I am responding to an attitude I see prevelant in our society and all over this message board and in my daily job. I actually was on your side...I thought folks were reading too much into your post and assuming way too much....kinda like you are doing with mine....lol.
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I think I stop believing in expensive basses!
- Thread starter FunkyMan
- Start date
- Status
The story about the kid who couldn't play well but was given two Alembics reminded me of something I witnessed a couple months ago.
My kid's high school had a talent show. My kid brought his guitar and a 30W Peavey amp. As he was setting up I noticed a Marshall stack with an 8X10, a 4X10, and a huge head of unknown wattage. I figured my kid was bringing slingshot to a gunfight. Then I noticed next to the Marshall stack was a MarkBass stack, with two 2X10s exactly like my one MarkBass 102P, a 1X15, and 102P combo just like mine. There was also a Little Mark at the top of this whole stack, so I figured the bassist was gonna be running something in stereo, since he had the combo and the Little Mark to run into. Lining up to be a guitarist / bassist stand-off.
Get through to the last couple acts and I've yet to see who the guitarist playing this massive rig would be or who this apparently monster bassist would be. They announce the name of the bassist who will come and play "Amazing Grace". Guy comes out first with this huge thing that looks like a keyboard or organ pedalboard, and plugs it in. Leaves the stage.....comes back with another more typical, but large, pedalboard and plugs it in. Leaves the stage.......comes back with a really sweet Ric (and I'm not partial to Rics, but this one was sweet).....
PLUGS IT INTO BOTH STACKS!!!!! His playing was okay, but not my cup o' tea. Way too much distortion for my taste. And way too loud for the venue. I remember thinking then that going forward I would STRONGLY resist the temptation to allow my kids to take any of my high end basses or my MarkBass rig to small events like this.
My kid's high school had a talent show. My kid brought his guitar and a 30W Peavey amp. As he was setting up I noticed a Marshall stack with an 8X10, a 4X10, and a huge head of unknown wattage. I figured my kid was bringing slingshot to a gunfight. Then I noticed next to the Marshall stack was a MarkBass stack, with two 2X10s exactly like my one MarkBass 102P, a 1X15, and 102P combo just like mine. There was also a Little Mark at the top of this whole stack, so I figured the bassist was gonna be running something in stereo, since he had the combo and the Little Mark to run into. Lining up to be a guitarist / bassist stand-off.
Get through to the last couple acts and I've yet to see who the guitarist playing this massive rig would be or who this apparently monster bassist would be. They announce the name of the bassist who will come and play "Amazing Grace". Guy comes out first with this huge thing that looks like a keyboard or organ pedalboard, and plugs it in. Leaves the stage.....comes back with another more typical, but large, pedalboard and plugs it in. Leaves the stage.......comes back with a really sweet Ric (and I'm not partial to Rics, but this one was sweet).....
PLUGS IT INTO BOTH STACKS!!!!! His playing was okay, but not my cup o' tea. Way too much distortion for my taste. And way too loud for the venue. I remember thinking then that going forward I would STRONGLY resist the temptation to allow my kids to take any of my high end basses or my MarkBass rig to small events like this.
Roy Vogt
Supporting Member
- Sep 20, 2000
- 4,433
- 537
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Kiesel Basses, Ampeg Amplification, Hotone Ampero II effects
Word. lucas vigor's post resonated with me because I had walked that same path.
So...cheap is just fine and cheap is bad, expensive is best, and it's a waste of money.....that about cover it? We done here?
And...?
If someone is basing their dream bass on what people on Talkbass recommend, they'll be selling it within months anyway to get the next dream bass/flavour of the month.
Don't lose sleep over it.
The fact that you're in your late 40's and still fixated is a BAD sign. You can call it what you want and justify it, but you're still bitter about what people had about 30 years ago.
Ok, you're not young.
- Jun 3, 2009
- 3,330
- 399
- Disclosures
- Bassgearu, Music Industry Consulting and Sales. Tech 21, NBE Corp, Sonosphere.
I think that the thread, while interesting, has gotten away from my point. The real idea is are expensive basses worth their price, and are they THAT much better sonically and physically. As I stated, based on the construction and care placed into a boutique bass, they are worth the price. Based on the care and construction placed into an SX, yes, it justifies its price. Through a great amp and pre-amp, would the boutique be THAT sonically better? No, not in all cases.
I do not slap or tap. I use a pick mostly. No matter what I play, my tonal variety isn't that wide. So, do I sound as good with a Brubaker Brute as I do with the Brubaker KXB Custom? Yes. Can I tweak the eq more and better with the custom? Yes, because the choice is there in the custom that is not in the import.
I too grew up a poor child, and for most of the '70s played a range of cheap Danelectros, Tiesco Del Rey, and Silvertones. Throw in an Ampeg Little Stud (plywood). That is all I could afford. Then the Japanese invaded with the Aria Pro II and Hondo and suddenly I had a much superior bass at an affordable price. As I've spent the better part of the last 35 years building my career, I've taken time to save and cleverly shop for boutique and high end basses, ending with a nice stable of mostly Kubicki and Steinberger basses. But, funny, I have never found that one bass that I just have said this is it, this is MY Holy Grail.
Lucas is fine to vent. Its not uncommon. You work hard to save for that one thing, while your neighbor takes out his credit card and purchases the same thing that he can't truly afford nor can he really use as well as you. We all know that, and we all have felt that way. It sucks. Big time.
I'm blessed and lucky to have what I do now. But I understand Lucas, and second Roy's emotion.
Want to truly make this thread worthless? I seriously recommend purchasing Roy's "Teach Me Bass Guitar" DVD series and studying it to death. When you are done you will make even your Daisy Rock sing like a pro.
I do not slap or tap. I use a pick mostly. No matter what I play, my tonal variety isn't that wide. So, do I sound as good with a Brubaker Brute as I do with the Brubaker KXB Custom? Yes. Can I tweak the eq more and better with the custom? Yes, because the choice is there in the custom that is not in the import.
I too grew up a poor child, and for most of the '70s played a range of cheap Danelectros, Tiesco Del Rey, and Silvertones. Throw in an Ampeg Little Stud (plywood). That is all I could afford. Then the Japanese invaded with the Aria Pro II and Hondo and suddenly I had a much superior bass at an affordable price. As I've spent the better part of the last 35 years building my career, I've taken time to save and cleverly shop for boutique and high end basses, ending with a nice stable of mostly Kubicki and Steinberger basses. But, funny, I have never found that one bass that I just have said this is it, this is MY Holy Grail.
Lucas is fine to vent. Its not uncommon. You work hard to save for that one thing, while your neighbor takes out his credit card and purchases the same thing that he can't truly afford nor can he really use as well as you. We all know that, and we all have felt that way. It sucks. Big time.
I'm blessed and lucky to have what I do now. But I understand Lucas, and second Roy's emotion.
Want to truly make this thread worthless? I seriously recommend purchasing Roy's "Teach Me Bass Guitar" DVD series and studying it to death. When you are done you will make even your Daisy Rock sing like a pro.
lucas vigor said:
Not sure but pouting about a good thirty years later is pretty sad, I'm just pointing out an obvious thing here.
I didn't assume anything at all, I simply read your post and commented on what you wrote.
You say at the bottom that you have resented it ever since, that not me assuming, no.
That's you openly admitting that at 40 some years old a good 30 years after the fact you still look back with resentment towards this kid because he wasn't nearly as good as you and because of that how dare his parents buy him something better than you.
Get real man, face it at 40 some years old that's a pretty immature outlook to have on a situation that happened all those years ago.
You'd think somewhere along the line you'd have grown up and realized that.
This is not a personal attack it is an observation based on your words.
If you feel that I've attacked you my apologies. But if you can't at your age see where your thought pattern was pretty selfish and immature than I doubt you'll see it as anything but an attack.
Maybe I misunderstood your story or read to much into certain sections who knows. I'm just saying when I ended my reading that was the perception I was left with.
lucas vigor said:
I've felt jealous and I'm far from perfect, but I grew up and realized that I had to work harder than some and some would have to work harder than I. It's life.
Your post was fine up until you said that your resentment was still there till this day.
Even if it was last week your resentment should have faded within minutes.
Big deal he had an easier life than you, that's not grounds to resent someone.
You can be jealous or envious rather w/o being hateful and resentful. That kid can't help that his parents were better off than yours. Should he maybe have not accepted his nice basses to spare your feelings?
Maybe because he had two he should have given you one?
C'mon.
I would of hated & resented my parents if they gave me an Alembic's. I would of wanted a Fender J's & P's.
I would of been like:
I would of been like:
I've bought everything myself with the exception of a trumpet that I got in the fourth grade. I guess the closest thing to gear jealousy I've run into is when I saw a kid that could barely play get a Marshall full stack. That kinda irked me a little, but what really got me going was that "my sales guy" was blowing me off when I wanted to buy something. Sure he has to feed his kids and the commision on a Marshall stack was a lot better than the commission from the gear I was buying, but I bought a lot from him over the years. I understand, but I think I may have been back once or twice to that store ten years later.I would have loved for my parents to have bought me a bass, but that just wasn't happening. Complete lack of summer jobs in my hometown unless you knew someone in the Masons meant I waited until I got a real job, saved my bucks and bought a Steinberger that I played for 15 years and then sold for a profit. I doubt that kid is still playing. Or maybe he's playing for Maroon5. Either way it doesn't matter.
Of course I know this to be true. Difference is, I admit to it. But for these holier-than-thou posters, who I assume are totally mature and HAPPY when someone gets something nice that is denied them, I question their moral superiority.
Oh sure, I should have been tickled pink that while I needed a decent bass, (so I could sound good in my HS Jazz band), instead, I would be stuck with a real junker of a bass....while the kid down the street got not 1, but 2 "dream" basses that even some pros cannot afford. That should have made me soooooo happy!
What these moral majority posters don't realize is that I would have been happy with even a MIA Fender back then. But when you are 12, how many lawns do you think you will need to mow in order to afford a 1100 dollar bass? Oh, I suppose that they think my "hatred" (never said that, by the way) is enough to be poisoning my whole existence all these years....ha! Far from it!
The only changes I have made in my life is that now that I can afford it, I will buy the best equipment I can afford (right now, that is in the 1400 range) and will one day own that Fodera or Alembic.
So be as snarky and superior as you want, guys. It matter not one bit to me what a bunch of internet tough guys think.
Next time you lose your job, your house and your health while your neighboor (who is lazy, unemployed and smokes, drinks and does drugs) wins the lottery...I expect you to jump for joy at his good fortune! Be happy! Don't be jealous! It's the american way!
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