Are you a Goldilocks bass player?

[Jughead6]

Action, intonation, and strap height are the things I am particular about. Other that, I change my sound according to the venue, my amp looks like hell-hammered s**t, and my bass gets cleaned when I change strings at least once a month. But I have seen some pretty obsessive musicians out there.

+1, except I change strings maybe once a year.

 

[Spectrum]

Well, if I think about my pet peeves...

I always have a pick in my pocket on gigs, even if I probably won't use it, or use it for only one or two songs. I'm not even very good with a pick.

I get a little anxiety whenever I forget something I can live without: pick, clip-on tuner, earplugs (no lectures, please, I use them when I don't forget them, plus I always keep a spare set in my truck's cab), guitar stand, etc. Comfort zone thing. If I forget them, I am fine, but I am a little ticked at myself, because it makes me wonder what else I've forgotten, and why am I so careless.

 

[katalyzt13]

I don't like for people to put my guitar or bass down in any tuning other than how they found it - or if they tune it back "by ear" instead of "by an accurate device like my korg pitchblack or clip-on mini tuner".

 

[PWRL]

I'm pretty finicky about my setups. I'm all about keeping my basses at what I consider optimum playability.

 

[Mike Sorr]

I guess that's one of my 'things'.
I couldn't bring myself to pay someone else to do that (other than fret leveling).

I don't trust myself to work on my stuff. My basses are like my cars, I know how to drive them, but I don't know what I'm doing under the hood.

 

[henry2513]

Holy crap that's me and so frigging annoying.

 

[crentest]

Sure, I go in to random musicians homes. Sleep in their beeds, and eat their food. Sometimes I even sit in their chairs, but the one thing I always do is, I play their bass'.

 

[red_rhino]

Just imagine if Goldilocks had been a bass player. The fairy tale would have gone a bit differently as she tried to choose a bass for the gig…

"This P bass is too heavy.
This J bass is too light.
And this one's a Squire, that'll never sound right.

My Zon is so shiny.
And my Fodera's a sight.
But I'm playing a blues gig, the band will get stage fright.

My Sadowsky's too expensive
My Sub is too cheap
My StingRay is perfect, but I played that last week.

The Smith is too heavy,
The MTD too light,
The G&L's too sparkly, to use under lights.

The Lull is a 5 string,
The Roscoe's a six,
And either of them would sound great in the mix.

The Carvin's too boring,
The Wishbass too weird,
The Reverend would work, but last time they sneered.

The Celinder is awesome,
Yeah, I could get behind it,
But it's back in its case, and now I can't find it.

A PJ? A T-Bird? A Hanewinkle too?
Did I buy all these basses?
There's no way I can choose!

And just when I thought that I could not decide,
That's when the UPS truck did arrive!

They brought me the bass that I'd ordered last week (off Talkbass, of course. Don't mess up my cadence.)
The bass of all basses,
My collection's complete! (yeah, right)

This bass is perfect!
This bass is just right!

But there is no joy in Mudville.
The gig was last night."

 

[bluesblaster]

shut up and eat the porridge bitch

 

[Munjibunga]

No. I'm not good enough to even notice any of that stuff unless, maybe, my action was a half inch.

 

[the harp unstrung]

imagine if Goldilocks had been a bass player. The fairy tale would have gone a bit differently as she tried to choose a bass for the gig…

LEGEND!

 

[dukemasterj]

Hahahaha great responses guys, I'm loving it!

 

[kenneffdupriest]

I dont absolutely have to be on the right side but i really really like being to the right of the drummer. I showed up for Monsters of Design and Nik had me on the left. I thought I was ok with it but I wasn't. To the point of being not so active on stage and not singing very much. Fratta looks at me half way through the show and says "You ok man?" I'm not obsessive just a lil neurotic I guess.

 

[Feral Feline]

Just imagine if Goldilocks had been a bass player. The fairy tale would have gone a bit differently as she tried to choose a bass for the gig…

"This P bass is too heavy.
This J bass is too light.
And this one's a Squire, that'll never sound right.

My Zon is so shiny.
And my Fodera's a sight.
But I'm playing a blues gig, the band will get stage fright.

My Sadowsky's too expensive
My Sub is too cheap
My StingRay is perfect, but I played that last week.

The Smith is too heavy,
The MTD too light,
The G&L's too sparkly, to use under lights.

The Lull is a 5 string,
The Roscoe's a six,
And either of them would sound great in the mix.

The Carvin's too boring,
The Wishbass too weird,
The Reverend would work, but last time they sneered.

The Celinder is awesome,
Yeah, I could get behind it,
But it's back in its case, and now I can't find it.

A PJ? A T-Bird? A Hanewinkle too?
Did I buy all these basses?
There's no way I can choose!

And just when I thought that I could not decide,
That's when the UPS truck did arrive!

They brought me the bass that I'd ordered last week (off Talkbass, of course. Don't mess up my cadence.)
The bass of all basses,
My collection's complete! (yeah, right)

This bass is perfect!
This bass is just right!

But there is no joy in Mudville.
The gig was last night."

BRAVO!

SUPERLATIVE!

I tip my hat to you, sir!

 

[pklima]

Sure, I go in to random musicians homes. Sleep in their beeds, and eat their food. Sometimes I even sit in their chairs, but the one thing I always do is, I play their bass'.

See, we know this is an obvious joke. Everyone knows musicians don't have any food in their homes.

 

[dukemasterj]

I dont absolutely have to be on the right side but i really really like being to the right of the drummer. I showed up for Monsters of Design and Nik had me on the left. I thought I was ok with it but I wasn't. To the point of being not so active on stage and not singing very much. Fratta looks at me half way through the show and says "You ok man?" I'm not obsessive just a lil neurotic I guess.

wow i actually didnt notice it but i do the same thing pretty much. i love stage right, just dont know why

 

[the harp unstrung]

I, on the other (literal) hand, NEED to be stage left of the drummer. I rely on the visual of the drummer's bass drum foot. I imagine if he or she was left handed, and didn't have a floor tom in my line of sight, I'd opt for setting up to the right of the drummer... hmmmm, never really thought of that before...

 

[Michedelic]

+1 on string buzz, arrgh! Equally annoying are buzzes from the speaker cabinet as it vibrates, like metal grills, no matter how tight you screw them down, Sessions handles, random objects on or near the stage, and so on. I can take snare drums in stride, although I'm not happy about it. But I will NOT abide with pedal boards with rat's nest connectors/power supply trainwrecks. It HAS to be trimmed to proper length George L's in a fathomable flow chart manner, Cioks or Voodoo Labs bricks neatly mounted on the underside of the Pedaltrain, with the power cables neatly routed and secured. No multicolored plastic cables/connectors, no loops draping over pedals, if something goes down, I want to be able to pinpoint it immediately and get it out of the chain. I'm a big fan of bands being able to roll out their gear onto a stage like a SWAT team/black ops crew. I detest anyone else(mainly guitarists, right?)who get on stage for set-up, fumble around pulling their pedals out of their grocery bag gigbags, trying to figure out their pedal order as they plug in, only to mumble "dude, I'm not getting any signal, can you help me?"(plus the inevitable "ya got a 9-volt handy?"), while the sound guy is tapping his foot, and that blonde at the front of the stage is starting to wander off.

 

[HaphAsSard]

You know what I am talking about. Do certain things drive you nuts that the average person would overlook? You notice a .5mm difference in string spacing? a .25lb difference in bass weight? or maybe you're the type of player who can tell somebody has touched their rig because everything has an exact spot? Maybe you're the type of guy who has to adjust his action once a week to make sure its perfect?

What needs to be "just right" for you?

Keep in mind i posted this in the humor section so try to keep it fun guys

(By the way, I'm a Neanderthal myself.)

 

[Stormer]

I absolutely detest gold hardware, it looks really cheap and tacky.