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Who agrees?

#102
There's a reason Fender is the most respected. Because Leo led the way. Before Fender, what was there? I remember; only stand-ups as we called them. And I learned on them. But the Fender basses are what Leo made and became a standard because we didn't have to drag around that oversized beast of a bass any longer. But even Leo wasn't satisfied. He was, after all, making a BASS, and trying to get an electric bass to sound like an upright. And that is where we are ALL still headed . . . the persuit of the tone of the uprights. But the Fender electric basses are the tone of probably 95% of all electric basses on the market. And that's what most want.

To me there's nothing like zooming my ear up next to an upright. The tone from a UB is pure. The tone from electrics are all distorted through amplification.

On another thought . . . I still play an electric just like a UB; horizontal. And I always thought it odd to play an electric vertically like a guitar. A bass IMHO needs to be fretless and played horizontally, no matter if it's amped or acoustic, in order to achieve a true bass tone.

Fretless with Flats Foreva~!
 
#103
lowtide said:
There's a reason Fender is the most respected. Because Leo led the way. Before Fender, what was there? I remember; only stand-ups as we called them. And I learned on them. But the Fender basses are what Leo made and became a standard because we didn't have to drag around that oversized beast of a bass any longer. But even Leo wasn't satisfied. He was, after all, making a BASS, and trying to get an electric bass to sound like an upright. And that is where we are ALL still headed . . . the persuit of the tone of the uprights.
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Where'd you get this idea? Very few people buy an electric bass to try to get the sound of an upright. I certainly didn't. Leo Fender may have been inspired to create an electric version of the upright bass, but what he really made is the bass end of the guitar family.

To me there's nothing like zooming my ear up next to an upright. The tone from a UB is pure. The tone from electrics are all distorted through amplification.
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Only if you have bad amplification or don't know how to use it properly.

On another thought . . . I still play an electric just like a UB; horizontal. And I always thought it odd to play an electric vertically like a guitar. A bass IMHO needs to be fretless and played horizontally, no matter if it's amped or acoustic, in order to achieve a true bass tone.

Fretless with Flats Foreva~!
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The bass guitar is a member of the guitar family, not the violin family as the double bass is, so it is much more natural to be played in the same fashion the guitar is. Playing it "horizontally" (I'm assuming you mean vertically if you mean playing it the way an upright is played) won't change its tone either.
 
#105
That's the only reason I've wanted to get a Rob Allen Mouse- because it's one of the few basses that does a decent job at sounding like an upright- but my want of such a sound is so limited, I can't justify paying for one (even though they aren't very expensive).
 
#106
Plus, they make my tiny 5'8" size look huge :p
BryanTyler_Mouse.jpg
 
#108
Yeah, that Conklin does look like it's about to tip you over :D I outweigh you by about 80lbs though, so back when I had a Conklin 7-string, I only looked like I was partially dwarfed :p Those Conklin bodies are huge, but they do help keep away the neckdive on ERBs.
 
#109
Bryan R. Tyler said:
Where'd you get this idea? Very few people buy an electric bass to try to get the sound of an upright. I certainly didn't. Leo Fender may have been inspired to create an electric version of the upright bass, but what he really made is the bass end of the guitar family.



Only if you have bad amplification or don't know how to use it properly.



The bass guitar is a member of the guitar family, not the violin family as the double bass is, so it is much more natural to be played in the same fashion the guitar is. Playing it "horizontally" (I'm assuming you mean vertically if you mean playing it the way an upright is played) won't change its tone either.
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Seems to me your only claim to fame here is your desire to be critical. You my friend missed the whole point. And points I don't wish to remake to someone who's not knowing my meaning from the start. Have a great day.
 
#110
lowtide said:
Seems to me your only claim to fame here is your desire to be critical. You my friend missed the whole point. And points I don't wish to remake to someone who's not knowing my meaning from the start. Have a great day.
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Who said I had any claim to fame? :p The only things I took issue with were direct quotes from you that have little to do with reality. If your points were different than what you actually wrote, then maybe you should think about wording them differently.
 
#111
I guess that in some ways talking bass is like talking politics; hard to get anywhere. I read far more posts then I respond and is more then likely a good thing. I do agree that music is forever moving and finding different sounds is a big part of that. I guess I should just be glad that I found myself in a happy place; musically. I see you are a painter Bryan; nice. I paint as well and getting to find it cut's into my music time.
 
#112
Bryan R. Tyler said:
Very few people buy an electric bass to try to get the sound of an upright. I certainly didn't.
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Me neither. If I want an upright sound, I'll play my upright. The electric bass is interesting because it was designed for one instrument family based on a completely different family. Not that semantics matter---but, then again, not much that gets bickered about here really matters.

I guess, to me, it just seems silly to shun everything but Fenders (or insert bass). I don't see how this would benifit anyone. If you don't like something, that's cool. Doesn't bother me, but, I think that people are doing themselves a disservice by ignoring other options.
 
#114
I ownED a Lake Placid Blue AVS '62 Jazz bass that played like no other bass I have had and that includes:

Warwick Thumb
Alembic 20th Anniversary
MM Stingray
Sadowsky Metro

...among others. I sold it to buy the Sadowsky which is a great bass BUT it cannot replace the Jazz bass. The only bass I have now that comes close is my Fender CS '55 PBass.

Yep, I think Leo got it right.

Gale
 
#116
markdavid said:
Well , I know I love my Jazz bass, its a brilliant instrument , there isn't a tone I cant get with it....
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Well, that we KNOW can't be true :D

I actually wished I did like Fenders more, as they're much easier to find and less expensive than the stuff I really do like. I really love the look of a Fender Jazz (may get a shell pink copy of one just to look at :)) and I love the Jazz's neck, but the blocky body and the often unbalanced neck just never felt great. Not available in enough strings or frets either (up until this year anyways). They sometimes sound great to me and sometimes sound just bleh. I've had a couple 70s Jazzes and Ps come by for me to test out and I wasn't impressed by them at all. I had a 90s P in my house for a long time that was nice, but nothing special, although it sounded great in some applications.
 
#117
spade2you said:
Clearly if you look at it, some of Leo's creations sound hardly traditional. I mean, Jaco and Pino's tones aren't exactly conventional. The 80's had its' share of Spector NS-2 use and I think it's unconventional sound had a nice bite without being too odd.

Usually most people telling me to open my mind to Fender haven't exactly (by that I mean HAVEN'T) tried much other stuff. I've taken a lot of crap for my CB and how people think it sounds, but it sounds almost exactly like a fretless Fender.
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Bass Viking said:
I'm curious what kind of music you play and what other basses you're talking about.
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Well, like I said: rock, funk, blues, raggae, R&B, some fusion but I'm not really a jazzer.

Basses: Pedulla, Modulus, Zon, MTD, Warwick, Spector, Roscoe, Ken Smith, and I'm probably forgetting some others.

Some "other" basses that have worked really well for me were the Guild B-302 in certain contexts (lo-fi rock), the kubicki ex-factor, and a fretless 5 I built with a graphite neck and poplar body. There were a couple of times the pedullas sounded good, but other times they were mocked and rejected by the artist (even when the engineer and I thought it sounded pretty good). I replaced the pedulla with an american standard P on one recording to thumbs up all around.

Bring a P or a J and things are going to work out. If you want to get progressive take a Stingray, Sadowsky, or Lakland and see if they like it. Better to have a Fender in the bag as well.

Ultimately, the bass you choose should not really be the way you're "expressing your artistic personality". Do that with your playing.
 
#118
pickles said:
Ultimately, the bass you choose should not really be the way you're "expressing your artistic personality". Do that with your playing.
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Quite often, you can't do one without having the other.
 
#119
Bryan R. Tyler said:
Quite often, you can't do one without having the other.
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How so? If you need a 5 or 6 string, or a fretless, then those are fairly real issues (and you can get nice trad-sounding examples of each). What I'm trying to say is that groove, note choice, dynamics, etc are the vectors on which a bassist should orient their artistic energy ... not trying to get a tone nobody else gets.
 
#120
I'm saying that you often can't get the same dynamics, tone, or playability with just any bass- Fenders in particular. The whole reason custom guitar/bass builders came about was because players couldn't find everything they needed to express themselves in the instruments that were available on the market.
 

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