The law of diminishing returns, Tonewood and other folly’s

[peteb]

 

Just to remind people that Pino is known for playing Stringrays, Laklands and vintage Precisions. 

 

Like many session players, he may have odd curiosity type basses that he uses for getting different, one-off sounds, but the above have been his core basses over the years. 

 

[Grimalkin]

7 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

Just to remind people that Pino is known for playing Stringrays, Laklands and vintage Precisions. 

 

Like many session players, he may have odd curiosity type basses that he uses for getting different, one-off sounds, but the above have been his core basses over the years. 

 

 

I wonder why he stuck with industry standards when he could have any boutique he wanted. 

[tegs07]

11 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

Just to remind people that Pino is known for playing Stringrays, Laklands and vintage Precisions. 

 

Like many session players, he may have odd curiosity type basses that he uses for getting different, one-off sounds, but the above have been his core basses over the years. 

 

I’m not surprised. He’s worked hard, got really good at something and I suspect is earning fairly decent money.Why not treat himself. I rarely see successful (business) people driving entry level Ford Fiesta’s even though they do a decent job of getting from A to B.

Edited January 24, 2022 by tegs07

[SumOne]

 

1 minute ago, Grimalkin said:

 

I wonder why he stuck with industry standards when he could have any boutique he wanted. 

 

Possibly endoresment £ ?  

 

 

Edited January 24, 2022 by SumOne

[Grimalkin]

2 minutes ago, SumOne said:

 

 

Possibly endoresment £ ?  

 

 

 

Fender is the only endorsement I'm aware of, MusicMan after he got a name? He doesn't seem to want to tie himself down with what he plays.

[peteb]

5 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

 

I wonder why he stuck with industry standards when he could have any boutique he wanted. 

 

I would imagine it is because he likes them. Also, as a session player, he probably wants to have the best possible versions of the industry reference sounds that many producers want to hear / are happy working with. No one has ever complained about a bass player turning up with an old P bass! 

 

Edited January 24, 2022 by peteb

[TimR]

It's usually because sound engineers have lots of experience of recording industry standard basses and know what works.

 

They probably don't want to be messing around trying to get a sound that sits in the mix.

 

I'm sure I've heard stories where, after much struggling to get a decent sound, producers have gone off and come back with a Fender Precision and asked the artist to play that instead. 

[SumOne]

I find the whole argument of 'why get an expensive Bass' a bit like saying 'why get an expensive watch....my £30 Casio tells the time more accurately than a £10k 1960's Rolex' , or 'my £500 sofa does the same job as a £5k sofa'  etc. Even if more expensive Basses aren't technically any better than cheaper ones (but generally they are) there is more to it than just 'getting the job done' for the cheapest amount - after all, we're not talking about if it's worth spending a lot on something purely practical like a shovel, a Bass is something that hangs on the wall in your house, that you're seen with on stage, that you play for 1000s of hours potentially for many years, and it holds it's value so even if there's only a marginal improvement (even just aesthetically) I'd consider it worthwhile to spend more (within what I can afford).

 

 

Edited January 24, 2022 by SumOne

[peteb]

7 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

I’m not surprised. He’s worked hard, got really good at something and I suspect is earning fairly decent money.Why not treat himself. I rarely see successful (business) people driving entry level Ford Fiesta’s even though they do a decent job of getting from A to B.

 

I would imagine that he makes very good money indeed and that he sees these basses as the tools he needs to carry out the jobs that he gets asked to do. 

 

[tegs07]

 

15 hours ago, peteb said:

 

I would imagine that he makes very good money indeed and that he sees these basses as the tools he needs to carry out the jobs that he gets asked to do. 

 

Like most things in life I am sure there is a mixture of form, function, aesthetics and perception (add to list as required)

Edited January 25, 2022 by tegs07

[BigRedX]

1 hour ago, Grimalkin said:

Pino has an exceptional pair of ears.

 

They why does he play for the most part really boring music?

[Count Bassy]

5 minutes ago, SumOne said:

I find the whole argument of 'why get an expensive Bass' a bit like saying 'why get an expensive watch....my £30 Casio tells the time more accurately than a £10k 1960's Rolex' , or 'my £500 sofa does the same job as a £5k sofa'  etc. Even if more expensive Basses aren't technically any better than cheaper ones (but generally they are) there is more to it than just 'getting the job done' for the cheapest amount.

I guess it depends on your personality and what drives you.

 

Possibly Pino just knows what works for him and has no interest in the "bling" aspect of them.

 

[martthebass]

32 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

They why does he play for the most part really boring music?

 

...in your opinion?

 

He doesn't seem to have done badly out of it.......I haven't seen any 'BigRedX' signature basses knocking about 😝

Edited January 24, 2022 by martthebass

[TimR]

The other consideration is if you're doing a long multi venue demanding tour, you're going to need a load of pretty much identical instruments. 

 

Sometimes they'll have 2 sets of stage rigging and leap frog through countries using different gear each night. 

 

Steve Harris has dozens of Fender P Basses. 

[Doddy]

The whole 'Pino would use a (insert inexpensive bass here) if it was the right choice' is mostly bogus. At that level they are going to play quality gear. You want a P Bass? They aren't going to reach for a Harley Benton. They're going to have, at the lowest, a Mexican Fender. More likely something vintage or custom.

17 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

They why does he play for the most part really boring music?

Such as?

[peteb]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

They why does he play for the most part really boring music?

 

The simple answer is because they pay him lots of money! 

 

As he is in a position to pick and choose, I would imagine that he doesn't share your opinion of the stuff that he plays on... 

 

[TimR]

I'm now wondering how many bassists would turn down playing with The Who because they considered it boring.

[peteb]

4 minutes ago, TimR said:

I'm now wondering how many bassists would turn down playing with The Who because they considered it boring.

 

Real bassists, or just some of the people who post on here? 

 

[Downunderwonder]

4 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

So what if you have bought cheap hardware and it isn't taking your time. I never had a harley benton machine head break, but I have had a shaller one break.

 

 

 

If only that were a correlated thing.

I think hardware is pretty well correlated from the barely acceptable to pretty good stuff. Schallers breaking is a glaring departure from their historical price reliability correlation tradition. They will pay in the end.

[Count Bassy]

8 hours ago, Doddy said:

The whole 'Pino would use a (insert inexpensive bass here) if it was the right choice' is mostly bogus.

Sorry, I didn't realise that you'd asked him.

[Musicman666]

Pino plays exactly what the song requires …that’s why he can charge top rate for what’ can be a fairly straightforward bass line, also pino often offloads his surplus basses via the bass gallery and from what I can tell the quality of those basses is top notch which makes me wonder how good are the ones he hangs onto.

[Doddy]

6 hours ago, Count Bassy said:

Sorry, I didn't realise that you'd asked him.

If you quoted all of what I said, rather than just one line, you wouldn't have had a point.  Will a high level session player use what is right for the gig? Obviously. Will they be using an inexpensive bass because 'the audience can't tell the difference'? No. When a session costing thousands of dollars is at stake, they are going to use quality instruments.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Doddy

[tegs07]

15 hours ago, Count Bassy said:

I guess it depends on your personality and what drives you.

 

Possibly Pino just knows what works for him and has no interest in the "bling" aspect of them.

 

I don’t know Pino but as he is a member of our rather odd human species I expect he conforms to the same expectations and cultural norms as the rest of us. In the same way as most people wouldn’t turn up to an interview at the highest level in a cheap suit, I expect he would turn up with an instrument that meets the expectations of the people hiring him and is suitable for the session.

[Bassfinger]

16 hours ago, TimR said:

It's usually because sound engineers have lots of experience of recording industry standard basses and know what works.

 

They probably don't want to be messing around trying to get a sound that sits in the mix.

 

I'm sure I've heard stories where, after much struggling to get a decent sound, producers have gone off and come back with a Fender Precision and asked the artist to play that instead. 

Yep, and producers trying to get players to use a pick, and even to use only downstrokes to even out the sound and response. Fortunately the producer we had last week was notmonly more enlightened, but was actually impressed with the tone from my Steinberger Spirit on DI (and so was I!)

[BigRedX]

I suppose that if people were prepared to pay me enough money to live on for playing in their band(s) I'd be prepared to play any old shït too.

 

Pino's a weird one for me in that I really like his fretless bass playing, but think that in a the context of the whole music he plays on that's the only musical bit of merit. He's the only only redeeming thing about the Paul Young records (apart from the truly awful version of Love Will Tear Us Apart which even he can't salvage). Go West was just fake 80s pop for people who don't really like music. Unfortunately in The Who he's not a patch on Entwhistle to the point that the band had to have a second guitarist to fill out the sound.