To me it's a two-parter. Feel is first; if I don't have that, I can't even move to the second part, which is tone. When the combination of great feel and great tone is there, it can be inspiring. And I think what's great in both feel and tone will be different for everyone.
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What makes a bass great?
- Thread starter Joe Nerve
- Start date
I don't get the humour... did you say something funny?
Those cats play well because they put in the hard work perfecting their technique not because their basses were set up well, though that certainly helps. The skill and ability of the player is not the question here, it's "what makes a bass great?". Those guys would agree, I would wager, that a great bass is one that has decent components and is adjusted properly.
BobDeRosa
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- May 16, 2012
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As the years go by and the basses pile up in my closet, I have to humbly admit that I no longer have a clue regarding this.
I think I finally get it when I see someone playing an OLD, no name POS and being completely content with it. While sounding great at the same time.
When I first started playing bass, all basses sounded the same to me, and I'm starting to feel the same way again. Admittedly, that might have a lot to do with the fact that for the past 2 years I've been using IEMs... and well, all basses are pretty much sounding the same. Or that I'm going deaf
I own far too many basses and I'm reluctant to sell because I feel like I'm going through some sort of temporary insanity here. I therefore thought I'd open the topic up to conversation. And to add a little to what inspired this post...
The last bass I fell head over heels in love with was my Rickenbacker. I can't put a D-tuner on it, so I don't use it with my current band. Since then I've purchased TMB 30, A Caprice, a Jazz, a Mustang, and most recently dropped a big fat chunk of dough on a Huntington 3.
I play all these basses at my gigs, and whenever I'm not playing my Mustang, I wish I was playing my Mustang. And this is going on for a while now.
I paid $400 for that Mustang, new.
I can't lie to myself anymore and felt I needed to make that admission openly.
What's going on here?
Help me please to understand
Hey Joe Nerve, thanks for asking an important question that elicited such interesting responses. You are not going insane -- actually, quite the opposite.
I'm amazed at how seriously we bassists take ourselves, worrying about every aspect of the instrument from the choice of P vs J vs MM to the color of the pick guard and the strap, as if all that poopie mattered. And then fretting about having the right strings, the right amp, and the right pedals. All that is stressful, not playful.
The bass is our tool for doing what we do, just as a carpenter's hammer is his (or hers). So far, I haven't seen a TalkHammer forum, where carpenters post multiple pics of their favorite hammers and solicit advice about what color, material, tensile strength, shininess, handle width, etc.
If we all spent as much time using the basses we have -- most of which are perfectly adequate -- to improve our core sound and technique and ear as we do drooling and fretting over gear, there would be a whole lot more Victor Wootons and Ray Browns than there are now. However, that also sounds a lot like work. It's a whole lot easier to search for the latest-greatest-sexiest stuff than it is to play perfect scales, melodies and grooves.
For me it’s the neck. I’ve never played a great bass that didn’t have a great neck.
As the years go by and the basses pile up in my closet, I have to humbly admit that I no longer have a clue regarding this.
I think I finally get it when I see someone playing an OLD, no name POS and being completely content with it. While sounding great at the same time.
When I first started playing bass, all basses sounded the same to me, and I'm starting to feel the same way again. Admittedly, that might have a lot to do with the fact that for the past 2 years I've been using IEMs... and well, all basses are pretty much sounding the same
I own far too many basses and I'm reluctant to sell because I feel like I'm going through some sort of temporary insanity here. I therefore thought I'd open the topic up to conversation. And to add a little to what inspired this post...
The last bass I fell head over heels in love with was my Rickenbacker. I can't put a D-tuner on it, so I don't use it with my current band. Since then I've purchased TMB 30, A Caprice, a Jazz, a Mustang, and most recently dropped a big fat chunk of dough on a Huntington 3.
I play all these basses at my gigs, and whenever I'm not playing my Mustang, I wish I was playing my Mustang. And this is going on for a while now.
I paid $400 for that Mustang, new.
I can't lie to myself anymore and felt I needed to make that admission openly.
What's going on here?
Help me please to understand
You play the bass you enjoy playing. Strangers on the internet can’t explain that to you.
For me, a well-made bass responds to a variety of set-ups and tolerances. I great bass falls in line with my rudimentary set-up techniques. I can futz with the nut, string types and gauges, relief, and action, and everything falls in line the way it should. No funny humps or bumps that only a talented tech could remedy.
That is step one to a great bass. The rest is easy. I'd rather replace electronics than fight with a bass that won't set-up and play well for me.
That is step one to a great bass. The rest is easy. I'd rather replace electronics than fight with a bass that won't set-up and play well for me.
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You dont get sarcasm very well. It was your wording about The player making the bass being a cop out. My sarcasm was towards you. Can you make a bass sound good if it wasnt set up. Well those guys could and im sure Joe Nerve (OP) can as well. The player making the bass is not a cop out.
What makes a bass great is your connection to it. Plus, it must be of sufficient quality to perform and be reliable your to requirements.
Amen.
I own somewhere around 40 basses, and I absolutely love the sentiment of this sentiment. As I go from bass to bass though, I have to admit - all romanticism aside - that this statement is 90-95% BS. I hate to admit that, but its what I believe.
Consider this: when I play with a pick, only net/fret and pick interact with my tone. What do my hands have to do with it?
Now we are getting at the truth. I have a Dingwall and a Sterling SUB Ray5. The Dingwall is hands-down the better bass, but I get equal enjoyment out of both.
@Joe Nerve: Your post is really interesting to me. I have a Spector NS4CRFM. When I play a show, it is the only bass I want to play. The sound, feel, and ergonomics just work. At home, I have very little desire to even get it out of the case. When I do, I struggle to want to pick it up. At shows, though, I always take two basses: the Spector and anything else. I always play the "other" bass the first set, and to date, I can't wait until that first set is over so I can switch to the Spector. At home, nothing; the Spector sucks. Its weird.
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
It's all between your ears. I played the same bass for two decades. It was all I knew. Years later I realized that an 11 pound bass was less comfortable on a gig than others.
Having 40 basses is not making one a bassist, as same as calling others opinion and experience a BS is not showing up style; and that's what i hate to admit!
A lot of insights in this post. I had a Fender Jazz years ago and really loved it and regrettably sold it. Many years later I bought another one. I will be upfront about it, I bought it because I like Jazz basses and I thought it looked cool. I saw a Squier VM 50s and it was so cool looking that I bought it. THEN I saw those Fender Noir P basses and thought it was awesome cool. So that's my first criteria, looks. Luckily all of them feel and sound great but I did know beforehand that Fenders feel 'right' to me. Of course if one sounded bad I would have sold it. I find I play the Squier the most.
My most recent crush, an Ibanez ATK 800, is a bass I consider great and I don't see that going away anytime soon. Many of the reasons I like it are features that I've wanted and narrowed down over the years like fretboard radius, neck shape and feel, etc. Well it happens to check almost every box for me. But the reason it's great to me is that it's an extension of my personality. This is a nice working man's Bass, not for an aristocrat, and I consider myself a hard-working and down to earth person that revels in value. The natural finish and looks feel like home, the electronics and sound are outstanding, it's lightweight and plays effortlessly. It's probably the most value I've ever gotten from a bass. I honestly like it better than my old Stingray which cost three times as much.
Because of my nature, I think I'd have trouble enjoying a more expensive bass with the same features, even if I didn't pay for myself.
Because of my nature, I think I'd have trouble enjoying a more expensive bass with the same features, even if I didn't pay for myself.
You misunderstand, and I apologize if my post was offensive. I am certainly no great bassist. No question about that. Your experience is absolutely not BS.
What MY experience tells ME is that, while "the tone is in the hands" is a nice, romantic statement, the bass, amp, strings and signal chain account for a whole lot more than 5-10% of "tone."
If your experience tells you something different, I can certainly understand that our experience provides us with different viewpoints. As for the hands, I do believe that muting, timing, and rests account for a lot - and that is definitely in the hands.
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Sting? Really? I mean, I like The Police and all...but Sting's main instrument is his voice. He's not exactly Tracy Wormworth when it comes to the bass.
What makes a bass great? The player! Make bass great again
