One man's boring is another mans pretty.
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Do most pros use boring color basses?
- Thread starter darwin-bass
- Start date
Personal preference in the end.
A lot of famous japanese famous bassists have zany designs/colors.
I myself use a honey flamed maple top lakland or my edwards pink flame maple top lakland copy when i am gigging. Great sounding gear and looks great in the photos!
A lot of famous japanese famous bassists have zany designs/colors.
I myself use a honey flamed maple top lakland or my edwards pink flame maple top lakland copy when i am gigging. Great sounding gear and looks great in the photos!
I think about this a lot. It's important to not look like a fool. If you have some 8 string coffee table, or a pink sparkle jaguar, you better be good or at least be cool. Nikki Sixx and Gene Simmons are horrible players, buffoons really, but they always played loud looking instruments, it worked for them. Mono plays crazy stuff but he is crazy and he's exceptionally gifted.
On the other hand, I got one of those Sparkle stingrays, because I loved the color, and sometimes I wonder if it was the right call. People seem to like it. I probably wouldn't take it on a Sinatra lounge gig, but I am taking it to a jazz jam tonight....
On the other hand, I got one of those Sparkle stingrays, because I loved the color, and sometimes I wonder if it was the right call. People seem to like it. I probably wouldn't take it on a Sinatra lounge gig, but I am taking it to a jazz jam tonight....
Play what YOU like and LIKE what you play !!!
Interesting topic.
I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't like schemes that are too drab, but I also don't want some crazy in-your-face thing that might actually distract from the singer. Especially when it's a vanity project.
I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't like schemes that are too drab, but I also don't want some crazy in-your-face thing that might actually distract from the singer. Especially when it's a vanity project.
My basses (well except one) are natural wood finishes, which generally fad into the background - for the gigs I do, that works well. The singers are up front, we're in the back, almost invisible - the key issue I have with lighting is making sure my position markers are visible.
If you're trying to be flashy, white always sticks out - it looks red under red lighting, blue under blue lighting, etc. By the way, mint, parchment and other off whites just look white under stage lighting - there's no point to subtlety in having something just a bit off white.
Other colors - red, blue, green, - they look fine under white light, but under colored light, you can disappear. Why aren't there a lot of pros playing basses with pastels or certain colors? Because they don't look good under certain kinds of light. If you're the person with your name on the Marquee, you can play whatever color instrument you like - the Tech folks will make that look good - that's their job. But if you're a hired gun, and the boss tells you to play a white bass, you play a white bass..
If you're trying to be flashy, white always sticks out - it looks red under red lighting, blue under blue lighting, etc. By the way, mint, parchment and other off whites just look white under stage lighting - there's no point to subtlety in having something just a bit off white.
Other colors - red, blue, green, - they look fine under white light, but under colored light, you can disappear. Why aren't there a lot of pros playing basses with pastels or certain colors? Because they don't look good under certain kinds of light. If you're the person with your name on the Marquee, you can play whatever color instrument you like - the Tech folks will make that look good - that's their job. But if you're a hired gun, and the boss tells you to play a white bass, you play a white bass..
Well, sunburst and to a lesser extent black and white were the standard available Fender colours for decades. Anything else you had to order and pay extra for. And of course they were the 800 pound gorilla of the bass world for literally decades. Probably still are.
Guy Pratt's copper Jazz in support of David Gilmour or someone else playing a plain looking guitar is starting to push the visual boundary.
Same with Jack Bruce's fretless Thumb playing alongside Clapton.
When I watched Paul Revere and the Raiders on TV as a kid, despite Paul and Mark Lindsay's big stage presence, I was fixated on Fang's Vox Phantom.
But hey, at least it was white.
Maybe the most jarring appearance was Phil Lesh playing his custom Ritter 6 string.
But hey, at least it was black.
Same with Jack Bruce's fretless Thumb playing alongside Clapton.
When I watched Paul Revere and the Raiders on TV as a kid, despite Paul and Mark Lindsay's big stage presence, I was fixated on Fang's Vox Phantom.
But hey, at least it was white.
Maybe the most jarring appearance was Phil Lesh playing his custom Ritter 6 string.
But hey, at least it was black.
In my own life, flashy colors seem to be the less.
Other than cheaper instruments, custom made, and Ibanez I feel like brands do not offer much more than basic and some slightly more brighter colors. Heck its the same with cars, Honda doesn't do any cool bright jellybean colors anymore. I miss the blazing orange civic... maybe it'll come back.
I love bright or cool patterns like Ibanez. Other than that I just let the pickguard speak and some genres it works. Surfing band I always think blue or teal for example. But a Hello Kitty bass is also a nice touch!
Other than cheaper instruments, custom made, and Ibanez I feel like brands do not offer much more than basic and some slightly more brighter colors. Heck its the same with cars, Honda doesn't do any cool bright jellybean colors anymore. I miss the blazing orange civic... maybe it'll come back.
I love bright or cool patterns like Ibanez. Other than that I just let the pickguard speak and some genres it works. Surfing band I always think blue or teal for example. But a Hello Kitty bass is also a nice touch!
Smooth_bass88
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- Oct 31, 2006
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Jaco, Jamerson and John Paul Jones only needed sunburst
when i played music for a living:
- i thought i was cool for playing an ax that blended into anything: black or dark 'natural'/stained finishes.
- that look might have been cool only in my neighborhood.
now that i'm way old:
- sky's the limit!
my most 'extreme' example:
and some other colorful (for me) examples: 
of course, they could all be painted black at a moment's notice...and i could be sentimental over something that simple, dark, but formal, color scheme...
- i thought i was cool for playing an ax that blended into anything: black or dark 'natural'/stained finishes.
- that look might have been cool only in my neighborhood.
now that i'm way old:
- sky's the limit!
my most 'extreme' example:
and some other colorful (for me) examples: of course, they could all be painted black at a moment's notice...and i could be sentimental over something that simple, dark, but formal, color scheme...Do most pros use boring color basses?
...so i voted, "yes."
My bass teacher's 1965 Coral Pink Jazz was memorable in the day. But when he toured as an MD, the dinged and scratched Fender got resprayed black with no pickguard. Others have mentioned the need to not distract from the artist. My church bass has a dark brown body, dark rosewood neck with the white face dots blacked out since on livestream I'm right behind the vocalists. Less is more.
My Fenders have mostly been antique white. I like the way it looks and stands out under stage lights. I typically wear darker colours, and the white stands out against it.
I one that's shell pink, and it looks white under stage lights. Wouldn't be surprised if some of the other lighter colours did that.
I don't like black (and similar) because it shows greasy smears and finger prints under stage lights, plus it blends in with my clothing and backline.
I've never had to blend in, but I think colours like tobacco burst might be popular because it's subdued and it doesn't show the smears when you're sweating all over it.
When I made the jump to Spector I could only afford used, so I took whatever colour they came in.
My trans blue flame maple one doesn't really stand out under the lights. The OP refers to white as boring, but I'd call blue boring because it doesn't pop. White pops like a MF'er.
On the other hand, I have a trans red flame maple one that looks wild under the lights. I'd totally do this colour again.
I one that's shell pink, and it looks white under stage lights. Wouldn't be surprised if some of the other lighter colours did that.
I don't like black (and similar) because it shows greasy smears and finger prints under stage lights, plus it blends in with my clothing and backline.
I've never had to blend in, but I think colours like tobacco burst might be popular because it's subdued and it doesn't show the smears when you're sweating all over it.
When I made the jump to Spector I could only afford used, so I took whatever colour they came in.
My trans blue flame maple one doesn't really stand out under the lights. The OP refers to white as boring, but I'd call blue boring because it doesn't pop. White pops like a MF'er.
On the other hand, I have a trans red flame maple one that looks wild under the lights. I'd totally do this colour again.
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This should be a poll, no? Or are we just accepting this as an undisputable fact? Plenty of pro bass players use basses that aren't sunburst or black.
When it comes to aesthetics, it's all personal opinion........ I've never been drawn towards anything sunburst. To me they just scream "old fashioned"..... and I'm 55 years old.
It's getting a little late in the day for this kind of gig, but if I could work the gentleman's club circuit, I'd want one of these. DiPinto Belvedere. Move to Atlanta, get me a condo on the Buford Highway, Play 3 nights a week at the Clermont Lounge. The more I think about it, the more I want to do it.
PS: One person's boring is another person's playing it safe, for a reason. Usually money.
PS: One person's boring is another person's playing it safe, for a reason. Usually money.
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Is it about the bass matching the clothes or vice-versa?
I don’t like sunburst, tobacco burst, really any kind of burst.
Most of my basses were wood tones with dark fingerboards.
I just got a custom Roscoe in transparent green with an ebony fingerboard and I love it, but under some lighting it changes color in odd ways.
Most of my basses were wood tones with dark fingerboards.
I just got a custom Roscoe in transparent green with an ebony fingerboard and I love it, but under some lighting it changes color in odd ways.
All good examples except Jack Bruce's Thumb bass. Anyone who's not a bassist would think it was drab compared to the black-and-white Strat.
Reminds me of talking on and on with my friend Paul about the Cream concert we'd seen the previous night, back in 1968. Paul's sister, who had also been there, interrupted while we were discussing some fine point about Jack Bruce's improvising and asked "Was he the red guitar guy?"
I agree with you on the tobacco burst. They seem to be somewhat rare these days and are like the sunburst’s cool cousin.
