Nicko

I wasn't much of a Skunk Anansie fan, but my last band ended up covering Hedonism. Simple enough but a great bass line. It ended up being one of my favourite songs to play in the set.

I know a guy who insists he rides a motorbike better after a beer because he's more relaxed. Amazingly he's still alive.

I once received a medium sized steam turbine (about 1MW IIRC) which had been properly packed in a wooden crate which had subsequently been pushed into a steel shipping container. It arrived undamaged, but there was no way to remove the wooden box from the shipping container. The shipping company rejected my suggestion of taking an angle grinder to the container and with the agreement of the turbine manufacturer we dragged the box out using lifting slings and a large forklift. The damage done was significant and the time taken to repair meant that the job overran resulting in significant financial penalties. More isn't always better.

Mrs Nicko never objects to me buying stuff. She does have a habit of reminding that I've bought unnecessary stuff on a regular basis though.

Why? If you stick 2000* people in portacabins for 8 weeks at a time they will find ways to amuse themselves. * there were 2000 people in my employers management camp, about 20000 people in total. We had swimming pools, gyms, bars, a cinema, a couple of football pitches, and the Koreans even managed to get a driving range.

Generally stone cold sober. Sometimes a pint at the start of the second set for refreshment and that's it until it's over. My first band was on a construction camp, we played for entertainment and it was free drinks - the audience use to get us drinks and I'd pile them up until we'd finished. Home was a portacabin a few hundred yards away and strip down was generally the next day so the only excuse was that I don't enjoy playing drunk.

Unless you consider the dimension of time, but when reading threads on basschat I expect discussion on whether I should use flat or wound strings, not references to string theory.

I like my socks to have holes in when I buy them so I can get my feet into them.

Equally, I suggest all those thinking expensive basses are required try all the basses in the shop before deciding. A great bass doesn't have to be expensive/a desirable brand. WRT jeans it's taken me until I was approaching 50 to finally find jeans that fit. I think I've tried on a lot of jeans and I'm more than happy to pay more for ones that I actually want to wear.

If the title of the thread was Brass Snobbery your point would be more relevant🙂. I have no experience outside of a rock band environment in terms of bang for your buck but certain manufacturers trade at a premium on a perception of quality which isn't necessarily deserved. I'm not saying that a Fodera isn't worth more than a Harley Benton because of what it's made from and how it's made. It doesn't necessarily mean its a better instrument than something half or a tenth of it's price though.

That's the question the OP is asking. and having read some comments here I suspect instrument snobbery is alive and well.

Oh, in that case we don't agree.😀 Snobbery and it's reverse is IMO about the status of the owner rather than the object. A snide comment on the quality of a bass or the gratuitously ostentatious nature of an instrument implies that the player is less than discerning.

I think we are in agreement, except that I don't associate status of people with the things they happen to possess.

No. Snobbery is believing that something is better simply because it costs more. Inverted snobbery is refusing to pay more for a brand that others have decided is the minimum standard, even if it's actually better. There's too many people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Not vastly expensive. More expensive and trendier brands are available. I have an issue with Levi's - the standard 501 doesn't fit my thighs and going for a relaxed fit makes them baggy around my ar5s and crotch. It's the same with a lot of the established jeans brands. £120 or so on (sadly no longer made) medium rise relaxed taper Diesel Larkee BEEX solves the problem. although I've bought a few pairs at reduced prices to keep me going. Previously GStar Raw were my brand of choice but they discontinued the style I liked.

I think that's a slightly different argument. A fancy car with superior performance often includes specific designs or technological advances that haven't got to the mass market yet. Many petrol heads admire the technology as much as the potential performance.* Compare that to a Fender bass which has no specific technology that you can't get on a much cheaper version and often doesn't feel or sound any better. * i don't think anyone should knock a fancy fast car until they've driven one, nor should they knock the feeling that some players might get when picking up a fancy bass. Those people should not judge others by their own preferences.

I tend toward inverse snobbery when it comes to instruments. There is nothing worse than seeing someone with all the gear who clearly should have invested in some lessons rather than equipment.

Surely this patently false statement is the whole basis of snobbery. It's possible to compare instruments in terms of quality of components. quality of design, quality of construction but ultimately a good instrument is one that the player feels comfortable playing and that produces the sound they want. The sales price of an instrument is largely driven by the cost of labour in the country of manufacture and the perceived desirability of the product. I write this as someone who recently disposed of a US P as I always end up using my Chinese Squier P. I have a Mexican Fender branded Tele (the snobs would actually have to look at the serial number to tell), a Patrick Eggle and an Epiphone 339. These all do exactly what I want and I choose to spend the savings on expensive jeans which fit me better than the brand leader.

Jackie Big Tits - The Kooks

Beds are Burning - Midnight Oil

Eternal Flame - The Bangles

I can't recommend getting a teacher to take you through the grades highly enough. A good one will go beyond the syllabus and explain the context of what you are doing. As I said earlier I went up to grade 5 but we covered a lot of theory stuff that wasn't in the books (creating scale tone chords, modal harmony and many others). I haven't looked at the bass syllabus but if it's like the guitar one I think you'll miss out without someone explaining why you are doing what they ask you to do.

Not on bass, but I took RGT courses on guitar when I was in my 30s and I'd been playing guitar on and off since I was about 13. They didn't make me start at the novice grade as they decided I already knew that. The RGT grades were rock focused and gave me a big boost in my knowledge and playing. It forced me to practice in a more focused way too rather than picking up an noodling phrases from songs I liked. I got to grade 5 and then it all started getting a bit too jazz/fusion for my taste. I believe they still do the RGT course for guitar and bass and you can look up the syllabus on line.

Dreadful lip sync to match the song.

Personally I find the neck on a J a bit too narrow when I pick one up. That's only because I'm used to a bit more space between the strings because I've been playing a P for years. My first proper bass was a Peavey Cirrus which was really narrow so I suspect I could learn to love a narrow neck again.