Ugly Bass thread

[neepheid]

Just now, tegs07 said:

It’s like saying if Henry Ford hadn’t been around there would be no impact on the history of automotive engineering.

 

 

I never said there wouldn't be an impact.  I'm saying that if it had gone down this way or that way, we'd know no different.

 

Also, who apart from you mentioned removing Fender from history?  A couple of us said we don't find them aesthetically pleasing and you take it to revisionist time travel?

 

This got really deep for an "ugly bass" thread.  Can we please just get back to good naturedly critiquing basses we find less than pleasing to the eye?  Turn about is fair play - take aim and fire at a Gibson, or all of them.  You're entitled to your opinion after all.

 

[tegs07]

Just now, neepheid said:

 

 

I never said there wouldn't be an impact.  I'm saying that if it had gone down this way or that way, we'd know no different.

 

Also, who apart from you mentioned removing Fender from history?  A couple of us said we don't find them aesthetically pleasing and you take it to revisionist time travel?

 

This got really deep for an "ugly bass" thread.  Can we please just get back to good naturedly critiquing basses we find less than pleasing to the eye?  Turn about is fair play - take aim and fire at a Gibson, or all of them.  You're entitled to your opinion after all.

 

I was simply responding to a post saying all Fenders were ugly. The aesthetics are definitely personal but kind of irrelevant to me. I mentioned Henry Ford as he took something complex and unaffordable and made it simple to mass produce and allowed mass ownership which is what Leo Fender did for guitars and basses. 

[Rich]

/thread.

 

[uk_lefty]

13 hours ago, TheGreek said:

The new headless Ibanez seems to be selling very well at the moment but can't for the life of me see why. None of the lines flow.

 

Looks like some of the stuff that can come off a configuration tool. The individual elements work but not together in the same instrument! 

[neepheid]

2 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

I was simply responding to a post saying all Fenders were ugly. The aesthetics are definitely personal but kind of irrelevant to me. I mentioned Henry Ford as he took something complex and unaffordable and made it simple to mass produce and allowed mass ownership which is what Leo Fender did for guitars and basses. 

 

For someone who finds aesthetics "kind of irrelevant" to them, you sure kick up a big stink about it in a thread that's purely about aesthetics.

 

You like Fenders, and people slagging them off irks you, I get it and it's OK.

[uk_lefty]

6 minutes ago, Rich said:

/thread.

 

There needs to be a vomit emoji. 

[neepheid]

I don't want to see anyone complain about the titchy little pointy bit on G&L headstocks now that we've seen that, thanks

[Newfoundfreedom]

I genuinely like all the above. 

 

The ugliest basses I've ever seen are standard Fenders. 

 

In fact, to be fair I'm not even sure ugly is the right word. They're not interesting enough to be ugly. They're just a massive pile of bland. 

[Paul S]

22 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

The progress of this thread reminds me of Tom Lehrer's line, life is like a sewer, what you get out of it depends very much on what you put into it.

Tom Lehrer!  Not thought about him for years.  Classic songs like 'The Masochism Tango' and 'Poisoning Pigeons In The Park'  

[Woodinblack]

21 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

I was simply responding to a post saying all Fenders were ugly. The aesthetics are definitely personal but kind of irrelevant to me.

but very literally the purpose of this thread!

 

I don't find the jazz bass ugly* but it isn't also that appealing and also ver bland looking, but this might just be because they are ubiquitous 

 

Apart from the headstock, but that goes without saying!

[tegs07]

2 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

but very literally the purpose of this thread!

 

I don't find the jazz bass ugly but it isn't also that appealing and also ver bland looking, but this might just be because they are ubiquitous 

The “ugly” bases are pretty tricky to route and would not have been easy to mass produce in the 1950’s and 60’s. Those basic early shapes and pickups gave birth to rock and roll which is where music got really interesting for me.

[rushbo]

CAVEAT: I'm a huge fan of the Fender Precision Bass aesthetic, so this may temper your opinion of my opinion. 

 

Every time I see one of those boutique, single cut basses (à la Fodera etc) they remind me of some massive sea creature, cresting the surface of the ocean. But not in a pretty way.

 

I really liked the look of Jazz basses until I read (possibly on this very website) that someone disliked them because; "it looks like the bass has melted".  The love affair ended moments after that sunk in. 

[Nail Soup]

Fender fans be like:

 

(Only joking BTW - I don't mind Fenders and it's the 'sea-monsters' I don't like)

[rushbo]

3 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

Fender fans be like:

 

(Only joking BTW - I don't mind Fenders and it's the 'sea-monsters' I don't like)

 

I love that sketch. 

[tegs07]

2 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

You like Fenders, and people slagging them off irks you, I get it and it's OK.

It’s not really Fender the multi-National money machine that I am referring to but Leo Fender the somewhat useless businessman but engineering genius. The shapes of the instruments can be seen as “bland” or iconic. The designs were certainly eye catching and futuristic at the time. Whether they are now is open to debate. What they were though was easy to mass produce and affordable. What is more remarkable is the development of pickup technology and positioning. Then there are all the innovations in bridge design. So yep alongside Les Paul and Mr Marshal Leo Fender is right up there for me in the legends of music history.

Edit: Ugly bass added for your viewing pleasure:

 

Edit 2: Personally I think with the innovations in technology it’s almost impossible to make a bad guitar these days. You could take pretty much any £500 instrument being produced in Indonesia and stick Fender/Lakland/G&L/Sterling   or Yahamaha or whatever on the headstock, set it up nicely and people would say it’s great or average based on their personal predisposition and prejudices.

Edited September 14, 2021 by tegs07

[cetera]

Ugly bass?

 

Anything single cut.

 

There you go. You're welcome.

 

Thread complete. You may now delete....

 

Edited September 14, 2021 by cetera

[JapanAxe]

37 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

It’s not really Fender the multi-National money machine that I am referring to but Leo Fender the somewhat useless businessman but engineering genius. The shapes of the instruments can be seen as “bland” or iconic. The designs were certainly eye catching and futuristic at the time. Whether they are now is open to debate. What they were though was easy to mass produce and affordable. What is more remarkable is the development of pickup technology and positioning. Then there are all the innovations in bridge design. So yep alongside Les Paul and Mr Marshal Leo Fender is right up there for me in the legends of music history.

Edit: Ugly bass added for your viewing pleasure:

That headstock - is it the work of a certain purveyor of guitar conversions?

[rushbo]

7 minutes ago, cetera said:

Ugly bass?

 

Anything single cut.

 

There you go. You're welcome.

 

Thread complete. You may now delete....

 

Even this one? :

 

 

It's the single cut basses with the REALLY pronounced top horn* that I find aesthetically challenging. 

 

(* I don't know the proper term for the part of the bass where it looks like its lurching forward just above where the neck meets the body and then randomly attaches itself to the neck, somewhere around the fifth fret.) 

 

 

[Bassassin]

You want ugly?

 

 

That's just f**king foul. I can understand why this one looks like it's been attacked with a knife - if I was shut in a room with one I'm pretty confident I'd instinctively try to kill it.

[tegs07]

18 minutes ago, cetera said:

Ugly bass?

 

Anything single cut.

 

There you go. You're welcome.

 

Thread complete. You may now delete....

 

Does this count?

[cetera]

2 minutes ago, rushbo said:

Even this one? :

 

 

It's the single cut basses with the REALLY pronounced top horn* that I find aesthetically challenging. 

 

(* I don't know the proper term for the part of the bass where it looks like its lurching forward just above where the neck meets the body and then randomly attaches itself to the neck, somewhere around the fifth fret.) 

 

 

 

Yep, even that one. However, it only really 'offends'.

 

It's those bulbous single cut ones that do my head in....

[rushbo]

Just now, cetera said:

It's those bulbous single cut ones that do my head in....

Bulbous! That's the word! 

 

Cheers, Cetera. 

[Bassassin]

1 minute ago, cetera said:

 

Yep, even that one. However, it only really 'offends'.

 

It's those bulbous single cut ones that do my head in....

What, these?
 

[rushbo]

1 minute ago, Bassassin said:

What, these?
 

 

Good grief, Bassassin!

[casapete]

1 hour ago, cetera said:

Ugly bass?

 

Anything single cut.

 

There you go. You're welcome.

 

Thread complete. You may now delete....

 

Surely not this beauty? Triple whammy too - single cut / sunburst / tort!!

Edited September 14, 2021 by casapete