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Do precisions really work in any music?

bassist_lewis

By bassist_lewis,
in Bass Guitars

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BetaFunk Experienced

BetaFunk

Posted
Posted

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1367159972' post='2061899']
Wrong , my friend .

If you listen closwely to the lyrics you will hear that the whole song is actually a lament about saving up through the long cold winter to buy some Thomastic flatwounds to put on his Morin Khuur ( that's what they call that thing like a cello he's playing ) so he can sound more like James Jamerson . Just another Mongolian P Bass wanabee , I'm afraid .
[/quote]
I stand corrected Sir!

I should have listened to the lyrics more carefully before posting. :)

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Dingus Experienced

Dingus

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I suppose all of this begs the question " what is a bass guitar supposed to sound like ? " . I suspect you would get a different answer from musicians who are not bass players to that which you would get from a lot those that are bass players , and to most other musicians the sound of a Precision Bass is usually the kind of sound they want to play over and how they want the bass to sound .

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Dingus Experienced

Dingus

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[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1367161934' post='2061940']
Really?

Care to make a YouTube play-along to prove it?
[/quote]

I could do that , no problem if I had any equipment to film myself with . Unfortunately , after the whole Paris Hilton / Kim Kardashian / Pamela Anderson sex tape scandal phenomena Mrs Dingus has got a complete ban on any video recording equipment in the household . But why on earth do you think a Precision style bass wouldn't be appropriate for that music ? Do you actually know how a Precision Bass sounds and can sound in the right hands ? Are you telling me that if Pino Palladino or Freddie Washington was hired by the artist to play bass on that track and they turned up with their Precision Bass that they wouldn't be able to do an appropriate job ? How so ? The track is crying ut for some bottom end , and a Precision Bass will always give you that . Even if you wanted some more adventurous and melodic playing , a Precision can do that too . Why wouldn't a bass that can sound like this sound good on that track ? :

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh85DA5w8V4[/media]

To me a Precision is a pretty neutral sounding bass , kind of the closet sound you can get to the sound of the lower strings on an acoustic guitar . Are you sure that you aren't making the mistake of associating the Fender Precision with it's vintage heritage going back to the 1950's and therefore having trouble relating it to this example of a decidedly post-modern music form , when in fact , judged purely on its' sonic qualities , a Precision Bass would be a perfectly good - perhaps even ideal - bass to use on that track ?

Edited by Dingus
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BigRedX Grand Master

BigRedX

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You know until I started hanging out in bass forums on the internet I never realised there was supposed to be anything extra special about Fender basses in general and the P bass in particular.

So for almost 30 years I thought that as a bass player you just picked one that you liked the look, sound and feel of, in the same way that some guitarists would play Teles, others Strats or Les Pauls or Rickenbacker 12 strings etc.

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D.I. Joe Collaborator

D.I. Joe

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Under the assumption that what the OP means to ask is whether the Precision can be used in any kind of music in which the orchestration includes and Electric Bass then the answer is yes.

ANY bass can be used for ANY genre of music. That does not mean that everybody would, as everything is subject to personal taste, but it is physically possible. Some basses may look silly on stage in certain situations but isn't the sound the most important thing? And even then, the instrument itself is only the thing with which you play the notes - the sound you hear is only achieved after processing through effects, eq, amp, speakers etc. so you could use any bass for any style as long as long as you are happy with the sound you get.

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risingson Mentor

risingson

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[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1367158289' post='2061877']
How about this:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjpg5PuaGBw[/media]
[/quote]

I don't see what you couldn't achieve with a volume pedal and a P-Bass on a track like this (any bass in fact), but to be totally honest the space for electric bass doesn't really exist on the track anyway, it's far better suited to a synth bass type swell and benefits from a lack of low end in the track to add to the atmospheric quality in which it succeeds so well. Great track, maybe a bit of a straw man argument though really?

Edited by risingson
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discreet Grand Master

discreet

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[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1367172287' post='2062146']
My laptop only appears to be playing the Youtube clip backwards anyway so I cant decide if a P bass would sound good or not?
[/quote]

:lol:[size=4] Stand on one leg and face east, and you'll hear it the right way round.[/size]

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