Playing bass ruins hands for guitar?

[CDRhom]

I was reading Bass Player's Session Legends edition that recently came out, specifically the interview with Carol Kaye (pp.12), and a comment she made caught my attention:

"I kept up with jazz for a short time, until I got into bass which eventually ruined my hands for serious guitar."

I know of several bassists that switch freely between the two instruments. So what element or change might make someone think that playing bass ruined their hands?

[PaulMacCnj]

That's interesting. I tend to think of it in the opposite. There's more finger stretching when playing a bass due to the bigger frets and wider string spacing, which would seem to keep the hands/fingers more limber.

[octaverazor]

when i started playing bass after about 15 years of playing guitar, it did kind of change my feel for guitar. I had to change to larger strings on guitar because i kept going sharp for pressing the strings too hard. I went from ernie ball 9 set to 12's. i also sold my les paul because it felt really small. Strat's and longer scale guitars feel a little better.

[dlmarquez]

At least for classical guitar I am finding there is some validity to this.
The right hand technique for classical is different enough that it causes some problems.
Left hand wise I think it is mutually beneficial. however the different attack angles of the fingers of the RH and the different wrist positions are a bit confusing

[electracoyote]

I play lead and rhythm guitar in a very demanding country band, and I play bass in a classic rock band. Granted, the bass duties are not that demanding, but I am not noticing any detriment to my guitar playing. I've been playing both for decades.

[R. Laevinus]

I switch between the two regularly, often for a couple of months at a time. Typically, I find that I'm just not used to the 'new' instrument's fret and string spacing - but I get back into the groove within a week.

One problem I have noticed, however, is that these days (playing both), my gigantihuge Bass Player Calluses make it impossible to feel where I am on the guitar neck - so I have to keep looking down at the neck, making myself look like a tool. The wee bitty guitar strings just don't get felt through the leather ends of my fretting fingers. I suppose, theoretically, that this could make chording difficult - but the music I write doesn't call for any single-instrument chords, so it doesn't bother me.

My two cents.

[kenstee]

Yeah, every time I hear McCartney play "Yesterday" on the acoustic guitar or hear his lead guitar in "Taxman" I think of how the bass ruined his hands for guitar......

[WalterBush]

I have no problem switching between the two, and play both fairly well. My right hand switches equally well between bass an classical guitar, too. Part of this is probably because like to do a lot of chordal work, and I mainly play a 7 string bass. The right hand technique I learned in college works well there.

I've only noticed that I get a bit rusty on guitar if I haven't played it in a while. I blame that on lack of practice, though, not "bass hands."

[ChrisBowsman]

Originally Posted by octaverazor

when i started playing bass after about 15 years of playing guitar, it did kind of change my feel for guitar. I had to change to larger strings on guitar because i kept going sharp for pressing the strings too hard. I went from ernie ball 9 set to 12's. i also sold my les paul because it felt really small. Strat's and longer scale guitars feel a little better.

Interesting. I also got a bass after 15 years of guitar, and find myself using progressively heavier strings. I still prefer my Les Paul's tone to my Strats, but yeah, it definitely feels compact. I've been thinking of looking into one of those 27" 7-string LTDs as a good middle ground.

As far as "ruining" your hands for guitar, I don't get it. I don't see how playing another instrument could do anything besides improve your ability on all of them.

[CDRhom]

So far the responses I'm seeing match up with my own admittedly limited experiance. My reach has improved, and my intonation is gotten more precise since I've started playing bass. If my guitar playing suffers at all, it is because I find I enjoy the bass more and have been playing guitar less.

[Billnc]

No problems, unless I switch to guitar immediately after playing bass a couple hours. I was at a jam where I'm house bassist, at the end of the night I swapped to guitar, chords were fine, soloing was a bit off.

[walterw]

Originally Posted by Billnc

No problems, unless I switch to guitar immediately after playing bass a couple hours. I was at a jam where I'm house bassist, at the end of the night I swapped to guitar, chords were fine, soloing was a bit off.

that's what happens to me! if i'm in bass player mode all night and get handed the guitar, i have a hard time shifting my brain back to guitar, and sound clumsy (ok, "clumsier" ) for half a song or so, especially on any soloing. and i'm really a guitar player!

i say it's not the hands, it's the brain that gets "ruined" for guitar. as a bass player, i'm looking at the band's sound from a totally different place, a more "holistic" place if i may say so, and i takes me a little gear-shifting to get back to that ego-centric guitar player mindset

[Headless Llama]

My guitar playing actually improved dramatically since "switching" to bass. I didn't realize it before but, I was at a friends house jamming. I thought we were done, but the "host" wanted to hear some more songs so I ripped into crazy train, and master of puppets. It wasn't great or anything, but it was far superior to my playing a few years earlier.

[lbanks]

I switched a loooonng time ago and playing guitar does feel weird. But what I play on guitar is more interesting now than what I was playing back then. However, I just can't use a pick anymore, they just fly out of my hands.

[()smoke()]

Originally Posted by lbanks

I switched a loooonng time ago and playing guitar does feel weird. But what I play on guitar is more interesting now than what I was playing back then. However, I just can't use a pick anymore, they just fly out of my hands.

i didn't switch all that long ago, and i can still hold onto a pick when i have to!, but my experience echoes this...as a bonus, it's fun to choke the living heck out of a skinny guitar neck when bending strings

[electracoyote]

I'll tell you the only thing that gets messed with from switching, and that's my sight-reading skills. If I read bass clef too long and switch to treble clef, you guessed it, I'm still reading bass clef. There is a residual effect going either way. Takes me a few minutes to adjust.

[NickCormier]

obviously going from treble clef to bass clef is messy, altho I havent spent enough time on bass clef yet for it to be recognizable like treble clef was (I also play alto sax, which is red on treble clef, transposed obv) but eventually want to get really good at bass clef, its just going to be a pain going back and forth, if I attempt to do bass, altho there is a trick to go from bass clef to alto sax, its moving just one space over and everything transposes to Eb perfectly I think, I forget tho.

I feel when you play bass for so long, esp as an improvising/solo instrument, you kind of lose your phrasing on guitar, do less bends and more "violin vibrato" style stuff.. but after afew days of going back to Guitar its easy to pick up again.

[CDRhom]

Originally Posted by electracoyote

I'll tell you the only thing that gets messed with from switching, and that's my sight-reading skills. If I read bass clef too long and switch to treble clef, you guessed it, I'm still reading bass clef. There is a residual effect going either way. Takes me a few minutes to adjust.

As luck would have it, I was saved from that particular problem because my first formal instrument was the accordion (the right hand is written in treble and the left hand in bass).

The pick retention problem is interesting.

[kcole4001]

I've always played both, I'm just naturally much better at bass, but guitar is important to me also.
It's just a matter of practicing both regularly.

[pasta4lnch]

played guitar for nearly 20 years before I started playing bass. I play bass more these days but have absolutely no problem going back to gtr.

still waiting on my right hand to callus over faster . . . but still holds a pick just fine.