One Trick Pony

[thedoctor]

They say in Texas,"It don't take all kinds of people to make up the world; we just gots all kinds." This thread proves the point. If we all played the same thing on the same axe, most of us would be redundent and useless, which we are not. Thank the Lord for that!

 

[narcopolo]

Why would you think that having say a second pickup and an onboard eq translates to not having a "personality"? I sure don't think that...Foderas, Laklands, G&Ls, EBMMs, Ritters, Alembics, Wals, etc. all have personality to me. That's not to say I don't like Fenders, Rics, and Gibsons (well Tbirds anyway). Basses, like bassplayers can have a "sound" or a "personality". I have no experience with modelers so I can't comment on that.

Extra pickups/active eq/pickup switching does not equal bad tone or lack of personality...why are some people making that leap? You can have a P bass that sounds bad just like you can have a bass with tons of bells and whistles that sounds bad.

Marshall

i may have mispoken - i know that a lot of active basses have very distinct sounds. what i was referring to was when people talk about their basses' ability to "dial in" other tones - i.e. "my bass can get a p tone, or i can make it sound like a ric, etc." i hope that clears up my earlier statement.

 

[thisSNsucks]

Personally, I love one trick ponies. If you threw me in a room with a good sturdy P-Bass and one of those basses with 6 knobs, 3 switches, 2 outputs, that requires 10 9v batteries (ok im exaggerating) I'd immediatly go for the P-bass cause I know that I wont have to fuss around with it for a few mins to find a sound that works. With that said, I dont think any less of basses with active preamps and a bunch of knobs (i'm thinkin of getting me a bongo one of these days) but theres something great about simplicity in a bass.