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I need some enlightenment

#22
Falsepuppet said:
Nice post btw c'thulhu.
Yeah I got some thick skin no worries. I assume that by reading your post that metal bassist arent as well regarded as others? "Not another one" is your wording.
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Well, try to start a thread with the title: "What's the best bass for metal?" ;)


There might be some negative views coming toward metal bassists coming from non-metal bassists.
But on this forum this is not actually the case.
Someone who is not into metal can respect and appreciate a certain metal bassists technique, energy or tone.


I think the bigger problem is the metal scene itself.
Most non-musician metalheads don't know or even care what the bass does. :hmm:
Take for example funk or jazz, where the bass gets more spotlight. Those bassist get a lot more praise from jazz lovers.

If you go to a metal festival, and ask someone in the crowd at random to name 5 metal bassists, they probably can only name 3.
1) the bassist of the band of whatever T-shirt they're wearing
2) Steve Harris
3) Lemmy (if he's considered metal.. but they'll know him)

Ask the same question to a non-musician who is into jazz (about jazz bassists), he can probably name 10 and even categorize the into double bassist and electric bassists.
 
#23
good point.
IMO (lol) metal bassist should know Cliff Burton, after all who better suited to play thrash than someone you can shred equal or better then the lead guitarist? Not saying all I do is shred becuase being in a Progessive band (dream theater style) I have to be able to play similar to John Myung. Your absolutely right about funk or jazz though, its much more bass oriented.
 
#24
True dat!

I'm not a metal player. Although I'm studying jazz at the conservatory, I'd like to call myself an 'all-rounder', but what you say about how much focus an instrument gets in a certain genre seems to be generally true. As a musician, I try to pay attention to all the musicians, as well as to the bigger whole (the sound of the band in total).
I don't have a negative view on metal players. I actually think it's interesting to see them play (while wearing a nice set of ear-plugs ;)).
 
#25
Falsepuppet said:
good point.
IMO (lol) metal bassist should know Cliff Burton, after all who better suited to play thrash than someone you can shred equal or better then the lead guitarist? Not saying all I do is shred becuase being in a Progessive band (dream theater style) I have to be able to play similar to John Myung. Your absolutely right about funk or jazz though, its much more bass oriented.
Click to expand...

Cliff Burton is the reason I picked up bass.
Me and two friends wanted to start a metal band. A power trio.
One guy was already learning guitar.
I was always sort of a non-conformist, and found guitar a bit too comon.
Cliff Burton inspired me that you can really go places with your bass in metal.
I was the only one with some musical experience at the time (played clarinet before that) and the guitarist wasn't interested in solos and lead guitar.
So I played lead on bass.
And loved it.

But other musicians (guitarists) we knew were pressuring me into learing guitar and become a regular guitarist.
And I played with the idea.
But then I discovered fretless bass.
And it still is my favourite instrument to play.


Cliff Burton isn't much of an inspiration to me these days, but I'll always respect him... more as the musical mastermind behind Metallicas golden era.

My main influence now is Markus Grosskopf from Helloween.
A very good musical and technical bassist.

Musicfreak1988 said:
True dat!

I'm not a metal player. Although I'm studying jazz at the conservatory, I'd like to call myself an 'all-rounder', but what you say about how much focus an instrument gets in a certain genre seems to be generally true. As a musician, I try to pay attention to all the musicians, as well as to the bigger whole (the sound of the band in total).
I don't have a negative view on metal players. I actually think it's interesting to see them play (while wearing a nice set of ear-plugs ;)).
Click to expand...

:D

I made such a mistake once.
I went to see Hamerfall perform. I thought: well this is a nice spot close to the stage, why isn't anyone else standing here?
I had hearing problems for 4 days by standing in front of an enormous array of speakers... but it was worth it. :D


I don't consider myself an all-rounder bassist.
I can't play a funk line or goove to safe my life.

I think of myself as an instrumentalist, my weapon of choice is a bass guitar.

I do appreciate the work of very skilled bassists in other genres that I play. I just don't aspire to do the same.
 
#26
I try to become an "all-rounder" but slap pop like victor wooten does is so hard, and the idea of double thumbing still eludes me. Burton style is what I picked up the fastest with triples and whatnot, but im still 2-4 years behind where he was on kill 'em all. but i practice for it everyday :)
I think me and you have a lot in common c'thulhu, which is either good for me or bad for you :)
 
#27
Most of my basses have been active but every I time hear someone who knows what their doing givin er on a Jazz bass the tone is so perfect. Its weird, from playing active basses for so long I always seem to have trouble getting the tone I want out of a passive jazz bass whenever I pick one up. But when I listen to someone else play one it always sounds awesome.
 
#29
Exophysical said:
Most of my basses have been active but every I time hear someone who knows what their doing givin er on a Jazz bass the tone is so perfect.
Click to expand...

Definitely. I always hated playing Fenders. I got my playing start in the mid 70's, and when I picked up other people's Fenders, they always felt terrible to me. I hated the shape of the necks and the tone sounded unrefined and clanky to me. I liked active electronics, Bartolinis, neck-through construction, etc.

But... Whenever I heard a really good live band, the Fender sound worked really really well. In fact whenever I saw a bassist switch between a Fender and a more modern design bass, I always preferred the Fender tone.

I still don't like the feel of most Fenders, they (not all, but many) feel like bolted-together hunks of wood to me, rather than a real crafted musical instrument. But I've learned that they work really well in the mix.

I think part of why people use Fenders is that the Fender sound was instrumental in defining the sound of what people expect out of many genres. Drums, guitars, mix engineers, etc. have shaped their ears and expectations for a band sound based on the Fender tones. Naturally Fenders sound better in a Fender-friendly mix.

I have a pretty nice Fender: my MIA 62 Reissue Jazz. It sounds really good, but I still play my Sadowsky 99.99% of the time because it feels SO much better. It is a little too refined sounding sometimes, doesn't have quite the same low mid presence that the Fender does, but it's a joy to play.

I'm rambling and I'll stop now... :cool:
 

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