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RANT - String Demo Videos - I WANT FINGERSTYLES

Agree 100%.

The issue I have is you get some demos which are basses or cabs that nobody who slaps is going to buy, doing all slap.

I recently considered purchasing a Fender Hot Rod Jazz, and had a guy slapping the whole thing. Sounded awful. Also, tube amp demos. ***.



Alternatively, the main reason I never bought a Rickenbacker is every demo of them is with a Pick and Rounds. The 2 things I'd never use on a bass.

It's like one spice/ flavor can ruin any meal. I understand the tube amp comment, pick and distortion. I want to hear one clean sometimes.
 
Dont stop at just strings... check out this "questionable" Seymour Duncan pickup comparison video... by far the worst I've ever seen& its their OFFICIAL demo. SMH :banghead::rollno::vomit:



I talked with Scott at SD about those (I'm one of their staff writers on their blog site) a while back and told him why I thought those videos didn't really capture the full scope of the pickups. They're working on getting new ones, but it takes time. A lot of time. Most of the demo videos I made myself, if you saw three minutes of footage, rest assured there was another 8-10 hours behind that, just tweaking it and getting everything right.
 
I talked with Scott at SD about those (I'm one of their staff writers on their blog site) a while back and told him why I thought those videos didn't really capture the full scope of the pickups. They're working on getting new ones, but it takes time. A lot of time. Most of the demo videos I made myself, if you saw three minutes of footage, rest assured there was another 8-10 hours behind that, just tweaking it and getting everything right.
That I believe. I wish there was some way to "try out" pickups and strings and such as easily as testing basses.
But then the classifieds would be empty
 
That I believe. I wish there was some way to "try out" pickups and strings and such as easily as testing basses.
But then the classifieds would be empty

Very true. I made all the string demos on the same bass, with the same settings, using the same audio interface, to get you the best comparison possible, but it still doesn't beat trying stuff out on your own rig that you know intimately.

I'm not sure how easily a String Tour Box could work, but a pickup one could be okay.
 
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I talked with Scott at SD about those (I'm one of their staff writers on their blog site) a while back and told him why I thought those videos didn't really capture the full scope of the pickups. They're working on getting new ones, but it takes time. A lot of time. Most of the demo videos I made myself, if you saw three minutes of footage, rest assured there was another 8-10 hours behind that, just tweaking it and getting everything right.

You'll be happy to know I DID buy those pickups & I'm getting a pair of GHS Flats in the mail! Having SOME video was better than none at least... but I've never forgotten the dirty I felt after watching it! haha
 
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You'll be happy to know I DID buy those pickups & I'm getting a pair of GHS Flats in the mail! Having SOME video was better than none at least... but I've never forgotten the dirty I felt after watching it! haha

I'm biased; I've used Seymour Duncan pickups ever since my folks hot-rodded my first bass (an Applause PJ bass) with a set of Quarter Pound P pickups and a Hot Jazz bridge for Christmas waaaay back in the mid 90s. So really, any pickup from SD I know I'm going to like (case in point, I have a Silver Zephyr version of their SPB-1 P-Bass pickup on my desk right now). But yeah, I know what you mean...
 
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I talked with Scott at SD about those (I'm one of their staff writers on their blog site) a while back and told him why I thought those videos didn't really capture the full scope of the pickups. They're working on getting new ones, but it takes time. A lot of time. Most of the demo videos I made myself, if you saw three minutes of footage, rest assured there was another 8-10 hours behind that, just tweaking it and getting everything right.
At least they are working on it. Thanks.
 
I wish there were more picks being used in demos; I can't discern much difference (within a certain type like round wounds) in sound if left to finger style. Same goes with bass demos.
That's because there isn't much difference in nickel plated round wounds. GHS Boomers have a little more low mids, D'Addario have a little less low mids, and everything else is between those two extremes.
 
Someone mentioned a "Universal Standard" for measuring SLAP in ALL YouTube demos. I agree completely. Howza bout something simple, i.e.

25% SLAP Content
50% SLAP "
75% SLAP "
100% SLAPPA DA BASS (Moron Level)

This format would work for me. Not only would the Slappity-Slap-Slap crowd be able to show off to their hearts' content, but those of us with no interest in such would know WHICH YouTube demos to avoid. We could start by watching, and posting our best guess as to percentage of Slap-Content in the "Comments" section. Maybe it would catch on and the OPs would start putting it in the titles? One can only DREAM.
 
Someone mentioned a "Universal Standard" for measuring SLAP in ALL YouTube demos. I agree completely. Howza bout something simple, i.e.

25% SLAP Content
50% SLAP "
75% SLAP "
100% SLAPPA DA BASS (Moron Level)

This format would work for me. Not only would the Slappity-Slap-Slap crowd be able to show off to their hearts' content, but those of us with no interest in such would know WHICH YouTube demos to avoid. We could start by watching, and posting our best guess as to percentage of Slap-Content in the "Comments" section. Maybe it would catch on and the OPs would start putting it in the titles? One can only DREAM.

It's weird that a perfectly valid technique on an instrument you play makes you, and others here, so angry. If the videos annoy you, find better ones.

For those of us that do slap, we obviously want to see that in videos. I also find it a pretty good indicator of the range and response of both pickups and roundwound strings. Ed Friedland's reviews are great...fingerstyle, slap, pick...can skip as required without having to be all condescending and calling anyone a 'moron'.
 
It's weird that a perfectly valid technique on an instrument you play makes you, and others here, so angry. If the videos annoy you, find better ones.
It is a valid technique. I acknowledged that in my OP. What I said, if you will bother to re-read it, is that I am sick and tired of slap being demonstrated to the EXCLUSION of all other techniques in so-called review or demonstration videos.
 
Sorry for the butthurt, but I would think that a demo consisting of 100% slap technique would be self-evident as a "moronic" attempt at demonstrating nearly ANYTHING, be it strings, bass, pickups, amp, speakers or whatever. It would be entirely useless to most of us who are trying to get a slight introduction to the capability of the item being demonstrated if the ONLY technique provided was Slap. I wasn't singling out players who slap as being morons. Please look again at my chart: 25, 50, 75 and 100%. I could tell at a glance if a demo would be of any use to me by those figures alone. I would even find a 25% Slap technique on a demo to be somewhat useful (much like the Friedland demos).

By all means, please play whatever technique you like. I don't have a problem with that. The problem I have is gaining anything useful at all in wading through way too many online"demos" that waste time that I can never get back upon discovering that the bulk of the demo will be primarily Slap technique.
 
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It is a valid technique. I acknowledged that in my OP. What I said, if you will bother to re-read it, is that I am sick and tired of slap being demonstrated to the EXCLUSION of all other techniques in so-called review or demonstration videos.

Ok, but I didn't quote you and wasn't referring to you - there are several disparaging comments regarding slap from other people in this thread, however. For what it's worth, I agree with you that ideally videos need to be balanced and include all techniques. I don't tap or use a pick, but others do, so if they're included in videos, that's cool.

Personally, I find demo videos recorded with nothing but a camera mic pointing at a practice amp, of which there are many, far more irritating than those that don't feature the techniques I use.