Friends, I went to a great gig last night with five Polish rock bands (or what’s left of them) from the 80s. The venue was small to medium I would say, the atmosphere was good (although I was probably the youngest person there), and the production was generally very professional.
Of course, since getting back into bass playing, I now enjoy gigs with a more critical eye (or ear). It became apparent that one of the groups had a bad mix - too much drums and rhythm guitar and virtually no bass. This is not uncommon (bascism as I call it), but after my third beer it hit me - and hold on to your hats here - it does not matter what bass you bring on stage at a rock gig.
Yes that’s right. I could have lent the bassist my old Ibanez sr300 and he could have rocked just as hard. For the record, I think he had a Sandberg custom, three tone burst, tortoiseshell guard
Interestingly, the group with the best mix IMO not only had the bass high in the mix, but it was eq’d towards bottom end. This allows the bass to fulfill its natural role - beating the audience into submission, instead of fighting the guitars for space. This might sound obvious but I’ve been to so many small gigs recently, especially bands with two guitars, where you can’t pick out any bass from the white noise.
So I guess the moral is to not bother bringing top-range basses to a gig, or maybe to micromanage the sound engineer?
PS I don’t want to slag off the ibanez - great little bass and I do miss it
I rather suspect that in the right hands, almost any bass - assuming it’s set up properly - can be made to sound good. I’m actually starting to GAS over a passive p-bass; something cheap. simple, with just a volume and tone knob…
Oh definitely. I do most of my practice on my squire and save the strings on the others…I look at it as keeping a ford fiesta in the garage to do the shopping )
This is true. Gigging musicians actually plays Squier Classic Vibe series or the MIM and other brands counterparts, they are the work horse. I said many times before, tone is cheap. An affordable bass can sound just as awesome as an expensive one with the right pickup and/or setup. Plus when you are performing, feel is not as important, so you don’t need expensive bass for that, and this is the most important, gig can be hard on the instrument, it can get damaged or worse, stolen.
As my stable grew, I don’t gig with the premiums either. Only lately, that I started bring a few along with me because, I trade or sell them. I love bringing my modded basses to the gig, almost everytime someone would approach me and ask me to build them one.
My favorite is people would bring their basses or guitars and have me look at and work on at the end of my gig
That’s typical of a lot of hobbies/professions, many amateurs spend significantly more money on gear than professionals. Almost nobody cares what gear you’re using, only your results Save the “good” guitars for recording, bring the “cheap” stuff on the road.
In my experience unless you are playing in an actual sound-designed concert hall, sound quality also matters much, much less live than recording. Many live venues have absolutely terrible acoustics, lots of other noise, etc.
And even if playing in a concert hall, the audience still won’t care
Granted, the average listener couldn’t know enough or care less about what a bass sounds like. It’s true.
But, personally, I couldn’t care less what people hear or discern from my bass. All I actually care about is how my bass feels to play. Good, bad, or indifferent, it is what it is.
Yeah. bringing my $3000 bass on an unknown gig is a big no no. Luckily my regular gig is a private gig and even that I don’t really do it unless there’s a potential buyer. This one can be considered worse because it’s a room full of musicians. My drummer lost his signature splash cymbal and his favorite Limited aluminum sticks. Now we take a break by the stage.
Not really apropos of this conversation, but I’ve had MIA and MIJ Fenders, I’ve had USA-made higher-end Carvins and Keisels. I’ve also had several MIM Fenders, and I am so very impressed with the Fender MIM instruments. Sometimes MIM Fenders take a bit of slack when compared to other instruments, but… In my experience I’m hard pressed to come up with a reason why.
gilmour’s main guitar, that he plays today, was the 2008 black cat strat and cost $4K when it came out. not cheap. but also not $4 million dollars that his original black strat sold for. he sold it because he couldn’t tell the difference between the two. money is not always the deciding factor as we all know.
I need to try one of the tributes, but the American L-2000 I played almost brought tears. I love my Kiloton tribute so I definitely am not disagreeing with you… it’s my daily driver, but the finish on that L-2000 was a whole different level.
This is my first adventure with a G&L and I’m impressed with what Indonesia was able to create here. That MFG pick up will raise the roof when you put it in overdrive, plus the fretboard just works for me.
