Would you rather listen...

[Surprise Panda!]

To a virtuoso with horrible tone or someone horrible with outstanding tone?

[jsingles]

so this is basically about victor wooten vs the kid who SUCKS at bass but goes out and buys an SVT and an 810 and unknowingly posses a beautiful warm tone to go along with his complete lack of any understanding of the bass guitar?



christ i cant even decide....

I suppose the virtuoso.. Tone is one thing, but if its one of those people who are completely tone deaf and musically retarded, It makes me want to twist a spork into my temples.

[worker201]

Neither would be a satisfying listening experience. But at least I could respect the well-skilled musician. Tone is truly a matter of taste, whereas the difference in skills we're talking about here is based on some sort of universal standard.

[Deacon_Blues]

Do you mean good/horrible person or good/horrible player?

In the latter case, of course it's always more enjoyable to listen to a good player than a bad, regardless of tone. A good bassist sound good also through terrible equipment, but a bad bassist never sound good.

If you really mean good ersus horrible person like you wrote, that's a bit more tricky...

[Alan Vorse]

Hmmm, I know a lot of people think Jaco had bad tone. I thought he sounded great. It's pretty subjective.

[XtreO]

I'd take the horrible person. I mean, even if his personality sucks, he can be a good bassplayer.

[comfortstarr]

I don't understand the question. What am I listening to? Are they playing music? Playing solo? Playing in a band? Are they of equal technical, musical, and creative prowess? Frankly, if ALL you're asking about is tone, then I'll take the good person. But...

[Bassic83]

I'll take "Putting a frog in a blender" for $500, Alex.

[vegas532]

Originally Posted by jsingles

Tone is one thing, but if its one of those people who are completely tone deaf and musically retarded, It makes me wont to twist a spork into my temples.

This positively SCREAMS sig!

[nysbob]

How about "none of the above"?