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Pros using a cheap POS?

#122
Oh good. This one again.

Let's be real here - 99.99% of musicians could grab an entry level bass from (pick a manufacturer, any manufacturer), give it a decent setup, and play it 'on tour', completely bone stock, and have zero issues. The tone would be absolutely fine, the tuners stable enough, the bridge robust enough, the neck stable enough. It's really not that big of an ask.
 
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#124
ElectricBass72 said:
Too many rowdy, unstable drunk rednecks. It doesn't matter. I don't miss playing Enter Sandman and Hard to Handle in cover bands. I had enough of that in the 90's and early 00's.
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Gosh, I always thought a Fender-style bass was my best defensive weapon in those situations :). It has served as a gentle but effective cattle prod on a few occasions.
 
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#125
richntiff said:
Oh good. This one again.

Let's be real here - 99.99% of musicians could grab an entry level bass from (pick a manufacturer, any manufacturer), give it a decent setup, and play it 'on tour', completely bone stock, and have zero issues. The tone would be absolutely fine, the tuners stable enough, the bridge robust enough, the neck stable enough. It's really not that big of an ask.
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I remember many years ago an interview with Keith Richards, where he said that if you give him any electric guitar, give him a few minutes to mess with it and the settings on his amp, and it would always sound like him!! I believe David Gilmour said basically the same thing in another interview.
 
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#126
Jack said:
Apparently he asked to borrow her bass to play the solo as he had not yet written a third verse. He just picked up someone else's instrument and semi-improvised one of the best bass solos of all time. I hate people who are good! :D
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Another example of epic things happening by happenstance - :thumbsup:
 
#127
ardgedee said:
I've seen it pointed out before that what held back a lot of guitars and basses from the 60s and 70s was not their quality but the fact that few people, including guitar techs, knew how to set them up properly. This is something that the internet has really helped with: Made information about maintenance and repair accessible not just to hobbyists but to people in the profession.

I mean, there was a lot of genuine crap at the time, at a higher volume than now. But part of why people have recently been re-evaluating old instruments from Matsumoku and so on are because they're appreciating that they were often just as good or better than Fenders and Gibsons, but due to the branding (and lower initial prices) it used to be difficult to convince skilled techs to work on them.
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Good points - someone earlier in this thread pointed out how a proper set-up can make these often lambasted instruments legit as playable basses. I can attest to that having started on one. I was clueless about "set-up" as a teen and somehow began as a bass-player on an instrument with sky-high action and no clue about intonation. I now own and have set-up/worked on a number of both ss & long-scale, solid and hollow-body '60s basses from Japan and they all play and sound great with a little TLC.

'65 Teisco short-scale Del Rey BG-200 - with old flats it does the Motown thing all day long -
1748630261487.jpeg
 
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#129
JIO said:
Good points - someone earlier in this thread pointed out how a proper set-up can make these often lambasted instruments legit as playable basses. I can attest to that having started on one. I was clueless about "set-up" as a teen and somehow began as a bass-player on an instrument with sky-high action and no clue about intonation. I now own and have set-up/worked on a number of both ss & long-scale, solid and hollow-body '60s basses from Japan and they all play and sound great with a little TLC.

'65 Teisco short-scale Del Rey BG-200 - with old flats it does the Motown thing all day long -
View attachment 7239988
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Funny you mention Teisco, they were in my mind when I wrote the previous post. Many of their guitars were examples of bad designs well-made. I have an early example that doesn't have a truss rod (bad design!), and the neck's curled up just like you would expect. After stacking a few pennies under the bridge, though, it's made for a passable lap steel. I laughed out loud when I saw a thread years ago on a guitar forum where other people were each saying they had done exactly the same thing with their identical models. Mine's maybe around sixty-ish years old but the electronics still work perfectly and I suspect the only time anybody had ever opened the control cavity was when they had covered the instrument in house paint -- It just works, to appropriate somebody's catch phrase.

The pickups from that time were idiosyncratic too. They don't sound like Fenders and Gibsons and weren't as versatile tonally, which is probably why they didn't get much love at the time; kids with rock'n'roll fantasies wanted to sound like their guitar heroes. But they sound fantastic within the bounds of the super-hot grindy tone they've got.
 
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#130
chris_b said:
It doesn't matter what bass you use if you are plugged in to big pedal board.

The sound of the bass becomes more important when no pedals are involved. At that point better sounding basses are noticeable.
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Same for recording. As long as the signal is intact, it can be made to sound like an excellent replication of a Stravarius to an emptying garbage truck.
 
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#131
ardgedee said:
Funny you mention Teisco, they were in my mind when I wrote the previous post. Many of their guitars were examples of bad designs well-made. I have an early example that doesn't have a truss rod (bad design!), and the neck's curled up just like you would expect. After stacking a few pennies under the bridge, though, it's made for a passable lap steel. I laughed out loud when I saw a thread years ago on a guitar forum where other people were each saying they had done exactly the same thing with their identical models. Mine's maybe around sixty-ish years old but the electronics still work perfectly and I suspect the only time anybody had ever opened the control cavity was when they had covered the instrument in house paint -- It just works, to appropriate somebody's catch phrase.

The pickups from that time were idiosyncratic too. They don't sound like Fenders and Gibsons and weren't as versatile tonally, which is probably why they didn't get much love at the time; kids with rock'n'roll fantasies wanted to sound like their guitar heroes. But they sound fantastic within the bounds of the super-hot grindy tone they've got.
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Speaking of which, my rule of thumb whether these '60s vintage basses are worth dealing with today centers squarely on the neck. As long as the neck is relatively good, everything else is fixable. Bowed, warped or twisted neck - I'll pass. The Teisco pu's on my De Rey were used on numerous basses then and are 'hot' singles w/o a lot of nuance but can deliver some bass output for sure. I heard a local rock trio where the bass-player played a BG-200 like mine through an Ampeg fridge and it sounded glorious! I went home that night, saw the one I own on eBay and bought it straight away. Neck was very good (which has a rotary tr adjuster at the heel) - I only had to intone it. The BG-200 and one pu NB-1 were made a few years and come up often for sale on eBay & Reverb.
 
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#132
richntiff said:
Oh good. This one again.

Let's be real here - 99.99% of musicians could grab an entry level bass from (pick a manufacturer, any manufacturer), give it a decent setup, and play it 'on tour', completely bone stock, and have zero issues. The tone would be absolutely fine, the tuners stable enough, the bridge robust enough, the neck stable enough. It's really not that big of an ask.
Click to expand...
Meanwhile, hacks like me are playing pro guitars that are better quality than someone of our skill-level deserves to be playing. I'd sound just as mediocre on an entry level bass as I do with my expensive gear.
 
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#134
I bought a Glarry thin line Tele style for $85. Brand spanking new and delivered to the house.

Expectations were low.

I played it a few hours, and made a quick list of things that needed doing.

New strings: $5.

Shim the neck. Lube and reshape the nut. Sand the neck, polish the frets, and set it up.

I’ve got a couple hours into it and a couple bucks in sandpaper and fretboard oil.

It plays and sounds just fine. Does that tele spanky funk thing all day. Weighs just over 5 pounds. Stays in tune, and stable.

I did have to put fingernail polish on the saddle screws of they would rattle loose.

But for $85? I love this thing.

These days, a few hundred bucks get you a pretty sweet guitar or bass.
 
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#136
Was rocking a big g&l 5 string all through the 90s but somewhere around 2003 or 2004 bought a $249 Spirit XZ25, the type with Steinberger licenced hardware and conventional body shape. Once I put flats on it, I quicky got another, and since then these 2 have been all I use for shows and recording.

But each to their own lane. I play tons of guitar too, so for me, having a bass sound I know I can quickly get in the ballpark with allows me to move on to other aspects, guitar, vocals, etc. Plus, operating in the original sphere as I do allows me to just develop a bass sound that I like, and call it good, the complete opposite of say, a busy session or cover band guy, for whom what I do would not suffice.
 
#137
Greenman72 said:
I was goofing off, admiring Esh basses (of which I am a big fan), and saw a picture of Hiisi, from Lordi. He's also an Esh user.
But he hasn't always used an Esh. Check out his picture.

View attachment 7238848

Is this guy, a professional musician, really rocking a Yamaha TRBX304 on stage? Isn't that the beginner-est of beginner instruments?
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Look cool ~~~ Yamaha should make this TRBX304 as signature model. But not Fender Laura Lee Sig Jazz price tag !
 
#139
JIO said:
These Epi basses are the best vintage inspired T-birds Gibson never made.
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They truly are very very nice.
Unbelievable actually for the price.
After shifting weight around to address neck dive, and a few other small tweaks I can’t put them down.
Even knocked my Acynonyx down a notch.
Got me to sell my Meteora.
 
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#140
Greenman72 said:
I was goofing off, admiring Esh basses (of which I am a big fan), and saw a picture of Hiisi, from Lordi. He's also an Esh user.
But he hasn't always used an Esh. Check out his picture.

View attachment 7238848

Is this guy, a professional musician, really rocking a Yamaha TRBX304 on stage? Isn't that the beginner-est of beginner instruments?
Click to expand...
What is a beginner instrument?

The first instrument made by an apprentice luthier?
 

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