Why Are Some Folks Anti-Trem ???

Just curious of what others have encountered. I got to see a very well-known and talented bassist(has played with Steve Vai and Joe Satriani) Saturday and watched his one man show from about 10 feet out at our table. Chords, popping/slapping(thumpin' and pluckin'), 2-handed techniques, classical on bass, etc. He also tended to bend harmonics/chords the "old fashioned" way by shaking the neck OR by pushing it from behind. It was a major display of years of playing, practice, and technique.

When I spoke to him after the show and asked if he had ever tried a Kahler because it would make some of what he does a lot easier(and safer) and expand what he can do, he suddenly veered off into "Oh like a guitar player?" and "We gotta talk" with a pretended or sarcastic tone of voice. I explained to him that it made things a ton more fun and many things easier but he didn't want to hear it.

Has anyone else had this happen to them?  

though bass players are more or less more open-minded (imoho) for new things..... even in my case i heard often from other bassplayers, what the hell i installed a whammy on my bass.
surely i don´t use it all the time....because i´m mostly a solid player.... but i´ve found spots in some songs in my last band (which i sadly left due some personal reasons...) where the was really a use for the trem!

Sounds like it was Stu Hamm you saw.
I've never had a negative reaction at a gig. I think a dive bomb thru a Ampeg 8x10 silences any doubters.

Like I have always said from Day One, it doesn't matter what the haters say. The fact that they have an issue with bass tremolo systems is their problem, not ours.

There is this really terrible culture within electric music that there are "guitar" things, and there are "bass" things. What a load of crap. It's ALL music. Show me what marble stone tablet has carved in it "thou shall not use a tremolo on bass". It doesn't exist.

I wouldn't care if Jaco himself were to rise from the dead, and pontificate about how bass tremolos are not correct. He would be WRONG. Not saying that he would say such a thing, and in fact, he might very well have gone that route had he lived long enough. My point is that, it does not matter what other opinions are. What matters is YOUR opinion.

I hate to admit it, but I usually leave my trem arm off when I'm playing shows. I get a lot of "cool bridge" from other bassists on open mic nights and they full on freak out when I say "you haven't seen nothin yet" and slap the trem arm in there.

bootsox wrote:

I get a lot of "cool bridge" from other bassists on open mic nights and they full on freak out when I say "you haven't seen nothin yet" and slap the trem arm in there.