What's the most over-rated bass, or bass related product???

[dc2009]

My Marshall cab is great, 4x12 and I'd rather have it than many other big name cabs, can't speak for their bass heads though, which I've never tried, their regular guitar ones are fantastic though.
Gotta say I don't like Ashdowns, I find the sound weak, flappy etc, just not my cuppa.
Also gotta disagree with whoever wasn't a hartke fan, though aluminium cones provide the ultimate sound with a flat wounded bass, the amp and cones provide the brightness and the bass gives you some serious thump!
Playing your bass higher stood up than the height it sits on your knee when sat down.

BIG HATE: thru neck basses where you can see the through construction, and it disturbs the finish of the bass, right in the middle of the body - just hide it, it's seriously unattractive
EVEN BIGGER HATE: basses where the finish is cut off in a line shape right about where the forearm rests during normal play, like on quite a few statuses, some sandbergs and numerous 'boutique' basses. - what is this for, other than to look fugly?

EDIT: not at all a fender hater, but not a fan of people who swear by fenders as the best bass out there, and the mentality that a J and a P are all you need! - just not the case IMO

Edited July 2, 2011 by dc2009

[Ben Jamin]

Those 12/other silly number of strings basses! Why?
The fingerboards are as wide and playable as my desk and they sound horrible on the ridiculously low/high strings.
If you want that kind of range play piano!



Compensating for something?

Edited July 3, 2011 by Ben Jamin

[escholl]

[quote name='Ben Jamin' post='1290679' date='Jul 3 2011, 01:06 AM']Those 12/other silly number of strings basses! Why?
The fingerboards are as wide and playable as my desk and they sound horrible on the ridiculously low/high strings.
If you want that kind of range play piano!



Compensating for something? [/quote]
am i counting that right, 15 strings? at what point does it stop being a bass and start being a harp?

[dc2009]

[quote name='escholl' post='1291009' date='Jul 3 2011, 02:17 PM']am i counting that right, 15 strings? at what point does it stop being a bass and start being a harp? [/quote]

A harp has no fretboard, though I think I'd rather learn the harp than play that huge hunk of crap.

The biggest single course bass I can just about see sense for is a 7er, a Conklin or something, but even that is a bit far. I think I may get a 6er at some point in the future, but 5 is pretty much right for me.

[ern500evo]

[quote name='Ben Jamin' post='1290679' date='Jul 3 2011, 01:06 AM']Those 12/other silly number of strings basses! Why?
The fingerboards are as wide and playable as my desk and they sound horrible on the ridiculously low/high strings.
If you want that kind of range play piano!



Compensating for something? [/quote]

As an engineering/manafacturing exercise it's amazing, as a bass it's utterly pontless!!

[Telebass]

Pointless bass gear?

1) Ampeg SVT rigs. So much weight for so little benefit...

2) Any exotic wood bass, cheap or pricey. Just needs to be a slab of reasonable painted wood to do its job.

3) Pointless dissing of Fenders. OK, they are utterly my thing, but aside from that, very few people have ever done [b][i]anything, in any field[/i][/b], which is still the basic standard and is still essentially unchanged, and still in production, after 60 years. No other bass is anything but evolutionary, and the most evolutionary of those was Alembic (for the electronics), and they are not exactly new either, are they? All else essentially stems from those two bass families.

Edited July 3, 2011 by Telebass

[jazzyvee]

Ashdown amps and cabs are a big disappointment. I've been using them recently in the rehearsal studio's and they just sound lifeless and wooly.

Trace Elliot stuff. It seems that whatever you plug into them comes out sounding the same. Whenever I've gigged and a trace elliot amp has been on the back line to use. I can never get my sound from them. Turning the controls on my bass doesn't seem to have much affect on the sound that comes out of the amp The sound only seems to chang markedly from the controls on the amp.

Not for me at all.

jazzyvee

[dc2009]

[quote name='jazzyvee' post='1291181' date='Jul 3 2011, 05:03 PM']Ashdown amps and cabs are a big disappointment. I've been using them recently in the rehearsal studio's and they just sound lifeless and wooly.

Trace Elliot stuff. It seems that whatever you plug into them comes out sounding the same. Whenever I've gigged and a trace elliot amp has been on the back line to use. I can never get my sound from them. Turning the controls on my bass doesn't seem to have much affect on the sound that comes out of the amp The sound only seems to chang markedly from the controls on the amp.

Not for me at all.

jazzyvee[/quote]

But the trace sound is amazing!

I hate the markbass head in our rehearsal space, I like their stuff and their combos are nice (if perhaps too bassy), but not a fan of the head, the VLE thing is like a crapometer, always have it on zero.

[waynepunkdude]

[quote name='Telebass' post='1291099' date='Jul 3 2011, 03:53 PM']Pointless bass gear?

1) Ampeg SVT rigs. So much weight for so little benefit...[/quote]


You take that back young man.

[KingPrawn]

1.Basses that look like coffee tables

2. Headless basses

3. when you go to try a bass, and the twat shop person noodles for 5 minutes before handing it to you saying " try it for yourself"

4.Idiots going through midlife crisis, who can afford much better gear than i have and don't no how to use it

i realisei'm off topicslightly, but i feel so much better

[Pete Academy]

[quote name='KingPrawn' post='1291320' date='Jul 3 2011, 07:13 PM']1.Basses that look like coffee tables

2. Headless basses

3. when you go to try a bass, and the twat shop person noodles for 5 minutes before handing it to you saying " try it for yourself"

4.Idiots going through midlife crisis, who can afford much better gear than i have and don't no how to use it

i realisei'm off topicslightly, but i feel so much better[/quote]

Number 3 is spot on. I generally pluck an open string to demonstrate the controls on an active bass - volume, pan, bass, mid , treble. Never make the customer feel insecure.

[Clarky]

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='1291328' date='Jul 3 2011, 07:16 PM']Number 3 is spot on. I generally pluck an open string to demonstrate the controls on an active bass - volume, pan, bass, mid , treble. Never make the customer feel insecure.[/quote]
And number 4 is me

[bubinga5]

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='1291328' date='Jul 3 2011, 06:16 PM']Number 3 is spot on. I generally pluck an open string to demonstrate the controls on an active bass - volume, pan, bass, mid , treble. Never make the customer feel insecure.[/quote]
yeah i totally agree i went into Guitar Guitar once in Glasgow to try a Sadowsky and when he got it down he seemed to want to show me what he was capable of on the bass..? the guy could play but i didnt care...total ego massaging...

[bubinga5]

1.. very expensive cables... geek alert

2.. High mass bridges...

3.. String through bodies... well you fell for it

4... people who think neck dive isnt a design flaw

[Telebass]

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='1291311' date='Jul 3 2011, 07:05 PM']You take that back young man.[/quote]


Oh nonono. Not with MY back...

[dc2009]

[quote name='bubinga5' post='1291343' date='Jul 3 2011, 07:34 PM']4... people who think neck dive isnt a design flaw[/quote]

Not sure if it's you necessarily but, people who think a thunderbird neck dives (or can not be stopped from diving if it is an old model and does so naturally)

[Danimal]

Room for one more for the Ashdown hater club?

On the (mercifully rare) occasions when I hear the dreaded words "bass amp provided at the venue", I know right away it's going to be some horrendous crime against tone that Ashdown have cobbled together. It's also pretty safe to assume that a couple of days before the gig I'll get another email saying there's been a change of plan, because it's gone in for repair. I know not many venues are going to break the bank for a house backline, but for the money they could get a perfectly adequate Peavey rig, and I'm sure it'd last a lot longer before having a nervous breakdown.

I'd also like to throw in a vote for the Sansamp BDDI. Don't get me wrong, I own one myself and I suppose it's pretty good for what it is, but I don't quite understand why some people really rave about it.

Edited July 4, 2011 by Danimal

[Pow_22]

Very contraversial for on here but Orange terror bass. Theres seems to be this notion that it is a valve amp, it isnt. They are just bog standard hybrid amps, dare i say not as good as the Hartke HA range

[andydye]

I like meaningless/helpful derogatory fun!

things I hate / have grown to hate over the years...

Ashdown - am well on the bandwagon there! flabby and gritty nastiness with pointless Spinal Tap 'how fast are you playing meter'
Mark-Bass - sorry guys, flappy, farty rubbish - cabs and amps
G&L basses, sound lovely with brand new strings but sound exactly like soggy cardboard when strings are 2 days old!

that is all...for now

[Skol303]

[quote name='markytbass' post='273767' date='Aug 31 2008, 03:28 PM']Bass's with plastic necks and/or plastic bodies (Y'know Status/Modulus, etc)[/quote]

Aww... I quite like my old Ibanez EDB 600!

Plastic body (luthite): very light, virtually indestructible and I personally think it sounds ok. But then my ears are made of cloth

PS: I agree with the mention of expensive cables being a waste of money. Sure, cables can make a difference, but there's a helluva lot of "Emperor's New Clothes" involved too. Gold plated b****cks, most of it!

Edited July 4, 2011 by Skol303

[daz]

Basses with more than four strings. (see below)

Edited July 4, 2011 by daz

[steve-bbb]

anything played by victor wootten - he might as well be playing a kay p copy when he starts going ito that self indulgent high speed slapping mode
i would never normally endorse spiking of drinks but i think it would be ok for his gtr tech to slip a couple of valium in his coffee

tsk

[lojo]

Anything in addition to what you find on a 4 string passive P

Though don't rule out me owning some if these things

[paul_5]

Another unimpressed Ashdown user here, tried various models in various rooms and just couldn't get on with them.

Also the Trace Elliot SMX compressor pedal seemed to be a bit of a 'low end filtering out machine' to me. Too much tone suck for a bass-specific product for me.

Paul McCartney.

Anything that has been artificially relic'ed (this obviously excludes Macca).

Edited July 5, 2011 by paul_5

[Bilbo]

Not read the whole thread so sorry if its a repeat but I don't like 99% of Alembic basses. There! I said it! I liked the series 2 shape that Flim Johnson uses (and love his playing) but, having trawled the net recently looking for examples of Alembics, I found that most of them were plug ugly and, more to the point, most of them I heard sounded really icky to my cloth ears. Wouldn't say no to trying some out but, from what I have seen/heard to date, there are very few Alembics that I would cross the street for.

I am willing to be proven wrong, though.