Well, after months, days, weeks, years of going back and forth, I have finally (maybe, lol) picked out my main bass and its back-up which I will use for Jazz as well.
Although I have used several basses over the past few years as regulars as well as a few one-shots just for testing, I think I have to pull two down from the sale pages (did that already) and just stick with them for everything I have to play, not counting road-testing basses on a gig or two for evaluation.
This comes mainly from a personal bass-to-body comfort standpoint and not just sound alone. If it was sound only, it would be two other/better basses I have but, they are not as comfortable in MY hands as the ... drum roll please ...
the Hart and the Neuner. These two are the most comfortable basses to me that I own and have owned. The Gilkes was great but not as good a fit. The Martini was a better fit but I preferred the neck of the Hart. The bigger basses I have and had may have superior power but require more lugging around as opposed to a full 3/4 or 7/8ths (which is a 3/4 in Europe).
At the 2009 ISB I asked a couple of seasoned Orchestra Pros for some personal Tips to help my re-build my playing and after a mini-audition (a minute or two) I was told by one 'slow down' when practicing (to build my accuracy back up from its deep sleep in NYC) and the other to 'pick and play only ONE bass' which then was the Martini (now sold), a bass very similar in feel and size to both the Hart and Neuner. They both agreed as well with the others assessment as well. So, SLOW DOWN and pick ONE Bass.
.. So, it's down to TWO!
Better, right?
The
Hart and
Neuner both have similar string lengths but the Hart is more of an Eb neck-heel and the Neuner between D and Eb. The neck profiles are not the same and neither are the bridge curves and spacings but, I can move back and forth between them and adjust in seconds. The Hart neck is the best for me I think feel-wise. The Neuner body-to-body fit is the best of my collection as well. For some reason, watching others play my basses, they never choose the same as the best. One says Hart, another Tarr and another Storioni, etc. So, it's a personal thing and now, I have two basses that I can switch between in comfort. They are not the best or loudest basses I have or have had but they are the ones that I can PLAY the best on. One time I asked my son (a bass player) to listen to two basses and I think they were the Hart and maybe Gilkes(?). He said the Gilkes(?) sounded better (that day, lol) but, I PLAYED the Hart better.
Comments and discussions are welcomed. I realize fully that not everyone can have such basses to choose from either owned or when shopping but just when you think you have just about any bass you need, you discover that most of them are just not for you regardless of how great they may be for someone else! .. We/I call that, Inventory!
