Do you take your valuable basses to gigs?

[fjadams]

This is a good point, but the counter is that upright basses are REALLY hard to steal. (just like fat people are hard to kidnap) Electric basses and guitars are easier to sling over the shoulder in a case and look natural walking with.



Most of the time I feel secure though unless the environment is bad. But I always wondered what I would do if I had in instrument that LOOKS valuable. In what kind of venues would you guys feel comfortable playing this bass?

Holiday Inn lounge?

 

[Son of Wobble]

Kenny is a good hearted guy who has a sense of humor about himself.

It was indeed lazy writing for me to play off the "Kenny G sucks" trope which as you point out he has been saddled with throughout his career yet managed to transcend with humor and grace.

Additional anecdotal memories from my father, who tutored Kenny's kid some years ago at their home: Pop says Kenny was as gracious as could be, and treated him like an important and welcome guest rather than the bit player he in fact was. Sounds like a great guy.

 

[bassbenj]

I saw Kenny G a couple years ago, and he did a bit where he gave away one of his Kenny G soprano saxes and played a song on it before giving it to the gal who won. Sounded like crap compared to his old Selmer. Reedy and thin compared to the Selmer. Sometimes you can tell the difference, and the difference was striking in that case.

I kind of agree with you because I care what I play, but then again I don't because I find quality in electric basses of all price ranges, and I'm as liable to play a $200 bass as a $1000 bass.

Boomie and I agree on this one. Tone is where you find it. Sometimes you have to pay vast sums to get the tone you want. Other times you can find it in two nails and baling wire on the side of a barn. (Or Radio Shack bass!)

People like to think that if you paid a lot of cash it makes whatever you bought "better" than something cheap or free. But that is not true. Each just does what it does. The only question is what do YOU want it to do.

 

[Son of Wobble]

Tone is where you find it.

Truth in five words, there.
My studio pal Slanders can get the most amazing tones
out of the cheapest guitars and pedals. Whatever the gizmo, he can find the sweet spot. Of course, this tends to be more consistently achievable with overdriven tones. Which is to say, hard to make a ten dollar thrift store acoustic guitar sound as full, rich and complex as a high-end Martin. But a cat like Slanders -- or a Jack White -- will still find the sweet spot that makes the instrument sound like a singularly-voiced beater and fashion a blues around it which works splendidly for that specific TONE.

 

[JimmyM]

It was indeed lazy writing for me to play off the "Kenny G sucks" trope which as you point out he has been saddled with throughout his career yet managed to transcend with humor and grace.

Additional anecdotal memories from my father, who tutored Kenny's kid some years ago at their home: Pop says Kenny was as gracious as could be, and treated him like an important and welcome guest rather than the bit player he in fact was. Sounds like a great guy.

Hey, no problem, bro. I just think Kenny gets so brutally attacked by people for making the music he chooses to make that I kind of feel bad for him, even as he makes millions

 

[bigmoosepi]

And a bass CAN be art in and of itself.

who remembers this?