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What's the problem with 24-fret basses?

#141
A long time ago - like, close to 40 years - I wanted a 24-fret bass. I just felt like it made sense to have to full octaves on every string, and couldn’t understand why every bass wasn’t just by default 24 frets. Then I realized it’s really only 4 extra notes, and I rarely ever play even the 20th fret - like pretty much only when playing Sir Duke and occasionally dropping some fat high note bombs in a bass line. I’m above the 12th fret often, but just don’t have a need for those particular 4 notes ever.

I don’t disdain 24-fret basses, that’s stupid. I just don’t have a need for it and it hasn’t been part of my bass buying criteria for decades.
 
#142
mbell75 said:
Not really. It doesn't mean literally that anything above the 5th fret is useless. What it means is, the money for bassists in bands are guys who actually play BASS, not the guys who think they are guitarists and go noodling all over the place. Beatles, Zeppelin, U2, Pink Floyd, AC/DC....the guys who were most successful and made tens of millions did it by holding down the bottom end, not trying to solo and wow everyone like they are Jaco.

Show up to most auditions with a 6 string, 24 fret bass and start noodling away and stepping on the guitar frequencies and you'll likely be shown the door within minutes. So that phrase is basically saying know your role and hold down the bottom end, that's where the money is. If you want to be Jaco or Wooten, go solo or start your own jazz fusion group and make peanuts.
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Really, such an incredibly narrow-minded way to look at an instrument. You're honestly insulting yourself and all of us. Bass isn't just 10 frets divided across the E and A string you know. Bass is a huge, beautiful instrument, it's people like you that hold it back.
Just to give you a few examples, Beatles (Yes Paul went up there), same with Zeppelin, Primus, Metallica, with and without Cliff, Megadeth, The Who, Yes, (even in their mainstream days), Queen and of course Jaco
 
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#143
Every time I've picked up a 24 fretter, muscle memory and visual cues didn't match. This gave me issues on stuff around and above the 9th fret. But this is my problem, not the basses', and is part of the learning curve of switching over.

I rarely go that high on the frets anyway. The money is on the low end of the fretboard.

Nor have I ever seen any "hate" directed at 24s.
 
#145
matante said:
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.
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Oh, Two Fingers and I go back a long ways at TB and we’re no strangers to each other. So while I appreciate your stepping in to help me sort his comments out, it’s really not necessary. We’ve had our fun going back and forth on this topic every so often. It’s our little game we play with each other. And I think we understand each other and where we’re coming from just fine. (He liked my post btw. So I know he got it at least. ;))

That’s also an interesting qualification you’re introducing. Because you’re basically saying you claim privilege to pick and choose who and what represents a generation and who what doesn’t. Very convenient way to keep moving the goalposts around.

My feeling is that if someone going to speak in term of “generations,” then it behooves us to play fair and include the entire set in any sweeping generalizations we’d care to make.

Which is my way of saying maybe it’s best if we could all just stop with the whole “generation thing” entirely. And which is why I keep punching holes in it. As you noted.

Maybe that might help you “get now” what I’m saying. :)
 
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#147
GregC said:
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.
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I’ll agree with you on Elon Musk at least.

There’s nothing new about FB or Twitter. To me it’s just the old BBS online community world (one innovation) on steroids due to another innovation (the Internet). Social media platforms are not what I’d consider genuine innovations. They’re more along the lines of mashups. I haven’t seen any actual innovation on Zuckerberg’s part. Some low cunning maybe. But no real innovation.

But maybe that’s just me.
 
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#148
Dexterzol said:
Don't post much, but I've noticed some level of disdain for 24-fret basses, not just on this forum. What's the problem here? Is it not objectively better to have more frets to work with, why the hate for 24-frets, you can objectively do less with 20 frets
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On a guitar, arguably yes -- though a lot would disagree because 22 fret node pickup placement something tradition something something.

On a bass, it's kind of a non-issue unless you're a melodic player. On a 4 string, 20 frets also gets you exactly 3 octaves range.
 
#149
99ACC841-88A7-4AA2-8F14-7B07F3A68EE2.jpeg
I have no problem at all. Mine is a 4 string and a 34” scale. Truth be told, I really bought it more for the downsized body and pickup placement than for the extra few frets, but they’re nice to have.

Edit: I slapped once. It was not a good thing, so no problem with the fretboard length for me.
 
#152
SteveCS said:
I don't have a problem with 2-octave necks but I do have a problem with some implementations. For example, my Warwick Corvette has a 2-octave neck, but the lower cutaway/horn design makes access above 21 pretty much impossible without drastic changes in hand position...
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I have one and don’t have much of an issue getting there. That said, on the gig I rarely play there, and seem to noodle there only when I’m by myself.

Speaking of getting to the upper register, if you that a Corvette is bad, try a double bass...lol.
 
#153
I've been on TalkBass for 11 years and I've never read anything negative about double octave necks.

I have a few comments about them. Even if the higher register frets are not used, the longer neck allows for easier access to notes above #12. That's a positive.

My only "beef" with 24 frets is that the longer neck (compared to 20 frets) has to deal with string tension. A longer neck has more length to bow than a shorter neck. But, I've never heard of that being a problem.

Like the other "old school" players on this forum, I believe in keeping it "low". Even my 20 fret Fenders, I rarely go higher for notes than 14 frets and even there, try to stay away. But to each his own.

There's no problems with 24 frets! Lord knows that the majority of basses are 24.
 
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