(a) Most of the time it is a financial decision that helps determine the range of Basses available within ones budget.
That's right. I took out a loan in the late 70's for the Juzek labeled bass that I still find myself playing. Luckily, it's taken me through over 30 years of hard playing, thousands of gigs and well over 1000 recording sessions with an often complemented sound and very little trouble. I outgrew certain aspects of this bass many years ago, but, the family came first and I didn't even bother looking for another bass until a few years ago when my daughter was in college and we decided to downsize.
(b) Sometimes 'that' bass is already in our hands but for reasons of condition, repairs needed or set-up issues, its optimum capabilities are not fully realized.
Well, I did find another bass a couple of years ago. I posted it on the German page when you started this forum. I still own it, it still sounds terrific to me, but I haven't been able to get it to play the way I want it to, so I'm back on the Juzek. I'm either going to make a last ditch effort to get this thing working by taking it to Arnold and maybe a few others out east for their opinions (you too, Ken), or it's out of here and I'm looking again (my Chicago luthier told me to forget that, the Juzek is "my" bass and the grass isn't greener...I think he has a point).
Ken, I think that if I was in your position of having so many wonderful basses to choose from, I would go completely nuts.
From your posts, it sounds to me like the Martini is your "go to" bass and Big Ben is the one for special occasions. Do not touch any of the others ever again!
