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Some Pratt on Jools Later just now thinking he's the dog's bollocks!


merello
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:lol: :lol: :lol:

Exactly. All the gear available today is good enough for anyone and great players will always sound great whatever they play. Look at Macca and his 'cheap, crappy' violin bass :lol:

In fact, pretty much any of the gear used by the best players is available to the committed amateur player so all this agonising over the quest for 'perfect tone' is nonsense really.

My suspicion is that there are two basics in this game - gear and talent. We can buy the gear, then change the gear, then mod the gear, then buy custom gear, but continually blame the gear while all the time it is the talent or application that we really lack to be a great player.

Still, I guess that always focusing on the gear helps us to forget our shortcomings in the talent department. If only it were possible to buy talent as easily as it is to buy gear!
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[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1415540807' post='2601270']
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Exactly. All the gear available today is good enough for anyone and great players will always sound great whatever they play. Look at Macca and his 'cheap, crappy' violin bass :lol:

In fact, pretty much any of the gear used by the best players is available to the committed amateur player so all this agonising over the quest for 'perfect tone' is nonsense really.

My suspicion is that there are two basics in this game - gear and talent. We can buy the gear, then change the gear, then mod the gear, then buy custom gear, but continually blame the gear while all the time it is the talent or application that we really lack to be a great player.

Still, I guess that always focusing on the gear helps us to forget our shortcomings in the talent department. If only it were possible to buy talent as easily as it is to buy gear!
[/quote]

I couldn't agree more

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[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1415547672' post='2601336']
I'm sure that's true, but I doubt they are good players [u]because[/u] they've got high-end gear.
[/quote]

Agree with your posts.

I keep reading how someone "has" to spend a lot of money for a "playable" bass. This sounds like BS to me. I can understand someone wanting to do it for the pleasure of owning something unique and expensive, nothing really wrong with that, but some make out they are forced to because nothing else (i.e., what us mainstream players use) will get the job done.

I know sometimes you have to spend more to get the configuration you want, its not always easy buying off the shelf with the exact spec you prefer, but i cant believe someone with a 3k bass (for example) wouldn't be able to play a much, much cheaper bass and still get the job done.

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No but then that contradicts the idea people are buying this stuff with the hope of it being the answer to their prayers of being able to play doesn't it? The people buying it must have already got their sh*t together on cheaper gear and are not on this quest we always hear about but in fact just like high end gear and have the skills to be able to play it properly.

As I've said before in other threads one persons high end gear is anothers work horse inexpensive run of the mill stuff.

I take no notice of endorsed products, watching someone rock out with an Ashdown rig as you sit smugly saying if its good enough for so and so it's good enough for me is all well and good until you take into account the pre EQ Di and two grands worth of in ear monitors, stage dressing/advertising at its finest ;)

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I'm not disparaging people who buy high end gear, regardless of whether they can play or not. Their money, their choice, no problem. I'm just suggesting there is no correlation between gear and talent and that a great player will sound great pretty much regardless of what gear they happen to use.

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[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1415548259' post='2601348']
No but then that contradicts the idea people are buying this stuff with the hope of it being the answer to their prayers of being able to play doesn't it?
[/quote]

Yes, but these people will normally already have other basses so should know better ;-)


[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1415549961' post='2601367']


I'm not disparaging people who buy high end gear, regardless of whether they can play or not. Their money, their choice, no problem. I'm just suggesting there is no correlation between gear and talent and that a great player will sound great pretty much regardless of what gear they happen to use.
[/quote]

Yep, spot on again, although i still think sometimes you need to up the budget to get something that you do feel more comfortable on, and so can play better.

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I have seen some stuff like Richard Bona and Yanek Gwizdala etc that in fairness although they would rock with a Squier P no doubt the loop station tapping stuff would not be possible on any of my basses without some fret dressing and even then the necks might not be stable enough to stay at such a low action on a tour basis, granted this is not your everyday pub gig issue :)

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[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1415547672' post='2601336']
I'm sure that's true, but I doubt they are good players [u]because[/u] they've got high-end gear.
[/quote]

Some basses are unplayable, IMO and most good players wouldn't even try.
Sure, they could get a tune out of it, but they'd be so compromsied, they'd
not bother, IMV..

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Do you mean some models are intrinsically unplayable or that some individual examples are unplayable?

I'd be surprised at the former (unless it was a 'toy' bass) and would like to think that the latter could be sorted if properly set up.

I take your point about good players not bothering though.

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Both, I go into some shops and look at the stock and I don't even want to pick one up
as I know it would be such a bugger to play and do what I want to do on a bass...
Whether that bass can be set up to be playable as I'd want it, is also debateable.
Most probably couldn't anyway... and there would so many other things about them
that I'd dislike that it wouldn't even get off first base.

It is possible that the issue is more mine than the bass... but many people like my basses to play
so I'm thinking why isn't theirs more like mine...

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[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1415645449' post='2602363']
That does sound more like personal preference to me.
I find a wide P bass neck and high action very, very hard to play, yet I know others love this set up.
[/quote]
When you've just got off a double bass, the wide P bass neck and high action seem neither wide nor high.

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[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1415646383' post='2602378']

When you've just got off a double bass, the wide P bass neck and high action seem neither wide nor high.
[/quote]
Since taking up DB I agree but then in a way you can say the same about "unplayable" uprights or cant play arco on particular strings, cant slap on particular strings. Tools for the job just the same I suppose.

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[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1415648333' post='2602404']
I'm a poor enough player that I'd assume it was me before I assumed it was the bass, upright or not.
[/quote]
Likewise but I know its not my bass as I have heard the noises Jake Newman and Geoff Chamlers can get out of it, ah must be me after all :( :D

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Anyone remember the Sue Ryder "craze" a few years ago? I know loads of people brought them but im convinced they were mostly unplayable. I tried 3 and felt they were terrible. Now these I can believe would hinder anyone, even me, and it's normally the other way around ;-)

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