Slap on a Thunderbird, metal on a Beatle Bass

[Rayman]

I’ve always argued, that you can play any genre of music on any model of bass. In theory you can just own a P bass and play anything on it (except fretless obvs) but am I wrong? Do you have to have that Ken Smith 6 for the jazz stuff? Or that Gibson Blackbird for metal? Or that Hofner Beatle bass for your 60s cover band?
 

I’ve slapped some funk on a Thunderbird when that was the only bass to hand that night…..it wasn’t pretty, but it was ok? 
 

Does one really need more than one bass….. regardless of your choice of material??? Or can one do it all?

 

😳

Edited May 3, 2023 by Cat Burrito

[Phill]

I've always said "you only need one bass" "you can do it all on the same one" too. It is nice to have different tonal options of course & to a certain extent, a want or feeling towards a bass for specific styles or genres - P Bass with flats for Motown or a Jazz for for some slap/Funk. So I guess it's the want, over the need in most circumstances IMO.

 

I've currently got 15 basses as of now for all different sounds, tones & even moods. Even tried to have a custom one built to be the "one bass that can do it all" (it can't!) 

 

Slap a Hofner & tap on whatever It's down to what you like, what you hear & what you can reasonably get your hands on

[BigRedX]

I play in two bands and use a 5-string Gus G3 in one and an Eastwood Hooky (copy of the Shergold Marathon 6-string bass) in the other. At a push I could use the Eastwood for both bands although a few of the bass lines that use the low B would have parts that would need to be played an octave higher than I normally do. I certainly couldn't use a P-Bass as a substitute for the Eastwood as I go all the way up to octave G on the high E and I have the B string tuned to C to allow me to play some drone parts in C and Am.

[Phill]

29 minutes ago, Rayman said:

I’ve always argued, that you can play any genre of music on any model of bass. In theory you can just own a P bass and play anything on it (except fretless obvs) but am I wrong? Do you have to have that Ken Smith 6 for the jazz stuff? Or that Gibson Blackbird for metal? Or that Hofner Beatle bass for your 60s cover band?
 

I’ve slapped some funk on a Thunderbird when that was the only bass to hand that night…..it wasn’t pretty, but it was ok? 
 

Does one really need more than one bass….. regardless of your choice of material??? Or can one do it all?

 

😳

I do quite like slapping on a Thunderbird tbh 

[BigRedX]

Just now, Phill said:

I do quite like slapping on a Thunderbird tbh 

 

But can you play a Thunderbird and dance like the bassist from Freddie And The Dreamers?

[Phill]

1 minute ago, BigRedX said:

 

But can you play a Thunderbird and dance like the bassist from Freddie And The Dreamers?

No 

[Kev]

41 minutes ago, Rayman said:

I’ve always argued, that you can play any genre of music on any model of bass. In theory you can just own a P bass and play anything on it (except fretless obvs) but am I wrong? Do you have to have that Ken Smith 6 for the jazz stuff? Or that Gibson Blackbird for metal? Or that Hofner Beatle bass for your 60s cover band?
 

I’ve slapped some funk on a Thunderbird when that was the only bass to hand that night…..it wasn’t pretty, but it was ok? 
 

Does one really need more than one bass….. regardless of your choice of material??? Or can one do it all?

 

😳

Think the simple answer is any one bass can technically cover any song, just as one shirt can cover any social event, but naturally you may want something better suited to the gig.  You wouldn't wear a hawaiian shirt to a funeral.  You could, it would do the job, but there are other choices that would do a "better" job.

[silverfoxnik]

Ooh, er!! 😯

 

At first glance at the title of this thread, I thought you were in grave danger of getting cancelled by the wokerati, @Rayman...

 

Happily, that's not going to be the case I see, and we can all settle back down from DEFCON 5 to another quiet and unassuming bass guitar discussion... 

 

In my experience, there isn't 'one bass to rule them all', and even if there was, it'd still end up doing the rounds on Basschat for sale forum I expect..

 

Personally, I like playing slap bass lines on my custom T-Bird (though I doubt anyone else would agree), but despite it's flexibility, I still want and need other basses with different pick up configurations, becjs, woods, ergonomics, electronics etc, etc, to best suit the different bands and recording projects I'm doing. 

 

What's more, I genuinely think I'd get bored with just one bass. 

[TheGreek]

I owned a Jack Casady semi for while - there was a lot that you couldn't do on it.

[Rayman]

Nice bit of moderation with the title of the thread, I wasn’t sure if that was PC or not.

[MacDaddy]

It's all in the fingers innit‽ 🖐🏻

[Waddo Soqable]

5 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

It's all in the fingers innit‽ 🖐🏻

I fort that slap woz wiv yer 'fum tho....? 

[Old Man Riva]

If it’s good enough for Sir Horace Gentleman…

 

 

[silverfoxnik]

1 hour ago, Old Man Riva said:

If it’s good enough for Sir Horace Gentleman…

 

 

Awesome 👍

[MacDaddy]

1 hour ago, Waddo Soqable said:

I fort that slap woz wiv yer 'fum tho....? 

 

Not on double bass!

[Waddo Soqable]

6 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

 

Not on double bass!

Yep you'd get a right bollocking from old Andre Preview if you tried all that in the London Symphony orchestra.. 

[SumOne]

Surely it's like saying 'I only need one car/bike/pair of shoes etc. to get from A to B'... yeah, you can go for a hike in high heels bit it isn't going to get the job done as well as walking boots, (depends on the job through I suppose!). 

[Tdw]

I think you can say that most basses work fine for most styles,  I found the ovation magnum bad for slap and the status eclipse bad for reggae though.

[40hz]

I'd argue the best slap tone I've ever heard was on an Epi Thunderbird. It was, well . . .  thunderous.

[nilorius]

Not 100% Your opinion whitch bass sounds the best for Your band. They can tell You that the bass You think is better - not better. They can tell You that You sounded much better on the bass You think is better. That hapened whis me. I am playing in my band 80. rock covers and own songs. I started with my 5 string fretless Ibanez GWB1005 which is my #1 bass, but tried out also my Fender fretted jazz bass witch i thought would sound better in what we where doing. Everybody disagreed and asked me to return to Ibanez fretless 5 string GWB1005, because they heard it sound better and more suitable for me. I agreed with smile.

[chriswareham]

I've actually used a Hofner Violin bass (one of the cheap Ignition ones) for metal. It was OK, but the novelty quickly wore off and I went back to a Stingray.

 

Talking of unlikely genres for particular makes or models of bass guitar, Peter Steele used an Alembic Spoiler as his main bass in his thrash band Carnivore. He only retired it from live use with his later band Type O Negative because it had got a bit fragile from all the abuse it had suffered. He still used it for Type O studio recordings though.

[MacDaddy]

7 minutes ago, chriswareham said:

I've actually used a Hofner Violin bass (one of the cheap Ignition ones) for metal. It was OK, but the novelty quickly wore off and I went back to a Stingray.

 

Talking of unlikely genres for particular makes or models of bass guitar, Peter Steele used an Alembic Spoiler as his main bass in his thrash band Carnivore. He only retired it from live use with his later band Type O Negative because it had got a bit fragile from all the abuse it had suffered. He still used it for Type O studio recordings though.

 

 

Captain Sensible used a Hofner Violin bass in The Damned.

 

[neepheid]

Overthinking, detected.

[Rayman]

13 hours ago, Old Man Riva said:

If it’s good enough for Sir Horace Gentleman…

 

 

He’s exactly who I had in mind…. SO cool to see a Thunderbird in that scenario.

[BigRedX]