Open letter to bass shops

Not sure I get it?

 

I see what the OP is getting at. If a shop is going to do a demo video, especially of an expensive custom shop or vintage bass, they should have a bassist demo it who knows what he/she is doing. Maybe they could play a little fingerstyle, a bit with a pick, a country line, a jazz run, some hard rock, etc. That way serious buyers would really get an idea.
The girl is certainly nice to look at and Phil X can be pretty funny and amusing to watch, but those things hardly matter if I'm a serious buyer trying to watch a demo of a specific instrument.

 

Got it now thanks! ( just woke up)

 

Was there a bass in the first vid.?

 

Let Ed Friedland demo all your stuff, problem solved.

 

I might be of a different camp. I would rather have an average person with decent technique play the bass. Ultimately though, we get information from these videos. We won't know how it feels until we touch it ( the bass not the girl in the video).
It won't sound the same on my amp either. Some players can sound better on 4 rubber bands on a stick than I can on an Alembic. Have a great player play complicated licks confuses the consumer. Play simple stuff across the fret board and demo each pickup in a few techniques, finger, slap and pick. That should do it.

 

I have seen/heard worse. Far worse. That was hardly the first time she played a bass. If you want annoying and painful, you should have worked in a music store during the early '70s, when slapping and popping first became popular. We had guys coming into the store from the housing project across the street and they would grab a bass, plug in, crank it up and slap like they were on a stage in front of a huge audience. If they had been good, it might have been different but.....

 

I actually wanted to see what Phil X would do with a Bass, so thanks for that link. That said, I knew what to expect.

That chick though...

 

I don't care at all except for that girls digits in the first video!

 

What's the matter OneDrop? Too much snow in Verbier?

 

Amen, brother. It surprises me as well.

 

Yeah, I've seen those types of YouTube videos as well. I can not watch the full videos. Sad, because usually I know they're holding a kick-a$$ bass, which would normally blow me away.

 

Who seriously buys a $3000+ bass based on tone from a YouTube video with the sound thru thru computer speakers?

I agree that the retailers that post these clips should have a bassist that has a clue though.

 

In Fretted Americana's defense they have often had Phil X's bass player doing the bass demos. So maybe he just wasn't available for that demo. Not sure but just in their defense generally they seem to use a bass player. that's just a one off from the ones I've seen

 

I've had to learn to use my judgement on the videos. Yours are great examples of this, in the first one the girl spends most of the time talking about the bass (who cares?) and a little time playing the bass in a manner that I wouldn't, making the usefulness of the video a lot lower to me.

I'm going to take off the pickup cover, I'm going to hit the strings a lot harder, I'm not going to set the amp like that.

 

In addition to what i said, in places Phil X didn't do that bad a job either. Plus what you determine as a bassist can be very subjective. But I wont go into that.
I've seen demos of basses that a shop which is a 3 hour drive from me regularily stocks. Now if in a few months/years i think "Hey i'd maybe like to buy that bass, then sod it I am driving 3 hours to that music shop to try them out myself.

The internet is not a reliable source for most things... University try to ram that idea down my throat every 5 minutes. and it does hold true sometimes. This is one of those times.