Open letter to bass shops

One Drop · #1 01-21-2013, 05:56 AM

Not sure if this is in the right forum, I had a look around but none seem to fit perfectly.

Dear shops who want to sell us bassists their instruments:

Make a little effort and find a bassist to demo your gear.

Not someone who picked up the instrument for the first time last week, and not a guitarist who works at your shop but who will noodle around for a video, as if it was a guitar without the two top strings.

Yes, you're cute, but you shouldn't be demonstrating an instrument on which you are unable to finger a note properly or keep the strings you are not playing muted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF77PwkesxM

Yes, you are mildly amusing and probably a kick-ass guitarist, but you make a bass sound like crap and you have no notion of how the instrument is usually played. No one could come in today? Record it tomorrow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVdunW7FBQ4

Many more examples out there, unfortunately. It's an insult pure and simple, stop it.

alembicguy · #2 01-21-2013, 05:59 AM

Not sure I get it?

mellowgerman · #3 01-21-2013, 06:08 AM

I see what the OP is getting at. If a shop is going to do a demo video, especially of an expensive custom shop or vintage bass, they should have a bassist demo it who knows what he/she is doing. Maybe they could play a little fingerstyle, a bit with a pick, a country line, a jazz run, some hard rock, etc. That way serious buyers would really get an idea.
The girl is certainly nice to look at and Phil X can be pretty funny and amusing to watch, but those things hardly matter if I'm a serious buyer trying to watch a demo of a specific instrument.

alembicguy · #4 01-21-2013, 06:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mellowgerman

I see what the OP is getting at. If a shop is going to do a demo video, especially of an expensive custom shop or vintage bass, they should have a bassist demo it who knows what he/she is doing. Maybe they could play a little fingerstyle, a bit with a pick, a country line, a jazz run, some hard rock, etc. That way serious buyers would really get an idea.
The girl is certainly nice to look at and Phil X can be pretty funny and amusing to watch, but those things hardly matter if I'm a serious buyer trying to watch a demo of a specific instrument.

Got it now thanks! ( just woke up)

One Drop · #5 01-21-2013, 06:18 AM

Spot on, mellowg.

Also the lack of respect it shows for the craft on the shop's part. You wouldn't have a guitarist pounding a set of drums or a an upright bassist playing a guitar, would you?

4dog · #6 01-21-2013, 06:27 AM

Was there a bass in the first vid.?

Nashrakh · #7 01-21-2013, 06:33 AM

Let Ed Friedland demo all your stuff, problem solved.

troy mcclure · #8 01-21-2013, 06:34 AM

I might be of a different camp. I would rather have an average person with decent technique play the bass. Ultimately though, we get information from these videos. We won't know how it feels until we touch it ( the bass not the girl in the video).
It won't sound the same on my amp either. Some players can sound better on 4 rubber bands on a stick than I can on an Alembic. Have a great player play complicated licks confuses the consumer. Play simple stuff across the fret board and demo each pickup in a few techniques, finger, slap and pick. That should do it.

1958Bassman · #9 01-21-2013, 06:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by One Drop

Not sure if this is in the right forum, I had a look around but none seem to fit perfectly.

Dear shops who want to sell us bassists their instruments:

Make a little effort and find a bassist to demo your gear.

Not someone who picked up the instrument for the first time last week, and not a guitarist who works at your shop but who will noodle around for a video, as if it was a guitar without the two top strings.

Yes, you're cute, but you shouldn't be demonstrating an instrument on which you are unable to finger a note properly or keep the strings you are not playing muted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF77PwkesxM

Yes, you are mildly amusing and probably a kick-ass guitarist, but you make a bass sound like crap and you have no notion of how the instrument is usually played. No one could come in today? Record it tomorrow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVdunW7FBQ4

Many more examples out there, unfortunately. It's an insult pure and simple, stop it.

I have seen/heard worse. Far worse. That was hardly the first time she played a bass. If you want annoying and painful, you should have worked in a music store during the early '70s, when slapping and popping first became popular. We had guys coming into the store from the housing project across the street and they would grab a bass, plug in, crank it up and slap like they were on a stage in front of a huge audience. If they had been good, it might have been different but.....

Megas3300 · #10 01-21-2013, 06:58 AM

I actually wanted to see what Phil X would do with a Bass, so thanks for that link. That said, I knew what to expect.

That chick though...

bikeplate · #11 01-21-2013, 08:05 AM

I don't care at all except for that girls digits in the first video!

One Drop · #12 01-21-2013, 08:25 AM

Oh, I know I can find worse. I have nothing against the poor schmucks that post videos they will later regret when they realize they shouldn't have put themselves in the public eye so soon, but these are marketing tools and represent the store.

I just think bassists deserve better than to have a non player demonstrating their instrument. It's not the end of the world, just a symptom of its imminence.

bmc · #13 01-21-2013, 08:26 AM

What's the matter OneDrop? Too much snow in Verbier?

Session1969 · #14 01-21-2013, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by One Drop

Not sure if this is in the right forum, I had a look around but none seem to fit perfectly.

Dear shops who want to sell us bassists their instruments:

Make a little effort and find a bassist to demo your gear.

Not someone who picked up the instrument for the first time last week, and not a guitarist who works at your shop but who will noodle around for a video, as if it was a guitar without the two top strings.

Yes, you're cute, but you shouldn't be demonstrating an instrument on which you are unable to finger a note properly or keep the strings you are not playing muted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF77PwkesxM

Yes, you are mildly amusing and probably a kick-ass guitarist, but you make a bass sound like crap and you have no notion of how the instrument is usually played. No one could come in today? Record it tomorrow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVdunW7FBQ4

Many more examples out there, unfortunately. It's an insult pure and simple, stop it.

Amen, brother. It surprises me as well.

TolerancEJ · #15 01-21-2013, 08:30 AM

Yeah, I've seen those types of YouTube videos as well. I can not watch the full videos. Sad, because usually I know they're holding a kick-a$$ bass, which would normally blow me away.

One Drop · #16 01-21-2013, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmc

What's the matter OneDrop? Too much snow in Verbier?

Close- my back seized up at work Saturday night and the inflammation is just going down now after some treatment yesterday, can't do much at all except watch amateurs butcher basses on youtube and then post pointless rants here. Well spotted, my friend!

Baird6869 · #17 01-21-2013, 08:37 AM

Who seriously buys a $3000+ bass based on tone from a YouTube video with the sound thru thru computer speakers?

I agree that the retailers that post these clips should have a bassist that has a clue though.

SolomonHelsing · #18 01-21-2013, 08:43 AM

In Fretted Americana's defense they have often had Phil X's bass player doing the bass demos. So maybe he just wasn't available for that demo. Not sure but just in their defense generally they seem to use a bass player. that's just a one off from the ones I've seen

Phantasm · #19 01-21-2013, 08:49 AM

I've had to learn to use my judgement on the videos. Yours are great examples of this, in the first one the girl spends most of the time talking about the bass (who cares?) and a little time playing the bass in a manner that I wouldn't, making the usefulness of the video a lot lower to me.

I'm going to take off the pickup cover, I'm going to hit the strings a lot harder, I'm not going to set the amp like that.

SolomonHelsing · #20 01-21-2013, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SolomonHelsing

In Fretted Americana's defense they have often had Phil X's bass player doing the bass demos. So maybe he just wasn't available for that demo. Not sure but just in their defense generally they seem to use a bass player. that's just a one off from the ones I've seen

In addition to what i said, in places Phil X didn't do that bad a job either. Plus what you determine as a bassist can be very subjective. But I wont go into that.
I've seen demos of basses that a shop which is a 3 hour drive from me regularily stocks. Now if in a few months/years i think "Hey i'd maybe like to buy that bass, then sod it I am driving 3 hours to that music shop to try them out myself.

The internet is not a reliable source for most things... University try to ram that idea down my throat every 5 minutes. and it does hold true sometimes. This is one of those times.