So all my gear sucks....

I like some vintage stuff but I feel very strongly that this is the time that the best of the best is being produced bass and amp wise.

Welcome to Talk Bass

 

Guys in the crowd who are not even on stage have no weight in my mind when it comes to things...for the most part, they're just trying to make you feel bad anyway. The late 90's Fender guitars and basses are some of the best that were ever built...and some of the now 'vintage' Fender stuff is just awful.

Your stingray is a REAL stingray. Is this guy saying that a Jazz bass isn't a REAL Jazz bass after Leo left Fender in the mid 60's? I guess all those L&G's should be re-labeled just 'G' now that Leo's shuffled off?

I don't have this much of a difficulty as people mostly have never seen much of my gear before and if they do say something about my bass I can tell them I have a vintage Fender sitting at home. Usually they go on about how amazing it would sound if I played vintage Fender X or X Jazz instead of what I have and I casually say, "Oh, yeah...that does sound good. I have one of those at my house". Shuts 'em right up.


Fer a last little bit of fun...back when I saw the Pixies play on the Doolittle tour (1989, I think), Joey Santiago sounded amazing. My guitarist at the time and I sat there and were stunned by his tone. His amp? Peavey bandit practice amp on a stool with a mic to it.

I have another friend (in a blues band) who has a squire strat as a back up. one night when he had broken the strings on the guitar he had been playing, he picked up the squire...and it sounded phenomenal. After the set, a gear nerd came up and told him how great that squire sounded...and wanted to know what pickups he'd replaced the originals with. He didn't, the whole guitar was stock.


There are nay-sayers in every crowd.

Screw 'em.

 

don't listen to your friends...they are just vintage snobs. the older the better, no matter how crappy it is.
the fact is, it sounds like you've got good gear. stingray with an ampeg rig is pretty decent.
in thirty years i'll bet that i'll be hearing guys saying "geez, thats a 2026 stingray? it sure sucks compared to that 2004 stingray i once had."

 

If that guy knew what he was talking about, he wouldn't have had to ask what year your Stingray was made ... he should've been able to hear the difference. What a dork.

I like those afficionados who have never heard of Lakland or Sadowsky, not to mention Aguilar and Eden. Not ever hearing of EBS, Glockenklang or Walter Woods is OK, I suppose, since there aren't that many out there.

I just tell them next time you go see the Stones, take a look at Darryl Jones' basses. Or Jason Scheff in Chicago. Or Skylark in The Doobie Brothers. Or Ricky Minor on American Idol. Etc. etc. etc.

 

That's the point. Here's some dork that thinks, for some reason, that pre-EB Stingrays are better than current ones. Well, if they're so much better, why can't he hear the difference? What a dork.

 

Gear posers are a dime a dozen. I was in a music shop last week and this guy was debating whether or not to splash out
600 on a dw9000 drum pedal ( Canadian $) or 900 on some other brand. Well, he's making such a show about the construction, mechanics, beater angles and all sorts of other nonsense that we ( my nephew who is a drummer and I ) start listening. It only gets better when he tells the sales guy he is going to try em out. His playing was god awful. Worst I have ever hear in fact. His expertise on pedals did not translate into double bassdrum skills. Even the salesguy, who I know is a straight up guy, had to turn away (either is disgust or fear of bursting out laughing).

Don't believe the hype about vintage this and that. If newer medium - high range basses were so crap, companies wouldn't be stamping lifetime guarantees on them. Everyone is an expert but at the end of the day, you know what feels and sounds best for you within your budget.

 

Or you could just say "OK...yeah, my bass sucks. Go buy me a new one."

 

My favorite musicman basses come from the 90s. The ones where birdseye was on 99 out of 100 of them. They are yummy.

The new ones are just as good, just less pretty to me., heh.

 

Cool. Mine's a '97.

 

Mine too.

 

It seems so simple, doesn't it? If you said that to the guy in question, though, his head would probably explode in confusion.

 

rotosound45 : one word, jealousy