My own little session story

illmusician · #1 05-19-2009, 08:12 PM

I arrived at a session with an Eden DC112XLT combo, Aguilar DB-900 tube DI, Ken Smith BSREG5, F Bass BN5, Zaolla cables. Let me start off by saying I knew the drummer, I was a hired gun. First thing the guitar player sez taking out the Smith is "What kind of Fender is that?", rolls eyes then explain. upon putting the BN5 on a wall hanger other guitar player remaining silent up to this point, goes up to it pushes his right index kinda tapping the strings said "I don't think I want him to use this one. They forgot to put fret markers on the neck on this cheapo one" (not looking on the playing side) me "huh?" 2nd guitard "No offense but I don't wanna have to tape over anything cause i can't see if you are playing the same thing as us"
After evaluating my recent karma, i go into the control room and place my DI next to the board, the engineer asks whats that (no harm no foul) but then says holy crap what are those? pointing at the basses. I am about to start flailing fists at this point, but keep my cool. Sound check comes, I play (using the BN5, going on instinct that there ears know a Fenderish sound), everybody's jaw drops, all is well. Engineer fun tacks my card to his board with a hand written "Call for bass".
They were good people and was actually the second highest paying session I have had to date. Ignorance is a bitch, but is easily fixed. The session was for a country/ americana/ folk rock group.

CharlieDog · #2 05-19-2009, 09:56 PM

"Engineer fun tacks my card to his board with a hand written "Call for bass"."

Right on, man.

kingpin2512 · #3 05-19-2009, 10:08 PM

Great story! They changed pretty fast.

dave64o · #4 05-19-2009, 10:19 PM

These threads never cease to amaze me. As my tag line indicates, no one is calling me to do session work so I've never experienced this. However, it just amazes me that people think that way. What is it about basses that makes it impossible to get a quality track with anything but a Fender? (*) Is this an indication that the engineer is completely incompetent? Do other session musicians have to face the same kind of small mindedness with their instruments?

(*) Note, I'm not bashing Fender in at all. In fact, ALL my basses are Fenders in one way or another - P5, Jazz Deluxe V fretless, Stingray 5, and an SX Jazz copy.

KeithPas · #5 05-19-2009, 10:29 PM

Victory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

illmusician · #6 05-20-2009, 01:09 PM

I chalk up engineer goofs mostly to non musicality. They are involved in the process and some of the best engineers separate themselves in just that way. Staying neutral to the content, they only think levels/mix/EQ/compression/ patch bay/sample rate... outboard gear gets them going.
Then I chalk it up to how much and what kind of music did they play, what decade if at all. Then thinking that they have been trained to work with the normal (guitar center bought Fender), just trying to get to the next step kind of bands. A lot of amatuer clients that make the engineer edit a lot. I have heard numerous engineers say that they can always get a good sound out of a Fender or they are used to setting levels and have pre-determined EQ's or settings to track with. Simply it whats they are used to and know what to expect. The ones that know all types of gear are usually the ones that rub you the wrong way in a session. I have in a hand full of situations had the engineer run my track completely dry (a little bit of compression) until the final mix and master and to their amazement they say that they have never had such a good bass sound. Also with all the different types of preamps from cheapo overseas knock off pre's to East electronics, Aguilar, Demeter (+1) etc the kind of output varies greatly. I think they just see it as adding another possible problem that they will have to fix. Those that taught them only had the Fender, there ears hear Fender most the time, Fender is as standard as it gets. they kinda invented it