What gear have you bought or acquired, simply because you thought you ought to..?

[HeadlessBassist]

 

 

Having followed and contributed to the epically brilliant "Irrational Hatred" thread, it got me thinking and wondering what gear people have bought or acquired, simply because they thought they ought to, due to peer pressure, or because of 'herd following' received opinion? Maybe you subsequently found that you simply don't need, or like the item and wonder for the life of you why you ever bought it?

 

I can think of three...

 

Precision Basses - I've tried repeatedly, many times to like them. But they're just not my sound. No producer, MD, or Artist(e) has ever asked me to use one either.

 

Flatwound Strings - Lovely sounding things, but they feel as if they're driving channels into my fingers and somehow feel 'sticky' within those channels. (I know @Rich agrees with me on this!) Also, as soon as you play with other musicians, your sound magically disappears into a big sonic hole.

 

5/6 string instruments - I have one 5-string only and it was only because it's a very rare instrument and just happened to be a 5. I recall using the B-string in a couple of shows (playing DB/doubled up Cello parts), and one song in our set of hundreds of tunes in the trio. 99.999% of the time, four strings are ample and contain plenty of notes for me to be going on with.

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by HeadlessBassist

[Rodders]

Effects other than drive or compression  - so chorus, autoswell, reverb delay, looper (another story that one), envelope filter. - I use them once (having gotten the idea from our wonderful pedalboard thread) have no real application for them band wise and so they just sit in a box. 

[Mediocre Polymath]

When I was in my late teens I bought a compressor. I'd been told by the received wisdom of the internet that compressors were good and important, so I went up to Denmark street with my supermarket paycheck.

 

I had also been told that Tech 21 were a great company, and given that I knew very little about what a compressor was supposed to do, I opted for the Tech 21 one – a pedal called the Bass Compactor.

 

The problem was that the Bass Compactor is absolute, unmitigated balls. Like, I've played through plenty of T21 stuff since and loved it, but that pedal was awful. It was effectively a one-knob compressor (ratio) with the other controls being output vol and a 2-band EQ. It didn't behave like any other pedal I've heard since, with this strange make-up gain thing that was coupled with a really aggressive noise gate. With the ratio at 1:1 it sucked the life out of everything and it only got worse from there.

 

It put me off compressors, and effects pedals of any kind, for about 15 years.

[Lozz196]

Jazz Basses  - I`ve learned to love them, but it took me a while (and a good few)

 

Stingray Basses - The third member of the holy trinity, I love how they play, love how they sound when others play them, just not when I play them

 

Flatwound strings - I love the playability, but can`t get on with the sound, though have heard plenty of other people sound great with them

 

Compressors - no matter how they`re set, either by me or by someone who actually knows how to set them, to my ear they never sound as good as the bass without them

 

[dave_bass5]

A Bass. I wanted to be a bass player so figured that's a good thing to own......😂

 

Compressors -BC flavour of the month to blame. 

 

HPF - BC flavour of the month to blame. This to me was the biggest item of the Emperors new wardrobe.

 

A Pedalboard - Didnt realise I needed one until I got a few pedals (see above).

 

OD/ Fuzz / Synth - Made me forget I wanted to play bass parts. 

 

Tubes - Not sure why I even considered these. 

 

After an almost 4 year gap from bass, I now realise all I need from the above list is the Bass. Admittedly I have Drive and Comp in my Microbass 3, but these aren't required for me to enjoy playing bass. 

 

[tauzero]

Echoing another couple of posters:

 

Flatwounds - tried flats and don't get on with them, either the feel or the sound

 

Fender Precisions - don't like the necks on Precisions (especially the 5s) and I'm exactly overwhelmed by the sound, especially with flats

 

Helix LT - fantastically powerful multi-effects, bought as a step up from an HX Stomp, but for me it doesn't have any advantages over the HX Stomp and it's far bigger and heavier

[tauzero]

And seeing as we're allowed to follow the herd, get things, and then find we like them:

 

Sei basses - there was a lot of mention of them on BC, as they seemed to be the next flavour of the month after Shuker. So when one came up at Bass Direct, I went and tried it, and bought it, and bought another and another and another. I could probably have afforded half a second-hand Fodera withnthe amount I've spent on them.

 

Barefaced cabs - Alex has been flavour of the month for quite a lot of months, with LFSys now snapping at his heels, and some time ago I bought a BB2. Later, a One10 came up at an unrefusable price so I had that. The One10 proved insufficient for my needs (couldn't keep up with quite a quiet band) so it went, but the BB2 lasted quite a bit longer until I got a GR Bass combo.

[dave_bass5]

4 minutes ago, tauzero said:

Barefaced cabs - Alex has been flavour of the month for quite a lot of months, with LFSys now snapping at his heels, and some time ago I bought a BB2. Later, a One10 came up at an unrefusable price so I had that. The One10 proved insufficient for my needs (couldn't keep up with quite a quiet band) so it went, but the BB2 lasted quite a bit longer until I got a GR Bass combo.

Oh yeah, BF cabs. Had a couple. They seemed nice but i didn’t keep either long.

Looking back i think i assumed they were fantastic even though i didn’t personally like them much. 
 

Oh and i guess a big one is FRFR. Couldn’t wait to get away from that one. 

[BigRedX]

Fender-style basses.

 

I'd been playing bass for almost 25 years before I felt the need to try one. I dabbling with the idea of playing fretless bass with the band I was in at the time and the Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz had been getting great reviews in the musical instrument press (remember that?) and on the forums. Seemed very nice in the shop but once I actually started using it with the band there were all sorts of short-comings. Compared with my other basses it felt over-sized and awkward, even next to my Overwater 36" scale 5-string. It hung weirdly on the strap in such a way that I couldn't easily reach the G-string machine head and it sounded weedy in comparison with all my other basses including my 60s Burns Sonic. The £60 Wesley acrylic bass which it was supposed to replace was for me a superior instrument in every respect.

 

 

[NHM]

A clip on tuner. Ok, convenient and works well but it makes you look (even more) like a t***.

[neepheid]

I guess the only major faux pas I can think of is my first bass - because I was too green to think for myself.  Bought an Epiphone EB-3 "because Jack Bruce (kinda) plays one".  Little did I know that the body shape was doing much of the heavy lifting when it came to direct comparisons between an Epiphone EB-3 and a Gibson EB-3.  Needless to say, I don't have it any more.

 

However, it did lead me down a Gibson/Epiphone path of lifting two fingers to conventional norms and wisdom in bass, so I do have that to thank it for.  I've never bassed "properly" since!

 

Everything else has been my fuelled by my own personal curiosity - I don't give a flying monkey's toss about herdthink/peer pressure/received wisdom.  I trust my own eyes and my own ears.

[neepheid]

2 minutes ago, NHM said:

A clip on tuner. Ok, convenient and works well but it makes you look (even more) like a t***.

 

Ahh, so reverse peer pressure telling you not to get/use something?

[Mykesbass]

Valve amp. Thought it was the right thing to do. What a waste of time! 

[tauzero]

Oh yes, that reminds me:

 

Trace Elliott - supposed to be the pinnacle of bass sound. The 4x10 combo was made from depleted uranium and it didn't take long carrying it up and down stairs to the then future Mrs Zero's flat and not getting a sound that I particularly liked to make me decide that it was no longer for me. Being a slow learner, I bought a head with the GP12 preamp, and didn't much like the sound it made (on reflection, it's possible that the cab didn't help).

[NancyJohnson]

I bought a very expensive compressor being of the belief it would somehow revolutionise my tone.

 

Hahaha.  Snake oil.

 

 

[Old Man Riva]

8 minutes ago, tauzero said:

Oh yes, that reminds me:

 

Trace Elliott - supposed to be the pinnacle of bass sound. The 4x10 combo was made from depleted uranium and it didn't take long carrying it up and down stairs to the then future Mrs Zero's flat and not getting a sound that I particularly liked to make me decide that it was no longer for me. Being a slow learner, I bought a head with the GP12 preamp, and didn't much like the sound it made (on reflection, it's possible that the cab didn't help).

Same here. The thought of Trace Elliot gives me nightmares.

 

In the mid 80s I was in a band who got a publishing and development deal (I don’t think the latter exists nowadays, but it was essentially a pre-record deal where a label would fund gear and studio time, and have first dibs on you if you developed into what they were after). Trace Elliot were quite the thing at the time, so the first thing I did was ditch my perfectly fine Marshall 50w amp and 4x12 speaker for a snazzy, all singing, all dancing Trace Elliot rig. 250w amp, with UV light, a fan you could switch on (and off!), various bells, whistles, and a graphic equaliser that gave you the biggest smile you could ask for. 
 

I got to the first rehearsal and carted in my new rig. The band and sound guy crowded around, then slowly shuffled away in silence, leaving just the drummer, who, after about half-hour of witnessing me frantically move sliders up and down, and twiddle various knobs, said bluntly, “that sounds sh*t, can you get your old stuff back?!”.

 

It did, and I couldn’t…

[Belka]

Preamp pedals. The likes of Nobel, Cali, Caveman, Jad Freer. I mean, if you're at a venue that insists on a silent stage I can see the point of something like this, although you could use a plain DI. Every time I used one of these pedals though, it just seems to make my sound worse; fewer dynamics, less top end. 

Generally, using the DI out of the back of a modern amp will sound just as good if not better, give you far more control over the sound, you can always mute the master volume if it's a silent stage situation, and you'll save £100s.

[ghostwheel]

Jazz Bass.

Guy Pratt and an awful lot of others play Jazz Bass, so I thought, it'd be the way to go. Having tried a couple of those, but never really got on with. Dreadful neck profile, weird body. The "default" sound is as annoying as Warwick Corvette, and everything else feels like a desperate try to get a P or Stingray-like sound out of it.