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Are bassists more gear / tech savvy?

Do Bassists tend to be more tech savvy than other musicians?

  • Yes

    Votes: 85 58.6%

  • No

    Votes: 41 28.3%

  • I reject the premise!

    Votes: 19 13.1%
  • Total voters
    145
#24
Not really. I mean, yeah we know our gear, but guitar players tend to know just as much about guitar stuff, drummists about drum stuff, keyboardists about keys stuff, its all specialty. Talkbass is also home to many tech head types as well as minimalists. Just cause I know the finer points of pickups and pedals doesn't make me any better! Hell half of us can't even wrap our heads around watts
 
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#25
scourgeofgod said:
The most gear/tech-savvy musicians I've known were guitarists, and good guitarists at that. I think though that the more time any musician devotes to their craft the more knowledgeable they become.
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Oh man! Certainly not in MY experience. I've heard more bogus theories about what electronics do to tone from guitarists than any other place. I've personally witnessed cases of a guitar with the jack loose so the guitarists instead of tightening the nut, puts duct tape all over it. (And then told me how he was getting lots of "static" but if he stood a certain way (strikes pose) it didn't make as much noise. Hey, who brings the spare guitar strings and 9 volt batteries? The Bass player. The drummer doesn't know what such things are for and the guitarists are all too dizzy to remember. And just look at instruments. It seems all innovations in instruments seem to be first accepted by bass players long before they are accepted by guitarists.
 
#26
bassbenj said:
Oh man! Certainly not in MY experience. I've heard more bogus theories about what electronics do to tone from guitarists than any other place. I've personally witnessed cases of a guitar with the jack loose so the guitarists instead of tightening the nut, puts duct tape all over it. (And then told me how he was getting lots of "static" but if he stood a certain way (strikes pose) it didn't make as much noise. Hey, who brings the spare guitar strings and 9 volt batteries? The Bass player. The drummer doesn't know what such things are for and the guitarists are all too dizzy to remember. And just look at instruments. It seems all innovations in instruments seem to be first accepted by bass players long before they are accepted by guitarists.
Click to expand...
The guitarists I speak of weren't into active pickups/electronics, they were both very into effects but on opposite ends of the spectrum, one was very into true bypass and quite organized and specific with his rig, obsessed with his tone, the other was into anything he could get his hands on and mod. Something they had in common though was that they were interested enough in what created the sounds they liked to find out why/how they made the sounds they like, what made their entire rigs tick. I've known plenty of plug in and go musicians but these 2 particular dudes were the most knowledgeable tech savvy musicians I've ever known, they would get a good laugh at some of the guitar player stereotypes being thrown around here. As for a drummer, I wouldn't expect him to know anything about my rig beyond "that sounds good" unless he himself also played bass. As long as he knows what he's doing with his own gear it doesn't matter what he knows about mine. The duct tape guy you speak of sounds like an idiot, there are idiots playing every instrument, as well as individuals that make it their business to learn as much as they can about their craft.
 
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#27
I'd say it's almost equal. You can discount every bass player on this forum because we're to obsessed with sculpting sound, the latest pedal variant, and latex coated string ends to be regarded as typical "bass players".

You'd need to survey every day working joes in bands in clubs. I suspect bass players, keyboardists, and guitarists would know a little more than singers and drummers.
 
#31
It takes more to chase good tone in the lower frequencies. It's a lot harder to cut through with them. This makes it take a lot more learning and research and experience to chase the tone you want to achieve, so if you are on that hunt, you generally have to know about more gear because there's usually a lot more things you have to take into account to achieve the sound you're seeking.
 
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#33
Just my experience. The bass player is put in a position that needs to serve the band, so the tend to research what they need to serve the band best.

At the same time in research terms. I know few other real life bass players. I've definitely never been in a band with one.

I have never been in a band with anybody as tech savy as myself.
 
#36
wizerd said:
In general bassists seem to know more the workings of their gear than most. But, screw the gear, bassists are IME, more knowledgeable about MUSIC than most others.
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In general, most bassists I know use zero effects. Therefore, it's going to be easier to understand the workings of their gear. Once you dial in a decent tone, you can dedicate the rest of your time to hitting every note. In short, I agree with what you're saying.
 
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#37
As a former guitarist, I think guitar players are equally as savvy as bass players, but they only talk about it with other guitarists.

Guitarists obsess over tone. Which tubes produce the right amount of tube breakup and when. If you know one that plays a tube amp, ask him why he uses those tubes and you will see.

They also can tell you the difference between distortion and overdrive as well as why and when you would want to stack them. They obsess over the brown sound as well.

Don't get them started on the Strat vs. Les Paul discussion as that will start a holy war.

Then they will talk about guitars with different scale lengths, why the reverse headstock will give you the Jimi Hendrix sound because it changes the tension on the...

They also obsess over pickups, volume and tone pots, bridges, nuts, tremolo (bigsby, Floyd rose, lever, locked, floating)...

I would go on, but I think it would bore you.

... But this is why a guitarist can come into a room, plug in and play.

Bassists have a different set of worries. We have to tune our low end to the room. We can be too boomy if the put us in a corner. We won't be able to hear ourselves of we're too close the the amp, we may have to adjust to cut through a mix. I think we have to be more room aware.
 
#39
There are "gear geeks" for every instrument, bass, drums, guitars, you name it. By the same token, I know players of every instrument who don't have much knowledge about gear. If they can play, and make it work, it doesn't matter to me.

Drums/percussion are my first instrument, and I'm pretty geeky about heads, shell construction, hardware differences, bearing edges and cymbal choices for different situations and rooms. I have a wide selection of modern and vintage drum gear and I'm pretty knowledgeable in what works and what doesn't. I consider myself to be a pretty serious drummer, these days it's what I do for a living.

As a bassist I'm working on my playing, I practice bass every day and have come a long, long way in a few short years. I take lessons and try to soak in something from every bassist that I work with. As far as bass knowledge goes, thanks to TB I seem to be a little ahead of the curve of understanding bass gear than some of the bassists that I work with. I work with one bassist who is particularly gear savvy and a great bassist to boot. Not by coincidence, Mike is a member here too. On the other hand, I have one bassist that I work with who has been playing since the sixties and is a good player, but has very little gear knowledge. He asks me advice regularly about everything from bass setup to matching impedance of heads and cabinets.

I've been the guy who sets up the PA in almost every band that I've worked with since the seventies. I'm upgrading band lighting now and wrapping my head around DMX programing and LED options.

I'm a bit obsessive in that I bring picks, batteries, a tuner, and assorted other stuff to gigs even when I'm playing drums. So, not every drummer is clueless in regards to gear.
 
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