What have you learned from Talk Bass?

[thebreakman]

I learned that it is a MUCH friendlier community than most guitar forums. Other than that, whatever I want to know I can find from friendly folks

 

[milkman-27]

I learned that if you ask a question you are usually told to use the search function instead of getting an answer

 

[Bufalo]

I learned that if I woulda bought a Fender instead of a Peavey back when I bought my first bass, I coulda had a boner.

 

[groundhog]

Sx basses are as good as squier.

 

[GregT]

Wow!! When I started this thread right before I went to work, I just thought it'd be interesting if a couple people even responded. I just got home and read every bit of it. There are a lot of good folks here on Talk Bass, no doubt. I have asked questions and received good helpful answers in the past.

My original post mentioned that I was told to put some midrange in my bass. Why I never figured that out is beyond me. It was JimmyM who gave me that advice a few years ago. That has been the biggest thing I have learned here still. I really was a guitarist who thought bass should be mud. Crank the bass and no treble or midrange. I used to play with "bass", but no "bass note".

Another really cool thing I got from Talk Bass was some history of my upright bass. It has a name written on the back of the fingerboard in backhand. I asked about the name here and someone hooked me up with the bass player who owned it in the 70s. It ended up my bass was on a pretty famous album.

 

[mimaz]

This has to be one of the sanest forums on the Internet!

Whoaaa.....

 

[vmabus]

I learned that I'm the only one who doesn't like Fenders ;-)

 

[peledog]

Don't you mean the "Bass-Time Continuum"?

I learned that if I woulda bought a Fender instead of a Peavey back when I bought my first bass, I coulda had a boner.

Two gems.

 

[adivin]

I've learned that Adam Clayton sucks.

 

[FretlessMainly]

Most bass players seem to be hell-bent on having low action for some inexplicable reason.

 

[travhop42]

Do not order a bass from Darrin Huff unless you can wait 10 years.

 

[bigmoosepi]

that no other community is as precious and compulsive about the smallest of things.

 

[Nashrakh]

Talkbass is comparable to most other instrument-specific boards in that the posters talk more about gear than actually making music with it. Sax players are even worse though (omg mouthpieces). We at least talk about technique every now and then... Even if it's beating a dead horse more often than not.

 

[Noot]

I've learned some very cool stuff:

-you need to roll back the volume to get a warmer sound
-vintage instruments aren't always better than new ones
-it's OK to boost the mids on bass
-the 1st harmonic is louder than the fundamental; useful information when considering 5 string basses and amplification
-410 + 115 is actually not the default way to build a setup
-the Fender Precision is still widely used; so I don't have to feel like a freak anymore
-on the upright I'm a total newbie, so every post I've made meant learning to me

 

[vbchaos]

Greenboy designs

 

[Davo-London]

That bassists are way too bothered about their instruments and not bothered enough about what they play!

That sounds harsh but when you look at where folk hang out, it seems a fair synopsis.

Davo

 

[AdamR]

Ive learn that apparently I was doing everything wrong regardless of how good it actually sounded.

 

[Sav'nBass]

Wow... when I really think about it it floors me and makes me appreciate this place a lot more.

Just about everything I know about gear, from basses to cabs and amps I learned here.

Here is what I learned...

1-It does not matter how long you have played .. what matters most is how long you have played with purpose. I am not the only guy who first picked up a bass in the 70s and still plays like a relative novice because he didn't do the work... the reason is irrelevant.... the only thing that matters is playing with purpose today.

2-There are basses that cost as much as cars.

3-There are amps that are over 300 watts that sound great and weigh in at under 7 lbs..

4-There are bass cabinets that are light weight and actually sound good.

5-That mixing cabs is not always the best thing to do .. and that bigger speakers don't "do the lows" while smaller speakers "do the highs and mids" and a rig should be put together more for what it can do than how it looks.

6-The relationship between cabs, amps and ohms. Before I started here the only gear I ever bought aside from my first Fender Musicmaster bass amp.. I think it was like 15W ... was an Acoustic head (a 401 ir 370 maybe.. can't remember.. it had an equalizer on it..) with a 301 bottom.. and I wound up selling that once I got married the first time and moved into a small apartment in 81 and basically did not buy any more bass gear till 2001 when I moved to Va. and started playing again for my church. The few things I did between 81 and 2001 I used other people's gear. When I had to start getting my own gear I was a total noob fior all intents and purposes and knew nothing about what I wanted or needed.

7-You can actually trust total strangers on the internet. Since I have been on TB I have bought and sold several basses, amps, effects pedals, accessories from straps to racks, cabinets and a few other non bass related items.. Truth be told in the 31 transactions I have done on TB only one was an outright misstatement where an item was advertised as new but it was used and for what it was worth the item still did what I bought it to do and I kept it in play until I sold the item I had bought them for. I had one other item where I wished I had not paid what I did pay for it after the fact because I wound up spending money after the fact to bring the item up to speed... but it is still a good solid item.. Other than that in every case I have basically gotten what I paid for and gotten the chance to try out way more gear of all sorts than I would have if I had to depend on word of mouth or some other source like CL or eBay.

9-I learned that there are some incredible players out there .. some still kids and some a lot older than me but all great players with a wealth of information and a willingness to share it and no matter how good you are, or think you are .. there will be someone better and no matter how bad you are or think you are ... there will be someone worse so just do the best you that you can and enjoy the ride.

10-I learned that there is more than enough free stuff available to make anyone a better bassist if they are just willing to do the work. You gotta have love for the instrument and respect the process.

 

[sratas]

information is power, and TB is loaded with tons of good one,

it's that simple.

Hard to imagine myself as a musician and a gear geek without TB related learning.

Apart from a few morons and "do you know who am I?" idiots, that represent a very narrow portion of users, TB is also loaded with smart and polite guys.

It's incredible we can talk with pros, builders etc.

Love TB, love...

 

[lpdeluxe]

I've been a member here almost as long as I've had internet access. I live in a small city in Deep East Texas (closer to Shreveport than to Houston or Dallas) where there is a very active music scene, but where the majority of bass players play either Ibanez beginner basses or black Jazz basses through Peavey amps (not a criticism, but from my perspective they mostly sound alike). In other words, there's not much to talk about with them.

Here's what I have learned:

That TBers are good to deal with (I got a wonderful fretless J in trade for a G&L Tribute L2000);

That MY sound is a single-coil or split-coil P with Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flats into a Mesa/Boogie Walkabout;

That TBers will argue about anything from the tiniest detail to the most major design decision;

That the music rules, whatever you play;

That the guitar may be the siren on top of the fire truck, but the bass and drums are the motor that drives it down the road.