DoubleOhStephan

Maybe I had the Friday afternoon model 😁

You may be right, but there are an awful lot of examples of having to pay your dues and that being an essential component to the finished article.

Haha well you never know, he may have had a pair of wellies for Sunday kickabouts 😊 From my own experience, I didn't know what a bass was supposed to play like, my enjoyment was from playing with my mates in our band. That's what hooked me tbh

Yep, it had a big fat neck and terrible balance. It wasn't unplayable, but by today's standard would be considered a bit of a dog. The question isn't about trying to put people off although I can definitely see how it would, rather it's about whether having to overcome the issues of a crappy bass are actually beneficial.

I’m genuinely not sure what my views are on this, so forgive me if it’s an incoherent rambling of stuff and nonsense. Inspired by the “Bass for beginner” post by @Ant1972… There are fairly regular posts on the forum from new bass players asking advice on what’s the best first bass for them to buy. The advice given is generally pretty unanimous, seemingly unarguable, sometimes a little contradictory but certainly always all well-meaning. I’ve noted that the general consensus is (but not limited) to - buy the best you can for your budget; choose one of the bigger brands (and best models within that brand); try lots before you buy; get a good setup; choose a comfortable body shape; avoid basses with neck dive etc… Then, to a lesser extent, new players are asked to consider (among other things) - what style of music they want to play; what is their ambition as a bassist (bedroom to rock star); what style of bass do they prefer (modern or vintage); what tone are they trying to achieve etc… Finally, there’s the potentially contradictory advice about - do/don’t emulate their favourite player; choose active/passive; choose short/long scale etc… To musicians with a few years’ experience under their belts, that all sounds like good, solid and sensible advice. After all, if you were starting to play from scratch now, that’s exactly the advice you’d give yourself. But… I recently saw a clip of Rio Ferdinand talking to Man Utd academy players about a young Cristiano Ronaldo, who he said, would endlessly practice stepovers with “mad” weights attached to his ankles. That got me to thinking… Consider, if you will, the Sea Turtle (bear with me, there is a point to all this)... Baby Sea Turtles have an exceptionally hard start to life. First, they have to break out of a shell and dig themselves out of a deep sand pit. Then they face an epic journey (well, epic for a baby turtle) across the beach, avoiding predation, to make it to the sea. Where they face more predation and will, in all likelihood, die. Obviously, the reason Ronaldo practiced with ankle weights so that, without that extra weight, his feet would feel lighter and be able to move at ridiculous speed, bamboozling defenders. Adult Sea Turtles really do have to be the fittest in order to survive. Now, my first bass as a 14yo boy was a 1980’s Marlin Sidewinder Precision copy. Looking back, it was pretty awful. It had a big fat neck, terrible balance, high action and bland tone. But it was all I could afford and I played it almost every day for a year. My next bass was a brand new 1990’s Aria Pro II. Now I had a bass with a slim, fast neck and low action. It sat on the strap with really good balance and compared to the Marlin, was an absolute breeze to play. I found that (although I didn’t realise it at the time), because my left hand was so used to doing all that extra work of holding up the neck and pressing hard on the strings, I’d developed a natural hand speed, finger strength and increased stamina which helped massively as I developed as a bassist. Unfortunately, I had to quit playing just as I hit my stride at 18 (long story) and by the time I started again in my late 30’s, all that was long gone. But anyway… If, as seems to be the consensus, the high quality of new, cheap instruments is a relatively recent phenomenon, I’m led to wonder if musicians who are now in their 30’s and older would have also started with cheap and nasty beaters, so would have had to overcome the same hurdles and as a result, developed the same core strengths. So, finally, to the point! Is it actually a benefit (or even an essential) for a new player to start off on a low-quality instrument? By having new players avoid the inadequacies of a beater, are they actually missing out on a key stage of early development which could potentially delay or even harm their growth as a bassist, particularly of the arguably most important fretting hand? Are beaters actually and in fact, the weights on Ronaldo’s ankles? Look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Maybe not at first, but if that's the style of play that you like then there's definitely things you can take from his playing, such as using a pick and playing up the dusty end of the fretboard. 😉 If that's what inspires you, aim for it! Nailing the riff for Love Will Tear Us Apart will give you a huge buzz and is more fun than learning scales (which you do need to do too BTW 😬) It's a great bass line and is pretty straight forward. Also worth noting, this guy is an excellent player and is using a Washburn Taurus, a £250 bass! -

Great advice from all above. In order to help narrow it down, do you have a bass hero or particular style of music you're looking to play? The recent Faith No More thread has reminded me of when I was starting out and wanting to emulate the sound of my favourite bassist, so looked for an entry level option of what he played. Thankfully, back then Billy Gould played Aria Pro II, not Zon like nowdays 😬

I was so tempted by this one myself, very cool. Nice VT too BTW 👍🏻

That's exactly how I feel 😕

Another classic, somehow I remember all the words even though Ive not heard it for over 20 years! Such a shame that Chuck passed a couple of years ago, but there's a certain quality to his voice and lyrics that seems to suggest a life that will be cut short

Haha tempting 😜

Funny you say that, As The Worm Turns is right up there as one of my favourite FNM songs, but I do prefer Pattons vocals though, probably from the live at Brixton academy video.

I remember the first time I heard Mr Bungle, I didn't know what the hell was going on but I loved it 😁

Yes!

Ahh good times! I can't quite remember the spec of mine, it defo didn't have Integra written on it and I don't think it was PJ, but I was a big fan of the herb back then so my memory is a little fuzzy 😬

On the Delano vs Sandberg stock debate, I've got a Classic with Delano soapbars (3 band sandberg preamp) and a Basic Ken Taylor with Sandberg humbuckers (also 3 band sandberg preamp) run through an Aguilar Th350 & Barefaced Two10. The Delanos sound very modern (hifi I suppose), I can get a lovely clean tone with clarity through bass, mids and highs but it's really easy to dial in some growl or thump, depending on what takes your fancy. I personally find them full of personality, particularly down in the low range. I played her mainly in a nusoul originals band and she was absolutely perfect for that. The Basic is much more difficult to describe. Because of the coil split it is has more versatility than the Classic, but to my ear still has a modern tone, but you can play around all day and find loads of lovely variety. Tbh, it's has too much choice for me, I can never remember how to get a particular tone 😂 Because of that I didn't tend to use the Basic in a band situation. I think I used her twice, both times for pub rock covers and she sounded bang on. Both basses sound huge in the mix but are quite specialised I suppose, they really suit modern styles of music, but for anything older (70s), they both just sounded wrong. Because of that I also got a passive TT, but I haven't had chance to play that in anger as am not in a band atm. At home levels though it is a beautiful, proper vintage jazz tones so I'm sure it'll be grand.

Bargain! Cracking little bass to be fair, sounded great 👍🏻

Billy was such an influence on me that my first "decent" Bass was a black Aria Pro II. Here's my 16 year old self throwing a pose with my Integra 😂

I was a huge fan back in the 90s, they started getting too heavy for me after Angel Dust, but MP is an amazing singer. Billy Gould was an early influence for me too

In terms of the costs, there would be more to it than just adding a note due to the code that's generated by the configurator. Therefore, if a different pup type is selected, that change would need to be reflected along the whole configuration process which means the change potentially touches all the stages. With software dev, the more things a change affects, the higher the risk of something going wrong (introducing a bug etc) so the longer it takes to write and test the code. I assume that this has been looked at by the Sandberg team and wouldn't be surprised to see it introduced at some point, it's probably just not on the development timeline at the moment. I believe they're building a new "standard" website, so guess all the software dev budget is tied up in that project.

Think you're being a little harsh tbh. The Sandberg configurator is one of the, if not the, best configuration sites online. It gives you literally thousands or options using the stock electronics, if you're serious about buying a bass, a quick email to a distributor will let you know the additional cost. Don't forget, software development is very expensive, even adding a seemingly simple option can work out to be days, if not weeks of work, depending on how many parts of the site the change touches.

I'm not sure that the configurator has every single option available and you can't buy directly though it, you need to go to a distributor, with whom you can discuss your specific requirements before placing your order.

"Lindseys guitar is up for auction for over $80,000 so to have the opportunity to buy his strap at this price is a bargain." 😂😂🤣🤣