A good proggy bass guitar!

The_Jester wrote: I'd like to buy a new bass guitar somedays. I was wandering how much should I save for a good bass guitar and what are the best bass guitar I could try. I'd like to have a proggy sound. Like a signature sound. Or maybe something unusual. I always wonder if there's an unknown company out there that makes quality basses who are cheaper than the big names. I already have: A Douglas (Hofner imitation) bass wich is the first I bought. An Ergodyne Ibanez A Takamine acoustic bass And A Gibson SG bass

There's a good point above that buying a Rick will not make you automatically sound like Chris Squire. 

Older readers may remember no-hope guitarists buying white Strats by the shed load: for some strange reason, this didn't automatically turn them into Jimi Hendrix. Can't think why. 

Bass is really all about technique. It's easy to play bass badly and get into bad habits: getting a good sound out of a bass is very subtle indeed. You certainly won't get a fantastic sound out of a cheap instrument, but buying an expensive bass doesn't guarantee that you'll sound good, either. 

Also small things like skimping on strings or having a bad setup will destroy your tone. I can just pick a guitar up and tell if someone can play or not judging on how well it's been set up. 

The good news is that there is a huge selection of basses out there all better made than the planks of wood I (and many others) had to start with in the 1980's. Most are better made than "quality instruments" of the 60's and 70's. 

If the question is "what constitutes a "prog" bass" then that depends on a lot of factors, to be honest. 

Also I very much doubt you'd get anything like a similar sound, to be honest. You have to introduce so many effects that the sound of the bass disappears and you're just left with the effects. 

Even with modern VST technology, you can't really replace real instruments. You can get an approximation, but a $150 plugin will not come close to, say, a real Moog modular. It gets especially bad when trying to simulate brass or woodwind instruments, I hear so many VST saxes which sound absolutely toe curlingly appalling. Actually, I used to do a lot of sax session work for bands who assumed that a VST sax would sound passable, and then found it didn't. 

As Chopper says, a discount bass will still feel like a discount bass. If you have pickups which ... don't, and the body is made out of an outhouse door, you can't add to what's not there. And it'll play horribly as well. Having said that, starter basses are a lot better quality from the absolute rubbish I started on many, many years ago. 

Chibson just doesn't have the same ring to it. ;)

This is the same 2006 reissue as mine. Not sure how much my particular reissue goes for now, you can't get them anymore. Besides, I'm in the UK. Have a look on eBay. 

Simple answer - "not really". 

Davesax1965 wrote: The one guarantee I can make is that you won't find a Rick cheap. Unless you go for a Chinese Rickenbacker clone, AKA a Chickenbacker. The last time I had a chance to buy a Rick 4003 at a reasonable price was in the mid 80's, when no one wanted them. I had the money in my pocket at the time. Things are slightly different now. ;-) I can't recommend a Rick as the double truss rod system is a hideous idea. If not properly adjusted, Ricks tend to have all kinds of neck problems. They really are overpriced rubbish.  Going through a list of "prog" basses - nor would I go for a Precision bass if I wanted a cutting, solo sound. Personally, I'd go for a Gibson EB-3 or the excellent Epiphone copy or a Jazz. The Squier Classic Player 60's jazz is excellent, pretty cheap and you can get some interesting noises out of it.  If you want to go high end, try a WAL. If you can find one. Other options are also Thunderbirds, but they may a bit thuddy.  Personally, I use a Danelectro Longhorn short scale for my bass work. But then again, I've never been conventional in my bass tastes. ;-)

My Ricky is a 4001, 1980 make. It needs some work, but plYs well. I love it. I’m always awkward when I’m playing a mate’s P-Bass for recordings.........

The one guarantee I can make is that you won't find a Rick cheap. Unless you go for a Chinese Rickenbacker clone, AKA a Chickenbacker.

The last time I had a chance to buy a Rick 4003 at a reasonable price was in the mid 80's, when no one wanted them. I had the money in my pocket at the time. Things are slightly different now. ;-)

I can't recommend a Rick as the double truss rod system is a hideous idea. If not properly adjusted, Ricks tend to have all kinds of neck problems. They really are overpriced rubbish. 

Going through a list of "prog" basses - nor would I go for a Precision bass if I wanted a cutting, solo sound. Personally, I'd go for a Gibson EB-3 or the excellent Epiphone copy or a Jazz. The Squier Classic Player 60's jazz is excellent, pretty cheap and you can get some interesting noises out of it. 

If you want to go high end, try a WAL. If you can find one. Other options are also Thunderbirds, but they may a bit thuddy. 

Personally, I use a Danelectro Longhorn short scale for my bass work. But then again, I've never been conventional in my bass tastes. ;-)

The.Crimson.King wrote: It's not the bass that makes it "proggy" but how it's setup and played.  When I played bass in late 70's prog bands I had an Ibanez Rocket Roll Flying V bass.  Beautiful instrument.  Then in the early 90's I finally played a Rick 4001...OMG it was the smoothest playing most tonally versatile bass I'd ever played.  Got a great deal on a used 1 for about $500 (in 1991) and have never cheated on her with another bass since.  A Rick doesn't mean you'll sound like Squire or Geddy, it's all in the signal processing and type of strings (rounds or flats).  A great feature of the 4001 is a separate output for bridge and neck pickups.  I get a mind blowing sound by running the neck pickup clean and the bridge pickup throught a distortion box.

So did Chris Squire on Fragile. Except he used a Fender guitar amp for neck pickup and a bass amp for bridge pickup, I believe.

Edited by SteveG - January 31 2018 at 04:00

I've got a fretless Geddy Lee Jazz Bass and an Ibanez BTB575FM. 35" scale, heavy Rotosounds, excellent active EQ, too bad it requires two 9V batteries.