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Pros that use cheap/pawn shop basses...

#47
raul said:
tons of super cheap or rather, inexpensive basses can be found all over the good planet Earth and are ripe for the taking...who are some of your favorite pro players that have made recordings with cheap/inexpensive/pawn shop goodies as far as basses go? what recordings? did they and do they play them live? have fun...
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Here's my take on this.

First there is the "rule" used to take money from noobs: "If you buy a bass just like Joe blow plays then you'll play like Joe!"

Obviously false.

Then the rule "If you pay more for a bass then it will be a "better" instrument". (often worded as "you get what you pay for")

Also false since "better" has not been defined. What you spent the extra money to get is important. Was it tone? was it looks? was it history? was it mojo? If what you paid extra for isn't what you wanted then you wasted your money.

The thing I've noticed about really "good" players and especially "pro" ones (make a living playing) is that they don't buy into all the myths and rules and they are REALLY serious about MUSIC!

And how this comes out is that they LISTEN! The implication in this thread is the irony of a pro player strokin' away on a hunk of junk. But that ain't it. They don't go hit the pawn shops and just buy the first trashy instrument they see. They LISTEN to them! And when they hear something that they recognize as MUSICAL, then they'll buy it and BUILD on that. In their view WHAT they heard it from is not important. What is important is WHAT THEY HEARD!

Just take the example of Boomie and his Realistic. Yes, a Radio Shack bass is SEEMING trash, but he heard something in there he recognized as musical! And he doesn't just play it as is, he tweaks on it to bring out all that music he heard in there! (go check the thread here when he bought it)

Sure there is a certain "statement" to be had from playing an "apparent" trash bass. Blues guitarists love to play a Reso that looks like it's been laying in the swamp for 7 years. But I assure you they DO NOT sound or play like that. I love to play my SX for that reason. But hey, that is not a stock SX. It's been tweaked by me to play and sound musical. So in a way, playing the SX is really a lot of "showbiz". And similarly you might think that Bowzer's bass player is up there thumpin some trash Radio Shack bass, but the truth is that he found something musical in there and brought it out. Where he found the instrument or what it cost is really irrelevant.
 
#48
Fassa Albrecht said:
Geddy Lee's '72 Fender was a pawn shop buy he bought for $35 (in interview, he said that this was about three weeks worth of wages for him at the time).
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That doesn't sound right. He bought it in 1980, and IIRC, he paid $200 for it. Early on he did have a late '60's Precision (that he later modded beyond all recognition); maybe that's the bass he paid $35 for.
 
#51
bassbenj said:
Just take the example of Boomie and his Realistic. Yes, a Radio Shack bass is SEEMING trash, but he heard something in there he recognized as musical! And he doesn't just play it as is, he tweaks on it to bring out all that music he heard in there! (go check the thread here when he bought it)

Sure there is a certain "statement" to be had from playing an "apparent" trash bass. Blues guitarists love to play a Reso that looks like it's been laying in the swamp for 7 years. But I assure you they DO NOT sound or play like that. I love to play my SX for that reason. But hey, that is not a stock SX. It's been tweaked by me to play and sound musical. So in a way, playing the SX is really a lot of "showbiz". And similarly you might think that Bowzer's bass player is up there thumpin some trash Radio Shack bass, but the truth is that he found something musical in there and brought it out. Where he found the instrument or what it cost is really irrelevant.
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LOL! I appreciate the thought Bongo, but really, I bought that bass on the sole basis that it had the Realistic logo ;) And it required some work to get it up to scratch...had to shim the neck and get the pickups repotted. And now it sings and I love it. But make no mistake, I bought it solely because it had the Realistic logo.
 
#52
Tsuyama Atsushi from Acid Mothers Temple plays cheap crap basses. He has been known to sell them at shows after their set.
I aquired one in a trade last year.
It's not to bad. It's my only jazz bass. The nut broke when I put some new/old strings on it. But I wedged the broken piece in and it stays in tune. I put some different pickups in it I had laying around, and rewired it (hoping it would sound like my last jazz, it didn't haha). Filed down a couple of fret sprouts. It's beat up and has Japanese stickers on it. It doesn't play half bad.
The dude is a total bad ass though, he'll make anything sound good.
 
#54
Bassist playing with Rare Earth plays a Squier Bullet Bass from the 80's and a SX old headstock 75 style Jazz bass. Pulling down 5 figures with one band playing $500 worth of gear is priceless my friends.

Edit: he also has a Highway One I sold him that I acquired through here, but the SX is his current favorite. Not sure a HW1 counts as a cheap/pawn shop bass but it was at the price I sold it at.
 
#56
danomite64 said:
That doesn't sound right. He bought it in 1980, and IIRC, he paid $200 for it. Early on he did have a late '60's Precision (that he later modded beyond all recognition); maybe that's the bass he paid $35 for.
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You could be right. I'm remembering stuff from ages ago from memory.

I do remember seeing more recently a clip from a music show called 'Bandstand' from late 1973 where Rush were playing Working Man (it had John Rutsey on drums anyway), and he was DEFINITELY playing a P-bass.
 
#59
thanks for the mention jimmy. not only are they cheap(inexpensive) but i have bought used spectors from ebay and tb classifieds. i gotta keep this short, im on the phone with radio shack trying to hook up an endorsement deal :)
 

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