Whether to sell a bass, a dear friend
Sunday, October 23rd, 2005My friend and co-worker has offered to buy one of my basses. It’s the Tobias “Toby Pro” 5-string fretted bass that I bought about 6 years ago, and to which I added my first set of Lane Poor pickups and a matching 2-channel Lane Poor pre-amp.
This is how I got so into Lane Poor’s pickups - they totally transformed the sound of this bass from a sub-$700 cheap Korean-made wannabe Tobias, into a richly detailed instrument with a complex, deep and growly sound. The Lane Poor pickups seemed to focus the sound back on the most important elements of playing the bass - the strings, the fingers, and the wood.
As a result, I used this bass heavily for some of my gigging and recording projects, and fell in love with the instrument all over again.
Normally I wouldn’t have considered selling this bass to anybody, but lately I’ve realized that as a daddy of twins, I have no time to go out and gig, jam or record, let alone practice any of my instruments just for fun. I’ve had to make some tough decisions, and I had already decided to sell one bass (more info to come) because I didn’t feel that I should continue to keep it.
So here I am at the crossroads. Do I keep this bass that I enjoy dearly, and whose sound still moves me, despite some of the inherent flaws in this instrument? Or do I sell it to a co-worker and friend who wants to start on the bass (coming from a guitar background) and has borrowed it and loves its sound?
I can obviously live without the instrument. More practically speaking, I have another 5-string fretted bass (a Zon) that sounds great and isn’t for sale, and I can afford to keep it (for now), so it’s not like I’ll be without a fretted sound if I ever need it.
And, I expect that I can always borrow the Toby from my friend, if I ever need its sound again. He’s a genuinely nice guy and he’d probably be happy to loan it back to me, if I asked.
But the Toby Pro was designed as a lower-end bass (or, if you want to be kind, a “starter” instrument) and as such it isn’t as nice as a better-quality instrument. I’ve played better basses (and own a few) and there are some key differences, that hold the Toby Pro back.
Finally, I must admit that I’ve been holding on to some spare Lane Poor pickups, which I purchased some years ago (after Lane Poor went out of business, but before the prices went sky-high and they became really hard to find) and will use in the future to build my “dream bass”. So I can build a better bass in the future, and still have the right sound for me.
On the other hand, this bass and I have a lot of history together. I’ve recorded tracks for a close friend with this bass, and the sound was awesome. I’ve used it playing live with friends, and it was more than adequate for the job. I know its sound and feel, how it responds to different finger techniques, and how it performs for various styles of music.
What should I do?