THE BEST BASS FOR ROCK (with data!)

[tonemachine]

Foster The People, get with the program you hipsters! I bet they probably wore shorts too...

I'm no hipster, I'm 47 and I find it sad how "hipsters" have genrtrfied so many of the formerly culturally-interesting Chicago neighborhhods... but Foster the People were one of the first to bring groove back to white pop music. Bruno Mars has even borrowed a little hook from Pumped Up Kicks, in my estimation. For those of us who appreciate groove, FTP is a refreshing return to white pop music that has groove. It ain't funk but it does bring rhythmic interest that was largely absent from the charts for quite some time.

 

[pholli00]

The best bass for rock is whatever Gene Simmons says it is. Everybody else is just yanking your chain. Well, I mean unless Lemmie's in the room.

 

[BoogieZK]

I think it's ********.

On TV channels, everyone is wearing Gucci, is gucci the best? No.

On streets, everyone is wearing Beats headphones; are they the best?? They are the worst!

Everyone wants an Iphone, is it the best phone? Surely not!

SInce many many years now, every bass player hears froms others (even guitarists) that Fender and Ampeg are the best combo!
This is the worst lie i heard in my whole life.

Maybe it's the most used... but certainly not the best for everything, and surely not rock.



Take a Double Humbucker bass with a sunn concert head or a Trace Elliot head or anything with a good poweramp, a 2*12" cab with good speakers, or 2*15" maybe. Any bass, you'll be good.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

common / average <> best.

... or DOES it???

 

[BoogieZK]

Agree but the title is explicit. Most common combo... maybe that's only what is shown!

For exemple Angus young uses 4 Mesa preamp....

Many bass player uses Alembic basses to recording in studio (idk if it is a myth or...)

 

[rtslinger]

Steve Harris brought the Fender P to the forefront of metal, however I think the basses with points that you can impale yourself or someone else on screams metal bass to me. I think DimeBag Razorback basses are a great example of what a Metal bass is imo. this thing says I've come to the party and things are going to get nuts

 

[Mystic Michael]

These observations can be used to identify the most common and therefore "best bass" for that genre.

Hold on just a second there, sonny: According to whose logic is there any kind of consensus that "most common" is equivalent to "best"?

All you've succeeded in demonstrating is that groupthink is still alive and well. Your reasoning, such as it is, falls squarely into the category of ad populum fallacy.

MM

 

[elgecko]

Hold on just a second there, sonny: According to whose logic is there any kind of consensus that "most common" is equivalent to "best"?

All you've succeeded in demonstrating is that groupthink is still alive and well. Your reasoning, such as it is, falls squarely into the category of ad populum fallacy.

MM

You have a point...I put it to you then. How do you determine the best bass for [INSERT GENRE]?

 

[Mystic Michael]

You have a point...I put it to you then. How do you determine the best bass for [INSERT GENRE]?

I don't. IMO, such a determination is pretty much meaningless. For one thing, it's inherently subjective. All that's important is whether a particular instrument, or make/model of instrument, can help me to capture the kind of vibe I want, for a particular song, in a particular genre or type of genre. If it works for what I want to accomplish creatively, then it works. That's all that concerns me. I'm not trying to prove some conceptual point.

Are there certain generalities that usually apply? Sure. And there's a rough sort of consensus about these, that usually apply, most of the time, in most situations. But IMO, that's as far as it goes. Certainly nothing about it is binding, and there's always plenty of room for different approaches.

So "best" is to me an insignificant question. I'm not preparing to defend my dissertation for a degree in musicology. I'm just creating music.

MM

 

[lfmn16]

Based on these data, the most common and therefore best bass for rock is...BIG SURPRISE! ...

If the most common was the best then McDonalds would make the best hamburgers.

 

[DavC]

Best is just like Value ... it's all in the eye of the beholder .!?!!

in that case .... this looks like a good Value ..!!

For Sale/Trade - Fender 2000 MIA Hot Rod Precision P/J w/OHSC | TalkBass.com

 

[tpaul]

Logic:

1. The Beatles were the best band ever.

2. The bass player for The Beatles used a Hofner violin bass.

3. Therefore, the best bass ever is a Hofner violin bass. QED.

No need to thank me.

 

[Jughead6]

Get some data from a REAL rock festival and then report back.

 

[SteveCS]

I am thinking (hoping) that post was in jest.

Of course it was - I'm still laughing 16 hours in...

Why would someone bother to gather this data?

For the comedy value, of course. Read the original post - the 10 blank lines that you have to scroll past to get to the punch-line. Brilliant - comic timing in text. And if we can't poke fun at each other, who can we poke fun at?

 

[tonemachine]

Hold on just a second there, sonny: According to whose logic is there any kind of consensus that "most common" is equivalent to "best"?

All you've succeeded in demonstrating is that groupthink is still alive and well. Your reasoning, such as it is, falls squarely into the category of ad populum fallacy.

MM

Title probably should have read "most popular/among those who are on the touring circuit and not on TB armchair quarterbacking."

Yes, it's futile to try to determine which thing is best, especially by equating most popular to highest quality. However, it's also futile to try to try to determine or suggest which thing is better than which other thing if even the supposedly lesser, "groupthink" thing is good enough to make a sound suitable for the far majority of situations.

 

[tedious1]

And this concludes todays presentation of "Fallacious P-Bass Glorifying Thread of the Day..."

 

[jasper383]

We are a deeply conservative herd species.

 

[elgecko]

Get some data from a REAL rock festival and then report back.

My observations are limited to music festivals televised by AXS TV. This year those were Coachella, Stagecoach, New Orleans Jazz Fest, Rock on the Range, and Firefly.

 

[buldog5151bass]

@elgecko They are just jealous you get to see better fireworks every night than they see on July 4. Even Mr. Pierre Paul of the NY Giants is jealous.

 

[KevInDaBassment]

This thread is useless, not even one person bothered to get a metric on what type of power cables their amps were using. Don't you know a bass and amp are useless unless you have a high-quality $250 electrical cable? What a waste of time...