"I really like your bass!"

[Lance Bunyon]

Band had a really good outing in Catawba NC last night. About 50 patrons, and a table of locals who literally danced the night away.
I decided to bring my Bongo 5 for the simple reason that it cuts through the IEM system better than any of my other basses.
It's a sparkle finish called "Harvest Orange" and I threw on an aftermarket pickguard in purple pearloid.

The proverbial "I have three classic Les Paul Customs at home" dude was there drooling over my bass.
"Dude I love your bass!".
Now, we gave the performance of the year busting into improvs in strange and unusual places. Our vocals were spot on. The booty shaking was epic (if booty over 45 can BE epic lol).

Here's where I take umbrage. The bass didn't play itself. I used to experience this phenomenon when I gigged my early Ken Smith 30 years ago. The bass got so much attention they neglected to realize it didn't play itself.

I'm thinking of putting together a sleeper parts bass that's ugly.as hell and sings like an angel.
Now, Metal Vegas (that's the Bongos name) is a very polarizing look...some probably go to the bathroom and vomit! But it's definitely not a sleeper.
Anyone ever have a bass so sparkly it outshined your playing?

 

[gregmon79]

IMHO, we should be lucky we get attention of any sort as the bassist! haha I'd take it as it came.

My band used to gig in the city quite a bit a few years back. Most the time it was a lot of the same regulars that came out to see us. So they were pretty familiar with our original music. Anyway, the last gig we played was an "acoustic" set where the guitar was acoustic, the drums were played with brushes and I just plugged right into my amp with a clean preamp in between. Played the show, went pretty good. But when we were done, I had a couple of our regulars come up to me and say "I didn't realize that was the bass in those parts!! That is so awesome!"... While I basked in the compliments, it was somewhat of a bummer that they JUST heard me in all this time. So in the end, all those gigs we played, all the songs all our friends came out to see and hear and knew, all the times they heard them, some of them didn't even realize what I/the bass was doing. I didn't take offense. But it does make you realize that most can't even tell what's doing what in the songs they are hearing.

So just having someone come up and sweat your gear a little, I'd take that all day. But I do get your point.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

IMHO, we should be lucky we get attention of any sort as the bassist! haha I'd take it as it came.

My band used to gig in the city quite a bit a few years back. Most the time it was a lot of the same regulars that came out to see us. So they were pretty familiar with our original music. Anyway, the last gig we played was an "acoustic" set where the guitar was acoustic, the drums were played with brushes and I just plugged right into my amp with a clean preamp in between. Played the show, went pretty good. But when we were done, I had a couple of our regulars come up to me and say "I didn't realize that was the bass in those parts!! That is so awesome!"... While I basked in the compliments, it was somewhat of a bummer that they JUST heard me in all this time. So in the end, all those gigs we played, all the songs all our friends came out to see and hear and knew, all the times they heard them, some of them didn't even realize what I/the bass was doing. I didn't take offense. But it does make you realize that most can't even tell what's doing what in the songs they are hearing.

So just having someone come up and sweat your gear a little, I'd take that all day. But I do get your point.

Dude you're spot on! I'm not used to getting ANY attention for my bass playing. I'm a better singer than our frontman so I get some girly looks (even at 58, fewer and fewer all the time lol).
But yeah, you're right. Bass players are invisible. Even the dancers are relatively unaware of how we move the booty.

Except for the super odd female bass groupie. Oh boy I have stories! Stranger than drum groupies...

 

[gregmon79]

Dude you're spot on! I'm not used to getting ANY attention for my bass playing. I'm a better singer than our frontman so I get some girly looks (even at 58, fewer and fewer all the time lol).
But yeah, you're right. Bass players are invisible. Even the dancers are relatively unaware of how we move the booty.

Except for the super odd female bass groupie. Oh boy I have stories! Stranger than drum groupies...

Aaahahhhhahahaha the "bass groupie" got me because that is so true. There's always one or two that you come across that just have it for the bassist. Hey, IME, I'll take it

 

[five7]

I had a EB sterling 5 HH stealth years ago. Playing it at Hermans here in Denver. A patron comes up to the stage and tells me it is the sexiest thing on stage. The singer in my band was a 22 year old that was hot. The comment caught me off guard.

 

[TK1820]

Been there. I am an orchestral player and play on an 1820 Thomas Kennedy. The number of times people have said "that bass sounds great" is beyond count. I have heard this bass sound terrible in less than capable hands. The player is a huge portion of the sound that comes out of an instrument, any instrument. But a compliment is a compliment, so I'm nice and say thank you...

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Been there. I am an orchestral player and play on an 1820 Thomas Kennedy. The number of times people have said "that bass sounds great" is beyond count. I have heard this bass sound terrible in less than capable hands. The player is a huge portion of the sound that comes out of an instrument, any instrument. But a compliment is a compliment, so I'm nice and say thank you...View attachment 6991589

I bet that bass sounds great when YOU play it.
She is purdy tho!

 

[booch29]

Band had a really good outing in Catawba NC last night. About 50 patrons, and a table of locals who literally danced the night away.
I decided to bring my Bongo 5 for the simple reason that it cuts through the IEM system better than any of my other basses.
It's a sparkle finish called "Harvest Orange" and I threw on an aftermarket pickguard in purple pearloid.

The proverbial "I have three classic Les Paul Customs at home" dude was there drooling over my bass.
"Dude I love your bass!".
Now, we gave the performance of the year busting into improvs in strange and unusual places. Our vocals were spot on. The booty shaking was epic (if booty over 45 can BE epic lol).

Here's where I take umbrage. The bass didn't play itself. I used to experience this phenomenon when I gigged my early Ken Smith 30 years ago. The bass got so much attention they neglected to realize it didn't play itself.

I'm thinking of putting together a sleeper parts bass that's ugly.as hell and sings like an angel.
Now, Metal Vegas (that's the Bongos name) is a very polarizing look...some probably go to the bathroom and vomit! But it's definitely not a sleeper.
Anyone ever have a bass so sparkly it outshined your playing?

Pics of the bass or it didn't happen

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Pics of the bass or it didn't happen

Meet "Metal Vegas"...

 

[smeet]

Sometimes people tell me my bass is beautiful and I’m all “that bass didn’t bring sexy back on its own ya know”.

 

[kesslari]

I play a beautiful bass, on a stand, and the bass and the stand get most of the attention. When someone says (and at gigs, someone usually says) "your bass sounds great!" I use great restraint to not say "funny, when I'm not playing it it doesn't make a sound!". Mostly I use restraint, anyway

 

[wysiwyg248]

Anyone ever have a bass so sparkly it outshined your playing?

These 4, in order of WOW are the ones people makes good comments about looks and sound.
The MTD is brutal because sounds great but can also embarass you big time if your playing is mediocre.

 

[MegaSwing]

It takes about a half-sentence to figure how much a random audience member knows about basses and bass playing. There’s nothing to be put off about. You’re playing and they’re dancing. That’s all they need to know. The bass is for YOU.

 

[joeLowB]

Funny...no such thing as bad publicity!


.

 

[Bar Band Bassman]

My EUB, my old Alembic Stanley Clarke Signature, my Michael Spalt basses, all get more action and pics than I do. I played my Dano Longhorn reissue at an outdoor festival gig once and a guy from another band said "interesting bass tone". I don't think it was a compliment... I recently got a compliment for my performance on "Right Place, Wrong Time" and another for "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch" but it's usually more like "and the bass sounded good, too", like they were giving me a pre-school participation trophy! It's all good, though. Part of the live entertainment thing. I've also been known to wear fairly flamboyant clothing. Laugh at me, laugh with me, as long as you're laughing I'm fine with it.

BBB

 

[ebo]

.

 

[megarat]

Meet "Metal Vegas"…

[*runs to the bathroom and barfs*]

(I keed, I keed ...)

 

[Killing Floor]

At least nobody asked about your giant guitar!

 

[Lance Bunyon]

[*runs to the bathroom and barfs*]

(I keed, I keed ...)

I play it, other people see it. The story is "dude finally grows up"...
Was in GC demo-ing light cabs and needed a quality bass so of course I grabbed an EBMM for quality.
Next thing you know I'm slapping and popping octaves at metal speeds and as strange as the bass looks, it sounds and FEELS like the best fretted bass I've ever known.
One of those online services bought my Prius with the blown head gasket and the rest is history!
The purple pearloid is from Pickguard Planet.
Figured...bass is already over the top, let's take it to the next level!

 

[tpaul]

Dude you're spot on! I'm not used to getting ANY attention for my bass playing. I'm a better singer than our frontman so I get some girly looks (even at 58, fewer and fewer all the time lol).
But yeah, you're right. Bass players are invisible. Even the dancers are relatively unaware of how we move the booty.

Except for the super odd female bass groupie. Oh boy I have stories! Stranger than drum groupies...

A former girlfriend told me years (ok, decades) ago that women seated on wooden barstools and chairs can feel the vibrations from the bass in their, um, nether regions.

Something to think about while you're playing...