Music Shop bass playing

[Dingus]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1357995311' post='1931518']
I don' t go into music shops.

Actually' I never try gear and bought all my gear without playing it first. What am I like?
[/quote]

You're not alone in that I havent played the actual bass I have ended up owning in over twenty years . They were all either ordered from stock or custom built .

Edited January 12, 2013 by Dingus

[Guest bassman7755]

I normally read reviews and opinions on sites like this and then just take a punt, IME trying gear in a shop is pointless as (for me at least) I have to be using something for a few weeks before I start to decide whether I really like it or not. In the case of instruments I thinks theres a definite danger of rejecting something simply because its not what you are used to (e.g. the contour of the neck) rather than because its actually deficient.

[Cameronj279]

Been about a year since I tried anything in a shop but I think I just played whatever I had learned recently/was enjoying playing the most at that time.

[Fionn]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1357912165' post='1930453']
I play really hard stuff to show everybody what a badass I am. I do it every weekend because showing everybody what a badass I am is the most important part of my involvement in music.
[/quote]

Haha! brilliant!

I once had a great thing happen whilst trying out a bass in a music shop. I'm sat there playing a bass when across the shop (no sound booths in this shop) a fella trying out a guitar started jamming to the bass-line I was playing. It turned into an amazing five minutes of freestyle funk, totally off the cuff, fluid. We shook hands after the guitars were put back ... I've never seen the guy since.

I love that kinda thing.

[ThomBassmonkey]

I play a variety of my band's songs using various techniques like 2 hand tapping and slap (yep, in my band's songs, they're not really showy though, just melodies or percussive).

I've not tried a bass in a shop in a long time though, I'm happy with the basses I've got and tend to buy 2nd hand so I don't see the point wasting shop staff's time trying out their gear.

[Roland Rock]

I have been guilty of the slapathon thing years ago. I remember testing a bass wah pedal in a Dublin shop with minutes of relentless slap. What a knob :-)
Not been in a music shop for years now. Probably The Bass Centre around 2005, as I worked near It, and would pop in at lunchtime every now and then. I think I'd just have played a mid tempo groove number.

[xgsjx]

The last time I went ina shop to try out a bass was last year.

I wanted to try a fretless, so the chap plugged it in & passed it to me. I sat there with it on my lap for @ 5 minutes just staring at the neck until a little drool appeared at the right corner of my mouth.
I gave it a little wipe & then proceeded to play just a couple of random notes up & down the fretboard to check for intonation & fretbuzz, followed by holding the bass flat up to my eye & looking along the fretboard to check it was straight.
I then attempted some harmonics, chords & a spot of tapping & that's when I got chucked out the shop.

Edited January 13, 2013 by xgsjx

[BassTractor]

That was a fanned fretless then?

[xgsjx]

Yes, unlined.