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Jerk encounter of the bass kind

#41
I had a similar experience tying a new cab about a month ago. I took my head and main bass into the shop which I always do if i'm serious about new gear. The bass sales guy says "nice Alembic", which its not. So i say "actually its a JayDee". Same stunned silence as discribed by the OP. I realize that he thinks he's just made an ass of himself. So I just carry on and try and let him down gently by saying that they do look remarkably simlar, and it is definatly not the first time people have asked about my "Alembic". he lightened up and we moved on. Bought the cab.:D
 
#43
I did a gig a few weeks ago when the first band's bass player was looking at my rig. It's a '73 SVT and an 810. He had an Ampeg BA600 115. He asked me how many watts mine was, and I told him 300. He then generously offer me to use his 600 W combo, if my rig wasn't loud enough. I just smiled and thanked him for his offer.
 
#45
Rickett Customs said:
He goes, "Some of the models.............Squirrel...........

squirrel.jpg
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I lol'd
 
#48
DRafalske said:
I had sort of a similar experience a couple weeks ago. My band was playing a bar we play at a lot - our "home stage" if you will. I was playing my new Ric that night, my first gig with it.
Dude who "used to play a little bass back in high school" came up and was just raving on and on about my tone and what a nice bass I had. He even bought me a beer. Now, I agree of course, on both counts :cool:, but this dude was all over my nutz just because I was playing a Ric.
Yes, it's a very nice bass and I'm proud to own it. But jeez man, it's just a bass. My Fender sounds just as *good*, albeit very different.
Gear snobbery goes both ways. He was friendly enough, but annoying just the same.

D
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I own a couple Rics and a couple Fenders. I've encountered a lot of guys, usually hard rock/metal dudes that put down Fenders, and act like why would I bother with a Fender when I have a Ric. One fellow bassist who loves my Rics said one night when I was playing my Fender Jazz, "where's your Ric, I went through a bunch of $200 Fenders back in the day." Now keep in mind, this guy owns a cheap B.C. Rich and Ibanez
both of which had to cost less than my MIM Fender. He's an older guy, and I bet I would love the older Fenders he thought were cheap. He eventually replaced me in the band I was in at that time,after I left, but the irony is, he wound up buying a rig exactly like mine.
 
#49
Next time someone thinks you have a more expensive bass, try one of these lines:

"Naaah, I don't need an expensive-looking bass like a Ken Smith, I'm so handsome everything looks good on me"

"Naaah, I didn't want to buy a Ken Smith, this is a lot cheaper and let me spend more money on clothes, hot chicks care more about that than about bass brands anyway"
 
#52
I brought my bass into a shop to have the intonation looked at and the pots cleaned up before a gig and the dude asked me what it was. I told him it was a 1976 Precision and he came over, picked it up and kind of shook it around a little and said it was too light to be a 1976 Precision and then turned away from me and told me over his shoulder that I could pick it up in two weeks. I took my bass back and never hesitated after that to tell my musician friends about how rude the guy was. I took it to a guy across town who cleaned it up in under an hour.
 
#54
Holdsg said:
I would play a bass that said "booger" on the headstock, if I liked the tone and it sounded good to my bandmates. In fact, I got a sharpie right here.......
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After a few years, the question would then be "is that a US Booger or a Skyline Booger?" The ensuing line of questioning would determine that it is indeed a Plek'd Indonesian Booger.

With apologies to Lakland.

Riis
 
#55
pgolliher said:
I had a similar experience, but it was with a guitar tech. I brought in my franken-bass for a set up-( 70's p-bass body, warmoth neck, emg P-J pcik ups, badass II) and this kid that is the new tech takes it and says, oh, it's some Fender copy... I knew from his tone that he just thought is was some piece of crap. The shop that I brought it to is definitely known as an acoustic guitar shop, but the old tech they had did some great work. I should have trusted my gut and left, because it was by far the worse set up I have ever received, I know that I do a better job on my own. I learned my lesson and luckily I just found a great bass tech in town- but I will always wonder if the kid did a bad job due to inexperience or if he didn't put time into my bass because it didn't say Fender on the headstock. (oh no, did I just accidently stumble into the Fender decal debate?)
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Weird, the tech at my local guitar shop thinks my fake Rick is awesome. Same with my modded Peavey. He's a cool guy, though.
 

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