The next "big thing" in bass development?

[EliasMooseblaster]

I'm all for new innovations. Much as I like my basses passive, heavy slab-bodied and old-fashioned, I'd say a good idea is worth exploring. If not, we'd never have the electric bass in the first place!

I just hope that there isn't too much of a movement who sees the Chapman Stick as the next evolutionary phase of the bass guitar...

Edited September 5, 2013 by EliasMooseblaster

[bubinga5]

there are some really good suggestions here about ampflication. like wireless amplification on your hip.. but electric bass wise, i very much doubt there is any more you can do to a bass guitar to make it any better, there are guys making basses at the pinnacle of instrument making. yeah there are string through bodies, high mass bridges, headless basses, .. dont get me wrong, there all cool in my book but it always seems like over kill to me.


i like a good preamp, but a preamp can really make a difference in your sound. a string through body wont. neither will a headless bass.

i can understand the zero fret, and i can understand PLEKing, but these are all minor tweeks to the wheel.

instrument making only really needs a certain amount of perfection. the innovation or music, comes from the artist in his or her music. how many times can you innovate the wheel, to drive it, how many times can you innovate a bass guitar, its a sum of its parts. dont get me wrong i love talkin bass, but it gets a bit neardy sometimes.

Edited September 5, 2013 by bubinga5

[Dr M]

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1378385825' post='2199478']
Class D have been around and mass produced since Peavey made the DPC line of amps and the 450w Databass combo in the 80's. They're not new tech!!
[/quote]

Fair point. I simply meant that the microhead / class D format seems to be flavour of the moment, and many manufacturers are getting on board with them.

[Dave Vader]

If we're being picky, I've got a 1957 hofner neck lying around somewhere with a zero fret on it.

[throwoff]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1378343230' post='2199016']
CNC routing already covers what 3d printing can do for basses, the advantages are all cosmetics.
[/quote]

Not a chance.

A CNC router, air filtration and raw materials cannot be used in the average home.

3D printers of the other hand can be used at home.

[Ghosts Over Japan]

[quote name='Dr M' timestamp='1378384879' post='2199455']
I'm surprised you didn't mention active electronics in that list - possibly (arguably) the most significant change to the face of the electric bass since, well, the Precision.

Unfortunately, as has been pointed out, dwindling wood stocks are one of the drivers for innovation at the moment. Synthetic / composite materials might increase in popularity.

Otherwise, many of the new innovations are in amplification. You could argue that the current 'big thing' in bass development is Class D power amplifiers.
[/quote]

Push/pull active pots was my general note about active electronics, I could of sat there and listed a lot more but I just wanted to provide an example.

Synthetic / composite materials do seem to be a lot more common in recent years with larger manufacturers dabbling with them too.
Cai

[LeftyJ]

[quote name='Ghosts Over Japan' timestamp='1378331732' post='2198904']
Yes, very good call, always found the game changer an interesting idea, I'll have to throw the Enfield Super 8 pickup out there then, [url="http://www.enfieldguitars.com/super8.html"]http://www.enfieldgu...com/super8.html[/url], I don't think other brands will copy it too much but it certainly makes for an interesting design and from my experience they do sound very good!
[/quote]

Well, they basically just copied Wal pickups (which have individual coils for [i]each[/i] pole piece) and added a lot of switching options. Their bass designs are Wal copies too, except for those newer Fender-like models of course.

An 'innovation' I'm quite fond of are compound radius fingerboards. It may seem like a small thing, but necks that have it are just so comfortable to play in my opinion. The idea is the radius is smaller (i.e. the fingerboard has a narrower curve) towards the nut, and gets flatter towards the bridge.

But the biggest new thing of them all right now in my opinion are definitely those small, lightweight class D amps and lightweight cabs! They're making life so much easier

[BigRedX]

[quote name='LeftyJ' timestamp='1378405212' post='2199893']
Well, they basically just copied Wal pickups (which have individual coils for [i]each[/i] pole piece) and added a lot of switching options.
[/quote]

Actually they haven't. Their pickup concept is very different to Wal's.

[stingrayPete1977]

I don't think people (the majority) want change, loads of brands have made stuff technically 'better' but we all know what the most popular basses are. I had a early Peavey Foundation bass as my first bass, it played better than every mim fender I have tried.

[EMG456]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1378332960' post='2198936']
It won't be anything visual of any use or ornament. I reckon it might, in fact SHOULD be, adjustable neck relief along the LENGTH of the neck so you can set the apex and profile of the neck curvature between about the 9th to the 16th frets. I think that would make it possible to set up the bass in a much more comfortable way to suit the string gauges, scale length and tuning. Necks bend at different places so a new truss rod system to control that bend could mean better feel and playability and above all, consistency. It may have been done already, never heard of it though. Not convinced I've explained it well either
[/quote]

The latest Chapman Sticks have a dual action, dual zone truss rod which can apply forward or backward bow over two separate parts of the neck. On a Stick it's pretty crucial to have a *very* low action so you tend to want the fingerboard as flat as possible. Combining this rod with the fully adjustable nuts and bridges of the Stick will make for a pretty fine- tunable action set up which would be great to have on a bass.

Cheers

Ed

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='throwoff' timestamp='1378393237' post='2199612']
Not a chance.

A CNC router, air filtration and raw materials cannot be used in the average home.

3D printers of the other hand can be used at home.
[/quote]

Wanna throw up an example of a home 3d printer? I've been looking at a bunch of desktop CNC router/engravers for making stuff. Turns out, more economic to just have it done commercially, just like photo printing. Talking about $600 US to get a bass body sized router, actual stuff I have considered. But I can have stuff water jet cut for a fraction of the cost, which is why I can turn out scratchplates, and amp chassis pretty cheap.

[Oversoul]

The biggest changes will be effects wise, I think dubstep opened a new trend for bass sound.

We'll probably see more developments into digital, high quality stomps, and the continued rise in quality of lower budget instruments.

I can see the asian market booming on middle to high priced instruments as well.

some woods will be banned/extinct/replaced by sinthetic alternatives.

Hey you never know, 10 years ago I used to wonder when a major brand would release a 7 string bass. Ibanez did that a few months back!

[LukeFRC]

i've often wondered why some british luthier doesn't make a bass totally of native woods.

[ead]

Bound to be the next major development from Fender when they release the next [s]generation[/s] reissue of the Precision or Jazz

....leaving now.....

[Prime_BASS]

I agree, new materials for making a whole bass.

It would have to be as cheap to get hold of and easy to work with for it to surpass wood.

Like the electric car, all seems a step backwards so will never kick off. Only hope they start mass producing hydrogen running vehicles.

[ead]

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1378447960' post='2200331']
i've often wondered why some british luthier doesn't make a bass totally of native woods.
[/quote]

I seem to remember an ACG client discussing this - maybe it's on the ACG thread on here. Sorry can't remember exactly though.

[EliasMooseblaster]

Actually, prompted by the mention of little Class D amps earlier - I've been really glad to see the (long overdue) appearance of small valve heads for bass. It didn't take long for guitar amp manufacturers to twig that there just isn't that much call for 200W heads with 4x12s any more, and perhaps a small, low-wattage combo was better for nice valve-y sounds.

I suppose the difference is that a lot of bassists actually prefer SS, ergo less immediate demand...but personally I'm counting the days until I can justify migrating to valve!

[chris_b]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1378414689' post='2200092']
....I don't think people (the majority) want change....
[/quote]

+1

I agree with Pete. Change has already exceeded most bass players needs, especially as it usually comes with a much higher price tag. That's why, worldwide, basic P and J type basses and old technology amps and cabs are the best sellers year on year.

My guess is that passive basses still out sell active basses, bent-pieces-of-tin out sell high mass bridges, heavy cabs out sell light cabs and crappy cables out sell the good ones.

The "next big thing" seems to be another Fender in most cases.

Most of the music today sounds pretty much as it has done for the last 50 years, except for the stuff played on keyboards. Until the music changes there won't be a big shift in the instruments.

[uncle psychosis]

I'm not sure the bass guitar will go through many more major changes. Once instruments become widely adopted they tend not to change all that much, because musicians on the whole are a fairly conservative (small c) bunch.

[Ghost_Bass]

Most things are already covered here. The idea i liked the best was the adding of a "room accoustic correction" system on bass amps. It has already been done by some digital mixer makers so it won't be too hard to put this on a bass amp.

Appart from all the ideas over here i really like the idea of having a neck that can go from fretted to fretless with a flick of a switch. It has also already been done by somebody whose name i can't remember now but i can remember that those basses are way too expensive.

I would like to see something like allparts or mighty mite selling these kind of necks as replacements for the standard models and VERY CHEAP!

[BigRedX]

You can't do room acoustic correction on an amp, because most room problems are time domain related (nodes and reflections) and trying to apply a frequency domain solution (EQ) doesn't give consistent results - improving things in one area of the room usually makes it much worse somewhere else.

[Kiwi]

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1378464886' post='2200655']
Appart from all the ideas over here i really like the idea of having a neck that can go from fretted to fretless with a flick of a switch. It has also already been done by somebody whose name i can't remember now but i can remember that those basses are way too expensive.

I would like to see something like allparts or mighty mite selling these kind of necks as replacements for the standard models and VERY CHEAP!
[/quote]

One prototype of the fretted/fretless neck was trialled by Steinberger. The XM bass was on Ebay a couple of years ago and eventually purchased by someone from Steinberger world. The general points made earlier about simplicity kind of apply in this case. The more complicated something is, the more potential there is for things to go wrong. With the neck, the refrets could have been nightmarish, I imagine. Also the string height would need to vary when the frets were rolled over to flush or the action would be higher in fretless mode. A rotating zero fret with a half height profile would take care of this at the headpiece end. But at the bridge it would be a lot trickier to achieve.

I'll put a hand up for Steve Chick however. Some of the stuff he was showing me with his new synth bass system was remarkable. If Line 6 and other modelling approaches are also considered, it might be that at some point, musical instruments become wholly electronic and simply interfaces for triggering sounds stored somewhere else. Yes the quality of interaction between player and instrument could become less satisfying but if the nuances of touch can be faithfully sensed (as Steve Chick has been working towards) then it would open up a different world where the role played by a musician and their preferred interface is more important than the sounds they actually make...

[Ghost_Bass]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1378465377' post='2200664']
You can't do room acoustic correction on an amp, because most room problems are time domain related (nodes and reflections) and trying to apply a frequency domain solution (EQ) doesn't give consistent results - improving things in one area of the room usually makes it much worse somewhere else.
[/quote]

But you can focus on having the sound improoved on the area you'll expect your audience to be standing (normally front center).

[Ghost_Bass]

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1378465654' post='2200677']
One prototype of the fretted/fretless neck was trialled by Steinberger. The XM bass was on Ebay a couple of years ago and eventually purchased by someone from Steinberger world. The general points made earlier about simplicity kind of apply in this case. The more complicated something is, the more potential there is for things to go wrong. With the neck, the refrets could have been nightmarish, I imagine. Also the string height would need to vary when the frets were rolled over to flush or the action would be higher in fretless mode. A rotating zero fret with a half height profile would take care of this at the headpiece end. But at the bridge it would be a lot trickier to achieve.

I'll put a hand up for Steve Chick however. Some of the stuff he was showing me with his new synth bass system was remarkable. If Line 6 and other modelling approaches are also considered, it might be that at some point, musical instruments become wholly electronic and simply interfaces for triggering sounds stored somewhere else. Yes the quality of interaction between player and instrument could become less satisfying but if the nuances of touch can be faithfully sensed (as Steve Chick has been working towards) then it would open up a different world where the role played by a musician and their preferred interface is more important than the sounds they actually make...
[/quote]

Here's a video of the bass i was talking about:

http://youtu.be/J2WOOIZXNks

Can't remember the make on this one, is it really a Steinberger or are we talking about different models?

[Norris]

[quote name='throwoff' timestamp='1378338079' post='2198996']
The next big thing WILL be 3d printing.

Most if not all the big players (Fender, Gibbo etc) are investing in it for RnD.

Within a few years you will be able to download and print a bass as quick as we use itunes etc now.
[/quote]
3D colour printing so that the whole body is coloured and no more road-worn basses ever