Beato Top 20

[Dincrest]

I would nominate most anything with NickTheBassist for a top 20 threads list. Back in the 2000s, that kid was a legendary troll. I'd also nominate the threads that got Jeff Berlin and Ken Smith banned from the forum.

 

[Savage_Dreams]

ohhhhh someone elses opinion...... oh the horror

 

[bass12]

I don't know about Rick's Top 20 videos but can we please abolish references to "yelling at clouds"? It's more played out than "Mustang Sally".

 

[richntiff]

I like Beato for the most part. I recognize, as an adult, that he has opinions that I may not agree with. His long interviews are great. The "what makes this song great' series is interesting. His takes about the trash factor in modern music align with my own personal (52 year old) opinions. I don't watch all his videos, but if the subject strikes my fancy, I'll give him a few minutes as an offering to the YT Algorithm Gods.

If I didn't like him, I would simply choose not to watch. I wouldn't go whining about how awful he is on an online forum. But that's just me.

 

[Element Zero]

You all missed an essential one…
“All music that came out after I was in high school is crap”, AKA “The music that l listened to in my high school years was the only music that mattered”.

I tend to ignore those type of posts. Though I’m quite partial to my favorite nu-metal and 90’s alternative/grunge albums but it’s pretty rare that I listen to them anymore except for a few choice CD’s.

Did I just date myself? Let’s be honest though. Most of us here are Gen X or Baby Boomers. We ALL know the 80’s hands down was the best decade of music. Anyone that says otherwise either A. has terrible taste in music, or B. is lying to themselves.

But man if there hasn’t been some outstanding bands to show up in the mid ‘00’s. Dirty Loops, Haken, Tesseract, Starset…

 

[commonplayer]

I'm no Beato fanboy or anything, but he has decades of experience playing, writing and recording music and can credibly state his case on these things. I'll take his word any day over some 25 year old pitchfork hipster writer who has no frame of reference

 

[cemunk]

I'd like to add one to the Talkbass top 20.

The thread where someone is actually successful in music but we feel the need to put the boots to them. And I'm not talking about Beato specifically.

 

[wintremute]

I like Beato for the most part. I recognize, as an adult, that he has opinions that I may not agree with. His long interviews are great. The "what makes this song great' series is interesting. His takes about the trash factor in modern music align with my own personal (52 year old) opinions. I don't watch all his videos, but if the subject strikes my fancy, I'll give him a few minutes as an offering to the YT Algorithm Gods.

If I didn't like him, I would simply choose not to watch. I wouldn't go whining about how awful he is on an online forum. But that's just me.

That's pretty much where I stand (and sit).

 

[rstephens]

I don;t mind Beato, but honestly Pat Finnerty's "what makes this song stink" videos are way more entertaining and insightful!

 

[gln1955]

Below is my top ten list of clouds types at which one might shout (if inclined).

1. Cirrus
2. Cirrocumulus
3. Cirrostratus
4. Altocumulus
5. Altostratus
6. Nimbostratus
7. Cumulus
8. Stratocumulus
9. Cumulonimbus
10. Stratus

I don't know. Jaco only needed to yell at cumulus clouds.

 

[Substrate]

Alright, here’s a (highly subjective but lovingly curated) shortlist of 20 TalkBass threads that are legendary for going gloriously off the rails—because of arguments, memes, or sheer entropy. I kept it to specific threads you can revisit:

1. “Check out this $3000 ‘Fodera’!!” — the OG boutique-price flamewar, later canonized as “infamous” by other TB’ers. TalkBass+1
2. “Argument in store over used bass” — retail dust-up that spiraled into a many-page morality play. TalkBass+1
3. “So my drummer approached me the other day…” — birthplace of the nonsense-theory gag “chordature,” which then infected other threads. TalkBass+1
4. “Anyone Know the True Origin of ‘Carrots’?” — tracing (and rekindling) TB’s most enduring poll meme. TalkBass
5. “Tonewood or not? Testing the myth!” — an evergreen tonewood slugfest with “tests,” counter-tests, and no survivors. TalkBass
6. “Tonewood Experiment.” — because one tonewood war was never going to be enough. TalkBass
7. “Why so much Hate towards the Pick.” — early (2005!) pick-vs-fingers trench warfare. TalkBass
8. “How Important is showing up…with a Fender P?” — session-etiquette topic that detonates every few pages. TalkBass
9. “Rickenbacker Hate” — the eternal love/hate brand thread, maximal drama guaranteed. TalkBass
10. “How about a legitimate Rickenbacker Hate thread?” — yes, a separate one, because of course there is. TalkBass
11. “Fender Quality Control… A New Low” — QC rants, photos, counter-photos, repeat. TalkBass
12. “How Is Fender USA Quality Control Soooo Horrible?” — the sequel that kept on giving. TalkBass
13. “Best P-bass for metal? (poll!)” — a perfect storm of poll pedantry and carrots. TalkBass
14. “Issues w same-sex (gay) wedding gigs” — predictably volatile gig-ethics thread. TalkBass
15. “We can’t justify paying you if…you’re going to play bass” — gig economics + dignity = fireworks. TalkBass
16. “Equal Pay Split, What Are Your Thoughts?” — band-money discourse that never lands the plane. TalkBass
17. “There’s no such thing as a ‘beginner’ bass.” — title alone guaranteed a donnybrook. TalkBass
18. “Does spending lots of coin get you a better instrument?” — value vs. vibe vs. vitriol. TalkBass
19. “Best Seymour Duncan Pickups” — derails into fake brands and broccoli; peak TB humor chaos. TalkBass
20. “What the H*** does ‘Carrots’ stand for” — meta-carrots discourse (because the bit never dies). TalkBass

(I may or may not have told chatGPT to rank them by how much of a train wreck they are.)
I love that multiple "Carrots" made the list.

@FullumMusic Thank you for this "lovingly curated" list! I am laughing just perusing the thread titles. I foresee hours more TalkBass reading to get in the way of my practice time...

 

[SDC1-ClickClack]

I don't know about Rick's Top 20 videos but can we please abolish references to "yelling at clouds"? It's more played out than "Mustang Sally".

So yelling at time-honored thread jokes (albeit clichés) is still okay then?

 

[wintremute]

So yelling at time-honored thread jokes (albeit clichés) is still okay then?

Don't worry about @bass12, he's just yelling at clouds.

 

[ryco]

Top 10 looksees are OK - usually interesting as will admit don't wade thru much new music.
Like his interviews more. Liked his theory stuff in ye olde days.

Don't care for him constantly talking about himself and if he mentions "my band, Billionaire" (who?) one more time, don't know what I'm gonna do...

 

[MrAB4003]

I'm confused. Are you saying Beato's son doesn't have perfect pitch?

Oddly, despite the prevalence of Elvis in the household my first musical memories are Cat Stevens and The Kinks.

Not at all. I am saying that his son was born with it because you cannot acquire it.

 

[bass12]

So yelling at time-honored thread jokes (albeit clichés) is still okay then?

Yes, but be sure to use all caps whenever yelling by text (just to ensure clarity).

 

[-Asdfgh-]

You all missed an essential one…
“All music that came out after I was in high school is crap”, AKA “The music that l listened to in my high school years was the only music that mattered”.

Nonsense, the cut off point is the year I turned 30.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

I don't know about Rick's Top 20 videos but can we please abolish references to "yelling at clouds"? It's more played out than "Mustang Sally".

Energetic disagreement with meteorological phenomena?

 

[-Asdfgh-]

I like Beato for the most part. I recognize, as an adult, that he has opinions that I may not agree with.

I know. I am not being entirely serious, But some of my annoyance is based on different culture - any top 20 that includes Journey leaves me baffled as Journey is virtually unknown in the UK. Ditto a one hit wonder list with Tubeway Army here as in the UK there were multiple hits. It would easily be fixed by 'Top 20 one hit wonders in the USA' as a title and my inner pedant would be quiet . I think he misses out a lot by not listening to as much British shoegaze, goth, synthpop as reggae as I did when I was a kid, but that's my personal opinion .

His long interviews are great.

They are. Although sometimes I wish he'd do a short one and a long one with the same artist.

The "what makes this song great' series is interesting.

I love those. I learn a lot from them.

His takes about the trash factor in modern music align with my own personal (52 year old) opinions.

But it was always so. In the 1980s I used to grumble about the prevalence of awful music in the charts, hence listening to a lot of the stuff listed above until I discovered prog rock and my friends started calling me "prog boy".

If I didn't like him, I would simply choose not to watch. I wouldn't go whining about how awful he is on an online forum. But that's just me.

Don't take this thread quite so seriously!

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Not at all. I am saying that his son was born with it because you cannot acquire it.

Pitch is cultural, though. A=440 is relatively recent, and in the 19th century A encompassed what today is Bb and also G#. So whilst the propensity for it may have an inherent component, the actual expression of it must to some extent be acquired.

Personally, I find some old recordings (and this isn't just ones from 1935 or something, but ones from the 1960s and 70s when tape speeds might be altered before mastering) unlistenable on some days but not others. I'm cross-dominant in terms of handedness and also stammer, and the extent of hand dominance or ability to speak fluently varies day-by-day for me, and they seem to be correlated. Perhaps my tolerance for things not recorded as A=440 varies with that too. Anecdotally, I'm more tolerant on a more right-handed day.

P.S. having hand dominance shift (even if it's only partial) is a pain in the behind some days.