• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Scott Pilgrim is a guitarist...

BassyBill

BassyBill

Gold Supporting Member
In Memoriam
Mar 12, 2005
18,174
4,621
West Midlands UK
#1
... according to this idiotic fool.

dumb moron said:
In Scott Pilgrim vs the World, he plays Scott, a guitarist in an aspirant rock band...
Click to expand...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/7965561/Scott-Pilgrim-vs-The-World-review.html

Scroll about halfway down.

It's not that I'm particularly bothered about the bass vs. guitar thing. It's more the fact that we're expected to accept the views of somebody so obtuse as being in any way worth reading, or somehow authoritative. How can you take anyone seriously when they're put in a position to comment as some sort of authority very publicly on a film about a musician, and they're not even clued up enough (or don't even pay attention enough) to know what instrument the main character plays? How come her views on movies are posted up on the internet as if they're critically valid rather than uneducated crap spilled by some dumb know-nothing who sounds like she'd have trouble distinguishing her own ass from her elbow? It's not as if the film doesn't make this abundantly clear. But somehow the film "expert" missed it.

I wonder what this eejut thought of that classic film "Jaws" about the killer whale?
 
#2
Doesn't Scott Pilgram play a bass GUITAR? He doesn't play a bass viol, does he? Or a bass trombone? Or a bass anything-else? Doesn't he play a bass GUITAR?

Tell me again who is posting uneducated crap?

:hiding:
 
#3
It's hard for non-musicians to understand the difference, I've been playing bass for some time and
my well-educated mother still asks the difference between guitar and bass.
He wasn't wrong to call him a guitarist, he just wasn't specific enough. And his job is to be specific. :atoz:
 
#7
for a long time it was referred to as the fender bass, if I recall correctly. When it comes down to it there is no technically correct term for the instrument designed to be a sort of cross between double bass and guitar, either its an electric bass, or a bass guitar.
 
#9
Valerus said:
Another piece of evidence showing that we, bass guitarist, are literally invisible.
Click to expand...

So true. Sometimes even to musicians.

Just watched a concert we played last night.

MD called a reprise, counts off to the musicians' in-ears, "1..2..3..4!"

I start right away, drummer comes in a bar late.

MD announces: "And the drummer came in perfectly on time when I called the reprise!"

Oh well!

:rolleyes:
 
#10
I don't know about the rest of you, but I play an electric bass guitar. I have seen bass guitars that are not electric (i.e. big acoustic guitars that play in a lower range than "regular" acoustic guitarists), but I don't play one.

If you play the same instrument that I do, then, IMO, technically, that makes it correct to say that you are a guitarist.

Saying that the reporter's job was to be specific is fine. And if the review were being published in Bass Player Magazine or some other guitarist magazine, then being MORE specific would have been appropriate. But, for a review for the unwashed masses, it seems to me that saying Scott Pilgrim is a guitarist is plenty specific. Now they all know he's not the drummer, or singer, or keyboard player or whatever. And mostly, they wouldn't know the difference anyway, if the article said he was the bass guitarist - so being MORE specific was really needless.
 
#11
All you people who play bass guitar and say you are not a guitarist, is the bass the only instrument you play? The bass guitar is part of the guitar family so when you play a bass guitar yes you are a guitarist. It is like someone who plays tenor sax saying "I don't play sax, I play tenor." If you play with the more traditional instruments and you say you play bass, they'll ask "Do you mean clarinet, trombone, drum, guitar, etc.?"

It has become common to say bass when you mean bass guitar just like it has become common to say kleenex when you mean tissue. But by musical definition, all of us bassists are guitarists.

When I played in my school jazz band the teacher never said I played bass, he said I played bass guitar and would often tell the guitars to turn up referring to both me and my friend who played guitar.
 
#12
tycobb73 said:
All you people who play bass guitar and say you are not a guitarist, is the bass the only instrument you play? The bass guitar is part of the guitar family so when you play a bass guitar yes you are a guitarist. It is like someone who plays tenor sax saying "I don't play sax, I play tenor." If you play with the more traditional instruments and you say you play bass, they'll ask "Do you mean clarinet, trombone, drum, guitar, etc.?"

It has become common to say bass when you mean bass guitar just like it has become common to say kleenex when you mean tissue. But by musical definition, all of us bassists are guitarists.
Click to expand...

so you can only say jazz bass if its specificly a fender jazz bass?

same for precision?
 
#16
Bass player = Bassist
Guitar player = Guitarist

when you say "he plays guitar" you think straight away electric guitar right? so yes in the review she should of said bass. Someone who has never seen the movie and reading the review would think it was about guitar not bass, so i do see where your coming from
 
#18
I think what people are missing here is that the bass guitar is actually integral to Scott's character. Being that the bass guitar is seen as a more "indie" instrument. The traditionally cool and flashey guitar has now been replaced in the "what's hot" spotlight by the bass guitar, due to the bass guitars subtlety and understated slightly nerdy appeal. The fact it's a bass is actually meant to reflect Scott's personality, so actually the reporter didn't understand the full importance of that aspect of the movie.

However what you doing reading the telegraph anyway, read the guardian bro.
 
#19
I've been rocking my U-bass (ukelele sized bass guitar) lately at an open mic where the dancefloor is pretty much one with the stage.

Every night someone gets a big surpise and does the whole pointy pointy "holy cow you're the bass" when they suss that what they're getting down to is coming from me. I play generally play the old "invisible groove that nobody but a real listener notices until it isn't there" style of bass so it's real nice when that happens.

I don't care if they call it a ukulele when it's technically a very short scaled bass guitar with really fat strings to counter the shortness and it's almost inaudible without an amp. It's a bass.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back