Fender Jazz = Nerdy

[SumOne]

What do you reckon the nerdiest Bass is? My vote is the Jazz Bass.

 

There's something a bit 'noodling/prog'...Geddy Lee, Jaco Pastorius sort of association about them. (And I play Jazz Basses ...and am a nerd!). Cool points for the Reggae connections though.

 

Whereas Rickenbacker are associated with Lemmy, Precision with Soul and Punk, Stingray with Disco and Funk, ESP and Warwick with Metal. 

 

.... all are a bit Americana throwback style with people thinking they're the Fonz though. Retired Dentist from Surrey with a Harley.

 

 Ibanez would be a Boy racer with a Mitsubishi though, not high-end or exactly cool - but quite 'everyman' with a bit of forward thinking and somewhat youthful....so my vote for a cool bass goes to Ibanez.

Edited 5 hours ago by SumOne

[2pods]

Seeing as i have three Ibanezii, I had better agree

[simisker]

Nerdiest bass: any 'coffee table' single-cut bass*. Ultranerd points for when you reel off all the exotic woods involved.

 

'Cos you sure as hell ain't buying one for the cool rock 'n' roll looks

 

 

 

* for the record, I have one**.

 

** Wenge, Walnut and Flamed Maple.

[Steve Browning]

I have always thought of a Jazz bass as being more noodly. Probably because the notes are better defined which might lead to someone playing more of them.

[Lozz196]

I think of the Jazz bass as looking very cool. Prob down to a mate of mine who played a 70s Jazz in black/black with maple neck with blocks. Low slung it just looked the business.

[tauzero]

Surely a Zon is more nerdy. Jazz basses are almost as common as muck (Precisions are commoner).

[Dan Dare]

I'm a J bass man and also a nerd, so there's defo some truth in what you say. However, I think an essential aspect of nerdiness is obsession with technology, so the J bass falls a bit short on that score, being firmly in the classic camp and not exactly cutting edge or SOTA.

 

I'd suggest that truly nerdy instruments need to have complex active electronics, fanned frets, more than 4 strings and be made of things you have difficulty pronouncing.

Edited 7 hours ago by Dan Dare

[Mrbigstuff]

Surely it’s the bass with the most knobs? I’ve always thought Wals to be a bit nerdy 

[Reggaebass]

17 minutes ago, Mrbigstuff said:

Surely it’s the bass with the most knobs

Definitely, this would take some time to work out 😁

[SteveXFR]

I go to the nerdiest, proggiest metal festival and jazz basses are a rarity. Warwicks and Status' are the most popular 4 strings and Zon are the most popular 5 string. 

Jazz basses are really popular in more traditional metal and stoner metal. 

I don't think anyone has played a BC Rich without wearing either sparkly lycra or corpse paint.

[StickyDBRmf]

A nerdy bass would have a pocket (heehee) for pencils & slide rule.

[Hellzero]

What about the Le Fay Remington Steele, the BassLab L-Bow basses or the Leduc U-Basse ?

 

Nerdy basses for sure...

 

 

 

 

[SteveXFR]

21 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

What about the Le Fay Remington Steele, the BassLab L-Bow basses or the Leduc U-Basse ?

 

Nerdy basses for sure...

 

 

 

 

 

Those are basses for stock brokers, dentists and lawyers. Nerds rarely have lots of money, they spent it all on dungeons and dragons.

[peteb]

21 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

Nerds rarely have lots of money, they spent it all on dungeons and dragons.

 

Not these days! The richest men in the world are stone cold nerds / social misfits and they are branching out into politics / running the world's biggest economy and military power!

 

[80Hz]

2 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

Definitely, this would take some time to work out 😁

 

 

Eeewww this gives me trypophobia. Its tail looks like scorpions were a design influence 🫣

 

[80Hz]

Just wanted to point out that seeing Kristian Toivainen play his vanilla sunburst jazz in Rotten Sound changed my opinion on them, while simultaneously giving me SPL induced heatstroke.

 

Not sure if that makes them nerdy, but I think it makes them versatile!

[SteveXFR]

22 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

Not these days! The richest men in the world are stone cold nerds / social misfits and they are branching out into politics / running the world's biggest economy and military power!

 

 

Those aren't nerds. Those are people born in to incredible wealth pretending to be nerds while paying real nerds peanuts to do the actual nerdy work. I've seen R&D jobs advertised at Tesla and the pay and benefits are crap even by engineering standards. 

[Mrbigstuff]

13 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

Those aren't nerds. Those are people born in to incredible wealth pretending to be nerds while paying real nerds peanuts to do the actual nerdy work. I've seen R&D jobs advertised at Tesla and the pay and benefits are crap even by engineering standards. 

Zuckerberg is most definitely a nerd.

 

Back on topic, 36” scale lengths are super nerdy! Who are you trying to impress with your tight B string!

[SteveXFR]

5 minutes ago, Mrbigstuff said:

Zuckerberg is most definitely a nerd.

 

Back on topic, 36” scale lengths are super nerdy! Who are you trying to impress with your tight B string!

 

I had a 36" multi scale 5 string. I used it to play sludge metal. Very, very not nerdy. Simple riffs played fast and low with an unnecessary amount of distortion. I really liked that bass, an Ibanez SRMS805 

[Mrbigstuff]

32 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

I had a 36" multi scale 5 string. I used it to play sludge metal. Very, very not nerdy. Simple riffs played fast and low with an unnecessary amount of distortion. I really liked that bass, an Ibanez SRMS805 

The days of any metal style being cool are long gone!

[Beer of the Bass]

There was a thread in the Double Bass subforum where people made a strong point for tripod-mounted EUBs as an innately dorky looking instrument. Not wanting to tread on toes, I couldn't possibly comment!

[StickyDBRmf]

58 minutes ago, Mrbigstuff said:

Zuckerberg is most definitely a nerd.

 

Back on topic, 36” scale lengths are super nerdy! Who are you trying to impress with your tight B string!

My Chapman Stick is 36" scale.

[Grooverjr]

Surprised no one has questioned whether Ibanez are cool. The classic SR shape is very pretty but they are far too run of the mill to be cool (just as a current fast Ford can never be cool).

Anything French and boutique or boutique-adjacent is the coolest in any sphere. Vigier for me, Clive! 

[SteveXFR]

20 minutes ago, Mrbigstuff said:

The days of any metal style being cool are long gone!

 

When was metal ever cool? Metal has always been for misfits and outcasts.

I love metal but I'll be the first to admit it's not cool.

[Grooverjr]

1 minute ago, SteveXFR said:

 

When was metal ever cool? Metal has always been for misfits and outcasts.

I love metal but I'll be the first to admit it's not cool.

I'd say possibly for a little bit in early 90s with Metallica and the tail end of GnR, but largely true. In Latin America rock and the whole long hair and leather thing was very cool for a very long time, mind.