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Why do people like complicated basses?

#42
I have a Carvin ICON (see avatar), its not my first choice when playing around the house, but during a gig, its really nice to just reach down and tweak a knob on the bass to correct a tonal problem rather than spinning around and fiddlilng with my amp on a dark stage.

There is something to be said about picking up a simple passive bass though, ( think Pbass here) and just going for it.


I guess it depends on the style of music and the gig.
 
#43
"Hey, I'm only fiddling with this to please myself with what I'm hearing up here, sound dude...sorry if it's screwing up the mix that everyone ELSE in the room is hearing!"
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I'm thinking, whatever I'm hearing on stage, I trust that the sound guy's doing his job and making it sound good up front, otherwise what's the point of him being there at all, besides, music's supposed to be fun, not perfect.

Who in the audience really notices those little nuances in the bass tone anyway? You just know there's handful of people there who don't even know what a bass guitar is.:rollno:
 
#44
mittens89 said:
When I see these custom made basses with a dozen knobs and switches, I just think "that looks like trouble, you knock one and you lose your sound". I know there's got to be some people on here that like all that extra trim and i was curious as to why?
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IME if you understand what everything does, there's no complication. YMMV

Think about it, when was the last time a coil tap moved on a bass at a gig? They usually stay in the same hole.
:D

There are basses that aren't intuitive, meaning most people can't just pick them up and know how to tweak them. My old G&L L2000E is such a bass... but once I found out how the controls worked, look out... versatile as heck.

I'd rather have control of my tone at the bass than the amp, with my touch and the onboard controls. My main basses are very versatile AND I know how to dial in exactly what I want every time. And I play a bunch of different basses. Familiarity helps. If you can't remember what things do on your bass, it's not the bass' fault.
:cool:
 
#46
mittens89 said:
That's exactly what I'm thinking, whatever I'm hearing on stage, I trust that the sound guy's doing his job and making it sound good up front, otherwise what's the point of him being there at all, besides, music's supposed to be fun, not perfect.

Who in the audience really notices those little nuances in the bass tone anyway? You just know there's handful of people there who don't even know what a bass guitar is.:rollno:
Click to expand...


There are clearly two camps: people who think like this (not that there's anything wrong with that) and people whose main concern isn't the calibre of the audience, rather their performance.

I don't care if the audience can't tell the difference... "I" can tell the difference. YMMV
 
#48
mittens89 said:
When I see these custom made basses with a dozen knobs and switches, I just think "that looks like trouble, you knock one and you lose your sound". I know there's got to be some people on here that like all that extra trim and i was curious as to why?
Click to expand...

This post brings to mind an old bass player joke: a bassist is chasing a kid around at a wedding. One of his bandmates stops him and asks why he's chasing the kid.

"He turned one of the tuners on my bass"
:mad:

"What's the big deal about that?"

"He won't tell me which one"

:p
 
#52
Brad Johnson said:
I don't care if the audience can't tell the difference... "I" can tell the difference. YMMV
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Precisely. If I am extremely happy with my sound, I will play better and more comfortably than if I don't like it and there's nothing I can do about it.

I play an active bass with 5 knobs, and it isn't just the 'convenience of not having to fiddle with my amp' aspect about actives that I like. It's that fact that my bass is no one trick pony. I can get such a variety of sounds and tones out of that thing, that I can make to fit just about any song in any genre.
 
#54
mittens89 said:
When I see these custom made basses with a dozen knobs and switches, I just think "that looks like trouble, you knock one and you lose your sound". I know there's got to be some people on here that like all that extra trim and i was curious as to why?
Click to expand...

I had to laugh (with you, not at you) when I read this because I started with a regular fender-style passive bass with a tone rolloff and volume control. Then I tried active pickups with no eq on the bass at all, just a volume controls for each pickup. Then I went to basses with active three band eq. Then I tried active, three band, selectable centre frequency, volume and blend controls. Now I'm back to the beginning again... passive bass with a tone rolloff.

I guess I had to try them all to be sure that I wasn't missing anything. They all sound different, and at different times I've had different favourites. I just hope I don't start going right back around that whole cycle again. ;)
 
#55
mittens89 said:
When I see these custom made basses with a dozen knobs and switches, I just think "that looks like trouble, you knock one and you lose your sound". I know there's got to be some people on here that like all that extra trim and i was curious as to why?
Click to expand...

How many knobs on your amp?:eek::ninja: Who want to keep turning around to an just a amp while playing.
 
#57
M.R. Ogle said:
"Hey, I'm only fiddling with this to please myself with what I'm hearing up here, sound dude...sorry if it's screwing up the mix that everyone ELSE in the room is hearing!"
Click to expand...

I don't get this. Does that apply to anyone using effects as well?

My sound man's opinion of my bass tone doesn't influence me in the least. If I need to change my tone to somethng better or more appropriate, I do it without sound man approval.

If he wants to work with me, he needs to do his job and deal with it.
 
#58
Then add your various pedals, etc…

I like the simplicity of my P bass – volume –tone. I have no interest in tweaking beyond that. I had a bass with more knobs and I was constantly twiddling to no advantageous end.

Another word (okay two): double bass. No volume or tone control on the instrument, and yet listen to what people can express with it.
 
#60
As a long-time guitar player, I own about a half dozen stomp boxes, and have a modelling amp that has numerous settings and selections.

But with my bass, I prefer just a clean, basic sound, with minor tweaking of the tone knob, and nothing else. That works best for me at this point in my life, but YMMV.
 

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