Does not having good quality basses make you not a real bass player Im 15 and have been playing about 2 years i have a sterling sub ray 4 and i can tell its low quality (made in indonesia) but i like it
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Having cheap basses
- Thread starter HalfPlayer
- Start date
Plenty of guys here are rocking squiers, low end schecters, as well as sub rays at professional gigs. The instrument doesn't make you good. You make the instrument good. If you like how it plays and sounds, that's all that matters.
Those are great basses. I've been playing for 30 years and I have one. I wish I had a bass like that when I was 15. Practice, study and playing with other musicians make you a real bass player, not your equipment. Heck, I still play a made in China Squier P Bass that cost me $50.
I like that bass too. Nothing wrong with affordable basses. Just keep getting better at it!
Friedrich
Friedrich
Your current bass is waaay better (play and sound both) than my bass at 15 yo. Plenty of good players sport inexpensive basses and make them sound great. For you, there's plenty of time for decisions like that. Just work on your playing and you will find a way to the bass (or basses) that suit you for the long run.
One of my main gigging basses is a stock Squier CV.
Like Mike Sorr said in his post above "Practice, study
and playing with other musicians make you a real bass
player."
Like Mike Sorr said in his post above "Practice, study
and playing with other musicians make you a real bass
player."
The only thing that makes you a real bass player is playing a bass and loving it. Any bass.
Play it. Love it. Tear it up. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Play it. Love it. Tear it up. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
At least you don't have a plank of wood with nails and steel wire connected to your house's AC outlet, right?
You could be worse off than you are now...
You could be worse off than you are now...
I have been playing for over 30 years, and gigging for 25 of those years. I have owned everything from cheap no-names to $2000+ basses. Right now I own a beautiful EBMM SR5 and a Squier VM Jazz V. One was over $1500 new, and the other $280. I like them both. I would never let go of the SR5, but the Squier is very capapble.
I've got some expensive ones and I have a bunch of less expensive ones. I like them all. If you're happy with your bass, that's ALL that matters! Keep playing!
The only expensive bass I have now is my upright, I'm not really playing much electric anymore but the ones I still have cost around the $700 mark (second hand). I'm actually saving to get myself a $7,000 custom upright which handles classical as well as jazz.
I've been a gigging musician for over 30 years - 10 of those were spent making money with a pair of Squier basses I didn't pay more than $100 each for... The bass you listed is a decent instrument, and definitely not a limiting factor - practice, and work with other musicians as much as you can - and you'll be good to go...
- georgetrings
- georgetrings
Having a cheap bass is a win win. If you do a gig and kill it people think you are an amazing bassist. If you have an off night and suck people think its because your playing a crappy bass.
Being average - mediocre on an expensive bass makes you look like a clown, and makes other musicians hate you out of jealousy.
Jokes aside every bass has issues, find out what yours is fix that and your golden, as others have said you make the instrument great not the other way around. I play on the same stage as guys with expensive american standards, and really expensive all tube stacks, with my 30 year old pawn shop squire i restored myself, through a 10 year old first generation Eden metro I bought off craigslist. We all have mutual respect for each other.
In my experience the only people that have something negative to say about your gear are people who arent very talented musically, and will never progress beyond their point because they see music as a competition rather than a free exchange of ideas, and self expression.
Being average - mediocre on an expensive bass makes you look like a clown, and makes other musicians hate you out of jealousy.
Jokes aside every bass has issues, find out what yours is fix that and your golden, as others have said you make the instrument great not the other way around. I play on the same stage as guys with expensive american standards, and really expensive all tube stacks, with my 30 year old pawn shop squire i restored myself, through a 10 year old first generation Eden metro I bought off craigslist. We all have mutual respect for each other.
In my experience the only people that have something negative to say about your gear are people who arent very talented musically, and will never progress beyond their point because they see music as a competition rather than a free exchange of ideas, and self expression.
those subs are nice. having lots of money to buy expensive basses doesn't make someone a good musician. i know plenty of crappy bassists with $3000 basses. cheap doesn't mean bad.
Price doesn't matter. Cheap basses are great, expensive basses are great. Just because you play a cheap bass doesn't mean you're a bad player. Likewise someone who plays expensive gear isn't always rich or a gear snob (i'm saving for a ric with a summer and half a school year's worth of money from work.)
How you play(technique and tone) and what you play(musically, note selections) make you a good musician and a good bass player. Having a good or expensive bass is icing on the cake. My back up bass for gigs is a squire affinity p bass and sometimes I'll use that as a main from time to time when I wanna switch it up. The tone I can get from it is great and that's why I play it.
My advice to you, like I told my little bro who's 15(and a bass player like his big bro, sweet) is save up the cash and get a good amp and cabinet. That will make your overall sound better by leaps and bounds before an expensive bass will.
My advice to you, like I told my little bro who's 15(and a bass player like his big bro, sweet) is save up the cash and get a good amp and cabinet. That will make your overall sound better by leaps and bounds before an expensive bass will.
Let me put it to you this way: Let's say you trade basses with Victor Wooten for a day. Is he any worse with your bass? Are you any better with his? No. I was in the same boat as you. Up until about six months ago, I'd been playing an Ibanez Gio 5. It wasn't the best, but you know what? It fit my needs, and I learned on it. That's all that matters.
