Buy Them Strings

This post arrives in recent proximity to a certain gift-giving holiday, but my advice applies to any occasion on which you may be required to give a gift to a bassist (or any stringed instrument player, for that matter - except for harpists; it's just too expensive).

Buy them strings.

Do you know what brand and gauge of strings they buy?  Great!  Stop looking around their personal stuff now, and go buy those strings.

Don't know?  Doesn't matter!  Eventually, they'll use them.  Grab a set on sale or something.  The player in question may just be curious, or they may need them when that random string breaks and the only backup are the strings you brought.

Just buy a set or two.  They're not too expensive, and you can't go wrong.

Unless you're buying for a player who has their own line of strings.  They have plenty of strings, and they can't use others.  In that case, buy them the Binary Clock from ThinkGeek.  Geeks will like the binary, drummers will like the pretty lights.