Is your bass gear better than you are?

[Geek99]

Yes my gear is much better (62 ri jazz cij and a zoom b2) than me - but I'm still learning so will hopefully grow into it

[OutToPlayJazz]

One point that's come up a few times in this thread - A better instrument makes you raise your game. We all get to the point on instruments where we can physically out-play them.

[Tracer]

My bass is far and away more than I deserve, but my amp is vile and I lord it over that piece of sh*t.

[51m0n]

[quote name='Zoe_BillySheehan' post='462624' date='Apr 15 2009, 12:52 AM']I suppose some people are just lucky when it comes to being able to afford equipment.[/quote]

I wish, no I saved up for two years to get my rig, and another year and a half to afford the Roscoe. I dont by anything on credit, I just have an understanding partner, a bank account for bass gear and patience. I've also learned that buying the best you can possibly afford, assuming it 'does it' for you, is definitely not a false economy

[quote name='Zoe_BillySheehan' post='462624' date='Apr 15 2009, 12:52 AM']but it really isnt the equipment that makes you a great bassist,
although having a bass, set up perfectly, that plays like butter, has gotta help.[/quote]

Any instrument really well set up trumps any instrument not set up well. Cost is at that point irrelevant.

To be able to play beautifully, first you have to be able to play without fighting the instrument (IMO & IME). I have an old Vester, it was always a lower mid range instrument going by price tag alone. I've invested a lot of time setting it up, the neck is absolutely right for my hands. No one who has played it has ever wanted to give it back, they've all, without fail, felt it played as well as anything else they have ever touched. I wore it out in ten years of playing. Then I started thinking about saving up for a better bass.


[quote name='Zoe_BillySheehan' post='462624' date='Apr 15 2009, 12:52 AM']but if your gunna spend £1000 on a bass, and not put time n effort into learning,
then whats the point?[/quote]

You love the sound, you love the instrument as much as a piece of art as a musical tool, lots of reasons.

[quote name='Zoe_BillySheehan' post='462624' date='Apr 15 2009, 12:52 AM']i guess some people just have money to throw around like that!

Z
x[/quote]

I think some of us are a little older and have some spare cash we can save, I dont think anyone throws a ccouple of grand at a bass, and a couple of grand at a rig without a lot of forethought, unless they've won the lottery of course, hate to think what my bass shopping bill would be the day after that happens!!!!

[karenon]

Off course I have felt the surge of envy which comes from seeing some stuck up brat playing on £5000 equipment, but the simple truth is this:
Your stuff allways is only as good as You are, so the answer must be a resounding NO.
If You playing or finger sound s**ks, nothing will help You. If You are good, you're good, and I am not talking some sort of classical training, conservatory, super slap, fastest there is sort of thing (allthough some, or a lot, of training is a good good thing). Bill Wyman described his job as "to just lay back and fatten the sound", and that is an example of good enough if that is what You are after. But, of course, good basses, amps, cabs, boxes are FUN, and being the bassman is, and will allways be, the best job there is.

[alexclaber]

Is your bass gear better than your ability to use it?

Not your playing per se but your ability to actually get the best sound out of your gear? Based on the frequency of tone related questions I'd suggest that many bassists are far from really getting the most from what they already own, yet are inclined to throw money rather than intelligence at the problem.

Alex

[Geek99]

Nodding..

[OldGit]

[quote name='Zoe_BillySheehan' post='462624' date='Apr 15 2009, 12:52 AM']I suppose some people are just lucky when it comes to being able to afford equipment.[/quote]

Luck? no, it's about life choices.

All my gear has paid for itself - and I mean in simple pecunairy terms - thousands of times over.

[51m0n]

I'm happy with the tone I get from my hands....

I'm happy with the tone from my basses....

I'm happy with the tone from my rig....

GAS is over for me for now

Does that make me a bit weird???

[johnnylager]

[quote name='51m0n' post='462785' date='Apr 15 2009, 10:31 AM']GAS is over for me [b]for now[/b] [/quote]
Good man. I'm just a cab and filter away meself. This week anyway.

[escholl]

[quote name='51m0n' post='462728' date='Apr 15 2009, 09:25 AM']You love the sound, you love the instrument as much as a piece of art as a musical tool, lots of reasons.[/quote]

I think her point was that all the best gear in the world won't inherently make you a good bassist. If you don't put in the effort and learn to really [i]use[/i] it properly (as others have mentioned) -- then you might as well save your money.

[51m0n]

[quote name='johnnylager' post='462792' date='Apr 15 2009, 10:40 AM']Good man. I'm just a cab and filter away meself. This week anyway.[/quote]

Its an empty feeling, having no GAS......

[EssentialTension]

Last year I spent on equipment roughly the amount I earnt from gigs plus the amount I raised by selling other equipment. So I'd say no, my equipment is not better than I am.

Edited April 15, 2009 by EssentialTension

[Skybone]

In a word... yes.

[51m0n]

[quote name='escholl' post='462798' date='Apr 15 2009, 10:44 AM']I think her point was that all the best gear in the world won't inherently make you a good bassist. If you don't put in the effort and learn to really [i]use[/i] it properly (as others have mentioned) -- then you might as well save your money.[/quote]

I got the point that Zoe made, I stand by my response, essentially there are other reasons to love bass gear beyond being able to play through it brilliantly, as long as how you play fulfills you then your playing is good enough. As long as the gear you own fulfills your needs then it is good enough.

Is your gear better than it needs to be. Well actually almost everyone on this forum could use cheaper gear and play the same music, but would they get the same enjoyment out of it?

In fact almost any punters you play to wont recognise the difference between a £150 bass and a £1500 bass unless you A/B them outside of the mix IME (I've tried this). Even then given similar age strings etc a lot of people dont hear a better and worse, just different.

In fact most punters wont tell the diff between a fretted and fretless bass in a mix (unless you do some long slow slides in what you are playing). Really, they aren't set up that way, they aren't listening to the bass first. So its actually about your experience as a player, and maybe the rest of your band, more than the punters, IMO.

And given that then your gear is as good as you need it to be when you get as much enjoyment from it as is possible (and possibly legal ).

It cant really be too good or too expensive unless you feel it hasn't given you an equivalent increase in the enjoyment you experience when playing.

So I guess I should say my gear actually isn't too good for me and where my playing is at, as it gives me a massive amount of enjoyment, and I think I get enough out of it given the level of my playing to appreciate it properly.

[Zoe_BillySheehan]

Me: but if your gunna spend £1000 on a bass, and not put time n effort into learning,
then whats the point?

[quote name='51m0n' post='462728' date='Apr 15 2009, 09:25 AM']You love the sound, you love the instrument as much as a piece of art as a musical tool, lots of reasons.[/quote]

all i meant by that is...
whats the point of having an amazing bass sitting in the corner looking pretty, and it not being played?
you do get them.

Z

[51m0n]

Well who is to say how well it should be played given its price?

Didnt know we needed to make people sit an exam before they could spend a decent amount of cash on an instrument or they aren't worthy....

[Zoe_BillySheehan]

[quote name='51m0n' post='462904' date='Apr 15 2009, 12:26 PM']Well who is to say how well it should be played given its price?

Didnt know we needed to make people sit an exam before they could spend a decent amount of cash on an instrument or they aren't worthy....[/quote]

lol...

if someone can afford to spend that much, n just watch it sit gathering dust, then well done to them !

Z
x

[BigRedX]

[quote name='Zoe_BillySheehan' post='462908' date='Apr 15 2009, 12:31 PM']lol...

if someone can afford to spend that much, n just watch it sit gathering dust, then well done to them !

Z
x[/quote]

No one said anything about the instruments gathering dust. We play them - just not all that well.

[Zoe_BillySheehan]

[quote name='BigRedX' post='462918' date='Apr 15 2009, 12:39 PM']No one said anything about the instruments gathering dust. We play them - just not all that well.[/quote]

I wasn't talking about any of the dedicated bassists on this forum.
I was merely talking about the others out there that do that.
and... I was talking about the people that buy them, then leave them.

Zx

[ironside1966]

Times have changed

In the Its grim up north town where I lived in the early 80s the only people who had big name guitars where people who had been playing a long time and gigged regularly, most people started on secondhand utter crap guitars then when they got better a cheap copy after they got better.
This was a good thing INMO because it made you do the work not the guitar of FX as very few had pedals also may be just a fuzz box.

I studded music at collage in my youth, most players where between grade 5 to grade 8 players and no one had a Fender or Gibson or anything in that class. Retuning to collage 20 years later most of the kids had pro guitars and amps regardless of if they could play or not, one thing I did notice there were a lot of great basses but most had dead strings.

Whatever the gear you have talent will shine through.


This is not a criticism just a observation, and I am wondering will the credit crunch bring them days back?

[cetera]

I will never be as good as my gear.... but I have great fun trying! AND I try to play all of it at some point....

[Jobiebass]

[quote name='Zoe_BillySheehan' post='462894' date='Apr 15 2009, 12:20 PM']Me: but if your gunna spend £1000 on a bass, and not put time n effort into learning,
then whats the point?



all i meant by that is...
whats the point of having an amazing bass sitting in the corner looking pretty, and it not being played?
you do get them.

Z[/quote]


My Stingray sits in a corner rairly being played, its just nice to know its there if I want it, but my Flea is much nicer to play so I play that far more (altho I prefer the tone from the stingray)

[NickThomas]

If my gear wasn't better than me, I'd be restricting myself lol

[AM1]

[quote name='alexclaber' post='462759' date='Apr 15 2009, 10:05 AM']Is your bass gear better than your ability to use it?

Not your playing per se but your ability to actually get the best sound out of your gear? Based on the frequency of tone related questions I'd suggest that many bassists are far from really getting the most from what they already own, yet are inclined to throw money rather than intelligence at the problem.

Alex[/quote]

Yeah I agree.

My main bass is £100 FrankenFender and I gigged it in Belgium at the weekend, at a shall we say, lively, punk venue, with no fear of an expensive bill :-)

It is much better to put the hours into developing your own tonal capability in the fingers than wasting hours lusting after expensive gear in the hope that it makes you sound better by replacing fundamental skills.

There's no substitute for back to basics, old school musicianship.