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Bandmates and your basses

#241
My Rickenbackers get noticed. Most of My Fenders are Sunburst. I can bring anything Fender from a 2012 American Select P which has a flamed maple top, an American 60th Anniversary P which looks like an early 50s P, an American Standard Jaguar, an American Standard Jazz bass. No one notices. I got a shoreline gold Jazz, they noticed that. The next week I played my Lakland USA Joe Osborne, which is a brighter gold. No one noticed.

For whatever it's worth I run into the same thing as a drummer. I usually play my "broken glass" DW kit. Sometimes I'll play a clean 1966 Slingerland vintage kit with a champagne sparkle finish on smaller stages. That got noticed by the singer. :D I brought my 1960s Gretsch Round badge kit, which is worth a fortune to another gig on a small stage a few weeks later. It is also in a Champagne sparkle finish, of course no one noticed. We played a house party. For laughs I brought the Slingerland bass drum and Gretsch toms. Nope, no one noticed. (Or cared.)
 
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#242
My bandmates (mostly punk rock) aren't super particular about which bass I use (although I generally only have one around), but they're absolutely convinced that I should only play flatwound strings. I liked flats before, but for a one-guitar punk/hard rock band I was pretty sure that I'd just use Boomers and it would add some midrange for when the guitar drops out. No way! Flats all the way! Really fits the music, but when I play distorted, which I only do occasionally, they're saying, "We like it clean, so we can tell you're playing flats."
 
#243
drummer5359 said:
My Rickenbackers get noticed. Most of My Fenders are Sunburst. I can bring anything Fender from a 2012 American Select P which has a flamed maple top, an American 60th Anniversary P which looks like an early 50s P, an American Standard Jaguar, an American Standard Jazz bass. No one notices. I got a shoreline gold Jazz, they noticed that. The next week I played my Lakland USA Joe Osborne, which is a brighter gold. No one noticed.

For whatever it's worth I run into the same thing as a drummer. I usually play my "broken glass" DW kit. Sometimes I'll play a clean 1966 Slingerland vintage kit with a champagne sparkle finish on smaller stages. That got noticed by the singer. :D I brought my 1960s Gretsch Round badge kit, which is worth a fortune to another gig on a small stage a few weeks later. It is also in a Champagne sparkle finish, of course no one noticed. We played a house party. For laughs I brought the Slingerland bass drum and Gretsch toms. Nope, no one noticed. (Or cared.)
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Our drummer has 2 kits, he always gigs with one and rehearses and records with the other. The problem for me is that his "home" kit has a kick drum that sounds like you are hitting wet cardboard with a stick, it is horrible and no amount of EQ makes it acceptable.

He maintains that it is tuned the same and sounds fine (it maybe does from where he is sitting) and I am making a fuss about nothing so I gave up mentioning it long ago (and trying to make it sound decent on recordings).
 
#244
JimmyM said:
Only took us 10 years to get you to that point :D but I'm proud of you!
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Yeah, it was a long (and ridiculous I suppose) journey. It had its moments for sure. I have said it before but I’m pretty set with this bass. For real. It is more than I need for any gig I’ll do. My G.A.S. is almost gone. I’ll always look but I don’t really have a desire for anything any more - except a P bass once in a while but it’s passing.

At church last week there was a tune that would have sounded REALLY good with a P bass. I rolled my treble off, bumped my mids a tad, panned to my neck pup and played between the end of the fingerboard and the neck pup. Not exactly a P but pretty close. The song before I rolled to my bridge pup, played over my bridge pickup and had more of a jazz, almost fretless, kind of growl. Another song was center on the blend, (I leave my highs off almost always theses days) and played between the pups for a basic Roscoe tone - which is often a good default anyway.

I don’t have time to change basses mid set - ruins the flow. This is a good compromise, it’s easier, cheaper and in the long run smarter. I just wish my long run would have been shorter for me to realize.
 
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#245
And...today I played a Fender Standard red with rosewood board. Played great, sounded amazing. My guitar player happened to be at the store (250 miles from home) as well. We played a few tunes and the P sounded so good. $599. Better than the American Pro hanging next to it. I need a B string for 2-3 tunes. So after my long, sensible post above, I almost walked out with it and trying to figure out how to cover the 2 tunes some other way. ‍

It’s ok. I got over it. Nothing plays like my Roscoe.
 
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#246
Also played one of theses at a local shop today...
Martin GP-28E (2018) - Natural with Fishman Aura VT Enhance Electronics
Really nice guitar. Now that I teach guitar at my High School, I’m a little more interested in one of these. Be it bass or guitar, my taste is still in the $3,000 range apparently.

My wife should be more concerned about me coming home with one of these than another bass.
 
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#247
selowitch said:
I only recently acquired a five-string and for sure I have messed up thinking the low B string was the E string, etc. Since I plan to switch between a four-string and a five-string every so often, I have many such goofs to look forward to in the future, I'm sure. Oh, well!
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I did that a bit when i first got my 5, but after a few weeks it wasn't happening much anymore. Since then the 5-string has been my primary instrument, and now i occasionally get tripped up a bit when switching back to a 4. :-)

On the other hand, the 6-string still completely screws me up. I just can't seem to get used to it...
 
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#249
The bands in which I've played only care about my overall tone, not specific basses. I usually always have 2 Wilkins PJ5's with me. One with flats, one with rounds, though which carries which may vary as the pickups, layout and preamps are different. But they don't care about manufacturer or any of that stuff. If they did, I wouldn't be in that band
 
#250
6tzguy said:
I have several different basses, but the guitar player said he thought my '64 jazz bass was the best sounding bass that i own (owned for 49 years-sold 3 years ago :crying:)The only other time he made a comment was after I put together my current rig; a GK 1001RB2 with a GK 15" neo and a GK neo 410 under that. We played our first song of the gig and he looked at me laughing and said " I can't hear my guitar!" ....ha,ha a real guitar killer!!!!!
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Come on man, guitar players can never hear their guitar :)
 
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#251
DennisO said:
This is what I have to say about that. I played drums all my life. I was drumming in a decent classic rock dance band. Playing halls and Legions and the like. I was working on a new snare I bought for my kit, the bass player didn't like it, wanted me to use the older one. I told him I been playing drums for 20 years and he's a bass player, that he wasn't qualified to tell me if my drum sounded good or not. The same guy usta argue with me that I was playing too fast or too slow. It so happened I had a Beat Bug on my snare accurate to 3/1000's of a second. Now if his ear is better than that, he's quite a man. Why does there always seem to be one of those types in every band lol. I guess what I'm trying to say is, you know what bass sounds best and fits the spot, to hell with what the other unqualified people think.
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DennisO said:
This is what I have to say about that. I played drums all my life. I was drumming in a decent classic rock dance band. Playing halls and Legions and the like. I was working on a new snare I bought for my kit, the bass player didn't like it, wanted me to use the older one. I told him I been playing drums for 20 years and he's a bass player, that he wasn't qualified to tell me if my drum sounded good or not. The same guy usta argue with me that I was playing too fast or too slow. It so happened I had a Beat Bug on my snare accurate to 3/1000's of a second. Now if his ear is better than that, he's quite a man. Why does there always seem to be one of those types in every band lol. I guess what I'm trying to say is, you know what bass sounds best and fits the spot, to hell with what the other unqualified people think.
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Your situation may be different, but our drummer uses an electronic timekeeper also. And he still slows and speeds the tempo. Ive see him ignore the lights on it for several tunes in a row. If you dont focus on it it wont help.
 
#253
db59 said:
Hello everyone.............Do any of your bandmates prefer any of your basses over a different one, that you play at gigs or practice? I've had a guitarist and a drummer both tell me how much they liked my Warwick Thumb and Sadowsky.
Any other bass I bring no comment either way.
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I think the only thing I've really heard from anybody is the guitarist commented that he'd heard me better that night. I was playing a Jazz, had been using a P-Bass. I usually play what I feel like taking that day. As long as it's There is all I worry about. We play a variety of Gospel styles. I usually have 2 with me, anyway, so it depends on what we're playing, where and how I feel! haha
 
#254
Benny Bennett said:
I think the only thing I've really heard from anybody is the guitarist commented that he'd heard me better that night. I was playing a Jazz, had been using a P-Bass. I usually play what I feel like taking that day. As long as it's There is all I worry about. We play a variety of Gospel styles. I usually have 2 with me, anyway, so it depends on what we're playing, where and how I feel! haha
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.....you must be a true genius.....same last name Bennett!!!!!!
 
#255
No one cares in my Ramones' tribute band. They're happy with the bass I chose. I use to rehearsal with one of my three Precisions, all with EMG GZR and Rotosound flats (alder-rosewood P, alder-maple P & swamp ash-rosewood PJ), but when gigging I always take my PB70 "Dee Dee" (japanese PB70 with an AllParts maple neck) basically for the visuals.
 
#256
Kikegg said:
No one cares in my Ramones' tribute band. They're happy with the bass I chose. I use to rehearsal with one of my three Precisions, all with EMG GZR and Rotosound flats (alder-rosewood P, alder-maple P & swamp ash-rosewood PJ), but when gigging I always take my PB70 "Dee Dee" (japanese PB70 with an AllParts maple neck) basically for the visuals.
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Hang on. To say “nobody cares” in your situation isn’t accurate. You need to show up with a P Bass. Bring a pointy, neon ‘80s hair metal machine and see if anyone cares.
 
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#260
I use a passive P bass with flats or an active Jazz with rounds. Twice I've been told "You always sound good. It doesn't matter what you play, you sound like you". And once, from another bass player, "You make both your basses (the P and J) sound pretty much the same". I have no idea how I do that! I thought they sounded very different!!

IME, as long as you don't sound bad, most bands are more interested in what you play rather than how you sound.
 
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