It's not the Bass, it's you

[Neveragain55]

Yeah, I'm not too sure about stories about giving my bass to other players.

But, one experience I strongly recall was in about 1985. I was in grad school at Stanford. My wife and I had just had our third child; so, we were poor and trying to juggle low income with hard work and a busy young family. We took the kids to see some traveling act called the (Something or other, I forget) Little Circus; which was a low cost small circus performance. But, the circus troop had this smoking band that was providing background sound and playing heavy duty bebop tunes during intermission etc. I'm sure those cats were barely making a dime. The freakin' bass player was a monster. He was playing some kind of inexpensive (MIM or MIJ) Jazz bass and just absolutely tearing it up.

I will never forget that. Showed me that monster players not only make unimpressive basses sound incredible; they also play with commitment and passion, even when they are not the center of attention or making a bunch of coin.

Nice.....

 

[Muddslide]

I will never forget that. Showed me that monster players not only make unimpressive basses sound incredible; they also play with commitment and passion, even when they are not the center of attention or making a bunch of coin.

That's a nice story. As for being the "center of attention," outside of bass players who are also the vocalist (Sting, Lemmy, Cetera, etc.) I don't think most bass cats ever think about being the center of attention.

I always kinda felt like "Okay--you: lead guitarist, and you: vocalist, go out and do your thing, jump around like rock stars. Me and the drummer here will hold everything together for ya."

 

[bucephylus]

That's a nice story. As for being the "center of attention," outside of bass players who are also the vocalist (Sting, Lemmy, Cetera, etc.) I don't think most bass cats ever think about being the center of attention.

I always kinda felt like "Okay--you: lead guitarist, and you: vocalist, go out and do your thing, jump around like rock stars. Me and the drummer here will hold everything together for ya."

Exactly. That's our job!

 

[Blankandson]

Yeah, I'm not too sure about stories about giving my bass to other players.

But, one experience I strongly recall was in about 1985. I was in grad school at Stanford. My wife and I had just had our third child; so, we were poor and trying to juggle low income with hard work and a busy young family. We took the kids to see some traveling act called the (Something or other, I forget) Little Circus; which was a low cost small circus performance. But, the circus troop had this smoking band that was providing background sound and playing heavy duty bebop tunes during intermission etc. I'm sure those cats were barely making a dime. The freakin' bass player was a monster. He was playing some kind of inexpensive (MIM or MIJ) Jazz bass and just absolutely tearing it up.

I will never forget that. Showed me that monster players not only make unimpressive basses sound incredible; they also play with commitment and passion, even when they are not the center of attention or making a bunch of coin.

I like this one too!

 

[Trayster2]

Love this post because its so true. A couple of years ago while learning to play, I read post after post on here about opinions & critiques of every bass. But if you go to You Tube, basses that received the harshest criticism on here would sound amazing depending on who was playing the bass.

Now my only GAS is for quality lessons & improvement in my playing.

 

[peledog]

A Yugo is a Yugo no matter how good the driver.

 

[Clef_de_fa]

Sure the tone coming out of the amp may be different if someone else is playing my basses but still, I think any bass can sound ok with a good amp. After that it is a combination of technique, your ideas and your rythm.

 

[Clef_de_fa]

No matter what bass I pick up, I've never found one that's instantly made me a better player. Some are easier to play than others, but I always max out based on my skill, not the instrument.

sure but at the same time, an instrument that let you have stupidly low action may help you acheive that slap line that you couldn't pull off etc. Just like once upon a time no piano had the fast hammer thing every piano has now, in order to keep the volume equal between each note you had to let the key moves up completely, now you only have to let the key moves up half the distance in order to the hammer to be up. So it let a lot of player that couldn't play some composition finally play them.

I think it is pretty much the same thing with bass, the better it is set up and of course the better the bass will be, the better action you will be able to acheive and thus may offer you to play at your best and beyond.

But I guess people prefer to think differently here and continue to beleive a 100 rondo will be able to acheive the same action and they will be able to play as well as a vastly supperior instrument.

 

[bluesblaster]

the difference between a $100 chinese reproduction and a 9K Fodera are gonna be pretty obvious. A $2500 handmade bass and an 9K Fodera wont be as significant except for the price difference.

 

[ggunn]

Jimi Hendrix played on a Flying V every once in a while. Still sounded like Jimi.

Sure it did, but it didn't sound like Jimi playing a Strat.

 

[Yvon]

Same thing appened to me,
I just bought a Sadowsky (1996) and I let my teacher play it (professional, toured with major artist, was the house bass player for many TV shows etc)
And the bass sounded huge!
Not matter how hard I tried I never been able to sound that good!

I really understood that day that the sound is in your finger. What I did that day:
I put my amp EQ flat, All of my basses since then have been passive and I even went with no control at all.

20 years later I still work on my "fingers sound"

 

[Neveragain55]

A Yugo is a Yugo no matter how good the driver.

True, and I owned a Yugo for about two weeks before the engine literally fell out from under the car on the freeway. (true)

But I also once owned an old, clapped out 280 Z that I could drive rings around all the latest "Fast & The Furious" crowd and leave them in the dust with their 400 horsepower blown Honda's.........................why....................I've been driving 30 years longer than they have, and they have no idea how to look ahead for the "pockets" and they're too young to know what they're doing.

They're relying all on their muscle, where's I rely all on my skill..............

 

[Baird6869]

I agree with whole premise to a certain point but I would love to see Flea, Geddy Lee and Les Claypool use a 30" scale Hofner hollowbody with old TI flats on one of their gigs and get "their sound". Ain't gonna happen.

 

[ReiPsaeg]

You can't go around saying stuff like this, how else are companies going to sell basses?

 

[Jesse Dietschi]

As someone who has played on sub-$700 basses exclusively and recently picked up a Sadowsky, I'd say the best advantage to a reeeeally nice bass is that it motivates you to practice, which can improve your entire outlook on life

 

[ialma]

Visited a friend's reharsal room recently.
He has lots of vintage cheap instruments. He hooked on a cheap amp a short scale Eko Cobra (1963 or so, with ORIGINAL flats on it worth 50$) which had a huge action.
It did its solid job, you can't pretend to get Marcus Miller's sound of it but it grooved like crazy.
The point is that when you know how to drive you can get an optimal performance out of a busted Yugo, respecting its limits.

 

[TMARK]

I agree with whole premise to a certain point but I would love to see Flea, Geddy Lee and Les Claypool use a 30" scale Hofner hollowbody with old TI flats on one of their gigs and get "their sound". Ain't gonna happen.

Claypool could get something cool out of it.

 

[Bodhammer]

Basses are like golf clubs. The top of the line is not going to make you a better player suddenly. However, no one should be fighting with ill-fitting equipment, and the pros have a higher bar set before diminishing returns appear for them on top level gear.

As a golfer trying to learn the bass, I agree completely and if fact had this exact discussion yesterday saying the almost exact same thing.

Well stated Sir!

 

[AngelCrusher]

One thing I will add to this is if you have any aspirations to go pro in a studio environment, you will need good gear. The best hands in the world can only take a bass so far that can't sit in a mix. So once you have the ability to blow people away with an inexpensive bass, there is nothing wrong with investing in a quality player if you want to go the studio route.

If you are mainly gigging in a cover band and stuff like that, then you can kill with a simple Fender Squier. Although many of the biggest gear guys I have seen are guys in cover bands playing Smoke on the Water with Foderas..lol. But as long as it sounds good and they are having fun, who cares.

 

[Baird6869]

One thing I will add to this is if you have any aspirations to go pro in a studio environment, you will need good gear. The best hands in the world can only take a bass so far that can't sit in a mix. So once you have the ability to blow people away with an inexpensive bass, there is nothing wrong with investing in a quality player if you want to go the studio route.

If you are mainly gigging in a cover band and stuff like that, then you can kill with a simple Fender Squier. Although many of the biggest gear guys I have seen are guys in cover bands playing Smoke on the Water with Foderas..lol. But as long as it sounds good and they are having fun, who cares.

Hey, I don't play Smoke on the Water on my Foderas!!!

I do play Sweet Home Alabama though... Which is worse.

Of all of the recording I have ever done (not a ton), it was at least 90% with Fenders. I bet if I was hired for a studio gig and showed up with my Valenti, Fodera, FBass and old Fender P and J, 9 out of 10 times only the Fenders would come out of the cases. I agree that good gear is important for studio work but owning quality Fenders saves a lot of potential stress and time in the studio.