Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Basses Affect Your Playing...
- Thread starter AboutSweetSue
- Start date
Maybe when I was young, but the music I play effects how I play much more than the bass itself.
It makes a difference to me. When I did lots of recording at home, I would record a track with the Fender, a track with the Hofner and sometimes an Ibanez. Each had a different “feel” , not just different tonal characteristics. I generally found the Fender more to my liking (Pbass and in recent years a Jbass).
Last edited:
I don’t see where he’s anthropomorphizing or saying “must” anywhere in his post. His point (if I’m reading it the way he intended) is that the tool defines certain parameters that affect how he uses it. That’s not the same thing as endowing it with an artificial persona or attributing sentience to it.
Environmental and physical realities affect behavior since living organisms will attempt to change what environmental factors they can to make them more congenial to the organism. Otherwise (far more often) they adapt to those they can’t. And if even that fails they eventually learn to tolerate them.
Then there’s the matter of what makes for a “good tool.”
Good tools are: wide, deep, and indulgent. They cover the full scope (width) of the task(s) they were made to perform. They cover the range (depth) of all likely use cases. And they’re transparent an display adaptive (indulgent)behavior towards the user. They become extensions of the user’s mind and body rather than a completely separate object one needs to continually and consciously manipulate to bring about the desired result.
There’s a whole field of design engineering dedicated to addressing issues like: transparency, interface, fluidity, and ergonomics - each of which is its own field of study as well. The goal is basically to make our technology and tools disappear from out consciousness and become extensions of ourselves. A well designed tool becomes a mirror of its user, as electronics guru Don Lancaster once put it. So I don’t see what the OP was saying as indulging in romanticism or anthropomorphic fantasy. I think it’s more Darwinian than anything. We don’t turn our tools into people. We (like The Borg) assimilate them. We make them part of our collective.
View attachment 3891435
Who knows? In time we may even come to love our tools.
I’m a firm believer that a musical instrument is nothing more than a tool to help you create your art. I have decades of recordings of me playing all sorts of Basses, and with a few exceptions, most of the time I’m playing the same figures with the same embellishments with not a whole lot of tonal differences. Not saying there aren’t differences between bass A and bass B, but 30 tools that do exactly the same thing seems to me to be a tremendous waste of artistic potential.
As I’ve posted often, after 53 years of playing bass, I’m still exploring all the possibilities of 4 strings two volume knobs and a tone control. I’m also convinced that 90% of your output is determined by your rig, not the bass.
I play my basses the same. They are set up for different tones, but both get the same varieties of technique.
I also view musical instruments as tools. Just tools. I can admire their workmanship. I can respect the tones they’re capable of delivering. I can appreciate their playability. I can even find their histories and individual stories interesting.
But at the end of the day they still remain tools - just tools - in my little corner of the universe.
I started in 67. So I guess I’m in my 53rd year too. And I’m at the point where I’ve realized how little you actually need to play bass, and have since come to the conclusion that, while gear and technique makes for some fun (and admittedly endless
) discussions, hardly any of it really matters.90% of what gets discussed on TB has nothing to do with actual music. It’s more about all the superfluous things we put ourselves through preparing to play music. It’s like building a boat and learning how to sail, but hardly ever actually going out on the water with it.
I mean sure, “the journey is the reward“ and all that. I get it. But it’s also nice knowing there’s a destination, and occasionally remembering the reasons why you set out on your journey in the first place. Because it’s really easy to get so caught up in the “doing” and “keeping busy” part that it turns into rote behavior. And that eventually leads to boredom.
Like the old joke says: the only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth of the hole.
The only thing that does really matter (something I’ve decided - so there!
) is that you just play music. Use whatever you want. Do whatever it is you feel you need to do. Put yourself through whatever bizarre rituals and rigamarole you feel compelled to suffer. Just don’t get so caught up in it that you forget to play. 
Last edited:
For me it’s the amp. When I play through my rehearsal rig BA 210v2, I just play. But when I have my full Ampeg stack, those 15s just bring everything to life and I’m really playing well.
I can see how that would happen especially with the 8x10.
Are the angled P’s a mod of the factory body?
I also view musical instruments as tools. Just tools. I can admire their workmanship. I can respect the tones they’re capable of delivering. I can appreciate their playability. I can even find their histories and individual stories interesting.
But at the end of the day they still remain tools - just tools - in my little corner of the universe.
I started in 67. So I guess I’m in my 53rd year too. And I’m at the point where I’ve realized how little you actually need to play bass, and have since come to the conclusion that, while gear and technique makes for some fun (and admittedly endless
90% of what gets discussed on TB has nothing to do with actual music. It’s more about all the superfluous things we put ourselves through preparing to play music. It’s like building a boat and learning how to sail, but hardly ever actually going out on the water with it.
I mean sure, “the journey is the reward“ and all that. I get it. But it’s also nice knowing there’s a destination, and occasionally remembering the reasons why you set out on your journey in the first place. Because it’s really easy to get so caught up in the “doing” and “keeping busy” part that it turns into rote behavior. And that eventually leads to boredom.
Like the old joke says: the only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth of the hole.
The only thing that does really matter (something I’ve decided - so there!
Well said! Happy Fourth.
I think they do, but the effect is fairly subtle. The different choices I might make still all sound like me.
I am not a multi-bass owner really, I have one that gets the lion’s share of all playing. So for the second part I am not the guy to ask.
But think about it this way: bass builders need to eat and pay bills too. Who is going to buy those basses if not us? It’s almost a duty to buy a new bass. See, I’ve almost talked myself into doing it with that line of reasoning!
I am not a multi-bass owner really, I have one that gets the lion’s share of all playing. So for the second part I am not the guy to ask.
But think about it this way: bass builders need to eat and pay bills too. Who is going to buy those basses if not us? It’s almost a duty to buy a new bass. See, I’ve almost talked myself into doing it with that line of reasoning!
If I create a bassline on a particular instrument and later try to duplicate it on another one, sometimes the 2nd bass won't "let" me create the same groove. It's weird. More often than not, the new bass makes me alter the feel in some way that caters to it's unique tone/setup/neck profile, etc.
Greetings from the North,
Welcome to TB!
For me it certainly does and I enjoy it immensely. If it had no affect I would probably be content with just one bass.
Rezdog
Welcome to TB!
For me it certainly does and I enjoy it immensely. If it had no affect I would probably be content with just one bass.
Rezdog
Even though I have Jazz necks on most of my basses I tend to play more simply on my P bass than on my Jazz bass. I recently acquired a Hofner Club bass and I'm amazed at how I just cannot play the way I usually do on that bass. I have been using it and playing along with some Beatles tunes and it's like putting a square peg in a round hole. I have to completely rethink the way I approach the song with that bass. I have a similar situation with my Rickenbacker bass. It demands a different playing style.
100% the bass affects how I play it, for all the reasons others have so well outlined.
My dream—sacrilege, I know—is to own only one bass, so that hypothetically the only variables ever in play are my head, my body and the music.
My dream—sacrilege, I know—is to own only one bass, so that hypothetically the only variables ever in play are my head, my body and the music.
I just want a bass that makes me look cool. No intellectualizing about my point of attack, no misguided theorizing about being one with the music. No fumbling around with wires and knobs to distract from my sound. No focusing on gear acquisition for the delusional purpose of self improvement.
Cool is all I need. It’s all anyone needs, really... to play bass I mean.
Lol. AFAIK.
Cool is all I need. It’s all anyone needs, really... to play bass I mean.
Lol. AFAIK.
Absolutely. Even changes that only affect the sound (amp, eq tweaks, pickups) can effect the way you play because you’re playing using the sound as feedback. Sometimes I find basses or even just situations where I have a hard time playing because I’m not hearing the sound I’m trying to get.
