Interesting thread on Barber Electronics' forum...

[OriginalCrash]

There are a few guys on there that make some good, decent points (even to the point of saying that some bassists are cranking their eq too high or trying to "cut through" too much), but it seems a lot of it is guitarists complaining about us having much of anything more than just the very bottom and fundamentals in our sound. I'm really not trying to start anything... I guess I just got so used to seeing our side of the argument on here that I was kinda shocked to read the other side.

Brian

[Spector_Ray]

I guess it all depends on the type of music one's playing.

Metal bands are continually invading the sonic space of the bass by downtuning and trying to sound heavier. Where else is a bass supposed to go? Why is it acceptable for a guitar player to explore all sonic venues and tunings but a bassist is overdoing it when upping the mids to cut through a drowning mix? Their argument seems a bit one-sided, IMHO.

The guitarists in that post believe that everybody else is there to make the guitar sound good whereas most bassists, I believe, play to make everybody sound good as a whole.

BTW, here's the quote of the day on that site:
"I think BFC is on to something. Bass players are just wanna be guitarists."

And people wonder why some bassists have a chip on their shoulders.