One Trick Pony

[Funk 'N' Stein]

Whomever coined the phrase 'one trick pony' to describe any single pick up bass betrays an attitude typical of many part time musicians, you know the ones; They spend too much time pontificating about gear and not enough time doing what is important...ie playing/practising/studying music. Its almost as if the instrument itself becomes more important than the music it was intended to create

The phrase is just plain stupid .

The most important aspect in bass playing is an ability to feel the music, to understand it, to set the groove, to provide support and to funk it up a little when and where required. This can be achieved on any bass and any really good player will sound good no matter what instrument he is playing, be it single pickup bass or otherwise.

If you can't exercise the aforementioned skills on a single pickup bass then it wont matter what instrument you're playing(...just continue to practise and listen to as much James Jamerson...{aka the greatest one trick pony bassist off all time} as you possibly can.!! )

 

[tkarter]

Whomever coined the phrase 'one trick pony' to describe any single pick up bass betrays an attitude typical of many part time musicians, you know the ones; They spend too much time pontificating about gear and not enough time doing what is important...ie playing/practising/studying music. Its almost as if the instrument itself becomes more important than the music it was intended to create

The phrase is just plain stupid .

The most important aspect in bass playing is an ability to feel the music, to understand it, to set the groove, to provide support and to funk it up a little when and where required. This can be achieved on any bass and any really good player will sound good no matter what instrument he is playing, be it single pickup bass or otherwise.

If you can't exercise the aforementioned skills on a single pickup bass then it wont matter what instrument you're playing(...just continue to practise and listen to as much James Jamerson...{aka the greatest one trick pony bassist off all time} as you possibly can.!! )

In a nutshell my friend.
Joshua said if first you explained it


tk

 

[lowphatbass]

I think we all agree that the label is just wrong. I think the reason why so many studios and players own a P-bass is just as much about what it can't do as what it can do...now let me clarify: The beauty and magic of the Precision is not just the tones that it produces, it's also about the tones that it does not, or cannot produce, as many find certain frequencies don't add anything meaningfull to the mix and are then considered unwanted in many musical contexts. If a bass cannot do what you don't want it to do then by default you've increased your chances for success, and when it comes to the studio, a sure thing is the best thing!!
There's no doubt that the Precision excells in many styles of music and in the right hands is capable of a wide variety of tones and feels, however, I would consider it, and maybe more so the Rick, a bit more of a "Specialist" than most other widely popular basses. The key here is that the Precision "specializes" in a lot more than many give it credit for. The facts and statistics speak for themselves!!
The most important thing to my ears(a guy who doesn't own a P or a Rick)is personality. So many basses on the market today lack there own "personality". Beatifully figured and crafted, tonal possibilities and flexability beyond our wildest dreams, state of the art electronics, and BEAUTIFUL tone with incredible ergonomics and playablity to match, yet there is nothing to "hang your hat on". There are many exceptions and lots of other basses with heaps of mojo, but often when I hear a P or a Rick I hear their characteristics and flavour and I love it. This fact, as much as anything may be responsible for the label, "One Trick Pony", but if that trick wasn't so dang good people wouldn't pay what they do for that little pony....would they?

 

[bassmutant]

Whomever coined the phrase 'one trick pony' to describe any single pick up bass betrays an attitude typical of many part time musicians, you know the ones; They spend too much time pontificating about gear and not enough time doing what is important...ie playing/practising/studying music. Its almost as if the instrument itself becomes more important than the music it was intended to create

The phrase is just plain stupid .

The most important aspect in bass playing is an ability to feel the music, to understand it, to set the groove, to provide support and to funk it up a little when and where required. This can be achieved on any bass and any really good player will sound good no matter what instrument he is playing, be it single pickup bass or otherwise.

If you can't exercise the aforementioned skills on a single pickup bass then it wont matter what instrument you're playing(...just continue to practise and listen to as much James Jamerson...{aka the greatest one trick pony bassist off all time} as you possibly can.!! )

I love how you characterize people who don't share your obvious fondness for your instrument choices. I did originally say haphazardly that the MM/SR style pickup/placement/design is a "One trick pony", as I'm sure others have in the past in one way or another. I did make sure to state later in that thread that it was my opinion, and "I think that single pickup MM/SR style basses don't have as many options as I would like" I can't take back my opinion earned from actually playing them in live settings, i guess I just need to gig with one of them a couple of hundred times, and I'll end up loving one right? Would that qualify me for more than part time musician status, or would I need a record deal? Or perhaps I should abandon my love of all things technical and purchase equipment that only has volume and on off switches so I can really become a good musician as I think you may be implying in your post? Is that what a "real" bass player does? My point is this, everyone has opinions on what they think is best, and opinions aren't absolute truth. I respect peoples love for their gear, and If I knew how zealous people were about their instruments superiority and utility, i wouldn't of worded my opinion in that manner originally. It's your money, time, and energy, use whatever makes you happy and sounds good to you, my opinion wasn't meant to be an attack on the way some of you think or feel. On a related side note, if I had to pick only one electric bass to use for the rest of time, I would pick a passive pbass, because of it's simplistic, failsafe design and excellent tone,......in my opinion


I also had a rick , which I played as my main axe, which survived my financial downward spiral as one of two instruments I kept, and loved/hated for about 5 years, I sold it at the beginning of this year, and don't regret it whatsoever.

 

[Munjibunga]

In my opinion, it's never the bass that's a "one trick pony", but the bassist instead...

Not this again. Bring your P-bass or EBMM over, and let's hear how it compares to my Yamaha TRB5P-II in tonal variation. Make sure you bring "your hands" in which all of the tone is. The TRB's tones are definitely not "so-so", so bring your very best hands.

 

[Munjibunga]

I think we all agree that the label is just wrong. I think the reason why so many studios and players own a P-bass is just as much about what it can't do as what it can do...now let me clarify: The beauty and magic of the Precision is not just the tones that it produces, it's also about the tones that it does not, or cannot produce, as many find certain frequencies don't add anything meaningfull to the mix and are then considered unwanted in many musical contexts. If a bass cannot do what you don't want it to do then by default you've increased your chances for success, and when it comes to the studio, a sure thing is the best thing!!
There's no doubt that the Precision excells in many styles of music and in the right hands is capable of a wide variety of tones and feels, however, I would consider it, and maybe more so the Rick, a bit more of a "Specialist" than most other widely popular basses. The key here is that the Precision "specializes" in a lot more than many give it credit for. The facts and statistics speak for themselves!!
The most important thing to my ears(a guy who doesn't own a P or a Rick)is personality. So many basses on the market today lack there own "personality". Beatifully figured and crafted, tonal possibilities and flexability beyond our wildest dreams, state of the art electronics, and BEAUTIFUL tone with incredible ergonomics and playablity to match, yet there is nothing to "hang your hat on". There are many exceptions and lots of other basses with heaps of mojo, but often when I hear a P or a Rick I hear their characteristics and flavour and I love it. This fact, as much as anything may be responsible for the label, "One Trick Pony", but if that trick wasn't so dang good people wouldn't pay what they do for that little pony....would they?

Weak. A typical apologist's point of view. Your ravings imply that the P-bass tone is the only tone worth having and that basses with the capability to produce tones far beyond that are adding something "not meaningful" to the mix. The fact is that Jazz basses are used on stage and in the studio much more often than P-basses, and I've never heard anyone refer to a J bass as an OTP.

 

[Brendan]

Not this again. Bring your P-bass or EBMM over, and let's hear how it compares to my Yamaha TRB5P-II in tonal variation. Make sure you bring "your hands" in which all of the tone is. The TRB's tones are definitely not "so-so", so bring your very best hands.

Doesn't matter if your Yammer beat out a P or a Ray in number of tones/sounds. If you can get several different sounds out of either, it's not a one trick pony. If you can get like, 50 out of your TRB, more to ya, but it doesn't make the Ps, Rays, and Ricks any less. 50 may be greater than four, but four is still more than one, dig?

 

[Fuzzbass]

Doesn't matter if your Yammer beat out a P or a Ray in number of tones/sounds. If you can get several different sounds out of either, it's not a one trick pony.

Bingo.

Again, anyone who can get just one tone out of a bass is a one-trick player.

 

[jenderfazz]

The P bass or Stingray is a "one trick pony" in that it has that one recognizable sound. You can make a jazz sound a bit like a P, or like a MM, but you don't really have that flexibility with a P/MM. The reason people call basses one trick ponies is that if you use a MM, you can't roll off the bridge pickup and tone knob to get a motown-ish sound, and a P bass can't get that bridge pickup bite. But it's not a term to be taken literally. Obviously, P basses and Musicmans sound different in the hand of every player, and most players can coax multiple tones out of them. Basically, "one trick pony" is an exaggeration based on the fact that a one pickup bass is definitely more limited in a strict sense. But you have to love them.

 

[Discgraham]

I think when people refer to certain basses as "one trick ponys", they are mostly refering to the kind of sound the instrument has. I don't know about you guys, but when I listen to a recording, I can usually tell whether it was recorded with a Jazz, P, or Stingray. These basses just have certain tones that are easy to recognise and hard to get rid of. That doesn't mean you can't get other tones out of these instruments, cause I own them and they are indeed flexible. It means no matter what tone you have, it's going to have a bit of that P, J, or MM flavor to it.

 

[niftydog]

I feel there's a distinction to be made here that nobody has touched on.

Calling a bass a "one trick pony" does not automatically mean the player has no variety in his technique. That attitude is offensive to me because ultimately you're making assumptions based on irrelevant information.

A player might have the ability to extract 20 diverse tones out of a single pickup bass - but the fact remains that the instruments electronics are not assisting the player to do that - it's fundamental sound is still the same but his technique is varying.

Perhaps if he had a bass with more variety in it's electronics, he could extract 80 diverse tones out of it without using any new techniques!

You guys are being too black and white - there are grey areas here!

 

[Dr. Cheese]

On a similar thread I noted that the big difference between a one and two pickup bass is that you don't have the dramatic difference between the bridge and neck pickup. Tonal shifts on one pickup basses are subtle compared to the shifts on two pickup basses. At a certain level, this argument is pretty academic because most bassists I know of don't vary their tone that much. I know that I pretty much stick to what works for me on my SR5. The main change I employ is using the coil splitter. Sometimes I put the treble knob on half instead of full on with the single coil mode to get closer to the P-bass sound. I can also get very close to the bridge pickup sound of a Jazz Bass. BTW, the SR5 does a really good Stingray slap sound too!

 

[Funk 'N' Stein]

The P bass or Stingray is a "one trick pony" in that it has that one recognizable sound. You can make a jazz sound a bit like a P or like a MM , but you don't really have that flexibility with a P/MM The reason people call basses one trick ponies is that if you use a MM, you can't roll off the bridge pickup and tone knob to get a motown-ish sound, and a P bass can't get that bridge pickup bite. But it's not a term to be taken literally. Obviously, P basses and Musicmans sound different in the hand of every player, and most players can coax multiple tones out of them. Basically, "one trick pony" is an exaggeration based on the fact that a one pickup bass is definitely more limited in a strict sense. But you have to love them.

Au contraire my dear fellow!...you can get a VERY good jamerson like tone out of a stingray if you know how to EQ and mute while you play. You can also get a very close approximation of a jazz bass sound by rolling off bass slightly, cranking the mids, rolling off treble and playing closer to the bridge. Having played both in a live setting...the so called "one trick" MM SR completely blows the jazz bass clean out of the water for my money. The tonal subtleties one can obtain afford much greater sonic satisfaction.

I concur with those who say that its all in the hands.

 

[Funk 'N' Stein]

Weak. A typical apologist's point of view. Your ravings imply that the P-bass tone is the only tone worth having and that basses with the capability to produce tones far beyond that are adding something "not meaningful" to the mix. The fact is that Jazz basses are used on stage and in the studio much more often than P-basses, and I've never heard anyone refer to a J bass as an OTP.

1) The gentleman is not raving...he articulates his point of view very well

2)I would argue that there has never been a bass invented which can produce a bass tone which records better than a P bass (im not a P player BTW). As a listener and player of 25 yrs + exp I am struggling to think of an instrument which produces a tone which could be classed as being "far beyond" that of a P bass.

3) I would say that 90% of tunes ever cut with electric bass have been cut with a P Bass.

 

[narcopolo]

In my opinion, it's never the bass that's a "one trick pony", but the bassist instead...

zing!

yeah i feel the same way, but i also HATE active basses for trying to be everything to everyone (and, in my opinion sounding like crap on most stuff). to me it seems better to have a bass or two that sounds like it sounds, and to rely on different techniques and styles to carry you from country to blues to metal and back.

 

[Big Thump]

1) The gentleman is not raving...he articulates his point of view very well

2)I would argue that there has never been a bass invented which can produce a bass tone which records better than a P bass (im not a P player BTW). As a listener and player of 25 yrs + exp I am struggling to think of an instrument which produces a tone which could be classed as being "far beyond" that of a P bass.

3) I would say that 90% of tunes ever cut with electric bass have been cut with a P Bass.

Bang on, There are tons of pofessional Bassists you see prancing around the pages of our magazines and onstage with Warwicks, Spectors, Yammys etc. etc. and when it comes time to lay down a bed track most of the time the P or the J gets the nod or maybe a Sadowsky, I don't know how many times I've heard a producer say that sounds great but can we try it with the P, my experience, friends of mines experience and reading about some of our "heros". My 6 pence

 

[Altitude]

Who except for maybe Mark King has an exceptional Alembic tone outside of Clarke?

I agree with your point completely, but perhaps also John Entwhistle?

 

[Munjibunga]

1) The gentleman is not raving...he articulates his point of view very well

2)I would argue that there has never been a bass invented which can produce a bass tone which records better than a P bass (im not a P player BTW). As a listener and player of 25 yrs + exp I am struggling to think of an instrument which produces a tone which could be classed as being "far beyond" that of a P bass.

3) I would say that 90% of tunes ever cut with electric bass have been cut with a P Bass.

HAH! One-trick pony ... One-trick pony ... One-trick pony ... One-trick pony ... One-trick pony ...


BTW, your statistic #3 is clearly a made-up fact.

 

[Funk 'N' Stein]

HAH! One-trick pony ... One-trick pony ... One-trick pony ... One-trick pony ... One-trick pony ...


BTW, your statistic #3 is clearly a made-up fact.

No...its only an opinion based on prior experience and conversations had with pro bassists. I never mentioned that it was factual.

BTW...you cant 'make up' facts; they either are...or they are'nt. enjoy your day

 

[bovinehost]

Bring your P-bass or EBMM over, and let's hear how it compares to my Yamaha TRB5P-II in tonal variation.

Nah, let's just meet after school.