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cheap bass=no respect

#101
Bongolation said:
The real answer is that presentation is everything, and if presentation's not absolutely everything, then it's at least disproportionately important.

The question is to whom are you pitching?

I strongly suspect that a common rat bass of universally recognized make/model probably convinces more audience members and musicians that you are better than you are, on the assumption that if you've put that many dings in a bass that old you must have played a million gigs and paid some dues and must be real. Some chewed-up old Precision ought to work. Everyone knows what it is and that's the end of it. My good basses are in the studio. Who cares about the bass player anyway?

As an aside, I can't believe you people who schmooze with other musicians at gigs. I never, ever talked to anyone when I was fronting a band unless it was an exceptionally persistent chicky who looked promising. If it was some guy, I'd just point to the earplugs and shake my head like I couldn't hear. I'd rather have a case of hives than listen to some unsolicited crap about my gig from some guy who doesn't have one of his own.

Aloofness works well as professional presentation, too.:D

Seriously.
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To each there own. I like talking to other musicians at shows. Its fun to talk to people with similar interest. Also just because a musician isn't gigging a certain night doesn't make them any less of a musician. Not everyone wants to play nightly or weekly. I know on nights we are off and if a friends band is around I will go see them. I like music so I play it, see it, talk it whenever I can.
 
#104
If anyone is bummed on me for playing my Essex or my old Fernandes J I just got, feel free to dig in your pocket and generously contribute to the "Buy Eric A "Better" Bass Fund!". LOL. I'll still play the same instruments, but my wallet will be thicker!!

As always, it's the musician not the instrument. Any of the bassists listed in my influences (except Pete..RIP) could just burn down the house on my two basses. If you can play, you can play. If you are crap and cannot groove or rock it won't matter if you spent $100 or $5000 on an instrument.
 
#105
My Squier was, and still does sound very rough around the edges. So I went and got a Fender, and the tone is incredible. I did notice the Fender kept sounding better and better as time went on (by time, I meant a year, not 20 or 30 years, and so it's not like the wood really had time to do anything). I fretlessed the Squier because it had really bad fretbuzz, and it became a cool bass to tinker with. However the sound was still harsh. Slowly, it began to sound better. Over a year and a half later it's sounding decent. Sure, the pickups aren't great, and neither is my amp, but I'm slowly coaxing a decent tone out of it. I was actually going to bring it to band practice for the first time in years. Last time I brought it, I played a few notes and just kind of packed it up because it sounded honky and dull. The tone is largely in the hands. I wouldn't agree that the hands are everything, because my Fender definitely sounds better regardless, but I definitely feel like my Squier could become a useable bass as I get better.

You can't blame people's impressions. I often feel the same way. Oftentimes it's a just assumption, but you can't seriously believe that it's black and white. Our old guitarist made an Ibanez Iceman through a Yamaha 10 watt amp sound good. It doesn't look like a great rig but it was good for him and he was (somehow) powerful enough to be heard, so he kept it. If my Squier sounds good in a band environment I think I might bring it onstage for a song or two. Musicians will definitely give me a look or two and think I'm another kid who's been playing for a month, but hopefully I can change that impression. If you can surprise someone like that, that must be a great feeling.
 
#106
I've been playing about 20 years, and with four kids and a house being the higher budget priority, I've purchased basses in the lower price range. This situation has made me rely on letting my hands and not my headstock do the talking. Between the tone-shaping tools available on amps and effects boxes in the modern day, I have not had a problem with shaping sound, either.

When playing a bar gig this year, a guy (it was our first set and he wasn't drunk) came up in front of me, got on his knees, and did the worship thing throughout groove during the beginning of Sweet Emotion on a jazz bass that had a neck from a $150 Samick, passive contols, and a body I carved myself from pieces walnut and mahogany. Priceless.

Overall I think it's more important to concentrate on raising the entertainment value you are providing to your audience, and less on the cost of your bass. If I had the bucks to spend, maybe I'd buy a piece of artwork to play. But my bass playing memories come from those hair-raising, line-nailing, and adrenaline-flowing gigs, and not from the names I've accumulated on my axes.

You can see some pics of my hacked bass at www.protegerocks.com. Check out the photos starting in June of '04, that's when I joined (it's the brown one). That's not me playing in the song downloads, by the way.
 
#107
Imagine if we were all playing Fender P-Basses and that was all there was to play. What would those people say then?

Snob: "Oh, that dude can't play for sh*t, look at what he's playing!"

Another guy: "Wait, don't you play a Fender too?"

Snob: "Hmmm, maybe that guy can play after all."
 
#110
Showdown said:
I wouldn't equate someone who owns a Squier to a hobo. And I don't respect people more because they are rich.
Click to expand...

Okay, lets change the rich person to someone like the queen.
Your walking down oxford street, really crowded, a hobo walks straight at you. You just let your shoulders barge him away.
But then the queen is in the same position. You have to move to the side.

I know its unlikely the queen will be walking down oxford street un guarded but, to prove my point.

It looks like the more expensive the bass, the more authority they have, more wise and noble they become.
 
#111
dave_clark69 said:
Put it in a different context. Your in town, you see a bloke worth 10 million, then you see a hobo with nothing more than a can of half eaten beans.
Who would you respect more?
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I know a lot of rich people and they are ******** and I have no respect for them whatsoever. Most of them I know, take advantage of people. I also know a homeless guy (hobo) who went crazy when he was in the Vietnam War.

He's basically been homeless and living on the streets since he came back.

Put in your context...I'd respect the hobo (who is there basically because he was defending my country) more than the rich guy.

So, what was your point again?
 
#112
Sundogue said:
I know a lot of rich people and they are ******** and I have no respect for them whatsoever. I also know a homeless guy (hobo) who went crazy when he was in the Vietnam War.

He's basically been homeless and living on the streets since he came back.

Put in your context...I'd respect the hobo more than the rich guy.

So, what was your point again?
Click to expand...

2 people you don't know. a homeless guy, a rich guy. You don't know their names, you dont speak their language. From just looking at them you would say the rich man has more respect.
end of!
 
#113
dave_clark69 said:
Okay, lets change the rich person to someone like the queen.
Your walking down oxford street, really crowded, a hobo walks straight at you. You just let your shoulders barge him away.
But then the queen is in the same position. You have to move to the side.

I know its unlikely the queen will be walking down oxford street un guarded but, to prove my point.

It looks like the more expensive the bass, the more authority they have, more wise and noble they become.
Click to expand...

So you don't have respect for people who have no place to live? You barge into them simply because you feel they are worthless?

You sound like Scrooge..."let them die and decrease the surplus population." You'd probably shove Jesus off the curb, huh?

Perhaps you might very well be in their shoes someday. One never knows.
 
#114
dave_clark69 said:
2 people you don't know. a homeless guy, a rich guy. You don't know their names, you dont speak their language. From just looking at them you would say the rich man has more respect.
end of!
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People have to earn my respect. I don't respect people based on what they look like or what they have. I respect them based on the kind of human beings they are.
 
#117
dave_clark69 said:
Okay, lets change the rich person to someone like the queen.
Your walking down oxford street, really crowded, a hobo walks straight at you. You just let your shoulders barge him away.
But then the queen is in the same position. You have to move to the side.

I know its unlikely the queen will be walking down oxford street un guarded but, to prove my point.

It looks like the more expensive the bass, the more authority they have, more wise and noble they become.
Click to expand...


I don't think this is a good analogy to the subject of this thread.

Are you saying that someone who can afford a boutique bass deserves more respect than someone who can't, even if they have the same skill level on bass? I will have to disagree with that. I'll judge them as bass players by their bass playing, not by how much money they have. Wealth doesn't make you a good bass player, and lack of wealth doesn't make you a bad bass player.

To use a guitar player as an example, Robert Johnson was dirt poor and earned what little money he had playing on the street. He was one of the greatest guitar players ever, and he was a lot closer to that hobo than to the rich man in your example.
 
#118
Yes, finally a good post. But what i was saying is that if you saw a band playing in a pub, average bass sound, you just walk past. If the bass player had a squire what would you think, but what if the bass player had a bouttique bass, would you think "wow he has a bouttique bass"

p.s i think this thread has got out of hand
 
#119
I was thinking about my first purchased bass, a Squier Affinity P-Bass. A couple months after I started playing it, I found this web site. I thought I had a decent bass until I started reading all the anti-Squier stuff on this site (this was 2002).

Once I had a setup done to it (prior to playing bass, Setup was an icon I double clicked when I wanted to waste 3 hours of my life (re)installing Windows ;) ) it actually sounded good!

But, I had been tainted. I needed a 'better' bass. I picked up a Schecter Stilletto Studio neck through bass which most definitely 'better'. A year or so later I sold my Squier. Now I wish I still had it, because even with the one or two issues I had with it, it still had that P-bass sound.

This taught me an important lesson (that other people seem to have learned as well). If it plays well, it doesn't matter what name is on the headstock.
 
#120
dave_clark69 said:
Yes, finally a good post. But what i was saying is that if you saw a band playing in a pub, average bass sound, you just walk past. If the bass player had a squire what would you think, but what if the bass player had a bouttique bass, would you think "wow he has a bouttique bass"

p.s i think this thread has got out of hand
Click to expand...


If he had a boutique bass but only an average sound I would think he didn't know how to get a good sound, or the soundman didn't. Or his idea of a good sound is different than mine.
 

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