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Double Bass Want to sound like (insert name here) ? Read this! (DB forum thread)

Uncletoad

Uncletoad

May 6, 2003
5,272
160
64
Columbus Ohio
Disclosures
Proprietor Fifth Avenue Fret Shop. Technical Editor Bass Gear Magazine
#1
clink said:
The tools that others use are just the tools that they use and you shouldn't expect to get their sound by using their tools.
Click to expand...
This is a huge point. The falacy is that somehow if you use the same tools as your idols you'll sound like them. This is the great music equipment business lie.

The truth is that no matter what Ray Brown is playing be it a Kay with Eurosonics or a 150 year old Italian with Spirocores he would sound unmistakably like Ray Brown. If I walked on stage and picked up his bass right after him, I'd still sound like me and not him.

Buy the tools that make you feel comfortable on the gig and stick with them. Learn them inside and out. Only then will you be able to speak with your own voice.
 
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#7
Keep thinking like that, and those instrument makers are going plumb out of business :D

Seriously, GAS is fueled by the idea that if you just had bass x or y or z, or if you could just afford to spend 2k or 3k or 4k or more on a super-duper handmade bass imported from Micronesia, or if you just had the perfect amplification system, then you'd be the player you've always dreamed of being.

The bass doesn't make the musician. When will we learn?


Uncletoad said:
This is a huge point. The falacy is that somehow if you use the same tools as your idols you'll sound like them. This is the great music equipment business lie.

The truth is that no matter what Ray Brown is playing be it a Kay with Eurosonics or a 150 year old Italian with Spirocores he would sound unmistakably like Ray Brown. If I walked on stage and picked up his bass right after him, I'd still sound like me and not him.

Buy the tools that make you feel comfortable on the gig and stick with them. Learn them inside and out. Only then will you be able to speak with your own voice.
Click to expand...
 
#8
These are all just TOOLS. They help us accomplish something much greater. If we do our job, every piece of gear, even our BASS, will mysteriously disappear.

True story from my humble gigging life:

Big string change. VERY excited. I make the gig, showing off my 'new' & 'different' sound to the other cats.

After the 1st set:
Me: "I put on a new set of strings!"
Drummer: "Really? You still sound like you."

Point taken ;)
 
#10
Very true.

Really I've always tried not to sound like anyone else when ever posable [i.e. when I can get away with it;)] It's always been a thing with me on DB and BG, I have sounds I want to hear and I look for the best way to get that sound with the instrument I have.

So strangs... huh... I'm still on the same set of Jargar Fortes I've had on my bass for the last 3 or 4 years. I dig them more then any other strang I've used. When they die I will buy more.
 
#11
So, so true Uncletoad!!!!!! I have a friend who plays electric bass and he buys no kidding one or two bass guitar a month, built a studio and swaps amps like they were underpants, has lot of money and now he is getting a Fodera Bass to sound like Victor Wooten but he wont! He'll sound like Joe (himself) who never bothered learning a sigle scale all his life (60) and thinks when I improvise that its a lick I've learned somewhere! Ray Brown would make a broomstick in a cardboard box strung up sound like himself I reckon!

Uncletoad said:
This is a huge point. The falacy is that somehow if you use the same tools as your idols you'll sound like them. This is the great music equipment business lie.
Click to expand...
 
#14
And yet everyone on this thread still has a bass they are gassing for. lol. Just joking.

But, seriously this is true to an extent. I once heard a guy say that if you hand marcus any jazz bass of decent quality in the world and it'll sound like him. But, i still love fatbeams.
 
#19
This is not as black and white as it seems. I would not suggest to ignore improvements to your equipment. There is a vast difference in tone and playability between my $5000 plywood bass and my $25000 150 year old carved bass. The difference is so profound that over several years experience in playing the instrument I'm sure my playing has improved in ways that would not have been available to me without such a great instrument.

I still sound remarkably like me on both instruments, however the better instrument sounds more like me these days, maybe because I play it more, but more likely I think because it allows me to do things the other cannot do.

The balancing act is to seek out tools that help me perform at my best; tools of higher and higher refinement that allow me to grow past the limitations of lesser refined tools. That notion is balanced against my tendency to buy stuff in an attempt to make myself better rather than practice and perform to make myself better.

Practice makes me a better musician. Practicing on good equipment gives me opportunities to be better still. Without the practice, you just have a pile of expensive stuff you can't play very well.
 
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