Basses with a bad reputation attached.

[Dave W]

Let's face it, anything that's too far away from the classic shapes will get a negative reaction from some people based on looks alone. Steinbergers, Warwicks, MM Bongos and the like. And I really can't blame them. You like what you like, you want an instrument that pleases you to look at, and if it doesn't, the discussion is over.

In my case, I think those single cut basses with the huge mutant upper bouts are just hideously ugly. You could try to convince me that one of them sounds great, and you might be right, but you'd have to pay me to take it.

[Nocturnal]

I can't get past the looks of some of the single cuts I've seen out there either. Sometimes those upper bouts are just way out of control. I've seen a couple that looked nice, but they just aren't for me. I'll stick with my LP for a single cut.

[Blazer]

it does have that kink of phallic look about it doesn't it?

Well, not all of them do...


Warwick Thumb


Warwick Vampyre


Warwick Buzzard


Warwick Streamer


Warwick corvette


Warwick Hellborg


Warwick Infinity


Warwick Dolphin


Warwick Stryker


Warwick star bass


Warwick Alien.

This is their entire current model catalog, as you can see not all of them are phallic looking.

[Chris P.]

I like the more classic looking models most: The Stryker, Buzzard, Star Bass and Hellborg.
I need a Buzzard once and if I'll ever have one a Stryker could be nice, cos it's more affordable than an Alembic Explorer model.

[Basvarken]

I am not aware of any bad reputation for Warwick...
I've always thought they're ugly. But still well built and good sounding basses.

Neither are I really aware of any real bad reputation for Squier or Epiphone.
Of course some people will always think you couldn't afford a "real" Fender if you use a Squier bass. But are Squiers really that bad? Don't think so.

Same with Epiphone. Epiphone makes some fine basses. And not just cheap kock off Gibsons. The JCS and the Allen Woody Rumblekat are great. You will not be looked down upon with these basses as if you couldn't afford a "real" Gibson.

The Epi Thunderbirds are great too. A bit different from their Gibson originals, but absolutely not a bad instrument.


I think guitars is a different story maybe. I've played some Epiphone Les Paul guitars that weren't too good.
Nothing you couldn't fix with putting some good pickups and decent pots in, though.

[Freuds_Cat]

Regarding the Stryker, I seem to have a real issue seeing Fender style pups on this style of bass. Just looks wrong to me. Surely Soap bars or Thunderbird pluss pups would make it look a whole lot better?

[Dave W]

I've seen some awful Korean Epiphones from the 80s and 90s, terrible workmanship, loose frets, routing and drilling off-kilter, etc. It's been much better in the past few years.

I've seen so many Squiers with bad necks I would never buy one, even from the better series.

YMMV, of course.

[Freuds_Cat]

From my experience the older and not very well made Korean Epi's seem to mostly be the Samick ones. Serial numbers starting with "S".

My 2 Epi's are both "U"   Unsung.  And the EB's and a few others I've tried with that designation seem like pretty good instruments to me.

[exiledarchangel]

My Epi Tbird (a "U" model) is a great instrument, haven't find some bad craftmanship on it. Sounds good too! 

[Dave W]

The bad ones I've seen may have been made by Samick, I just don't know. Even if they were, Samick's quality now is much better than in the early to mid 90s.

[PhilT]

Over on basschat.co.uk there's a large Warwick fanbase, as well as a fair Ibanez following. But they're young, maybe they'll grow out of it? 

My sense gigging in pubs is that the Fender bass is very familiar to audiences, so they assume you know what you're doing. With anything else, you kind of have to prove yourself.

[Freuds_Cat]

Over on basschat.co.uk there's a large Warwick fanbase, as well as a fair Ibanez following. But they're young, maybe they'll grow out of it? 

My sense gigging in pubs is that the Fender bass is very familiar to audiences, so they assume you know what you're doing. With anything else, you kind of have to prove yourself.

With the exception of a T-Bird right?     (/me goes fishing for a grand upswell in T-bird support here)

[JTE]

What kind of shallow silliness associates a particular brand of bass with a style of music?   Pointy shred-shaped Jacksons et. al., maybe, but but Warwick?  Having never paid attention to anything metal at all excpet a bit of Metallica and Ozzy, I think of Jack Bruce when I think of Warwick.  And the guy who used to play for Shania Twain, and some British neo-funk kind of band (Jamaroqui maybe?).

No, basses with "bad reputations" to me would be like Gibson's long-scale EB-3, most Peavey basses.  Those instrumens are good, but they have a reputation for not being good.  OK, the Peavey T-40 weighed a ton and was an oversized gutiar isntead of a bass design.  But the original Fury, Foundations, the great Jeff Berlin Palladium, and the Cirrus basses are very good basses.  So were the RJ-4, the Dyna Bass, and the Unity Series basses.   

But they ain't hip, some of them didn't look very attractive, and the "Peavey" name on them made/makes people dismiss them for reasons other than their sound, utility, quality of construction, etc.

jte

[ilan]

What kind of shallow silliness associates a particular brand of bass with a style of music?   Pointy shred-shaped Jacksons et. al., maybe

Carol Kaye plays old school jazz on a pointy Ibanez guitar.

[Dave W]

Carol Kaye plays old school jazz on a pointy Ibanez guitar.

And last I heard she was playing a (non-pointy) neck-thru Ibanez bass.