24 frets with complete access to all of them. This thing is a slap monster. There's plenty of money above the 5th fret if you know where to look.
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What's the problem with 24-fret basses?
- Thread starter Dexterzol
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- 20 frets 24 frets bass necks frets
My point was that, no matter how long the fingerboard, the rest of the design should be consistent with that.
Got news. Speaking at the level of gross oversimplification, you could make that argument. But it doesn’t hold water if you understand how it actually works.
The protocols and underlying technology were no different then than they are today. And although you may think it’s silly to give credit to a small group of people, the people who are professionally involved in enterprise level information technology will tell you exactly who (e.g. Vint Cerf, Bob Kahn, Tim Berners-Lee, Mark McCahill, Mark Reed Crispin et al.) was responsible for what, and when each piece of the package of technologies we think of as “the web” came out. And you can even go back before the advent of the public Internet to see the people and their technical contributions (such as Ward Christensen and Randy Suess with RBBS, Tom Jennings and Fidonet; Jeff Reeder, Jim Bergman, and Mark Hayton and RIPscip, Howard Reingold who coined the notion of “virtual communities” and “electronic villages”, etc ) who pointed the way and had a big influence on what the Internet ultimately became.
Trust me. We know who was responsible for the invention of the Internet. And what their specific contributions were. And also what generation they’re from. There’s no mystery or question there.
Regarding the differences between the Internet then vs now:
The Internet is bigger and more powerful than it originally was as more resources were deployed and more people were given access to it. But that’s a natural consequence that grows out of networking things.
For example, a fax machine by itself is useless. But link two together and they now become a useful tool. But that’s only a connection between two users. However, add a thousand more fax machines and fax technology becomes extremely useful. And with each additional fax machine, the fax network becomes exponentially more powerful - and more worth it for someone to get a fax machine.
The Internet works the same way. The more resources and users, the more powerful it becomes. But the underlying technology and protocols driving it are pretty much the same as they ever were. It’s not really that different. There’s just a whole lot more of it. The only limitation to its power is the amount of bandwidth you give it. And the only limitation to the amount of bandwidth is the amount of fiber or copper cable you want to string. Because the threshold for bandwidth is infinity. You can have as much as you decide to provide.
So it’s really no different. Bigger and faster? Sure. But the underlying tech is still the same. TalkBass’s forum software traces its technical heritage to the old dial-up bulletin board systems. Wedding a BBS to the Internet just made TB globally accessible at a very low cost for its users. But it’s still just a computer bulletin board system at heart. Biggest difference is that today we call them “forums” instead of “boards.”
Old wine in new bottles.
I think we're looking at the same question form a different perspective because it seems, to me, that you're making my case for me. That fact that you can actually name the people involved, individually, tells me that I can't give an entire generation of people the credit (or the blame) for it. As you said, the technologies by themselves weren't powerful on their own -- like having one fax machine. They needed other advancements like faster connections, home PCs, laptops, touch-screens, smartphones, etc for the internet to become the ubiquitous utility it is today. Otherwise the internet would just be a bunch of engineers talking about computers as it was in the early days.
When we give credit to the greatest generation for WW2, they deserve it because they all lived through it, suffered it, and contributed to the war effort in some way. Far too many were involved for us to name them individually.
For the boomers, we can give them the credit (or the blame) for rock and roll. Even though only a small minority were rock musicians, they were the generation responsible for making it popular. It's popularity is due to that generation. Same with the hippies. I can blame the boomers for giving us the hippies because there were so many of them and contrary to their self-labeling as the counter culture, they were a huge part of pop culture. That's on the boomers. You get now what Two Fingers was saying? The founding fathers of the internet may have been boomers, but they were a small group of engineers. They don't represent that generation.
There is absolutely no problem with 24 fret basses. I think that originally on early basses the frets were installed to the end of the fretboard and it finished at 20 or 21. Now some purists will say only these basses provide the best tone however I think we've all played basses with more frets that deliver great tone so pfffft! to that!
Just so we get this straight... So you know the magic formula of bass playing and clearly you’ve been making the millions playing meat and potatoes bass lines? And all jazz fusion players are essentially worthless?
Am I getting this right?
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I know the type of dismissive statements in regards to 24 frets based you are referring to. I don't think they are terribly serious. Just the sort of grousing traditionalists like to do. As someone else pointed out, there is a lot of heavy leaning on the old "no money above the 5th fret" axiom around there. I call it Talkbass Orthodoxy.
"Leo made the perfect bass"
"Maca is a genius"
"Flats are awesome"
"Old tube amps are the best"
All that rot. Don't put too much stock in it.
Whoa....I’m 69 and I have three 24 fret basses and I’m also a big fan of new technology. We’re not all dinosaurs. That doesn’t mean I use all 24 frets though but I don’t stick by 5th fret limitation either. I do play above the 12th occasionally and between the 5th and 12th a lot. I’ve never come across any distaste for 24 fret basses anywhere.Interesting. I have not encountered that here. So I'll have to guess.
I'm guessing anyone who would have a problem with 24 frets is ridiculously traditional.... meaning they would have a problem with ANY design feature on a bass that occured anywhere other than Leo Fender's shop and any time after 1959.
Thay being said, the "Get off my lawn!" crowd can get stirred up about pretty much anything. Baby boomers in particular tend to think there hasn't been a single good idea or quality product made since they were in high school. They'll go on the internet to piss and moan about.... the internet.
I don’t go to Starbucks though. You got me there.
I'll go the other direction and say that my least favorite thing about the classic P and J is not enough frets. To me, 21 frets would be an ideal update for the American professional line, like the string through body and easy truss rod adjustment at the base of the neck have been. I'd go G&L LB100 over P bass for this reason alone. Call me excentric if you like. But 22 frets? Now that's crazy talk.
How strange that you left huge rock bands like the Who, Yes, and Rush off this list. Gee, I wonder why?
How strange that you left huge rock bands like the Who, Yes, and Rush off this list. Gee, I wonder why?
I was listing bands from the top 20 all time best selling. None of them are on that list. Yes and Rush are prog rock bands and an anomaly. Rush is my favorite band of all time but they are a very rare exception of a band led by bass that's been successful.
Fender doesn't make them is the problem. (*)
As a result, 24 frets aren't considered the proper and traditional way to make a neck.
(*) yes I know Fender made a handful of 24 fret models
As a result, 24 frets aren't considered the proper and traditional way to make a neck.
(*) yes I know Fender made a handful of 24 fret models
All three were still hugely successful and had bass players who were all over the fretboard. RHCP is another.
Elon Musk, Brin and Page, Zuckerberg, and the founders of Twitter are among those who have had a significant impact, for better or worse. And by definition non-Boomers are under 55, so their impact is in many cases yet to be fully evaluated.So who are the post boomer exceptional people then? As in civilization/history altering invention making exceptional people.
Sure. Though being able to play a high E would be a lot more useful in most commonly used keys than a high D#/Eb is, so in my opinion 21 frets is better and I suspect the decision to go with 20 only occurred because Leo didn't play.
