What was the age you started to play?

[addylewis]

Started playing guitar at 13, then bass at 17 and I'm now 22 so...5 years 9 months roughly - and I'm proud of it!

[JamesM]

i think i was about 16, so about 6 yrs.

[Atomicant]

Starting young wont necesarily make you a better player. More than likely you would just be able to learn and absorb theory more easily, which in the future would help your playing.

But your physical ability on the instruement wont really be affected by age that much.

[-Sam-]

I Started bass at 12 but played piano since i was about 5 or 6 so i had alot of musicallity down just needed to learn my strings. FYI i moved because i was sick of piano and my favourite part of every song i played was always my left hand

[basste]

i started guitar at 18, and bass at 24/25. i know have 34

[alanbass1]

STarted in '75 when I was 14 after listening to Trevor Bolder and Gary Thain.

[atk4m]

I'm 25; I started last month. I don't know what I'm doing but I'm having a lot of fun so far.

[oddio]

I started playing bass, both upright and electric, when I was 12. In a few weeks I'll hit my 41st year as a bassist.

[deesonic]

Started playing at 32, now 33.

Here's the story... I bought my first guitar when I was 14 with money I saved cutting grass for neighbors. It was an old Dean Hollywood Z that cost $200. I had no amp and after oohing and ahhing over it for a couple weeks, it went under the bed where it collected dust until my junior year of college. My parents never really encouraged my musical interests either, so no one offered to pay for any lessons for me. So, in college I traded the "Z" in for a La Patrie dreadnaught (not the nylon string ones) so that I could take a classical guitar class. I learned a few chords and a bit of theory and that was about it, lost interest. Along the way I accumulated a cheapy Ibanez electric with a Traynor amp and attempted to take lessons a couple times, but never could stay interested for long.

I ALWAYS deep down knew I wanted to play bass but listened to people who always told me things like "chicks don't dig bass players" and "you can't sit around a camp fire and play bass." Well, last year at 32 years of age and after 9 years of being married to my wife who could care less if I played guitar and having never sat by a campfire that I can recall, I went on ebay and bought a cheapo noname bass for $75. I was hooked! I've been playing bass for 14 months now and there's no turning back. I still poke around on my guitar and even drums a bit to learn songs or write them, but i consider myself a bass player first and foremost now. I'm hoping to start a band this summer with my stepbrother who has been playing guitar for about 15 years.

So, I may not be the most technical player around at this point, I have found that if you practice enough you can progress rather quickly. I'm trying to make up for lost time. It has become rather addicting really. I wake up thinking about my bass like a kid wakes up ready for toys on Christmas. I go to bed reading bass magazines and reading forums such as this, always trying to learn new things.

I wish I would have followed my heart nearly 20 years ago and bought a bass with that grass cutting money.

[Delberthot]

I got my first bass when I was eleven. i didn't realise for the first couple of years that i was playing it through a guitar practice amp (Squier 15w combo).

trashed it at age 15 by defretting it and sanding the body back to the wood (still the original strings on it though).

Since then I have owned about 20 basses, maybe more, in that pursuit for perfection. everything from $50 scrap to Rickenbackers and Stingrays.

I think I am there now, at 30 years old, with my modded white Bass collection - One of the new ones - I have added Gotoh machines, badass I bridge and a set of DR peacock blue strings.

[T. B. Player]

Started playing guitar at age 6...bass at age 12. I'll be 46 this year, celebrating forty freakin' years of musicianship - and I still can't make a living off music.

Don't listen to the "you can do anything if you want to" bull****. You are not in charge. God may have given you the talent, but there's a purpose for it. I consider it my "cross" - ergo, the Web site name...even though I still write music in praise of Him, as well as work for Catholic Schools, do voice overs and audio productions as well as teach a couple classes in Instructional Design at a local university.

It's a matter of being in the right place at the right time...and that's wherever God wants me to be.

[jumbosilverette]

Started 6 months ago at age 49. It's never too late. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but 49's not too late.

[Valerus]

2002...that was uh...4 years ago...

13.

Woo.