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Fact: It's not the bass

#141
Flaked Beans said:
Yeah the tone is in your fingers, now i will sell all my expensive basses and buy a nice indonesian sunburst squier jazz bass for $120 (used).

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Well, I just purchased a broken headstock new VM Squier 70's Jazz bass and I like it so much I just sold my American Special P Bass. I paid $120 for the Squier which included shipping. The repair rook me about 2 hours (and an overnight for the West System epoxy to cure).

I've had an American Deluxe Jazz in the past, so I know what a top of the line Fender a jazz should sound and feel like. The Squier has "that" feel and tone (to me...well, and my band thinks so too....).
 
#144
AudioDwebe said:
Okay, so it's my opinion. But my opinion is that the thread title is, in fact, a fact.
I've heard too many basses played by a as many bassists, ranging from a Squier to a Fodera and everything in between, that sounded both fantastic and awful. It's the player, period.
The better the player, the more he or she will be able to draw the quality out of the higher end basses. But that same person will still be able to bring a subpar bass to life. Either will sound fantastic.
Anything in the hands of someone like myself will all sound pretty much the same. Yes, a turd.
Can I get an Amen!
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I pretty much agree with this although I do think that a better bass can make any bass player sound better if the bassics (pun intended) are there.. My forsty real bass was a 78 Jazz Bass and when I got it I was not a very good bass player at all.. (not that i am all thatgreat now..) and it was always amazing and a little inspirational to me to let better bass pl;ayers have a gop at my bass when they would ask "Can I check it out?" because for me it was sort of like seeing how much work I needed to do....
 
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#145
I'm referring mostly to tone here, not skill.
Years and years of experimenting with different basses, rigs, strings, pups, hand lotion, whiskey, facial expressions etc didn't help me find the tone I was looking for nearly as much as letting the nails grow long on my picking fingers.
 
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#150
I agree to a point. I think an old Gibson EB-3 is an exception with it's varitone switch. No matter what your playing style or playing ability, you will get distinct tonal variations IMO that aren't available on other bass guitars.
 
#152
A friend of mine named Dave has some old Ping golf clubs. They're old enough that the drivers/"woods" are indeed wood. He told the golf pro at his club that he was considering getting rid of them and getting some newer clubs.

The pro took Dave's old wood driver, stepped out onto the first hole's tee box, dropped a ball and proceeded to fire it about 250 yards down the fairway. He turned, handed the club to Dave, and said "Dave, it ain't the club."

I think it's pretty obvious why that story belongs in this thread.
 
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#155
MYLOWFREQ said:
"Good sounding bass" is subjective and so is "good setup" to a certain degree. Both Billy Sheehan and James Jamerson play/played p basses, but their basses sounded different mostly because of the setup and string choice. I think Billy would sound like Billy on James' “funk machine“ and James would sound like James on Billy's "wife" although they would not appreciate the setup or string choice thus the tone of each others. James liked old flatwounds and his action high and, Billy likes roundwounds with the action low.

I think another confusion for some here is: "cheep bass" = "bad bass" and vice versa.
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Doesn't Billy Sheehan play his own signature Yamaha bass?
 

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