Get your bets in - bass fads in 2006

Inlayed wood faux pickguards.

 

Karrot-x will win a million dollars and buy many bassi.

 

my predictions for 2006...

Ibanez will re-issue a revamped ATK.

Maton will again offer a line of bass guitars.

Cole Clark, in competition with Maton will follow suit.

EUB's will see a huge surgance into popular music and everyone will jump on the bandwagon and want to become upright bassists.

Hambone will have at least 3 patents filed in his name.

sustainable forest woods will become more and more popular.

Rickenbacker will offer a 5 string version of the 4003.

 

Well built cheap basses will rule the roost, causing some of the most highend builders to offer econos.

 

Quick-exchange, interchangeable pickups that are are connected by poles, not by wires and are held into place by magnets. The pickups themselves will exist in varying configurations, but within the same size dimensions.

(Okay, I can dream, can't I?)

 

- Music man will try a 6-string version and either plummet, or sky rocket

- Fanned Frets will become mainstream

- Along with fretless's (fretli?)

- Rap will finally die out (Just Wishful Thinking )

Mark Wilson

 

I think more people will jump on the fretless bandwagon, if not upright.

Solid colors will make a return as long with vintage and vintage reissues.

White is the new black...hopefully

 

-Warwick will drop "the sound of wood" as their slogan and change it to 'pile drivingly heavy growl in every bass".
-Lakland Skylines will only come in one type of finish.. hot pink paper mache.
-Fender will reissue the "original" slab bass, being a square wooden slab with a fender P neck. Available with JJ, P, PJ and JJx2 pickup configs, but only available in paisley
-Bongos will be available with a new metallic finish, and a blue liquid filled pickguard. This option will be called "airline bathroom".
-Whafrodamus will recieve a signature model made by Wishbass. This will be the single most expensive wishbass ever sold on ebay.
-The bass keytar will be released by yamaha. It will have a "root selector" knob, and two keys. One for the root, and the other for the 5th.
-Someone will have the bright idea of making "stick on" fake exotic tops for the P and J basses. For all those kids who have an SX and want a splated top, now they can have one!

 

HAHAHA...i love the "airline bathroom bongo" and the fake spalted top SX...BRILLIANT!

the "bass keytar" idea is pretty funny, too...

will your signature wishbass come in a fro-lined case

 

I think SX will get more popular once they come out with a new awesome 6 string bass design that will blow the competition out of the water

 

In 2006 the 4 string will make a ferocious comeback as pop music moves to Old School musicianship.

 

The new trend in 2006 will be basses with a built-in USB interface, to plug right in to your computer with no interface, a-la the Neumann digital mic. By fall of 2006 they'll have built-in DSP and an optional Firewire upgrade.


Bass amps with digital effects will feature internet-upgradable plugin software, and ship with Cubase LE, 40 gigs of drum loops, and offer 8 channels in and 12 out, although they'll still only have two physical inputs and a USB port in back.

 

I can definitely see more complex electronics entering the market. That and maybe a naturally finished bongo.

 

I predict that forum posters will continue to feel clever by somehow managing to relate George W. Bush to any possible thread topic, regardless of relevance.

 

I definately see an increased interest in fretless basses. I'm going to say more pick players. Maybe more boutique t-bird designs, if somebody out there made a mix between an RD and a Thunderbird, I would be pumped. Those new dual pickup Musicman basses are going to be huge.

 

That's one of my hopes too - that more luthiers will start incorporating those modular on-board preamp dealies, and pickups too. Just think of how sweet it would be to be able to just swap the pickups and preamp out of your favorite bass inbetween songs on a gig for a vastly different sound on the same bass

 

As digital cameras go cheaper, more independant luthiers' basses
will be pictured and posted on Talkbass, and in turn, more people
will be suffering from GAS than ever before.

 

- Nino will invest in a carpet to take pictures of his basses on, just so the backs of the basses don't get scratched.

 

Looks like they may have already done the stick on "exotic" tops at Rondo, don't think you'd get real spalted maple on a $200 guitar:

http://www.rondomusic.net/al2000spalted.html

Wonder how long it takes for these to show up on the SX's?

Shawn