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Tech advances in basses since the early days

#21
I think the biggest advancements have been on all the Emulators

Line 6 was really onto something with the Variax......they should revisit that platform again, this time with the benefit of a decade+ of technological advancements and a better constructed bass guitar

In the meanwhile, I think (opinion) the biggest advancements to bass arent in the guitar portion but all the amp/cab sims, IRs, and effects that are available
 
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#26
Basslice said:
Oh. How can we neglect "The Stick"?
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The Stick really isnt a bass. It can be used as one no different than a synth can but, like a synthesizer, it was never intended to just be a bass instrument. Although there are now "Bass Sticks" made nowadays because of its use by bassists, its original intent was to be its own instrument - like a stringed piano with multiple note choices in the array - and can be played self accompanied ensemble. Trey Gunn, Nick Beggs, and Tony Levin have brought it to the forefront as a bass instrument and the reason I bought mine.....but this is really what it does:

 
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#28
All that, and yet, keeping it simple can still be magical.
20210730-110152.jpg

However, absolutely nothing wrong with a little inovation.
20210805-114849.jpg
 
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#29
Rib 13 said:
The Stick really isnt a bass. It can be used as one no different than a synth can but, like a synthesizer, it was never intended to just be a bass instrument. Its like its own instrument - like a stringed piano with multiple note choices in the array - and can be played self accompanied ensemble. Trey Gunn, Nick Beggs, and Tony Levin have brought it to the forefront as a bass instrument and the reason I bought mine.....but this is really what it does:

Click to expand...

Pretty sick. I still like it as a bass instrument thingy. Never played one. I think my mind would fry. It almost does just watching that video!
 
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#30
JimmyM said:
So I'll give a little list of the stuff I think has been truly innovative and impactful to the bass world....
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Amp simulators.
I have a real bass amp I love, but sometimes, for a particular song, recording direct and then being able to pick a particular amp and cab combo is amazing. They've come a long way in the last 10 years too. e.g. Amplitube's more dynamic speaker emulation versus static impulse responses.

I cried tears of joy when my old 1990s GK head was having some some issues and IK Multimedia emulated it (and side by side comparison, did a hell of a good job of it).
 
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#38
I was going to add Plek, but then I saw it was just added.

oh, and you can get at least 16 different flavors of split coil P bass pickup now.
I call that the "mustard" principle. We don't really need 30 kinds of mustard at the grocery store, but it's pretty cool that you can choose from that many.
 
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#40
cnltb said:
I think there have been many technical advances since the early days.
Whether employing these yields better instruments remains a matter of opinion. (Imho).
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I think terms like 'evolution', 'improvement', etc to bass guitars, if used in speculative threads like this one, is similar to the term 'improvement' with real estate if some type of structure was built on it over time. Whether or not the functionality of the improvement is a benefit, detriment, or have any value will always be determined by the individual. imo of course
 
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