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Some Pros use cheap basses
- Thread starter Hevy T
- Start date
Seems like we overlooked this tidbit. Back to the OP, looks like he's not necessarily playing a cheap bass after all.
On a different note, I like Am Std Fenders cuz I also like hard shell cases. I like MIM Fenders too but when I add the cost of a hard case then I might as well get the USA made used for $700 with case - and as a bonus I get the graphite reinforced neck, the high-mass bridge, etc.
Play what inspires you - cost and value are not necessarily the same.
I see lots if guys playing dean's and the Spector performer or legend series basses here lately as well as ibanez. I personally play what I play because nothing else sounds or plays like it. Tone being the most important to me. But those are what speaks to me.
No a lower end bass won't sound or play like a higher end one. But if the sound man is in control of your tone who cares what you give to the sound board. Let them deal with it.
No a lower end bass won't sound or play like a higher end one. But if the sound man is in control of your tone who cares what you give to the sound board. Let them deal with it.
Scott in Dallas
Commercial User
- Aug 16, 2005
- 2,084
- 27
- 55
- Disclosures
- Builder and Owner: DJ Ash Guitars
Great players can only play great instruments. It's just not possible to get good music from an inexpensive bass. Just ask anyone who paid too much for their bass and they'll tell you.
Very good one!
My most expensive bass is my P Elite II - $700 in 2000. Including that one, my 5 basses cost an average of $310.
Hell, if it sounds good, I'll play a rubber band on an old broomstick!
My best buddy bass player has THE best sounding vintage P and J basses (bought new in the late 60's and early 70's), but he also has a fascination with el-cheapos, the constant refrain being "Doesn't this sound AMAZING for $200?!??" (he sounds amazing on anything, BTW).
Well, last night on the gig, his latest fling was a new, low-rent ESP "relic'd" P/J. First gig with it. Surprise, surprise, he plugged it in and.........nothing. Nada. Silence. No backup. "It worked at home!!!"
Oooops.
There's a reason cheap instruments are cheap.
Well, last night on the gig, his latest fling was a new, low-rent ESP "relic'd" P/J. First gig with it. Surprise, surprise, he plugged it in and.........nothing. Nada. Silence. No backup. "It worked at home!!!"
Oooops.
There's a reason cheap instruments are cheap.
Solder is the same price no matter the instrument. Best pots are two dollars more than lesser pots. And there's a very fine line in actual quality between the two.
Batteries cost the same no matter the bass.
And they all fail no matter the cost of the bass. And rarely at that.
^^^
I certainly hope there was a backup bass ready at that show. Not having appropriate redundancy would be a MUCH greater failure for a "pro" than using a "cheap" bass.
I certainly hope there was a backup bass ready at that show. Not having appropriate redundancy would be a MUCH greater failure for a "pro" than using a "cheap" bass.
Yeah, that never ever happens on a more expensive bass does it? Only happens on cheap ones.
Right.
I'm going to offer the old chestnut here: the sound is in the fingers.
A well setup inexpensive bass can sound really good. A poorly setup expensive bass can sound really bad. If both are equally well setup, then I'd give the edge to the expensive one - but I wouldn't assume that everyone in the audience could hear the difference.
A player who knows what he/she is doing can sound good with any well setup bass.
A well setup inexpensive bass can sound really good. A poorly setup expensive bass can sound really bad. If both are equally well setup, then I'd give the edge to the expensive one - but I wouldn't assume that everyone in the audience could hear the difference.
A player who knows what he/she is doing can sound good with any well setup bass.
Ha, just got the new issue of Tape Op and they include a very pertinent story in a mic review. They write about an experiment by an MIT professor who had college kids try two glasses of beer both containing the same beer only one was laced with a few drops of balsamic vinegar. When the students didn't know about this vinegar they largely chose the laced beer. When they knew about the vinegar they picked the unlaced beer. In other words, human perception is very heavily skewed by expectations. In the current context make of that what you will.
So if you expect to play better using a better bass - you will?
If you expect that you'll sound better, your ears will hear it as such.
Abso-one-hundred-percent-loooootely.
Psycho-acoustics. Humans have an almost unlimited ability to perceive things they way they are predisposed to perceive them. This extends far beyond audio to even seeing things that they expect to see.
Yeah, that never ever happens on a more expensive bass does it? Only happens on cheap ones.
Right.
Wait. Are you guys SERIOUSLY trying to argue that there's NO difference in quality and workmanship between a low-end el-cheapo and a pricier professional instrument? You DO realize that's utterly ridiculous and defies basic logic, right?
Look, I love cheapys, too. I own a bunch. But they are what they are......easy to buy, fun to have around and good to mod/upgrade.
But, I've been gigging for a living for 25+ years, and this is fact, jack:
A good quality, more expensive professional instrument certainly MAY have a catastrophic failure on the gig, given rough treatment and occasional bad luck.
A cheap, low-end beginner quality instrument (unmodded and not upgraded) absolutely WILL fail on you, at a most inopportune moment.....it's just a matter of when.
