Innovative bass technology

[Ron Johnson]

I thought I'd make a thread for people to share innovative basses or bass gear they have heard of. These are basses that were made not to copy 50+ year old fender technology, but to innovate and improve bass guitars.
For example, the most recent I've heard on talkbass is about the Willcox Lightwave pickup system.

What have you heard of that you think is an improvement to bass guitars, amps, or other gear?

 

[Selta]

While not "new" really, I still think multi-scale (fanned fret) are a great improvement on the design of the instrument itself.

From my point of view, I see a lot more in effects and amps driving forward (and, sadly, a lot of bassists are ignoring it). Fractal's Axe-Fx II and AX8 are amazing examples of how modeling systems can sound very much like the "real" amps, and offer so much in terms of options and signal chains that aren't viable with physical amps/cabs/pedals. There's some other cool options out there too, which I really need to find and try for myself.

Gig bags have made a lot of progress over the years, too. In conjunction with micro amps, you can basically carry a gig bag in one hand, a cab in the other, and be set for your show.

It's kind of hard to think of where to go next with bass. A lot of things that are a big step get a lot of flack and push back from bassists. Lightwave has been around awhile, and hasn't really caught on. Bongos still get a bad rap and they're just a different shaped body. Bassists are pretty rooted in tradition and looking back, not forward. IMO, YMMV etc. etc.

 

[bassbenj]

Well this thread is over before it began since Leo got it right the first time and there can't be any improvements.

Of course that is bass guitars, now amps... well my old Fender BXR200 weighs a ton and the BXR300 model had four large wheels on it for reason. But leave it to Fender! Way back when I bought this 1U 800 watt amp from Fender and just bolted it to the back of a cab giving me a whole pants flapping kilowatt with of course all the weight still in the BXR 200. But what do you do when you are way ahead of the game? Well you discontinue all that cool stuff and wait for the world to catch up! So I got that Fender "booster" amp for a song as a closeout. Hey, nobody who is serious about music want's a light weight amp anymore than they'd want something other than a 4 string jazz or P bass!

Lucky I'm not serious. Still got the old Kilowatt rig and it still kills, but now I've also got two Carvin BX500 amps that you can just tuck under your arm. I need to finish my couple of Neo cabs to go with them and I can leave all that old grunt gear behind. Fender finally decided the world has caught up and now sell the Rumble 500 head very similar to my Carvins. So who needs "improvements"?

 

[Chico Ruger]

Check this out...

Stonefield | The Bass You've Always Wanted. Hand made in Christchurch

I have no affiliation.

 

[Malak the Mad]

What have you heard of that you think is an improvement to bass guitars, amps, or other gear?

Strings…strings…strings!! I'm loving what Ernie Ball has created in the form of their Cobalt bass strings, both rounds and flats!

Bassists are pretty rooted in tradition and looking back, not forward. IMO, YMMV etc. etc.

This! A thousand-times this!! I'm reminded of it whenever I hear people grousing how "Fender has too many options to choose from!"

 

[Lowness]

In comparative terms, Leo got it right from the start.

Very few products created in the 50's remain effectively unchanged as Leo's fender products have.

 

[Brother Goose]

I Want a bass w Bluetooth output capable of hijacking phones/devices. Also built in sequencing/drum machine/effects.

 

[Khronic]

 

[Lowness]

Strings…strings…strings!! I'm loving what Ernie Ball has created in the form of their Cobalt bass strings, both rounds and flats!



This! A thousand-times this!! I'm reminded of it whenever I hear people grousing how "Fender has too many options to choose from!"

So how are these bass players wrong?

So many people don't need more than a Fender MIA or MIM standard. A lot of Frnder products are about different flavours rather than better products per se

 

[Malak the Mad]

So how are these bass players wrong?

So many people don't need more than a Fender MIA or MIM standard. A lot of Frnder products are about different flavours rather than better products per se

Quite frequently, it's the "different flavors" that seems to irk them. This is just my opinion, but I feel limiting options and curbing "experimentation" and "variety" is the death of innovation and creativity.

For example, if it weren't for someone at FMIC going out on a limb, there never would've been a Blacktop Jazz…a thoroughly underrated instrument, I'd hazard to say. Did it take the scene by storm? Not really, but I think it's better someone tried reached a little "outside the box" than playing it safe all the time with garden variety P's and J's.

 

[Lowness]

Quite frequently, it's the "different flavors" that seems to irk them. This is just my opinion, but I feel limiting options and curbing "experimentation" and "variety" is the death of innovation and creativity.

For example, if it weren't for someone at FMIC going out on a limb, there never would've been a Blacktop Jazz…a thoroughly underrated instrument, I'd hazard to say. Did it take the scene by storm? Not really, but I think it's better someone tried reached a little "outside the box" than playing it safe all the time with garden variety P's and J's.

If after 60 years of product development, you come up with the Blacktop (any version) then you have confirmed that Leo got it remarkably close right at the start.

In any industry, the blacktop is not called a product evolution.

 

[Korladis]

Check this out...

Stonefield | The Bass You've Always Wanted. Hand made in Christchurch

I have no affiliation.

Interesting. How does it intonate, though?

Quite frequently, it's the "different flavors" that seems to irk them. This is just my opinion, but I feel limiting options and curbing "experimentation" and "variety" is the death of innovation and creativity.

For example, if it weren't for someone at FMIC going out on a limb, there never would've been a Blacktop Jazz…a thoroughly underrated instrument, I'd hazard to say. Did it take the scene by storm? Not really, but I think it's better someone tried reached a little "outside the box" than playing it safe all the time with garden variety P's and J's.

Fender refuses to make what I want from them. A reverse P-bass. It's simple but I'm not sure they've ever done it.



Back on topic, we haven't seen many totally radical changes to the instrument since the electric bass's beginning, though there have been lots of incremental improvements. One I'd like to see become industry standard is removable truss rods.

 

[Malak the Mad]

If after 60 years of product development, you come up with the Blacktop (any version) then you have confirmed that Leo got it remarkably close right at the start.

In any industry, the blacktop is not called a product evolution.

An evolution? Eh, probably not. An innovation? Probably so, and that's the main gist of the thread, ja? Besides, history is full of innovations where someone took two, existing "whatever-the-heck-widgets" and blended them together to create something different. I just threw the Blacktop out as one example of "someone getting creative". I could've gone with pickup technology, but those really aren't my forté.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the feeling you might belong to the "Less Options" sect. If not, then that's my bad. If so, just take my ramblings as one opinion among many. My old, misbegotten art-school-training compels me to seek new ideas AND bold, new spins on classic ideas…both being perfectly valid and easily applicable to musical instrument aesthetics/functionality. But to have to "draw the same picture over and over, but with a barely different color each time" is Hell I'd rather not live in.

 

[Malak the Mad]

Back on topic, we haven't seen many totally radical changes to the instrument since the electric bass's beginning, though there have been lots of incremental improvements. One I'd like to see become industry standard is removable truss rods.

I like it!

Funny you should say that. Earlier today, I was gabbing with my local GC guitar tech while he was testing a bass' truss rod. Sadly, it was a dead'er…it just spun and spun with no adjustability left to it. I feel bad for the guy he had to call bearing the bad news.

 

[Korladis]

I like it!

Funny you should say that. Earlier today, I was gabbing with my local GC guitar tech while he was testing a bass' truss rod. Sadly, it was a dead'er…it just spun and spun with no adjustability left to it. I feel bad for the guy he had to call bearing the bad news.

People often claim Rickenbackers are maintenance hogs... but I think in the case of the truss rods, they were really looking ahead when they made them removable. If the rods are broken, you just slide them out and slide new ones in.

But yeah, lots of small improvements like that have taken place over the last 50 years. Tuners are better now than they used to be, we have a much bigger selection of bridges than we used to, and better options. There's a vast array of different pickups available, etc.

 

[Lowness]

An evolution? Eh, probably not. An innovation? Probably so, and that's the main gist of the thread, ja? Besides, history is full of innovations where someone took two, existing "whatever-the-heck-widgets" and blended them together to create something different. I just threw the Blacktop out as one example of "someone getting creative". I could've gone with pickup technology, but those really aren't my forté.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the feeling you might belong to the "Less Options" sect. If not, then that's my bad. If so, just take my ramblings as one opinion among many. My old, misbegotten art-school-training compels me to seek new ideas AND bold, new spins on classic ideas…both being perfectly valid and easily applicable to musical instrument aesthetics/functionality. But to have to "draw the same picture over and over, but with a barely different color each time" is Hell I'd rather not live in.

The blacktop is a different colour of instrument - that's it.

Everything in the blacktop has been done before.

 

[Flaked Beans]

I thought I'd make a thread for people to share innovative basses or bass gear they have heard of. These are basses that were made not to copy 50+ year old fender technology, but to innovate and improve bass guitars.
For example, the most recent I've heard on talkbass is about the Willcox Lightwave pickup system.

What have you heard of that you think is an improvement to bass guitars, amps, or other gear?

Major improvement would be a better construction, better tone woods, hardware, electronics etc. otherwise you can see many variations like different body shapes/neck through body-set neck-bolt on neck construction/active-passive electronics and pickups/optical (lightwave) pickups etc. but a bass is a bass, it can't evolve into something different, i guess. So if you want a perfect (improved) P bass, for example, get one of these:

 

[Malak the Mad]

The blacktop is a different colour of instrument - that's it.

Everything in the blacktop has been done before.

<sigh> Fine, I'll concede it's full of standard parts. There's your "gotcha!" moment you've obviously been craving. But I'll still stick to my guns on the idea of "innovation" also being the inventive use of pre-existing technology. So, in that context, and to keep the topic rolling, I'll move on to something I feel was, at least, a little innovative…in my own opinion, even though it was the cobbling together of a number of pre-existing bits o' tech, yadda, yadda, yadda. It's a particular wiring harness put together by Santellan Sounds/Elek-Trix that I've written about on several occasions.

Truth be told, it's not very flashy (not like a Lightwave system or other, borderline-sci-fi stuff like that), but I found it to be an ingenious combination which really opened up the capabilities of my last parts-bass project. Here's what they crammed into one, contiguous package…

1. Series/parallel switchable
2. Solderless terminal block connections (for someone who's all-thumbs with a soldering iron, that's a very big deal!)
3. A dip-pin-switchable chip that allows one to adjust the capacitance with minimal effort. (again, no soldering required…yay!) I especially love that it's separate from the tone control, unlike a Stellartone Tonestyler. I can set the "cap value" and still tweak the tone independently.

On their own, none of these are a big deal, 'cept maybe the dip-pin-chip part. The only thing I've come across with those are the Guitar Fetish REDactive EQ-switchable pickups. (Question for Y'all; are there other electronic systems that use dip-pin-chips for tweaking and shaping their sound?) Personally, I feel putting all three of these technologies together in one, easy-to-use package is downright brilliant!

Sadly, the guy who runs Santellan Sounds sold the company to someone who doesn't seem interested in producing more units. Thank Bob I bought a second unit before the sale went down!

 

[Chico Ruger]

One I'd like to see become industry standard is removable truss rods.

Replaceable truss rods...cool. Also, don't know why more mfgrs haven't incorporated the "spoked-wheel" TR adjuster. It seems like an inovation with little, if any, downside.

 

[ofajen]

Just a few examples.

While not actually a bass, Emmett Chapman's Stick and related two-hand tapping instruments were innovative forty-five years ago.

Bill Lawrence's Q-filter was innovative back in that era, but overshadowed by the emergence of active basses.

The Ebow was innovative for guitar, but I'm not aware that they have ever made a version for bass string spacing.

Otto