How much do positive or negative associations between a bass (or guitar) brand and well known players influence your own choices?

[Downunderwonder]

As much as I like Kiss I am ambivalent about Gene Simmons, and wouldn't be seen dead with his signature 'axe'.

 

Aside from that I never made any connections between artists/styles and particular basses for particular tones. This may stem from my mentor playing anything and everything on a custom bass.

 

Then came the internet.

[Geek99]

I’d get one if it were objectively, a good bass, example above, a Geddy Lee but the artist conection doesn’t add anything except to the price tag they can ask. A JEM Ibanez is a really good guitar but I wouldn’t pay extra for the Steve Vai factor.

 

I find that whole signature model thing a bit creepy and cynical 

[uncle psychosis]

I (mostly) don't care but there's definitely a few instruments I wouldn't play because of a significant artist connection. 

 

I'd feel silly playing a violin bass in case people thought I was a McCartney fan boy. 

 

I wouldn't be seen dead playing a white Les Paul Custom in case people thought I liked the Manic Street Preachers. 

 

I couldn't play a sig guitar of an artist I really didn't like. Clapton comes to mind. 

 

Fully aware this is my problem and not theirs. Luckily there's infinitely many other instruments out there. 

[Woodinblack]

When I was young, it really mattered. Now it doesn't matter at all. I can't think of anything I would or wouldn't play because of the connection of any artist. I would certainly never pick an artist model, because it was that artist model, but if it wasn't specifically custom (ie, just a colour etc) I might if I liked it 

[BigRedX]

TBH I can't ever remember my favourite bands' choice of instruments influencing me. If it did at all it would have pushed me in the direction of getting John Birch to make me a custom guitar and/or bass but it would most likely have been a shape of my own design.

 

In the 80s I was mostly playing synths and there it was all about the features of the instruments rather than who played them (especially if you couldn't afford a Roland Jupiter 8).

[neepheid]

I bought my first bass because of Jack Bruce.  It was an Epiphone EB-3.  What became clear in various degrees of rapidity:

 

1) I am not Jack Bruce

2) an Epiphone EB-3 is only like a Gibson EB-3 in the most superflous of ways

3) I don't like the Epiphone EB-3

4) Come to think of it, I don't really like EB/SG basses (only took me a subsequent Epi EB-0 and a Gibson SG-Z to figure that one out)

 

After all that, I did my own figuring out.

[Doddy]

When I first started out, the player association was important. The first bass players that I was aware of were Jaco and Marcus, so I wanted a Fender Jazz. 

Now, I wouldn't buy an instrument just because a certain player uses them but it would definitely influence me to check it out, especially if it's a brand that I'm not too aware of.

[MacDaddy]

I was never impressed with Fleas tone when he was using GK amps, so when I was buying mine I didn't consider GK.

But I played @SilverFox's GK at a Bassbash and it sounded awesome.

[Dan Dare]

When I started out (a long time ago), it was pretty much Fender or Fender if you played bass. A lot of the players I admired used them, so that's what I wanted. I've flirted with others and had a hankering for a Rick when I played prog', but always come back to the big F. J bass in my case, unless I want the full on Jamerson and then it's a P. Not very imaginative of me, I know.

[BigRedX]

4 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

When I started out (a long time ago), it was pretty much Fender or Fender if you played bass. A lot of the players I admired used them, so that's what I wanted. I've flirted with others and had a hankering for a Rick when I played prog', but always come back to the big F. J bass in my case, unless I want the full on Jamerson and then it's a P. Not very imaginative of me, I know.

 

When I was starting out in the early 70s there didn't seem to be the same bias towards having to have a Fender if you were a bassist, or if there was I was oblivious to it. Most of the bass players in bands I liked seemed to play Rickenbackers or Gibsons, so Fender basses were never really on the radar for me.

[Cat Burrito]

I think nearly all players are going to be influenced by the instrument choices of the artists they like. Nobody buys a Hofner beatle bass to join a doom metal band or a BC Rich Warlock to join a folk band. 

 

Stuff does crossover though. I note the association with rock / prog and Rickenbackers but I always associated mine with Tony James (Gen X). 

[MacDaddy]

38 minutes ago, Cat Burrito said:

I think nearly all players are going to be influenced by the instrument choices of the artists they like. Nobody buys a Hofner beatle bass to join a doom metal band or a BC Rich Warlock to join a folk band. 

 

Stuff does crossover though. I note the association with rock / prog and Rickenbackers but I always associated mine with Tony James (Gen X). 

 

Flying V's and Explorers may be associated with metal now, but when they first came out they were quite popular in Country bands. 

[Woodinblack]

52 minutes ago, Cat Burrito said:

I think nearly all players are going to be influenced by the instrument choices of the artists they like. Nobody buys a Hofner beatle bass to join a doom metal band or a BC Rich Warlock to join a folk band. 

 

I absolutely would for the second. Not the first as I don't like those basses, and short scale thuddy bass probably not so good for downtuned. 

[meterman]

I never had any particular bass player in mind when I bought my first bass, I just needed one to do some studio recordings with. I bought the cheapest bass in the shop, and it was horrible 60’s tat really but it did the job.

 

The only player influences I ever had when buying any of my basses was when I bought a Hofner violin bass, and it was specifically Aston Barrett and Robbie Shakespeare who’d used them that tipped it for me. Otherwise I’ve never really been fussed. That’s probably the wrong thing to admit here I guess 😂

[Cat Burrito]

27 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

 

Flying V's and Explorers may be associated with metal now, but when they first came out they were quite popular in Country bands. 

And blues 😺

[Cat Burrito]

13 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I absolutely would for the second. Not the first as I don't like those basses, and short scale thuddy bass probably not so good for downtuned. 

I would just because of my punk rock youth. My last gig in my Americana / Roots band was me in brothel creepers and tight jeans with a Flying V bass. That bass literally was the elephant in the room! 

[alyctes]

Almost nil.  What does it sound like, can I play it (nope... i.e. is it too heavy, does it balance, etc.).  Occasionally, is it seriously cool (I have a Westone Rail :)

That's pretty much it.

[Stub Mandrel]

No.

There are basses I find ugly like the Vox with big slots in it and silly feet, or just unattractive, like the Warwick 'dildo', the G&L wart, Alembic's more ornate models and white Bongos  and Rickenbackers just looking clumsy.

 

But I'd never discount a bass for association with an individual*.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*OK, I'll make an exception for Gene Simmons...

[Nail Soup]

8 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

like the Warwick 'dildo',

Any chance of a picture? Spare me the ordeal of googling that search term!

[Lozz196]

1 hour ago, Cat Burrito said:

 

Stuff does crossover though. I note the association with rock / prog and Rickenbackers but I always associated mine with Tony James (Gen X). 

Yep, for me Rickenbackers were a big part of early punk - Simenon/Matlock/Foxton/James all played them - and I always thought they looked great, still do.

[LeftyJ]

13 hours ago, uncle psychosis said:

I wouldn't be seen dead playing a white Les Paul Custom in case people thought I liked the Manic Street Preachers. 

 

After the first half of that sentence I was totally expecting a Randy Rhoads reference. I would never have thought of the MSP 

[jazzyvee]

Yes, Stanley Clarke was the impetus for saving up for an alembic. Up till that time, (2002), i didn't fully appreciate the difference between the signature model and his series I bass, i just went with the body styling and how it sounded in the shop. I eventually got a series I short scale bass. Nowadays, a bass used by another bass player wouldn't influence me to buy into it as i get all the sounds i want from my alembics.

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

When I was starting out in the early 70s there didn't seem to be the same bias towards having to have a Fender if you were a bassist, or if there was I was oblivious to it. Most of the bass players in bands I liked seemed to play Rickenbackers or Gibsons, so Fender basses were never really on the radar for me.

 

Same here - when I started in the mid 70s, if you were a guitarist there was a strat or a les paul, but if you were a basist, fenders where quite a long way down the list of basses to get. You would see them but they weren't really something you would notice. It was kind of rickenbackers with a few gibsons.

[Linus27]

I noticed what my favourite bass players were using but not necessarily copy them as I was learning. Plus it was also a co-incidence that the basses I liked, my favourite bassists played to some degree. 

[Cosmo Valdemar]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

There are basses I find ugly like the Vox with big slots in it and silly feet, or just unattractive, like the Warwick 'dildo', the G&L wart

I think we need to see these amazing basses 😀