearing, I had to sell my Alembic SC Deluxe to help finance my Triple O; also had to sell my Rickenbacker 8 string for the same reason. And I LOVED those basses!!!(sniff!) I feel naked being down to only 2....had dozens of others but as my job pays a pittance I always have to sell in order to buy. Most missed are the SC and 8 string Rick (the things we have to go through to realise our Alembic dreams!), a Pedulla MVP 4, Warwick Dolphin Pro 1, Rick 4001CS, Jaydee Mark King, and probably half a dozen others. Oh, and a Rick 4001V63 reissue I bought off e-bay which never arrived (many thanks to the US mail; claim currently ongoing). Looked great in the pictures....
 
Shaun  
 

[palembic]

Euh ...
 
Bonnie ...
 
just one
 
1
 
 
Paul the bad one
 
 
PS: I really need to have a decent job, that stocking thing doesn't work either

[elzie]

Paul, keep that stocking!  
 
As a matter of fact, get one for me too. Now that we know who owns what bass, we just need some addresses......... Just kidding people;)
 
 
 
 
 
Paul TGO  
 
 
(Message edited by elzie on January 14, 2004)

[the_schwartz]

Just two:  
 
'90 Elan 5-string, cocobolo top, maple body, Europa electronics, 2 AXY56 pickups, cocobolo THG knobs  
 
'91 Fender Jazz Bass Plus (Serial #000012), Arctic White finish, rosewood fingerboard, active electronics, lace sensor pickups
 
(Message edited by the_schwartz on January 14, 2004)

[811952]

Paul TBO, you sound sad.  Keep in mind that Bonnie is the equivalent of a dozen or so lesser instruments!  AND you get to wear stockings!  Oh, wait, I probably shouldn't have typed that...
 
Paul the John one

[malthumb]

These are my Alembics (except I don't own the small body in the middle anymore)  

 
2000 Alembic Mark King Dlx / Series II 5 string
1974 Alembic Series I Small Standard
1987 Alembic Series I Omega Standard
 
(Message edited by malthumb on January 14, 2004)

[malthumb]

These are the non-Alembics I currently own
 

 
These are both Hanewinckel Artist series 6 stringers, one fretted, one fretless.  The story behind these is that I bought the fretted one sight unseen in 2001 and loved it.  Then I found the fretless on eBay in October 2003.  Found out from Pete Hanewinckel that they are consecutive builds.

[bigredbass]

I 'converted over from piano to bass in the mid-70s.  At that time, to gig with keys I'd have been hauling a B3/Leslie, a Rhodes and/or Wurlitzer or Hohner clavinet, and amps for them.  Way too much to lug around, and I'd have had to buy a van to boot!
 
I always loved bass, and I just could 'hear' it, the way my wife can just hear all 4 harmony parts in the vocals, instantly.
 
Over the years I owned
 
Gibson Ripper   (Rick Danko looked so cool with his; I looked like a dork, sounded like one too.  Only bass I ever had that I could hear the pickups de-magnetize over time.  Sounded just like the batteries fading, but it was passive!)
 
Gibson RD Artist   (ABSOLUTELY the heaviest; Robert Moog designed the active circuit, but had that useless EBO bridge on three studs, like the Ripper.  My friends dubbed the headstock inlay 'The Flying Shrimp')
 
2 Peavey T40s (Bulletproof when playing beer joints in East Texas, but one hell of a bass for $299.00 brand new with a case, made in Mississippi.  Biggest bass bridge I EVER saw.  This bass made numerically-controlled body shaping the industry standard.)
 
Peavey DynaBass 5  (the first version with the AWFUL pickups and the rubber neck; Thank God I knew NOTHING about setup in those days, I have had to tweak it twice a day.  But the only decent five string I could get in Jacksonville in the mid 80s.  A no-tone bass.)
 
Yamaha BB400   (bolt-neck, budget BB.  'Backwards P-pickup, vol tone.  A sentimental favorite as my wife LOVED that little bass.  I'll find one on EBay.)
 
2 Yamaha BB1200s   (PBass meets Alembic.  Backwards P-pickup, maple/mahogany neckthru, alder wings, striped ebony fingerboard, OVAL inlays.   A little 'thick', fat neck, ingenious keys, Sir Paul had a left-handed one, Lee Sklar the prototype.  The first Japanese bass that was accepted seriously in this country.  Both in that amber to SG-cherry sunburst.)
 
Yamaha BB1600  (Essentially a bolt neck BB3000.  Pearl White with the brass p/u surrounds. Neck like a slightly big Jazz meets slightly small P Bass. This benefited from Jeff Berlin's input on the BB2000 to slim the neck on the 3000)
 
Yamaha BB3000  (THE quintessential 80s bass.  My only complaint was I was tired of passive basses.)
 
Fernandez Gravity 4M  (all 'white' wood, swamp ash, all maple neck.  TUNE ripoff, sounded OK once I gutted it and EMG'd everything (P,J,BTS):  
Proved to me the value of EMGs:  Everybody ELSE in the band thinks its great tone!)
 
These are all gone to the mists of time.  
 
These days my collection is only two:
 
Alembic 91 Spoiler 5, the BigRedBass (Series/Omega shape, quilt over maple, long scale, gold keys, the OTHER love of my life after Mrs. Wilson)
 
Yamaha BB5000A   (my nod to owning a Fender-style instrument; non-symmetric 5-string P-pickup, stack J pickup.  For non-AXY tone, I love that  
P/J combination, hard to find in a 5-string.  Pearl white, oval inlays, mahogany maple neckthru, alder wings, striped ebony fingerboard.
This was a sentimental nod to my 80s bands.  I hate bolt-ons, so MM, G+L, Fender, Lakland, etc. were not really choices for me.  Amazing the things that Yamaha built for this bass that Fender only recently got around to 10 years later)
 
I'll never play 4-strings again.  I'm not smart enough to go back and forth and keep any real facility on both, it's just too different, and much harder on a 4 for me.  I've never owned a Fender.  I would like another Alembic or two one day.  I love the 4-string Spector, but it somehow loses that lovely feeling going to a 5.  I'm sure a Quilt 5 Series One Point would float my boat.  I love the AXYs, but I'll never be completely satisfied till I have the Series electronics.
 
J o e y

[wideload]

Paul TBO;
 
I agree with the just one theory. My Rogue 5 is all I really play, although there's a 91 Peavey TL-5, a 79 Gibson RD Artist, and an 80's Yamaha BB300 converted to fretless (WHAT was I thinking??) in the storeroom. I just never got rid of them. I imagine if a 5 string Series II showed up on my doorstep, the Rogue would suffer a similar fate! My Gibson SG bass and Mosrite short scale are mere memories from a checkered college life.
Larry

[palembic]

Brother Paul the John one,  
 
yes ...from time to time there is some sadness creeping in and that green red-eyed-devil peeping over my shoulder.  
But ...well ...I DO think than on what I have, Bonnie and Tweak Peaks and I realize that it is far MORE than what 80% of the bass-players in the world will ever own ...so it's all very relative.  
 
I lied BTW.  
I forgot that I have the broomstick: a Korean Squier Fender Jazz-bass. As I Probably told already: the bass feels good, but ...well ...sounds as a broomstick on a washtub. Brother Joey: you told me agian something new: the fact that there is demagnetisation of PU of passive basses. So once I'll going to change the PU on the Broomstick.  
 
The advantage of owning 1 bass is ...that you never have to choose AND that you learn to create a lot on 1 bass. Now you all will understand that there is a LOT to know about Bonnie and Tweak Peaks. I'm just beginning to start LOL!  
 
I truly want some other basses but in a functional way.  
I would like to find a Epiphone Jack Cassady style bass (Ok ...a Guild Starfire will do to but that is faaaaaa-ar out of my very limited fiancial league). Just because those basses -flatwound strung- have a VERY typical tone. Brother David the loud one had a lead on such a bass but I didn't hear from him yet (bro Dave you got my mail??).  
 
I would like to put to value my Alembic activator PJ/VFPQ combination. If business-life is good for me the next year you all will be the first to hear from the Peejay-project.  
Again for a reason: I think there is something to say for having a good 4 string that comes close to your main bass.  
 
Oh ..true ...as a fretless I would go for my chi project that is basically a 6 string fretless Alembic (Val know all about it) but that's WAAAAAAA-AY in the future.  
Again ...there is an obvious tonal reason I need that kind of bass for.  
 
And an acoustic bass-guitar and upright ...well we keep dreaming.  
 
So, concluding, I have learned to master my limits by using/having only 1 bass. I will never be a collector but someone who will buy a bass for an (assumed) tonal reason.
 
Oh ...huh ...Brother Rami that is no offence for the collecting people. I think it is a very nice thing to do. And very learning, informative, very costly of course too (athough you told us already that you know the little intersting adresses) but ...well ...someone who smokes on daily basis can afford 2 fairy good basses a year. So .... it's all very relative.
 
But ...hey brothers and sisters ...as lon we stay on the low -side no ;-)  
 
Paul the bad one  
 
 
 
(Message edited by palembic on January 15, 2004)

[senmen]

Guys,  I only have two basses. I am a little bit jealous on your great collections.  I own these two:  

 

    Oliver (Spyderman)

[adriaan]

Well, of course there's the 88 Spoiler and the 94 Epic[size=78%]. The Epic was converted to fretless in 2002.     [/size]


 
And then there's two basses at my parents' house, since our appartment isn't big enough to house those two Alembics, an 1900-ish upright piano plus ...     
     
A late 70s Cimar copy of a Jazz Bass with chrome Schaller tuners - great beginner's bass, even if the bridge had only two saddles - but it was the one on which I really learned to play (any style from latin jazz to ska to Rush). This one would need a complete overhaul to become playable again. 
 
A 70s Ibanez copy of a Gibson Ripper (or a Grabber) - anyway these days it's more like a Steinberger: only the set neck and the middle portion of the body (someone donated their project bass and I didn't finish it). The fingerboard had had the frets removed, and I had a luthier (in this case an actual lute builder ...) replace it with a fretless ebony fingerboard. It really sings, but it's a bit short of breath and it won't sit still when you play it. There's no pickup or electronics either, so I just play it a little from time to time. 
 
The one that was only gathering dust when the Epic entered the scene, and got sold off in the end, was an early 80s Yamaha BB1100S in a nice looking sunburst (yellow to wine red). The BB1100S was the 3-piece neck-through with a reversed P and a J (replaced by a DiMarzio J model stacked humbucker with a cream cover, and a series/parallel switch). The tuners needed to be replaced, and come to think of it I also installed a detuner on it ... 
 
I bought it secondhand from a store and they said it came from the bass player of the Luc van den Acker Band, perhaps our Belgian friends know who he is. I remember seeing it on the inside cover of a live album by TC Matic (if I remember correctly) because when I bought it the bass had a very distinctive mark where the finish had worn off, just below the end of the neck on the front of the body. [Duh - of course the end of the neck of a neck-through bass is at the bottom end of the body. I meant to say: below the end of the fretboard.]
 
(Message edited by Adriaan on January 15, 2004)

[811952]

Oliver, I need a new keyboard!  The drool just shorted mine out... ;-)
PTJO

[jet_powers]

Spyder Ollie- I would gladly trade you my four Alembics for the two you have!
 
Bro Paul TBO- for what it's worth, I was invited to play a few songs at someone else's gig a few month back and the bass player had one of those Epiphone Jack Casady numbers. It was OK but it didn't feel real good to me. Maybe it was his amplification. Then again I'm pretty weird....
 
The original Paul the John one