Better gear?

[Bilbo]

I note that a lot of the posts here are about the purchase, selling, trading etc of gear - basses, amps, effects etc. Perfectly acceptable; I have got gear off here myself and very successfully. I particularly agree that buying effects is a legitmate form of experimentation and that there is no other readily accessible way of changing your sound so radically as the purchasing of a new effect.

But my question is; how much of the GAS we experience is motivated by frustration at the shortcomings of our gear and how much from the frustrations that arise from our unhappiness with our playing and teh sound we can get with our own ability to use the eqs on the amps we have.

I knew a guy once who loved guitars; he bought and sold them and tweaked actions and changed pick-ups and experimented with strings. His guitar playing was dreadful because he spent so much time playing with the technology that he never had time to practice the music.

Like most of us, I covet many of the basses I see here and elsewhere and mutter under my breath about how unfair it is that I can't afford any of them. But then I ask myself; is it the gear I want or more time getting better with the gear I have got? If I could practice more, would I get to where I want to be because I could play as well as I can and, more to the point, would spending £10K on a new bass lead me on a fool's errand because my playing wouldn't actually improve because of it and, having spent the money, I would still feel the same frustration.

I must practice more, I must practice more......

[Toasted]

They were talking on TB the other day about a $1400 fretboard option from Avella Copollo.

All I could think that a bigger improvement in tone/bass playing/style must come better from $1400 of lessons.

[Stylon Pilson]

[quote name='Toasted' post='386256' date='Jan 20 2009, 03:35 PM']All I could think that a bigger improvement in tone/bass playing/style must come better from $1400 of lessons.[/quote]

True, but then you'd be spending the hours as well as the dollars.

S.P.

[Galilee]

I was pretty happy with what I have until I came here and saw what everyone else has....

[waynepunkdude]

[quote name='Galilee' post='386261' date='Jan 20 2009, 03:37 PM']I was pretty happy with what I have until I came here and saw what everyone else has....[/quote]


+1 I thought my Fender was the best bass you could get.

[thisnameistaken]

I'm not so bad with basses - I've got two now, bought one in 2001, the other last year but it's a fretless (therefore different enough to warrant having!) and I'm happy with it so it's not going anywhere. Of course I look at some of the basses for sale here and would like to have them, but I don't buy them. For me so long as a bass sounds good and it's comfortable to play I'm happy with it, I'm not chasing "performance" or anything.

I do buy and sell a lot of effects, but I use a lot of effects in my band. I'm sort-of settled on sounds now (-ish!) but it took a lot of trial and error to find filters and fuzzes I really liked, and now I'm concentrating on making my board smaller and more usable live (sensible switching solutions, hopefully a programmable analogue filter).

I don't buy/sell amplification much, but I did buy a lightweight cab last year. That was a necessity though because I couldn't get my cab in and out of my flat on my own.

So I don't think I'm so bad. I'm looking forward to Beedster's response to this thread.

[Mr Fudge]

Not always true I know, but generally I think you get what you pay for in this life. I have gradually upgraded over the kast few years abit like I did with cars over the years. Some better gear can kick start the playing but its certainly no replacement fpr talent, practice, hard work and combinations of them. After all this I have found myself returning to my old faithfull and relatively inexpensive Jazz bass after a year of serious GAS. I may treat her to some new knobs.

[wateroftyne]

My GAS is fuelled by two words.

'What if...?'

[waynepunkdude]

I'm not the same with the guitar I know exactly how to get 'my sound' but with bass I find it harder.

[Dubs]

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='386231' date='Jan 20 2009, 03:27 PM']I note that a lot of the posts here are about the purchase, selling, trading etc of gear - basses, amps, effects etc. Perfectly acceptable; I have got gear off here myself and very successfully. I particularly agree that buying effects is a legitmate form of experimentation and that there is no other readily accessible way of changing your sound so radically as the purchasing of a new effect.

But my question is; how much of the GAS we experience is motivated by frustration at the shortcomings of our gear and how much from the frustrations that arise from our unhappiness with our playing and teh sound we can get with our own ability to use the eqs on the amps we have.

I knew a guy once who loved guitars; he bought and sold them and tweaked actions and changed pick-ups and experimented with strings. His guitar playing was dreadful because he spent so much time playing with the technology that he never had time to practice the music.

Like most of us, I covet many of the basses I see here and elsewhere and mutter under my breath about how unfair it is that I can't afford any of them. But then I ask myself; is it the gear I want or more time getting better with the gear I have got? If I could practice more, would I get to where I want to be because I could play as well as I can and, more to the point, would spending £10K on a new bass lead me on a fool's errand because my playing wouldn't actually improve because of it and, having spent the money, I would still feel the same frustration.

I must practice more, I must practice more......[/quote]

It’s an interesting one, but I think this sort of thing has come up before. The expression “the grass is always greener” is quite a good explanation to describe the reasons why I move on a lot of my gear, but then I do already own basses/other gear that I think are great and great for me and what I like to do so I doubt very much that I’d ever move these on.

I think you summed it up best when you talked about the experimenting of different bits of gear; how well can you really get to know a bass after playing it in a shop for 15 minutes or half an hour or even a couple of hours? You can definitely get an initial feel for it but in my experience I’ve found that you don’t really properly get to grips with an instrument until a week or two of playing it. Effects are a completely different story though – an effect won’t change how well you can play your instrument but just change how it sounds. The instrument itself will help you play better if it suites your playing style, but in my experience a £300 bass can feel as good as a £2k bass but it’s just made in the far east and made from cheap cuts of wood and has been finished much more cheaply – a £300 bass isn’t going to be finished like a Fodera It’s like a drum kit; you can end up paying £2k on top of the normal retail price for a custom or special order finish. You could have it diamond incrusted but the fact that it’s worth £3 million doesn’t make it any easier to play than the standard £1k kit that’s been finished with a pot of black gloss…

I don’t think I’m making much sense :wacko: but yeah, I agree with you I think, that there’s no substitute for just being a good player – a good player will make a sh*t bass sound good because they’ll be skilful as f*** and know what they're doing

[yorick]

I've always looked for better gear. Being left-handed has always meant either getting cr@ppy stuff or mid-range stuff with a % premium for being a lefty, bass wise anyway. The past twenty or so years have been a revelation as to what you can get. I've had Rickys, pre EB stingrays, Fenders and customs. I've only in the past two years found my ultimate basses, so here's to the next twenty finding my ultimate rig.....

[Bass-ic]

I will almost certainly buy a better bass once I've learnt how to play the one I have now. i dont know if this is the same as just wanting a new bass for th sake of 'just having another bass'
I have no idea where my playing will take me yet, but a hand made bass may well be only thing I go for as I dont much like the look of the majority of stuff out there.
matt

[budget bassist]

I think if i spent half my time playing rather than looking ta gear then i'd be a much better bassist, but then i find it hard to get motivated when i don't have a band to contribute to.
I think a lot of my GAS comes from being a tone freak, i'm the same on guitar really, but i say if you can afford it, why not buy the best you can? I'm also attracted to pretty basses more than anything else

[The Funk]

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='386231' date='Jan 20 2009, 03:27 PM']But my question is; how much of the GAS we experience is motivated by frustration at the shortcomings of our gear and how much from the frustrations that arise from our unhappiness with our playing and teh sound we can get with our own ability to use the eqs on the amps we have.[/quote]

I know for me the first thing was to get 'my sound'. Got that now with the A rig. Then the B rig was about getting a good sound at gig volumes in as small a package as possible. Got that too now. The effects quest is also at an end for me.

Bass-wise though, I am a sucker for Warwicks and Fender Jazzes - and if I had the money and there was a nice Precision or Stingray available, I'd be tempted. You can easily talk yourself into a justification for it: different basses for different things. As I mainly just play in one band - my band with my sound - that's complete BS on my part though.

I do firmly believe in getting the best gear you can afford though. If it sounds really good and your playing isn't as good, it'll show up loud and clear! It also makes it more fun to practice.

[Kiwi]

For me it started off as the belief that better gear could make me a better player. In comparing a Westone Spectrum II to a Jaydee Supernatural MK S2, there was some validity in that.

Later on it became more about having the right sound for the song and then also an interest in the design of basses. So I had two aspects to my collection, one side for sounds and the other side because I liked having instruments that represented milestones in the evolution of bass guitar design.

Also, band have asked me to use one bass to avoid lengthy switch overs. So the other instruments I have only tend to get used for recording which I'm not doing a lot of at the moment anyway...

...rig wise, its mostly been about being caught between liking the powerful sound of valve amps and needing a more neutral sound for live work while I was swapping instruments... plus being too lazy to carry the valve amps to gigs

[alexclaber]

Ironically I've never really been a great one for buying and selling gear, I played my first bass for three years, then my '87 Warwick for the next nine, and I expect my RIM Custom 5 to last me to the end of my days. With the amp side of things once I got my Acme rig back in 1999 the only changes after that were the quest for more loudness and less weight without a loss of tone but as there wasn't anything I could buy that could achieve this I ended up trying to design such a cab. But I think the ability that leads me to be able to successfully design cabs is very closely tied to my ability to always get the best (tonally) out of whatever bass or amp I have to use, I think my brain is wired rather oddly like that.

I've been quite lucky with gear though - the old Warwick was a miraculous purchase, the Acmes were a leap of faith but turned out to be amazing and my custom bass turned out even better than I could have expected - and thus it's a long time since I've been stuck using that kind of gear that really forces you into a corner and doesn't have a broad range of tones or a natural musical responsiveness to it. I like gear that feels alive, basses that have tons of character yet totally change their voice depending on how you touch them. I like amps and cabs that really let you hear every detail of what you're playing for better or for worse. Some gear just feels like it's stuck in one gear or has a pile of blankets over it - I couldn't live with that but if I have to use it for a gig or rehearsal I'll just make it work as well as possible and usually enjoy it for whatever its foibles are.

The thing is, if you're thinking about your gear when you're playing music then you should really be playing better music!

Alex

[johnnylager]

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='386231' date='Jan 20 2009, 03:27 PM']But my question is; how much of the GAS we experience is motivated by frustration at the shortcomings of our gear and how much from the frustrations that arise from our unhappiness with our playing and teh sound we can get with [b]our own ability to use the eqs on the amps we have.[/b][/quote]
I am much happier with my sound in a band context with my current set-up & I hope it lasts. Less [knobs] is more due to my apparent inability to use the Ashdown slider / knob system effectively - I always fiddled too much.*

*Maybe this is why I now wear glasses.

Edited January 20, 2009 by johnnylager

[josh3184]

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='386300' date='Jan 20 2009, 03:53 PM']For me it started off as the belief that better gear could make me a better player.[/quote]

This
I also enjoy oggling my new basses until something shinier catches my eye.

[OldGit]

1 Life's too short to play crap gear.

2 The difference between a £50 bass and a £500 bass is immense. The difference between a £500 bass and a £1500 bass is more subtle.

3 Many people get a great sound with gear considered rubbish.

4 many people get a pants sound with gear considered to be top notch...

5 Good enough is good enough, both in gear and playing.


What bugs me is people spending loads of money every week on fags and booze who say they can't afford decent gear.
A hand build bass costs the same as 7 or so fags a day for a couple of years.. (at £5 for 20 .. is that right I have no idea how much fags cost these days)

Edited January 20, 2009 by OldGit

[Bilbo]

Nice one, OG. I don't smoke or drink. I could give up food for two years...

[The Funk]

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='386353' date='Jan 20 2009, 04:28 PM']Nice one, OG. I don't smoke or drink. I could give up food for two years...[/quote]

I don't smoke or drink either. I suppose I could give up crack and prostitutes...

[Dubs]

[quote name='alexclaber' post='386329' date='Jan 20 2009, 04:12 PM']The thing is, if you're thinking about your gear when you're playing music then you should really be playing better music![/quote]

amen

[photographymatt]

[quote name='The Funk' post='386356' date='Jan 20 2009, 04:29 PM']I don't smoke or drink either. I suppose I could give up crack and prostitutes...[/quote]

now we could all do that, but then what would the point in living be?

[photographymatt]

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='386231' date='Jan 20 2009, 03:27 PM']I note that a lot of the posts here are about the purchase, selling, trading etc of gear - basses, amps, effects etc. Perfectly acceptable; I have got gear off here myself and very successfully. I particularly agree that buying effects is a legitmate form of experimentation and that there is no other readily accessible way of changing your sound so radically as the purchasing of a new effect.

But my question is; how much of the GAS we experience is motivated by frustration at the shortcomings of our gear and how much from the frustrations that arise from our unhappiness with our playing and teh sound we can get with our own ability to use the eqs on the amps we have.

I knew a guy once who loved guitars; he bought and sold them and tweaked actions and changed pick-ups and experimented with strings. His guitar playing was dreadful because he spent so much time playing with the technology that he never had time to practice the music.

Like most of us, I covet many of the basses I see here and elsewhere and mutter under my breath about how unfair it is that I can't afford any of them. But then I ask myself; is it the gear I want or more time getting better with the gear I have got? If I could practice more, would I get to where I want to be because I could play as well as I can and, more to the point, would spending £10K on a new bass lead me on a fool's errand because my playing wouldn't actually improve because of it and, having spent the money, I would still feel the same frustration.

I must practice more, I must practice more......[/quote]

"pro" level gear, no matter what for, will make your job easier to do but you need to know how to use it to start off with.

I work in a shop (part time while at uni)and have lots of friends who are photographers and theres the mentality (with both customers/friends) spend more, get good results.

a pro can get a great photo from a mobile phone or a coke can with a pinhole in it, steve vai would sound great on a £50 budget guitar thru a 10watt practise amp.

its why I have never wanted a PRS, yes..gorgous, but *shrugs* never did it for me, form over function. its why I prefere epiphones high end stuff to similar priced mid-range gibson (spend £1000 on a epiphone and it will be much better than same priced gibson I think)

saying that.....buying new gear (both photographic and musical) in the past has restarted my passion, if it was dieing down abit..new gear can give you that fire back.

my opinion, not forcing it on others:-)

[Lfalex v1.1]

Nothing wrong with the purchasing of new gear.
Instruments, if cared for, will last for an extremely long time, and when they do go, it'll likely be the electrics unless the bass has been physically damaged.
Compare this with the transient pleasures of (for example) lowering the suspension on a car, fitting outrageous wheels and a big-bore exhaust...
Makes bass look like a good way to dispose of what is, after all, [i]disposable[/i] income.

That said, all that money I spent on HiFi 15 years ago is still working well for me...