• 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.

EBMM Game Changer - What Happened?

#82
David Jayne said:
I used to have this cool Guild bass with three pickups (would love to find another one). It had a Master volume and tone, and a switch for each pickup that did on/off/reverse phase. It was neat but there were maybe four possible switch combinations that were actually useful.
Click to expand...
Interesting to read this just now. Yesterday I finally got to check out a Fender American Dimension Deluxe V HH, and was quite underwhelmed with the tonal variety on tap (disregarding the EQ for the moment); for me, there were 2 useful positions of the 5 selector switch settings, otherwise they sounds extremely close to one another.
 
#83
bassbenj said:
This is a great "game changer" idea. What with current "nano dongle" technology all it'd be is a thing that looks like a normal guitar cable plug but with no wire coming out of it. You just plug it into the bass and it begins transmitting to your headset. China could turn them out cheap by the millions.
Click to expand...
The lag in Bluetooth would be noticeable between string strike and hearing unfortunately.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pbassmanca
#86
This is the EB version of the 'Yamaha Syndrome': Hang in LA with all the serious studio technical types, get immersed in that world (and it is seductive), and come out with products that are hatched in that heady environment . . . . . that ultimately will only sell to . . . . those serious studio technical types, and the dealers at NAMM who got SO drunk out at night with the rep they had to step up . . . . .

What I do think will happen will be similar to one of Yamaha's greatest hits. In the 70's and early 80's, synths began making serious inroads as they progressed away from the big modular Moog or Roland rigs, or the more common mono- or duophonic keyboards with lots and lots of knobs. Things like the Oberheims or Prophets or Roland Jupiters were now the standard. Along comes Yamaha with the DX7. The voices were a revelation, built upon FM technology, but the real 'game changer': No Knobs. All presets with a volume, bender wheel, not much else. You selected a preset, played it, done. You no longer had to be Keith Emerson's roadie to get even a basic sound anymore.

I think over time, bass amps, and ultimately bass guitars will move this way in some form or another. We are already up to our ass in EQ, both on the axes and then the amps, to where it's harder to find the good stuff, and all too easy to instantly dial up mud or a mandolin. Then add in effects loop and a lot of guys signal chain, and it's too, too easy to wind up in the sonic weeds. I do not think it will be long at all before we begin seeing Kemper Profiler-type bass rigs as you can already find for guitar. Let's see . . . . ahhh, here's that Carol Kaye preset . . . .
 
  • Like
Reactions: wmmj, mpdd, Nomogram and 1 other person
#89
Upon reflection, I don't mean to sound snarky about EBMM. I think they've done a remarkable job of broadening their product range without losing their 'MusicMan-ness', if you will. Sterling Ball and his crew are not to be underestimated, and they've done a great job with a former Leo Fender business.

It may have ben developed in-house, but then again, designers are all over the business, and it may very well have been an outside design that impressed EBMM to take a chance on putting it on the market. The genesis of these things rarely becomes public, but you never know.

For me personally, the neckthru option is far more desirable: I honestly think that a traditional single humbucker StingRay Five in the neckthru variety is all the bass I'd ever need. The SR5 was the first real, no compromise five-string that just worked, straight out of the box, and its' continued success as a benchmark is tribute to how 'right' they got it (though I do still wish it included the phantom hum-canceller) from jump street.
 
#92
mpdd said:
maybe this is what lead to the cutlass and the kiloton being more simple and straightforward
Click to expand...

The Cutlass was discontinued and the kiloton is a G&L product. I think the 3 pickup Big Al (Also discontinued) would be a better replacement for the game changer. I played a game changer when they came out and thought that there was very little time difference to bother with one. The HH and HS Stingray and Sterling models do 90% of it with no external programs needed.
 
#93
MultiScaleMale said:
The Cutlass was discontinued and the kiloton is a G&L product. I think the 3 pickup Big Al (Also discontinued) would be a better replacement for the game changer. I played a game changer when they came out and thought that there was very little time difference to bother with one. The HH and HS Stingray and Sterling models do 90% of it with no external programs needed.
Click to expand...

I was referring to the simplicity of the p bass cutlass and the g&l kiloton which are oddly meat and potatoes compared to the previous game changer and the M2000, guess I should have made that clear that I was noticing maybe a trend.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RichSnyder
#97
IIRC, no guns were put to any bass players heads to pony up cash for the "Gamechanger"
If you were interested, buy away! Obviously, many were NOT.

There was a lot of pre-release hype, and it was way over-done IMO. Tax-write off or something now, whoever sold the idea to Big Poppa, unless it was Sterling himself, may now be on floor-sweeping detail in San Luis O. Or not- I recall a thread devoted to GC on their Forum, with ?'s answered by engineering of same.
Whatever, it was a flop- I would have told them that, but who am I?:roflmao: (Actually I'm pretty savvy!)

However, Please give a round of applause for them at least trying to push forward the bass frontiers-
EG:
Bongo- IMO, YMMV, etc- that is a success despite the tired you-know-what jokes. They had Balls (pun intended) releasing that, mine is so fine, it will hurt your Spine. Believe it.
Plus, along with the new passive basses, they craft nice instruments in the beautiful Central Cali coast.
 
  • Like
Reactions: wmmj

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back