bass pet peeves

[ynie92992]

What really makes you mad when you play or talk about bass?

Mine is when i say"i play bass" people are like"Oh, you dont play Real guitar" i hate when people say bass isnt Real

 

[Double Agent]

The following have all been uttered to me, usually by drunk college students:
"Your guitar looks really big!"
"How come I can't hear your guitar?"
"Bass? What does that do?"

For those who have a clue, they hear me play, realize I'm not half-bad and ask:
"Can you play any Primus?"
Me: "A little, but I'm more of a Rush fan"
Them: "Never heard of them."
Me: :scowl:

The above has happened at least 3 different times. How do you know who Primus is and not know who Rush is anyway? Its more of a personal thing I guess, but it keeps happening.

 

[cricketfever32]

thats a very good question, hey a fellow rush fan! lol people in my school became somewhat logical and now say bass is harder to learn...but in terms of ignorance

"a bass amp, is a ******* speaker hooked up to a simple clean amp"
"bass sucks, play guitar, its got more strings"
"i bet my low b is better than yours" (low b on a g**tar

all from my annoying cousin

 

[nickbear]

the only thing that really annoys me is when soundguys try to put bass too low in the mix.

 

[MadMark5]

The following have all been uttered to me, usually by drunk college students:
"Your guitar looks really big!"
"How come I can't hear your guitar?"
"Bass? What does that do?"

For those who have a clue, they hear me play, realize I'm not half-bad and ask:
"Can you play any Primus?"
Me: "A little, but I'm more of a Rush fan"
Them: "Never heard of them."
Me: :scowl:

The above has happened at least 3 different times. How do you know who Primus is and not know who Rush is anyway? Its more of a personal thing I guess, but it keeps happening.

oh how I've heard the Primus line....

let me take it a little deeper to one I get all of time..

"rush huh? so can you play tom sawyer?"
"yeah but I prefer limelight or red barchetta"
"are they good songs, I've never heard em"

talk about annoyed....

 

[bassphreak]

from my darling wife:

'why do you play bass, you can't just pick it up and play a song on it'

d'oh!

 

[knarleybass]

When my guitar player starts talking about how his amp is only on 2 and it's already to loud.

 

[danomite64]

Soundman: "There's still too much bass"

Me: "That's because you've got the acoustic guitar mixed with too much low end, like I told you after the last song."

Soundman: "You still need to turn down. I already have you off on the board, and there's too much bass."

Me: "Well, it's not coming from me."

Soundman (getting frustrated): "How do you know it's not coming from you?"

Me: "Because I got tired of having this argument every week, so I didn't play at all during the last song."

Band leader: "It's true; he told me he was going to do this and I saw him turn off his amp."

Soundman: "........"

 

[meev992]

When my guitar player starts talking about how his amp is only on 2 and it's already too loud.

grrrrrrrrrrr

 

[knarleybass]

grrrrrrrrrrr

It would be nice if no one in the band would noodle inbetween songs, for that matter it would be nice if the drummer didn't noodle during the songs as well. Sometimes I think he is just playing one long drum roll instead of a beat.

 

[neuromancer]

Please note: I'm not bashing, so there's no need to post a compaint, but the OP did ask for pet-peeves, and the following do pop up more than I'd like them to.....or I'm just neurotic....

I do run across many of those listed above, and there's also:

Poser-bass: Guitar/Keyboard players and drummers who feel they are cool because they can sit on a couch and slap whatever un-amplified bass they can get their hands on. In some cases this can lead them to think: "why do we have a bass-player when I can play bass?"

Note: For those on here who play both guitar and bass in bands, I'm NOT talking about you.

There's also that stage where you finally get your groove with the drummer going, you're locked in, it's tight - and then someone in the band (usually a guitard) stops the whole song at practice because you're "overplaying."

The soundguys are too easy of a target here, so I'll leave them out of my post.

 

[knarleybass]

Please note: I'm not bashing, so there's no need to post a compaint, but the OP did ask for pet-peeves, and the following do pop up more than I'd like them to.....or I'm just neurotic....

I do run across many of those listed above, and there's also:

Poser-bass: Guitar/Keyboard players and drummers who feel they are cool because they can sit on a couch and slap whatever un-amplified bass they can get their hands on. In some cases this can lead them to think: "why do we have a bass-player when I can play bass?"

Note: For those on here who play both guitar and bass in bands, I'm NOT talking about you.

There's also that stage where you finally get your groove with the drummer going, you're locked in, it's tight - and then someone in the band (usually a guitard) stops the whole song at practice because you're "overplaying."

The soundguys are too easy of a target here, so I'll leave them out of my post.

I say bash away!

 

[topper]

Me: "Because I got tired of having this argument every week, so I didn't play at all during the last song."

Had a similar experiment with a sound guy. He kept telling me to turn my stage amp down that it was muddying everything up. (He had me direct through the PA) and I couldn't hear myself at all despite many requests to turn me up in the monitors. Eventually I turned the amp off, just cut the power entirely... Then he asked me to turn the amp down some more... :scowl:

Don't be afraid to bash sound guys... I've been one and when we don't do our job, we deserve to hear about it.

 

[nastyn8c]

Soundman: "There's still too much bass"

Me: "That's because you've got the acoustic guitar mixed with too much low end, like I told you after the last song."

Soundman: "You still need to turn down. I already have you off on the board, and there's too much bass."

Me: "Well, it's not coming from me."

Soundman (getting frustrated): "How do you know it's not coming from you?"

Me: "Because I got tired of having this argument every week, so I didn't play at all during the last song."

Band leader: "It's true; he told me he was going to do this and I saw him turn off his amp."

Soundman: "........"

AHAHAHAHA

I did that same exact thing with my chorus teacher back in high school.

We were a great band backing up the show choir, but she annoyed the crap out of me when it came to technical stuff. She had a good ear, and could EQ and mix vocals, but the band was beyond her.

Not bass related, or related to that turning the bass off thing, but this just displays her lack of technical knowledge:
Teacher: "I still don't understand why our wireless mics cut out all the time"
Me: "Well, you bought VHF to save money. UHF would have eliminated most of the interference problems."
Teacher: "We bought the ones we have because vocals sound better through VHF"
Me: "So why do ALL the professionals use UHF?"
Teacher: "....."

 

[CTF6]

I do run across many of those listed above, and there's also:

Poser-bass: Guitar/Keyboard players and drummers who feel they are cool because they can sit on a couch and slap whatever un-amplified bass they can get their hands on. In some cases this can lead them to think: "why do we have a bass-player when I can play bass?"

I HATE People like that! I know a guy exactly like that! No matter where we go, he grabs a bass if anyone has it and starts playing guitar parts on it. Then tries to play what he calls "Slap" and when I slap he tells me I'm doing it wrong.

oh and for the record, I was in a band with him (that is, before he got arrogant), and he kicked me and the drummer out and made it his "Solo" project. No joke!

Arrogant know it all musicians are the WORST.

P.S. I can direct you al to some rather horrible youtube videos if you really want to know how good he thinks he is (and how bad he really is too).

 

[Twnty1inRF]

I have a black t-shirt with Jaco's pic from his first album that I occasionally wear to gigs, one night I was asked if that was Mango from SNL... GRRRRRRRRR!!!

Jaco:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Chris Kattan (Mango):
Link Removed

 

[Mechanical Mind]

CTF6 Post these videos, i love seeing a**holes make fools of themselves

 

[jonathan_matos5]

i hate when i cant hear the drummer.

 

[CEOofEVIL]

The whole: "can you play some [insert bass player here] thing can get a little annoying, when You're playing a gig and it keeps coming from a guy whose three sheets to the wind.

I've had a soundguy who came up to my amp during a gig, and started changing around ALL of the settings on not just my volume, BUT EQ. While we were in the middle of a song, no less. I gave him the look of "Never touch that again" when I turned around and caught him in the act. Never had it happen again. :scowl: You just don't touch another mans rig! lol

Meeting other bass players is great and all, seeing as we're all brethren though I must admit I can't stand meeting another player who is a bit too full of themselves. Comments such as "I noticed your playing a [insert brand or gear here]. You should get a [insert again here] instead, they sound so much better", or "Dude, You could sound so much better without the ____!".

One last thing I'm tired of hearing from other players are overused sayings such as "the tone is all in your fingers bro" or the like. As true as any of those statements may or may not be, they can get annoying as many times I've noticed those saying them don't seem to be relaying them to you to be helpful. I mean, gee, its not like I've heard that one BEFORE!

The Guitarist sneaking into your bassy territory (bass heavy guitar EQ'ing) can be annoying too!

Just my little list of annoyances.

 

[Mechanical Mind]

When I was in a band the guitarist and drummer would "jam" sometimes, and if I tried to join in they told me I was ruining the flow. I'm not very good, but I know how to play in the pocket and groove with the song.