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If tone really is in the fingers...
- Thread starter mbell75
- Start date
Because you can't polish a you-know-what. Start with a good instrument and a good player can only make it better. Yes, a good player might be able to make an inexpensive instrument sound and play pretty well, but nothing takes the place of quality and the increased amount you can do with that.
It's not just about tone. It's also about playability. I played lots of cheap instruments in the 80's because I couldn't afford anything better. Most of them wouldn't set up very well, so that made it hard for me to refine my chops. I didn't know how much the instrument was fighting against me at every turn.
I never knew what I was missing until I finally owned a very good instrument, and that gave me the ability to play faster, better, and with more accurate intonation.
That said, the difference between inexpensive and expensive in 2019 seems a lot smaller, so there are better choices in a beginning price range nowadays.
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You answered the original question as if his assumption/generalization was factual... it is not.
Now that that's out of the way, I actually think you make a good point. But you fail to mention that flamed maple tops with translucent burst finishes, endangered wood species, gold hardware, and other factors can drastically drive up the cost of an instrument without necessarily making it "higher quality", at least in a functional sense.
Closest I can come up with is my EB3 with flats on a session I did almost a year ago........EB3/flats/direct
All true. A good player can pull decent tone from the unlikeliest of places, but give that player something more to work with and you'll hear something very different.
And, also, I wouldn't have known quality if it had hit me over the head when I was first starting out. Sometimes you need to struggle a bit with something more "beginner level" in order to appreciate something better when it comes along. But yes, there are tons of "upgrades" that are cosmetic or subjective. To each their own. I wouldn't spend money for flame or quilted stuff because I don't like how it looks, but a lot of other people do.
Thanks for that! What a great sounding tune. I look forward to hearing it through something better than a cellphone speaker, just to get a better listen for the tone. Nice work!
thanks.....this guy is a good songwriter and I enjoyed doing these very much........
edit: funny story about this track...You can hear what the guy was after in the complete production. However, because bass is one of the first things to track, I often usually only get a scratch guitar or key track along with a click (or, in this case, a drum machine track as a click) so I usually have to go into ESP mode to figure out what the client wants....Im usually pretty good at it but boy was I wrong on this one. The initial workboard was a funky guitar and a funky drum machine groove with no scratch vox (I tracked with the drummer who was replacing the scratch groove) so I was thinking "Marcus Miller/smooth jazz" and initially pulled out the Sire V7 (rounds) and started slapping....The guy was like "Dont do that...I hate that...I hate funky slapbass". I laughed "Sure, no prob....What do ya want?"......"Gimme the warmest classic sounding thing you got"........I pulled out the EB3 and pointed at the mudbucker (sidenote: I used both pickups on the track) and said "You won't findany warmer than this".....Plugged it in the board, played a little and he was all smiles "Yeah, That's what I'm looking for"
(all quotes are paraphrased).
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Joe satriani playing on a fans knock off Fender strat that cost $100 and through the fans Peavey amp that cost $100. Just goes to show that a cheap guitar still sounds great when in the hands of a master.
I've played cheap basses and driven cheap cars for several decades. Hasn't hurt me none.
I tried more expensive basses and cars but they didn't take.
I tried more expensive basses and cars but they didn't take.
Tone is not in the fingers, nor is it in the mind. The notes are in the mind. Tone is in your ***. (and sometimes it stinks)
The biggest difference between what Joe plays in the video and the guitar he normally plays is summed up with what he says at the end. "That was a little painful on this guitar."
Most of the things you mentioned don't really drive the price up drastically. Gold colored hardware for example. And most of the fancier woods aren't endangered.
As to the OP, tone is not the only reason to spend on an instrument. It ignores everything else about the instrument. The rest matters.
Imho "Tone" is in the amp, preamp and in the pickups (more than in wood and others details)
Style and Technique are in the player.
James Hetfield would not sound like -classic Metallica rhythm tone- with a "country clean amplifier" plugged with a vintage telecaster with low gain pickups.
Style and Technique are in the player.
James Hetfield would not sound like -classic Metallica rhythm tone- with a "country clean amplifier" plugged with a vintage telecaster with low gain pickups.
He would if it was a clean part.
Yes, something like Tuesday's Gone.
But I was speaking about their Core-Tone.
You know, eh eh eh.
I didn't mention "fancier woods". I mentioned endangered woods. ALL endangered woods happen to be endangered woods. I don't think that needs further elaboration. Besides, I was simply stating that part of an instrument's cost can be due to aesthetics or rarity of materials rather than tone or playability factors. Again, there really isn't room for debate their.Most of the things you mentioned don't really drive the price up drastically. Gold colored hardware for example. And most of the fancier woods aren't endangered.
As to the OP, tone is not the only reason to spend on an instrument. It ignores everything else about the instrument. The rest matters.
But style and technique translate to tone, else what would be the point in developing them?
What the hell, I'll elaborate.
There's a misconception that many woods used on boutique instruments are rare and/or costly. As far as endangered species, that doesn't cover the majority of basses. What non-fancy endangered woods are you referring to?
I mentioned fancier woods because I've seen that mindset when referring to boutique builds. Typically by folks who haven't priced woods. The more figure, the higher the price... but what is that price? It's less than most might think. Take Spalted Maple. It's not rare, it can be difficult to work with and it used to get thrown away before figured woods became popular. In that respect it's like raw chicken wings. Used to be among the cheapest part of the chicken, now it's more than legs and thighs. Demand.
I'm stating that what drives the cost up on higher end instruments isn't usually the materials... it's the craftsmanship and everything that goes with that. It is not the items you said that drastically push the price up. Many tend to think that wood, hardware and electronics are the big expenses. Experience and the cost of doing business are the big expenses IME.
Gold hardware typically might cost a few dollars more than chrome or black. A $300 top on a $5,000 bass didn't really push the price up drastically. And so on.
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