Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
I really enjoyed the video of Rush's last tour and Geddy playing lots of basses. I wish he had brought along the Wal and played that one.
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I hate switching basses...who's with me?
- Thread starter JimmyM
- Start date
Only on a bass forum would anyone ever admit to swapping basses on stage just to "show off."
Show off for who? Mom?
Show off for who? Mom?
I never bring more than one. If I bring the fretless, then I'm using it on all tunes. My active basses are capable of running passive if the battery dies. I do bring spare strings and battery. I hate carrying more than I need.
Thank God for Hipshot! I've got Xtenders on all my P/PJ's...love 'em!
Hey man, I paid good money for my basses...SOMEONE should look at them! Also, it's not like nobody in the audience knows anything about guitars and basses.
Not a lot, IMHO. Swapping to and from the stand is somethng that can be practiced and perfected, much like an F1 pit stop. Depending on the type of stand and strap attachment it can be done in under 10s, which is about the time it takes for the last crash to stop ringing, the audience to abate and the lights to go up on the next number, IMHO.
Cave Puppy
"Humph Bo, he's wond!" - John Lennon
I'm done switching basses. I was bringing THREE at one point - My main bass, a tuned down bass, and an EUB. I had a switcher and had to set levels for each one ... and the packing ... and the loading ... and the practicing ... nope. I guess I'm with you.
The only time I’ve ever switched basses during a set was 20 years ago— broke the D string on my Fender P (I used to be a post-hardcore rocker lol)
The only solution was to borrow another touring bands’ bassist’s Stingray. The volume jump you mentioned is VERY REAL, the sound guy scolded me a bit after the show, that thing was three times louder than my P lol
I didn’t wanna mess with the knobs on that thing, this was before my super gearhead days so I had no idea what the 3eq controls even did at the time.
The only solution was to borrow another touring bands’ bassist’s Stingray. The volume jump you mentioned is VERY REAL, the sound guy scolded me a bit after the show, that thing was three times louder than my P lol
I didn’t wanna mess with the knobs on that thing, this was before my super gearhead days so I had no idea what the 3eq controls even did at the time.
Nope... I use just one. The bulk of my gigs have been bar gigs so my extra bass would take up the real-estate needed for the number of guitars, as I clear my throat, needed for the night. Second unless the PA is nicely dialed into the listening audience then why? Lastly no one in the audience gives a rats tail. So with that, no point in subjecting them to the environment or take a chance with the five finger discount. Festivals and concerts? Yep, I will bring a back up.
I tried switching back and forth between fretted and fretless jazz basses at a gig last month. I'm pretty sure no one but me knew. On the last song, I grabbed the wrong bass. It was just a minor disorientation that no one noticed. But if no one notices a difference, it's not really worth the added complication to me.
I’ve pretty much always brought two. A five string for most things and a drop-d or alternate tuning for some things. Have always played in originals bands with a rare cover song here and there. Usually takes about 10 seconds to switch basses and set lists are built around instrument changes for me and the guitar player(s). Used a Radial Bigshot I/O to do this, now I’m using different patches on a POD GO for the same result. Levels are the same to FOH. If one bass goes down I can play the whole set on the other.
I'd still caution that every second of dead air onstage feels like 10 seconds to a crowd that wants to dance.
First off, JimmyM, take care of yourself.
I'm on the ground level for set lists so I will write them to suit the Rick then the rest of the night is likely a 5er.
I'm on the ground level for set lists so I will write them to suit the Rick then the rest of the night is likely a 5er.
Well that's one way to handle it...write the set list yourself
I don't know...I think most people can tell if you go from a Geddy Lee sound to a James Jamerson sound
I'd bet that most audience members would likely register a different sound of bass if one changes between a P and a J, but I'm not convinced it would be much more than a subconscious realization and the only acknowledgment a bassist is likely to get would be the inevitable shout of "slappin' da BASS" while spilling their beer. However if changing basses creates a different sound and vibe which puts the bassist and band in the right artistic space to create music, then change away!
Sadly this is the truth, to some extent even when recording. Especially in a dense mix.
When a bass sounds poor in a live situation it's very often down to the engineer, a poor sounding room or amp/eq settings on stage rather than the bass itself. Even very different sounding basses like a T-bird and a Danelectro can sound surprisingly similar in the mix when the bass has been eq'ed/compressed to sit "right" in the mix. Definitely not something 99% of the audience will notice. But if you turn up for a gig with a very unusual type of bass the engineer may need a little more time to get there or maybe not get there at all. Of course you may not even want the engineer to get "there" because you WANT your bass to sound different to a P/J or whatever but that's not something you can always expect to get right unless you bring your own engineer who knows your band and your tone.
If the bass is given more room in the mix it's a different matter of course but I very often find that different basses end up sounding surprisingly similar in the context of a mix even when they sound completely different soloed. Most of the time bass is about providing a solid fundament, rather than sounding great alone. So the engineer ends up shaping different basses into a kinda similar "safe" tone. We may not like it but it's the truth.
I've given up fighting engineers (never a good idea!) so I just play it safe and bring P-basses for gigs. No surprises, everything runs smoothly and the audience is happy. It doesn't have to be a FENDER P-bass though.
I've definitely experienced this before, and gave up beating my head against the wall when having to rely on the venue's FOH engineer...in those situations I figure my job is to get the best sound and tone to the FOH board (which we ran tails to from our IEM board) and my job was done at that point.
When I was playing for artists who had their own dedicated FOH engineers, I would listen very carefully to their recommendations on what bass to play depending on the room: it was ultimately my choice but they'd suggest different basses of mine depending on what the mix sounded like out front when factoring in the room.
Possibly, but as a tangent I'd argue that the audience is much more likely to notice the visual image of the guitarist(s) changing instruments than the bass player. I'd further (respectfully) suggest that guitarists need to have the freedom to change instruments because of how near-universally picky they can be about their sound in changing venues.
