A friend of mine toured with a "Punk" band once and he showed me some pics from his trip. I noticed the bassist of this particular band used some red duct tape and spelled out "HAVE SEX" across the body his bass. Made me chuckle... So simple but gets the point across. Just some food for thought
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NBD - Project Punk Precision
- Thread starter neurotictim
- Start date
Thanks.
The fretboard stickers are the real win for me... I was sitting at my computer, just thinking up funny/obnoxious/cliche things to put on there, and recalled a couple of bits of conversation I had with the guy I'm playing punk with right now -
and
Now he will know EXACTLY where I'm playing at a glance.
:ROFL:
Also, the "Thumb Goes Here" sticker makes me laugh a lot. Two reasons - it's making tongue-in-cheek fun of the idea that, as a "punk bassist", I wouldn't know where my thumb goes (was it the Ramones or the Sex Pistols where everyone decided to play the instruments they didn't know?)
And real punk bassists play with picks, right?
I'm still convinced it needs some wear, be it natural or applied. Right now it's just a bass with stickers on it (albeit really funny ones)
Found this the other day and I though it was kinda funny. Although intended for g***** it may apply for bass too...
From the Brian Baker(Minor Threat/Bad Religion/etc) wiki page:
"The 10 commandments of punk guitar
Along with Greg Hetson of Bad Religion and Circle Jerks fame he compiled a list of 10 commandments of punk guitar. They are as follows:
* Treat your guitar like **** and it will respect you.
* To get that mean ****in' low end and still retain some highs in your sound, use only Gibson guitars. SG's and Les Pauls are the ultimate punk rock tools.
* Use only downstrokes. Downstrokes are the key to unlocking all punk rhythms.
* Plaster your guitars with stickers to prove that you're an individual. Remember, being uncool is cool, so one Van Halen is worth three Sex Pistols stickers.
* The Marshall JMP 100-Watt master volume head is the Holy Grail of amps. Other people get all hot and bothered about what kind of speakers and cabinets they use, but that's all ********. You can plug the JMP into virtually anything and it's going to sound wonderful.
* No open tunings. Grunge is not punk rock.
* Don't be self-indulgent. Limit your guitar solos to eight bars or less. Otherwise, you're playing metal.
* Never, ever play a show with a cigarette hanging out of your mouth. It's incredibly painful when a stage diver pushes off your face and smashes the red-hot cherry into your cheek.
* It may be punk to be ****ed up at your day job, but when you take the stage you should be straight. It's hard to play music with intensity and speed when you're drunk.
* Do not stack Marshall cabinets. That's not punk, it's arena rock. The Ramones are the only band exempted from this rule."
From the Brian Baker(Minor Threat/Bad Religion/etc) wiki page:
"The 10 commandments of punk guitar
Along with Greg Hetson of Bad Religion and Circle Jerks fame he compiled a list of 10 commandments of punk guitar. They are as follows:
* Treat your guitar like **** and it will respect you.
* To get that mean ****in' low end and still retain some highs in your sound, use only Gibson guitars. SG's and Les Pauls are the ultimate punk rock tools.
* Use only downstrokes. Downstrokes are the key to unlocking all punk rhythms.
* Plaster your guitars with stickers to prove that you're an individual. Remember, being uncool is cool, so one Van Halen is worth three Sex Pistols stickers.
* The Marshall JMP 100-Watt master volume head is the Holy Grail of amps. Other people get all hot and bothered about what kind of speakers and cabinets they use, but that's all ********. You can plug the JMP into virtually anything and it's going to sound wonderful.
* No open tunings. Grunge is not punk rock.
* Don't be self-indulgent. Limit your guitar solos to eight bars or less. Otherwise, you're playing metal.
* Never, ever play a show with a cigarette hanging out of your mouth. It's incredibly painful when a stage diver pushes off your face and smashes the red-hot cherry into your cheek.
* It may be punk to be ****ed up at your day job, but when you take the stage you should be straight. It's hard to play music with intensity and speed when you're drunk.
* Do not stack Marshall cabinets. That's not punk, it's arena rock. The Ramones are the only band exempted from this rule."
Evidently Brian forgot all about those post-Dag Nasty years when he was in "Junkyard," an arena glam metal band... they had a hit song called "Hollywood."
Can't do that - I mean, it's all in good fun, tongue-in-cheek style stuff, but I really don't think I'm capable of treating my bass like ****.
Guitarist said almost exactly this. And I have yet to play with a pick in this setting.
Yay!
I'm super-mega-ultra cool! (Except saying that takes away all cool points and actually adds negative cool points, so I'm in the red here......which is cool...
Guitarist does this, but has stickers over the Marshall logos that say "Rat Bastard", thus negating the branding of "arena rock".
Thanks for that, it was pretty funny.
RaginRog
Last guy you want to see is Employee Relations guy
I use stickers from bands that I've played with...and enjoyed seeing....and of course have my band's sticker (The Snallygasters).
SGs and Les Pauls are now for the elitist bourgeoisie. You're not punk unless you are playing on beat up Squiers (because unless you get signed to a label,...so not punk,...you likely can't afford any thing more).
I agree. Most punk players cannot afford 2300 dollar guitars. Maybe the cheap,no carved top epiphone les pauls.
In all fairness there are the inexpensive LP Studios but still I think they a little out of reach for the beginning punk rocker. I've seen locally (CL) base model SGs for around $600 and LP Studios around $800. Pups look crappy though.
I've also seen Explorers and Flying Vs up for ~$500, but those are for the brootalz metulz and very unpunk.
I think what happened was before the days of eBay these cats could find these instruments cheap out of pawn shops and off of people trying to support a habit. I definitely noticed that LPs were ubiquitous in pics of the punk scene from the formative era.
As far as stickers on the bass go. I think you'll have more street cred if you start screen printing your own stickers and apply those to your bass.
I traded my Peavey bass amp and 410 cab for an SG! But then our bass player quit, so I was able to go back to bass. Thankfully I kept my 810!
Yep - all I need is someone with a camera, correct backlighting, and some serious pent-up frustration.
And yes, really with the Opeth and Mastodon and Mayer stickers. I like em. I figured I'd stick with bands I like.
And I went a lil crazy, but with my sense of humour it's only to be expected. I think I'm done now...
Yes.
It's over the top.
Yes, it would never be played by a "real" punk rocker.
Yes, I have no tomatoes.
And no, I don't care.
This bass is so punk its not at all punk
Well, I don't have any way of screen-printing, and starting up a whole new hobby just to make some stickers seems like work, so I just made them all in Photoshop, printed them out, laminated them, and stuck em on there.
Close enough.
Ironic humour is the BEST sort of humour, isn't it?
Also, took this to practice with my regular band, modern rock covers, and played it for several tunes (the ones I don't need a fiver for). It absolutely KILLED - my guitarist (who's played and gigged for better than 30 years) stopped us in the middle of the first song I played with it, and told me that "THAT is how a bass should sound."
I don't see me giving up my 'Wicks for a Squier P for any great length of time, but it's a fun bass to throw around, AND it sounds pretty darn good.
I am certainly not punk in any way and have absolutely no desire to ever be labeled as such, but if you ask me (which you didn't), trying so hard to appear punk is about the furthest thing from actually being punk as you can get. It's not about ironic humor or thinking up clever stickers to make yourself on your computer at home, it's about not giving a **** and rocking the **** out of a bunch of kick ass songs.
The punkest thing you could do would be to stop worrying so much about what stickers you have on your bass and just go out and tear up the stage with it every night.
When you play with a band that has stickers at their merch booth, steal one when they aren't looking and put it on your bass (or trade something with them, whichever
).
Peel the lable off a beer bottle and throw it on your bass, if anything just to see how long it stays on there.
Instead of carefully leaning your bass up against your amp before you play, toss it on the ground. Kick it if it's in your way.
etc etc etc.
Stop caring so much and just run with it man. Play the songs like there's no tomorrow, and that bass with take on a life of it's own in no time.
The punkest thing you could do would be to stop worrying so much about what stickers you have on your bass and just go out and tear up the stage with it every night.
When you play with a band that has stickers at their merch booth, steal one when they aren't looking and put it on your bass (or trade something with them, whichever
).Peel the lable off a beer bottle and throw it on your bass, if anything just to see how long it stays on there.
Instead of carefully leaning your bass up against your amp before you play, toss it on the ground. Kick it if it's in your way.
etc etc etc.
Stop caring so much and just run with it man. Play the songs like there's no tomorrow, and that bass with take on a life of it's own in no time.
Sorry, I didn't read your last post that closely. This is the attitude to have right there. When it all boils down, and the drummer starts counting in the first song of the night, this is the only thing in the world that should matter.
NKBassman -
I get what you're saying, I really do. This bass, however, isn't about being a "legitimate" punk bass - it's my sense of humour, sort of a Spinal Tap take on punk basses. I slapped a "This goes to 11" sticker on the case I got with it, and it's probably the most appropriate sticker I could find or dream up. The stickers I DID put on the bass, I put them there because I like them, not for any sort of credibility factor.
I personally find it very funny that I put stickers on a Squier without regard for what anyone else thinks about them, good or bad - Isn't that the basic tenet of punk? "Oo cares, F it awl!"
And I'm in no way "punk".
I'll never be punk.
I have no desire to be punk.
I don't even like 99% of the punk music I've been subjected to - the Norfolk Rats are pretty much the exception to the rule, and I probably wouldn't listen to it if I wasn't playing it, or something very similar.
I'm not a non-comformist. I'm a me-ist. I don't go out of my way to be different, but I don't try to fit in - musically or otherwise. This bass is a great example of the contradictions in my own personality, a way to make a statement about myself without screwing up a "nicer" (i.e. more expensive) instrument, and it all started with a jam session that I took intentionally to get me OUT of my "comfort zone," musically.
I have every intention of letting this bass get a little less than the normal level of attentiveness I give any instrument - I may not use a stand, I won't worry about pick scratches or buckle rash - but I won't beat on it. :shrug: And I'm gonna play it hard and put it away wet, so to speak. It's actually quite liberating, in a way.
I guess my point is that, right from the start, this project was completely, utterly tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek.
I get what you're saying, I really do. This bass, however, isn't about being a "legitimate" punk bass - it's my sense of humour, sort of a Spinal Tap take on punk basses. I slapped a "This goes to 11" sticker on the case I got with it, and it's probably the most appropriate sticker I could find or dream up. The stickers I DID put on the bass, I put them there because I like them, not for any sort of credibility factor.
I personally find it very funny that I put stickers on a Squier without regard for what anyone else thinks about them, good or bad - Isn't that the basic tenet of punk? "Oo cares, F it awl!"
And I'm in no way "punk".
I'll never be punk.
I have no desire to be punk.
I don't even like 99% of the punk music I've been subjected to - the Norfolk Rats are pretty much the exception to the rule, and I probably wouldn't listen to it if I wasn't playing it, or something very similar.
I'm not a non-comformist. I'm a me-ist. I don't go out of my way to be different, but I don't try to fit in - musically or otherwise. This bass is a great example of the contradictions in my own personality, a way to make a statement about myself without screwing up a "nicer" (i.e. more expensive) instrument, and it all started with a jam session that I took intentionally to get me OUT of my "comfort zone," musically.
I have every intention of letting this bass get a little less than the normal level of attentiveness I give any instrument - I may not use a stand, I won't worry about pick scratches or buckle rash - but I won't beat on it. :shrug: And I'm gonna play it hard and put it away wet, so to speak. It's actually quite liberating, in a way.
I guess my point is that, right from the start, this project was completely, utterly tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek.
Yup - that's a 70's Fender waterslide.
And a cigarette burn.
I know that anytime someone puts a logo on something it doesn't belong on, it turns into a flame war. I didn't put it there for that. I didn't put it there to later sell as a real Fender, either, or to fool the crowd. I put it there to see if my guitarist buddy listens with his eyes or ears. And because I like it better.
Also, I've got two more stickers I want to make, then I'm done.
Gotta put a Bender on there somewhere, and a NOH8 sticker.
Taking it out tomorrow to play with my punk gig, we'll see how it goes then!
