abouHow Much do you Care t what gear your bandmates use?

phsycobass · #1 03-18-2008, 11:21 PM

we all know most bassists are crazy about quality sound and tone. but just curious, within reason, how much do you care about the gear that your guitar play or drummer ect use? Odviously if you are playing doom metal, your guitar player wouldn't use a squire hello kitty strat copy. Actually, I might just for kicks.

let the discussion begin!

Deluge Of Sound · #2 03-18-2008, 11:27 PM

As long as it sounds good, they can play what they want.

BlackLake · #3 03-18-2008, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deluge Of Sound

As long as it sounds good, they can play what they want.

ditto, last year I helped out with production for a week long event, there was a band that showed up with a keyboard with missing keys, dents etc, basically looks like it was dragged behind my car for a few miles, it rocked.

Then the headliner was an ac/dc clone, the Rhythm player had the most beaten up cab I have ever seen...also it was one of the best sounding.

Incognitus · #4 03-19-2008, 12:20 AM

Unless the tone the other player is getting out of it is absolutely horrendous and is a detriment to the overall performance, I'm ok with it. May not be my cup of tea and sometimes it's all that person can afford at the time. Or they just don't have a clue, which is also the case sometimes.

nsmar4211 · #5 03-19-2008, 04:41 PM

If it sounds good........looks aren't that important.

Although, if someone showed up with "**** you" plastered all over their equipment, I wouldn't play with em. Same goes for any comments/stickers/whatever I don't want to be associated with! The "speaker held together with duct tape" I can deal with.

Now.......if the guitarist shows up with a Hello Kitty guitar.......he/she is fair game to be mercilessly harassed and taunted until end of gig

SirCanealot · #6 03-19-2008, 05:16 PM

Lead guitarist of my band plays a John Petrucci musicman. I keep going up to him at the end of rehersals and say how awesome it sounds. He has a really cool sound

i_got_a_mohawk · #7 03-19-2008, 05:53 PM

As long as it sounds good, its ok.

guitarist uses either his Epi Les Paul or an old squier tele which is modified with a P-90 style bridge pickup (encased in a tele sized pickup). Plays into a JCM900 and 2x12

Other guitarist uses a starter Epi Les Paul, modded with new pickups and has a Peavey valve king combo

Drummer has an e-kit and a cheapy starter acoustic kit for when we need to take drums to a gig (very rare). And it sounds fine, he's got good quality cymbols and a killer snare (Pearl 10 x 4 or something, snappy as hell!).

The guys in the band will often ask me for suggestions on pickups or what gear I think would work best (if they are buying blind), which is cool

Earthday · #8 03-19-2008, 06:14 PM

In an improv setting where I need to be able to be able to hear what they're doing, too much fuzz and/or delay can really annoy me. Or really any effect if it gets to the point where they're "hiding behind it"

lunarpollen · #9 03-19-2008, 06:50 PM

I care very much what our rhythm guitarist plays, because he's playing my guitar most of the time!!! Actually, I wish he would just get employed, get paid, and replace the crappy stock pickups in his Epiphone Explorer with the same TV Jones pickups I replaced my crappy stock pickups in my Epi Les Paul with, because my LP has a Bigsby vibrato and on some songs, he drops to D, and because it has a Bigsby the other strings go out of tune, and he often neglects to retune the other strings.

But anyway, I don't care what gear my bandmates choose to use, as long as it sounds good and functions well enough.

DWBass · #10 03-19-2008, 06:52 PM

I couldn't give a rats @$$ what any musician plays as long as it sounds good!

megadan · #11 03-19-2008, 07:19 PM

I care what they play, because if they sound good I sound good. And the care what I play for the same reason. When I got my Ric my guitar player said "I like your tone a lot better now."
They know I need tube amps and decent sized cabs to get the sound we need. I know they need good amps too. I like to encourage them to buy pedals too

Everyone in our band (except the drummer obviously) uses a tube amp, even the keyboard player (Moog Voyager + Bassman 70 == yum!). Being an instrumental band, tone is somewhat more important than in vocal bands.

Jazzdogg · #12 03-19-2008, 09:03 PM

...I seldom say anything about it unless it's pretty bad:

Our guitarist uses a Fender amp that he adores, but it puts out a LOT of background noise; it'd be nice if more guitar amps had a lower noise floor.

I'm very sensitive to the cymbals drummers use; a drummer who overused a "sizzler" cymbal provided the impetus for my first use of earplugs on stage.

Our keyboard player comes up with all kinds of interesting sounds from his electronic keyboard, but he can't emulate a Hammond B3 or Fender Rhodes when a song calls for them, and the "acoustic piano" sounds thin and artificial to my ears.

Our last saxophone player used a wireless rig that sounded so bad I felt compelled to speak up - he made the whole band sound terrible.

To me, it's all about the effect each player's gear (and the way they use it) has on the band's sound that matters most.

gkbass13 · #13 03-20-2008, 01:20 AM

sound is key. i played with a lead player that only used solid state amps while tryign to play blues music. also had a custom shop jackson guitar. it was terrible.

varunkapahi · #14 03-20-2008, 02:18 AM

yeah ofcourse i do care what equipment they use because its the BAND SOUND, band sound is my sound
you get the deal?

DWBass · #15 03-20-2008, 06:27 AM

Like I said, if it 'sounds good', I don't give a rats @$$ what kind of gear it is! So if it sounds good and fits the 'sound of the band', who cares what they're using as long as they're getting the job done!

Jeramaya · #16 03-20-2008, 08:56 AM

As with most others, I concur that whatever sounds good works for me. I learned this lesson a few years ago when I met a guitarist, who I clicked with immediately. But, when I first heard that he played through an old SEARS amp (gasp!, or so I thought), I was extremely skeptical until I actually heard him play through it and I couldn't believe how well it worked with his style.

mjolnir · #17 03-20-2008, 09:09 AM

I really don't worry about it. I play with people who are talented and experienced enough to know the difference between a good tone and a bad tone, so I can dig whatever works for them.

To be honest it seems like the guys I play with get way more worked up about my gear than I do about theirs.

jomahu · #18 03-20-2008, 09:24 AM

i play an SX bass, so i can't rag on other people's gear!

seriously, i do like to know what gear my bandmates use, just for info's sake - e.g. if we're at a club and soundpeople can't tell what's theirs and what's ours, i know what belongs to whom. i'm also the unofficial drum roadie, so i want to know what's what.

i've even tried to get the band to make a full gear list, just in case of anything, to no avail. am i OCD or something?

megadan · #19 03-20-2008, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jomahu

i've even tried to get the band to make a full gear list, just in case of anything, to no avail. am i OCD or something?

Nah, I love making lists of gear. Once I guitar geek'd both my guitar players rigs just for fun at work one day

RED5 · #20 03-20-2008, 09:53 AM

Not so much "what"? but "How Much" this one pickup cover band I play with? The bandleader plays percussion, horns and sings.By percussion I mean everything you can hit,scrape, bang or shake and by horns I mean all except the t-bone. His "Wall of Stuff" includes lights, music stands, instrument stands, Mic stands holders and some stuff I can only guess at. To sum up? he takes up about twelve linear feet to set himself up. Add to this the guitar player brings a small amp but three guitars,all with no stands Gravity works wonders on paint. Clueless......They all wonder how I can set up and breakdown in less than 10 minutes.