That's an excellent point. I didn't think of that. When I play, I always aim to land my fingers right on the frets in an effort to minimize any fret noise. I'm sure that must serve to dampen the string vibration a bit as well. I suppose we tend to adapt our playing style to get the tone we like most out of our instruments besides fiddling with the controls.
On the subject of beaters, Victor Bailey described playing Jaco's Bass in 1984 ...it was in terrible condition: the neck was dead, the strings were old, the action was high. But when Jaco played it with Mike (Stern) that night, it sang like nobodys business! I'm sure EVERY high end Bass company would have loved to give him their best Bass for his endorsement, but he remained attached to his old beater and managed to squeeze magic out of it. He finally smashed it to pieces in an arguement one day in 1986. After it was glued back together, he lost it shortly thereafter in Central Park. An unceremonious parting of ways, but it underscores the point that instruments are just tools. What comes out of them is really up to us.
(Message edited by rami on June 17, 2008)
