A "Metal Fender" discussion

[Gojiras_Hejira]

I have magazines that showed the first Soundgarden tour. The crowd is full of Metallica and Overkill shirts.

 

[metron]

I love all kinds of metal old and new but I find the number of subgenres, categorization, and opinions regarding what is "real" or not ridiculous. Im mainly into what could be called old school death metal but I hear a lot of great hardcore these days. A lot of the bass players use Fender. Those that don't use Fender use other brands of basses. Honestly Im not entirely sure what it all means.

 

[Gojiras_Hejira]

Yeah, I subcat my music and "Loud & aggressive" or "not".

 

[swspiers]

The best band to watch trend-jump is Pantera. They did whatever was selling. It was like watching kiss do Dynasty.

That line made reading this thread totally worth it!

 

[spaz21387]

so pretty much people are trying to say fenders arent metal basses? so if thats true why am i using my mim fender j with delano pickups in a metal band?... because i love the way it sounds and cuts through the mix. for me my fender is the perfect metal bass.... it has a great neck is very light and sounds almost like a musicman with those delanos.

 

[chris lykins]

The best band to watch trend-jump is Pantera. They did whatever was selling. It was like watching kiss do Dynasty.

That line made reading this thread totally worth it!

Too true. I remember touring through Texas in the thrash band Atrophy and having Phil come to our shows and wanting to quit Pantera for this exact reason. And this was when Cowboys From Hell was blowing up!

And Amen to the previous Martin Mendez quote! So nice to hear the bassist not sounding like a third guitarist

 

[purfektstranger]

I think what alot of people don't realise is that alot of heavy rock players in the late 60's and the 70's used Fenders because they were easy to find and not expensive at the time...not necessarily because they were the better bass. Alot of these bands starting out didn't have a pot to piss in....

 

[grimniggzy]

High on Fire and Converge were with them, also good bands. I don't recall any Fenders, but then, heavy metal is dark and often foggy (smoke machines). Does the Mastodon guy play a Fender? Maybe the Converge guy did.

~Jimm

I've only ever seen the guy from Converge play jazzes, so quite possibly. And the guy from Mastodon plays a P I believe.

 

[Snakeman1066]

I think what alot of people don't realise is that alot of heavy rock players in the late 60's and the 70's used Fenders because they were easy to find and not expensive at the time...not necessarily because they were the better bass. Alot of these bands starting out didn't have a pot to piss in....

lol

Please refer to my post on page 2!

 

[grimniggzy]

However, nowadays' bands are pushing everything to the edge, Meshuggah's Destroy Erase Improve, QUOTE]
came out well over a decade ago

 

[tomas_almeida]

However, nowadays' bands are pushing everything to the edge, Meshuggah's Destroy Erase Improve, QUOTE]
came out well over a decade ago

Indeed, didn't recall that. However, I think we can consider it modern, specially when comparing with the other bands that were being mentioned (Iron Maiden, Metallica, etc). I mentioned that one because it was one of the biggest turning points in metal. It essencially led to Meshuggah's trademark sound, which would influence 80% of the extreme metal bands that were to come.

For the one that said that Troy Sanders uses a P, he does not. He uses a P+J from a brand that I think is called Godlyke, not Fenders.

 

[MisterMagician]

So playing one of the biggest brands around is some form of rebellion now?

The thing with metal though is that is tends to never go out of style or relevance. I can listen to metal from the 70's and 80's and not once think "wow, this sounds terribly dated."

 

[Kromwarp]

Indeed, didn't recall that. However, I think we can consider it modern, specially when comparing with the other bands that were being mentioned (Iron Maiden, Metallica, etc). I mentioned that one because it was one of the biggest turning points in metal. It essencially led to Meshuggah's trademark sound, which would influence 80% of the extreme metal bands that were to come.

For the one that said that Troy Sanders uses a P, he does not. He uses a P+J from a brand that I think is called Godlyke, not Fenders.

He does have a Godlyke, but does use a couple Fenders

 

[blackriverstan]

steel is very metal

har har

 

[MtManiac]

That line made reading this thread totally worth it!

Totally true - hair metal in the 80s, I completely ignored Pantera for almost 20 years because of that.

 

[JoeyZ]

Nate Newton of Converge

 

[Gojiras_Hejira]

Oh yeah the dude from Converge hops around a lot. I remember that. Their guitarist had an awesome live sound.

 

[Kindofblue]

Fenders are the standard for the instrument and very common and very loved. Punk and metal are the genres that are the ones that are most "selling rebellion". Of course they shun the "norm". As indicated by the original post, there is an observable disparity in the occurrence of Fenders in these genres. I think there are valid considerations of psychology here.

First of all...if you look at most metal bands these days you will see their bassist playing a fender jazz,precision or a musicman. Its rare that you would see one playing a fodera emperor or a 6 string yamaha trb. Bring me the horizon,Dead and Divine,Miss May I,White Chapel,Blind Whitness etc etc etc. Im not talking about quality of music here because I know the definition of "opinion" and "facts".

Also, I consider the age of Metal to be 1976-81.
In any genre, you have brief underground beginnings. Iron Maiden did not grow up listening to heavy metal. It didn't exist. They grew up listening to Tull, Yes, The Who,Hendrix, Cream and Wishbone Ash. Sabbath and Purple and Blue Cheer were not considered 'Metal'.

As soon as you have people making Heavy metal bands because they grew up listening to heavy metal bands, the genre is inbred and wrecked and creatively watered down. The same is true of genres in any art form- painting, writing, photography, etc...

I doubt that people in metal bands exclusively only listen to metal, have you heard Between the Buried and me? I guess not. Christian McBride grew up listening to jazz and transcribing it, I guess because he emerged himself in it that makes him watered down?

Not to be a nit pick or anything I just can't get over the loads of biased people on this forum, and saying that I don't get what your getting at at all other then making a big deal because they don't play fenders. I think spending time listening to music and playing is way more productive then sitting on talkbass complaining about what instruments kids way younger then you are playing.

 

[Jim Carr]

...After Motley Crue had success with Home Sweet Home and Poison had "Every Rose had it's thorn" then within 3 years you had 400 Big-hair bands singing on-the-road ballads and sappy I-miss-you-baby acoustic guitar songs it was[snip] a little watered down. That's why Grunge came along and wiped them all away, just like punk and metal did to the Album oriented rock with 20-minute guitar solos of the 70s.

New music genres are just reactionary measures to previous ones who've stayed at the party too long and got old and boring...

IMHO, most of those genres exist largely because the bands that came to define them were the bands that the corporations decided to sell us. Unheard "new music genres" just died of neglect and were pushed aside. Genres are reactions? A bit, maybe, but the star-making machinery picked which ones we know. IMHO.

 

[Gojiras_Hejira]

Yes, which also backs up the idea of the band wagon. The star-makers pick and choose their money makers, then they bring in loads of lesser people to ride on their coat tails and cash in, all She's My Cherry Pie Style. They make their money and throw them all away for the next batch.

Those with staying power are kept and sculpted. Aerosmith used to sit at the foot of David Geffen's corpulence in a gold-pated bikini while he ate Tattooine frogs out of a bucket. They have very little input in their "art".