Signature Basses Where Player is Not Known for Playing that Bass - I Don't Get It

Kmrumedy

Kmrumedy

May 12, 2004
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#1
This is not a comment on any specific player so please no player bashing. I don't begrudge anyone their success. Its a marketing question.

I just don't understand the marketing concept behind many signature basses. How do the manufacturers warrant making a signature bass on a model that is not associated with what the player is best known for playing?

So Hadrien Feraud has a Mayones Jabba signature but Hadrien is a Ken Smith Player. His good friend Frederico Malaman also has a Moyones Jabba signature but he is known for his Italian made bass.

The wonderful Joe Hubbard is getting a Warwick Signature but he plays a Fodera.

Janik Gwizdala started his own signature basses but he plays a Fodera.

You can go on and on with famous examples. I am just using some recent ones.

In many cases the bass player is not even associated with the manufacturer.

If the player didn't make his name or fame on the bass being marketed - how is it a signature?

I guess it all comes down to your definition of "signature bass". To me a signature bass is an attempted replica of the bass we all know the player of using I.e. Fender Marcus Miller, Ibanez Gary Willis, Fender Geddy Lee, etc.

IMO - Lending you name to a NEW instrument, whether you helped design it with a builder or not, to me is not a "signature" instrument. I am sure most are excellent instruments but should be called something other than signature.

What do you think a signature bass should be?
 
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#2
{I hope TB management doesn’t label me a a Troll again...}

In my opinion, a Sig bass is one that a particular player tweaks to his liking and hopefully other people will buy it for that reason, or for the player’s name attached to it.
Geddy’s Sig bass is basically a 1970-something reissue. If I remember correctly from his interview, he bought it in a Pawn Shop and just started playing it one day...that’s it. I think more people buy it for his name than for what it is.

Marcus’ Fender sig was a replica of his own personal modded bass. This was a great Sig platform. A lot of people hated it, but I loved it.
I know Frederico more from playing his Jabba than the other bass with the hideous headstock.
Adam Clayton’s basses are just custom colors, but otherwise production basses. But it helps that Bono and Edge are on Fender’s board of advisors...

Janek does have a Sig model with Fodera already (Basically a tweaked Matt Gerrison model...and I remember Matt’s Twitter rant about that, too...), and then designed one for “Affordability” with another company, just like Marcus did with Sire.

So to sum up, to me some basses are more worthy of a Signature, others are just marketing hype...what I think is right or wrong are moot. All my basses are productions modded to the point that they can very well be “Eastcoasteddie” Signature models...but I’m just a nobody troll...
 
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#3
Kmrumedy said:
Janik Gwizdala started his own signature basses but he plays a Fodera.

...

What do you think a signature bass should be?
Click to expand...

You know, I actually haven't seen Janek with his Fodera singlecut since he got his hands on the Mattison prototype. Anyway, I think signature basses don't have to be just one thing. I like the idea of Meshell having co-designed a Reverend bass that I can try - even though she isn't known to play the model regularly.
 
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#4
eastcoasteddie said:
{I hope TB management doesn’t label me a a Troll again...}

In my opinion, a Sig bass is one that a particular player tweaks to his liking and hopefully other people will buy it for that reason, or for the player’s name attached to it.
Geddy’s Sig bass is basically a 1970-something reissue. If I remember correctly from his interview, he bought it in a Pawn Shop and just started playing it one day...that’s it. I think more people buy it for his name than for what it is.

Marcus’ Fender sig was a replica of his own personal modded bass. This was a great Sig platform. A lot of people hated it, but I loved it.
I know Frederico more from playing his Jabba than the other bass with the hideous headstock.
Adam Clayton’s basses are just custom colors, but otherwise production basses. But it helps that Bono and Edge are on Fender’s board of advisors...

Janek does have a Sig model with Fodera already (Basically a tweaked Matt Gerrison model...and I remember Matt’s Twitter rant about that, too...), and then designed one for “Affordability” with another company, just like Marcus did with Sire.

So to sum up, to me some basses are more worthy of a Signature, others are just marketing hype...what I think is right or wrong are moot. All my basses are productions modded to the point that they can very well be “Eastcoasteddie” Signature models...but I’m just a nobody troll...
Click to expand...

I tend to agree with this for the most part, but think that a sig. instrument *should* be what the OP suggested… a replica of an instrument that said artist is known for playing… but I think what's happening is that another company will get some sort of design input from said artist so that they can use his name with it. Then they put his signature on it for star/sale appeal, and "bob's yer uncle".

eastcoasteddie, I thought you were still boycotting… LOL Welcome back!
 
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#5
While I somewhat get what you’re saying, the whole point of a new signature model is that it contains the features you want in a guitar NOW. Certain signatures have become quite desirable for offering features that didn’t exist in an existing guitar. Like the Eric Clapton Strat, Mark Hoppus Jazz, Johnny Marr Jaguar. If anything, signature models that are just vague subtleties that lock a pretty standard model of guitar to that player are far less interesting and iconic. Like a Slash signature Les Paul. Honestly, who can even tell?
 
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#6
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In all fairness, you CAN'T ask for a more "Signature Bass" than the Epiphone Jack Casady! Jack himself spent two years with the Epiphone people coming up with the pickup he wanted, and the electronics to go with it. Jack is supplied with a new factory-spec edition each year, takes it out on the road, and plays the living crap out of it! He may be the exception, but I'm proud to own one of these.
 
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#7
One of Joe Hubbard's recent videos is a Warwick factory tour where his sig bass is being built, so he won't be seen playing it since it doesn't exist yet. I'm guessing once it's completed, his subsequent videos will mostly have him playing that instead of his Fodera (or that black Bass Collection 60's jazz bass he occasionally films with). He already has Warwick amps prominently displayed on his videos.

But to answer your question, I agree with the previous replies that a signature bass should be one that has specs unique to a particular player. Like Will Lee's signature Sadowsky, with a narrower nut width, Hipshot D-tuner, & mid boost toggle switch. And I don't think someone needs to play his signature model exclusively, but certainly enough to be known for it.
 
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#8
I saw Hadrien with Hiromi last year and he was playing a Mayones. I think Janek has switched to Mattison, and my hunch is Fodera may just drop his sig bass from their lineup at some point. People change, deals come and go...

Sig basses are on a spectrum. Will Lee is probably the prime example of a sig bass that is what he normally plays (but he's also got a collection of other brands). Other deals are a mixed bag where the player will endorse one brand and play that along with others (e.g. Freddie Washington is a "Smith" player, but he often is seen with his 70's P-bass live). And still others are pretty much a money for a picture of me with the bass deal, and they keep playing their main axe. Often times that seems to be the case with guys known for playing old Fenders (like Bobby Vega), but they'll get some endorsement deal on a newer instrument.
 
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#10
I think the term "signature bass" is being used to describe two (or more) categories, causing some confusion. There are the basses that are (hopefully) faithful recreations of basses by artists that had clearly emblematic instruments (Jamerson, Jaco, Squire, etc.). Some were bone stock (e.g. Jamerson), others were modded (e.g. Jaco), but these were the instruments they were known for playing.

In another camp, there are the artists that have never been happy with a stock instrument, and commission something to their specs, so maybe something like Billy Sheehan's Yamaha, wherein he tried to incorporate all the many mods he made to his "wife" Fender. And sometimes they're still not happy and keep jumping from one maker to another, looking for some elusive quality that they may never find. Can't really fault them for not standing still or being unsatisfied.
 
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#11
I believe that especially for "boutique" instruments there aren't "exclusive" deals anymore.
Probably Feraud is both Mayones and Smith endorser at the same time, you can see him gig with either the Mayones or a Smith Burner HF signature model... at NAMM 2018 he did videos and inteviews for both companies.
Malaman pretty much play the Mayones all the time. As for Janek Gwizdala, I always saw him play the Mattisson prototype since he got it recently.
 
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#13
As my name was mentioned in relation to this thread, I feel compelled to chime in to clarify. I have been signed as a Warwick artist and have designed a Joe Hubbard signature model that is currently being built for me at the Warwick Custom shop in Germany. This bass is nearly finished and I should be receiving it within the next 2-weeks. Once I get that bass- it will be the bass that will play. The design is unique compared to other Warwick basses and I believe a lot of people who lean towards Fodera and F Bass will love this signature model. There are a lot of people who get signed to endorsements and then end up playing something else. Not me. When this bass is done it will be my work horse. I'll be using it in August at the Guitar Summit Show in Germany where I'll be appearing alongside with Stu Hamm. Best- Joe
 
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#16
Mark King had concurrent signature models with JayDee, Status, Alembic, Fender, and did ads for Zon. Why? Because those companies were interested in associating their brand with a respected world-famous player, and said respected world-famous player was interested in associating his name with those brands and what they could do for him.

There’s no conspiracy, master plan, or outrage here, it’s just business that happened because there were willing parties with unique qualifications. Since things change, and most artists will take any free/heavily discounted equipment and attention they can get, stuff like this will never fit it the neat little box some of us would like to see it in. It might at NASCAR, but not in MI retail. There are no rules in our game regarding this. Anthony Jackson, who actually sort of really can play, has only one formal endorsement. There’s guys that can’t string two notes together musically that have 25.

Also, with small boutique companies, many people assume that every outfit is a multi-national multi-million dollar conglomerate. They’re not. Given the photos of the rooms most TB forum members store their gear collections in, it’s safe to say their garages are physically larger than some of the building facilities of some of the luthiers listed in this thread. Some of their facilities actually are garages. In cases like this, the builder and artist exchange product for wider exposure, with handshake agreements with no binding legal contacts, because contracts cost money to draw up.
 
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#17
The worst one of recent memory is the Flea bass. I like Flea, I have nothing against him, but that thing is a total cash-in. I guess considering the "flea bass" he was hawking a few years back that isn't surprising.

Watch one of their recent tour videos and he doesn't even bring his shell pink JB along! He has some sort of Custom Shop Fender-Modulus-Stingray beast that would have made an infinitely cooler sig bass than another roadworn JB with a different coat of paint.
 
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