Random rant of the day [old guy shakes fist at cloud]: I keep seeing this on bass reviews. The reviewer has like half-a-dozen signal mods: “I am just running this though an EQ, noise reduction, and applied some compression and then an amp sim with some gain.” I want to hear how it sounds out of the box. How is this useful to me?
Also, it seems like every bass review is a chance for the reviewer to show off their chops, particularly slap/pop. I get this is a valid means of articulation, but it seems most reviews are overly “slap heavy”. I mean, is there anyone that slaps using the neck pickup with the tone rolled off?
Agree. Their “finger tone” sound much better than my tone wood and finger tone skills combine, lol.
Then again, if they are not good they won’t even show up on your radar. I saw a guy reviewing the German made Warwick fretless and he’s just use the pick, wtf? And some other doing a very choppy G scale. That would not work as a good review either.
In my neck of the woods they used to say “give him a slap up side the head”. My favorite author, Terry pratchett used “a slap athwart the earhole”. Both are great.
Like I mentioned in the other thread, I hate shill “reviews”. You know, a company sends a guy an item (i.e. a bass) and he does a promo pitch that he calls a review.
I just wish the reviews were a little more useful. Instead of “watch me imitate Marcus Miller”, I’d like: “Yeah, so the tone knob cracked and fell off after 2 months” or “The nut wasn’t filed properly” or “the shielding on this sucks because I get a ton of hummm” or “the bridge came slightly misaligned and I can’t get the strings to intonate properly”
These are all good points and very few if any ‘reviewers’ address a lot of these.
Basstheworld almost always gets the products to test, but if you listen and watch Gregor carefully, he tells you (or does it with his humor or eyes) if something is amiss. But no one can really go too far who gets product, or no one will send them product, as we all know.
The quality issue is a tough one becuase there is varying quality across everyting, you can get a lemon of a car, a dog, an anything that sat right next to a perfect one. Quality is measured across a manufacturing run, not in one offs (unless of course you are the consumer). I know a single bad QC (or multiple in @akos’ trouble) can put off a consumer for good.
I like @Old_WannaBe’s approach about looking at design build overall and how it relates to quality like the sheilding comment, etc. However, most lower end stuff has little to none, etc.
My first Squier 70 CV Jazz had no shielding, no hum issues, etc. Neck is as solid as they come. Had a mid range LTD with hum issues (sold now) with top notch Aguiler pickups and electronics had loads of hum, we well sheilded, etc. It has put me off a bit on Aguiler, but I also wasn’t nuts about the tones.
I think quality, since it varies across a line/brand/etc, along with personal experince makes for a very subjective vs. objective view of things, unless its rampant. I owned a Range Rover. I can tell you the car was amazing look/feel/drive/etc and the quality sucked bad, still does, and people still buy them and almost wear the bad quality like a badge. Go figure.
I have also been puzzled by their use of slap to review and demonstrate the bass. I’m not interested in how good the bass reviewer is because he or she is not the one being reviewed.
For a bass review I just want to hear how it sounds to be played in the most common way, which would mean that it has the most relevance to the most people. And that means playing simple basslines using finger picking style, and occasionally using the pick (but not on a fretless!), and put through a bog standard amp with no effects added. No need to get all complex, and definitely no need to slap or tap or anything silly.
Remember. People are looking for views and subs. If the “review” word gets you to watch them show off their skills, they’ve won. Remember the motivation.
Remember. People are looking for views and subs. If the “review” word gets you to watch them show off their skills, they’ve won. Remember the motivation.
Right, we live in the era of: “FIVE REASONS WHY YOU MUST BUY THIS BASS” / “YOU MUST WATCH OUR COMMUNITY TIPS ON THE EVENING NEWS OR YOU WILL DIE”
