What type of music are you into, who are your influnces? and what gear do you use?

[Ian the bassist]

Hello fellow bass players. I love bass discussions and as such would love to know what types of bassists we have in the forums. I myself play in a hard rock/Classic rock band(Shoctopus is the name feel free to check us out at www.shoctopus.com or ww.mypace/shoctopusrock) but am into various music styles including metal/fusion/rock/jazz/blues etc. If I was to say which bassist I would be closed to in terms of playing style I would say Cliff Burton. Huge influence. Stu Hamm is another as he is the man I first saw playing things I had never seen on bass thinking that I would love to be able to that. I use a dean edge left handed 5 string bass as my #1 running through an ashdown abm 900 head into a full stack abm cab. Effects I use are Morley power bass wah, Boss od overdrive and ebs unichorus. But now onto the rest of you. I would also like to add is there any bassists that you think are over rated? I think Billy Sheehan is a big one. Sure he has technique but I can't hear anything I would consider musical in between that shredding.

[CBgaragebassist]

I like pretty much all styles of music, except modern rap and country. My influences include John Deacon, John Paul Jones, Geddy Lee, Stanley Clarke, Les Claypool, Paul McCartney, etc. My setup is a Cort P-bass, a Baltimore bass, Sky acoustic bass, S101 acoustic guitar, a Ibanez Gio electric guitar, a Boss DS-1 pedal, a Peavey Mark iii 260 C amp, and a small Silvertone practice amp.

btw, i agree with you about Sheehan. His playing gets kind of boring to me after a while.

[WookieeForLife]

I play hardcore/screamo on bass but all influences are classic rock. Beatles, Led. Zep., and Mr. Lee. New music is fun to listen to and have a good time playing, but deff. not complex. I enjoy learning harder stuff.

[JTE]

I'm "into" Duke Ellington music. Duke, when asked if he considered HIS music to be jazz, replied "there are only two kinds of music; music that sounds good and whatever you want to call that other stuff."

I've played country (back when it was country music, not bad pop/rock with a hat and a pedal steel...), funk, blues, R 'n' B, rock, some big-band, etc.

Gear now is an Eden WT-400 driving an Avatar 1x12 and a Euphonic/Audio VL-208. I've also got a rack with a Peavey TB Raxx (tube pre) and a QSC PLX-1202 power amp. Basses include:

1. Fender Vintage Series '62 P that I bought new in April 1983
2. Fender Sting signature P
3. Mongrol fretless that started as a Fender Jazz Bass Special in 1988
4. Lakland Deluxe 4-94 fretted
5. Lakland Deluxe 4-94 fretless
6. Lakland Skyline 55-01 five-string
7. Ashbory (small fretless with silcone strings).

I've got some stomp boxes- most time I just use my small home-made pedal board that has a Boss TU-2 tuner and a SansAmp Bass Driver DI. The big board has those two and adds an EBS Bass-IQ (envelope filter), EBS Octa-Bass (octave pedal), and a Boss Bass compressor/enhancer.

Bassist who had a huge impact on me include Jack Bruce, Jack Cassady, James Jamerson, Duck Dunn, Emory Gordy, Freebo, Stephen Stills, Jaco, Abe Laboriel, Micheal Rhodes, Leland Sklar, Pino Pallidino, Joe Osborn, Carol Kaye, Nathan East, and Carl Radle.

I spent a LOT of time listening to The Allman Bros (with Duane), Cream, Blind Faith, Jefferson Airlplane (not to be confused with the pale imitation called the Jefferson Starship), Hot Tuna, Weather Report, Bonnie Raitt (both befor and after Don Was), Sly & The Famioly Stone, The Staple Singers, Traffic, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, CSNY et. al., Joe Walsh/James Gang, Eagles (at least before Joe Walsh), Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, etc. etc.

John

[bassnut14]

I'm not actually in a band as I have been playing for under a year but I tend to learn rock bass parts, my main influences are Jack Bruce, Mike Dirnt, Jonas Hellborg, Jon Lodge and James Jamerson

[SelenaBassGirl]

Let's see...I started playing bass almost two years ago. Taught myself. Always loved the bass-even before I knew what that beautiful sound was! Always attracted to songs with a catchy bass line or slapping..Always seem to attract bass players or catching myself gawking at the bass and watching their fingers play...
So bought my first bass two and half years ago. It was a pepto bismal pink Spencer Pink bass. Got her at the flea market brand new, it was missing something on the headstock, didn't know what, until later (string tree, which I since put one on)..got for $70. Then got a cheap First Act combo amp . The bass sat for a half a year, then I decided to take it in the computer room, and listen to music on computer and teach myself. I picked up quick. a few months later got my second bass, a Squier Jazz. That came with a Fender Rumble amp. Then came: transparent red Ibanez GSR 200 (missing a tuning peg, which I later fixed),
Blue Ibanez GSR200, a black Ibanez GSR100 (got it day after took home blue Ibanez), Hartke 500 head, SWR 4x10 cab,then came my Fender standard MIM Jazz, then another Fender jazz Squier series. (am I leaving any out?? lol)
all this within' two years!! whoa...
I am not in a band, but I have sat in with two local bands. I frequently sit in with one in particular at a club I hang out at every weekend.
I listen to all genres of music but play a lot of country. Would LOVE to learn to slap bass. Funk music is my weakness!
I listen to country, tejano (huge Selena fan), metal, disco, funk, late 60's, 70s music, rock, classical...you name it..all but don't care for folk music much. bores the crud outta me.
Influences are: Paul McCartney, John Taylor, Flea, Geddy Lee, Jaco, Cliff Burton, Larry Graham....band wise-The Beatles, John Lennon, metallica, motley crue, Selena, Jacksons(disco/funk era), Michael Jackson (late 70s and 80s) and more...

sorry this is a mile long!

[bobostein]

Im into psychobilly (necromantix, mad sin, Reverend horton heat, The Meteors ect) punk (The adicts, Fear, Dead kennedys, Snowmen, Rancid, Voodoo glow skulls ect) Metal (Lamb of god, Mastodon, Pig destroyer, Gojira, GWAR-dont give me S**t, Immortal, The Melvins ect) I play on my old ass p bass.

[Sartori]

I'm into a lot of things, from classical to various kinds of metal to folk and jazz. On bass I mainly play black metal and folk music.

My main influences as a player are probably Geezer Butler, John Entwistle, Cliff Burton, James Jamerson and ICS Vortex.

I play a Rickenbacker copy and soon my real Rickenbacker as well as a modded Peavey Milestone IV through a Mesa/Boogie D-180 amp, through an Ampeg 1x15 cab and an Ashdown 2x10 cab. Effects I use sometimes are a Morley Dual Bass Wah, Electro-Harmonix Big Muff and sometimes a Digitech reverb pedal. I'm hoping to get an Electro-Harmonix Holy Stain pedal soon for live.

For my folk band I play a cheapo Johnson fretless acoustic bass and sometimes a beat up German blonde bass viol. No amplification with this band.

[Phalex]

I dig everything. I'm more into jazz and blues than most other stuff. I think that Latin rhythm sections are the cat's ***.

Lately I'm using a beat up Hoppus sig P bass.
An old old Carvin PB-500 head, with an equally old Carvin 410.
I eschew all effects.

We play Rock & Roll.

[EricF]

I would consider blues and current indie-rock my two most preferred genres of listening right now, but I also enjoy rockabilly, old punk, modern country, classic rock, and '60s Motown. I'll occasionaly have a fling with classical, jazz, or old Metallica.

After a stint doing original power-pop, I'm currently in the process of putting together a blues band.

My current rig is an Aguilar DB750 with a DB210 or DB410 cab, depending on the room. My go-to bass is a '68 Fender P, but my stable also includes a G&L ASAT hollowbody, Reverend Rumblefish, Lakland 55-01, Fender 57RI P, and a parts-Jazz that is about to undergo a totally un-needed renovation.

These days, I typically play straight into the amp, but other situations have called for some significant effects. As a result, I have a sizeable pile of pedals at my disposal, if the need arises.

[StewyD]

I like a lot of different music. "indie" stuff like bon iver, death cab, sleeping at last, mewithoutyou. I also like harder stuff like oh sleeper, norma jean, the devil wears prada. I also like things that are in between... I guess like manchester orchestra, jimmy eat world, and as cities burn. three bands that I've been listening to a lot lately are all the day holiday, barcelona, and la dispute.

All of the bass players in the bands above are influences on me, but one of the main ones is nick harmer of death cab.

I use: Fender highway one jazz bass
avalon u5 preamp
ashdown abm 500 evo II head and an ashdown abm 410 cab
the only effects I use right now are a keeley 4 knob compressor and a carbon copy delay.

[chrisisnotevil]

I can listen to pretty much everything bar modern R&B, (the type with rappers), brainless pop and big Celine Dion type ballads. I grew up listening to metal and hardcore punk, and veered off into drum and bass and electronica at one point. Most of my listening tends to hover around the less commercial reaches of metal (post metal, black metal, doom metal, blackened doom metal, you get the idea) and lots of post-rock these days, (I was recently and quite justifiably accused of being a metal hipster on this very board the other day) although I do have a fondness for Radiohead, Pink Floyd and electronic stuff and big band jazz.

I play in a post-metal band, see the sig for details. We're doing an album, our second release atm.

Obvious influences would include Justin Chancellor, Jeff Caxide and Cliff Burton, more in terms of what they make a bass do in a band context rather than tone or playing technique. I believe that we should all try to develop our own playing style, tone and technique, rather than ape those of others.

I play a MIM Jazz V (DADGC) into an Ashdown MAG300 head, with the matching 410 and 115 cabs. I use a pedal board with a Boss dd3 and LMB3 limter, EHX trem and chorus and a couple of dirtboxes, my beloved RAT and a HA modded Bad Monkey.

[DoomandHeavy]

I'm into old-school sounding Metal and Punk. My biggest influences are Steve Harris, Rainer Landfermann, and John Menor. As for gear, I use an Ibanez SR506 and an Orange Crush. I'm always tuned to standard, and don't use any effects.

[Lazylion]

If you want to know that stuff about me, check my profile.

Re: Billy Sheehan, he's played in Steve Vai's band, how bad can he be?

[Din Of Win]

I'm into skramzy screamo, shoegaze, crust punk, post-hardcore, powerviolence, and power-pop. Maybe a little doomy/droney stuff too.

I'm influenced by the scene i grew up in and the bands that i saw during that time (Pg.99, Majority Rule, City of Caterpillar, Crestfallen, Crispus Attuks, Orchid, Catharsis, Jeromes Dream, etc etc).

I use cheap gear because i play in crappy squatter houses a lot and it sucks when things get stolen. Specifics are in my profile.

[::Saint::]

Musical Influences are mostly Medium to heavy alternative and progressive sounds, or more dancy synthy stuff - a short band list would be Muse, Metric, Depeche Mode, Project 86, Lacuna Coil, Billy Talent, and well a bunch of other stuff in my profile.

Current gear (also listed in profile) includes a MIM Fender Jazz Deluxe V (Black w/Tort PG), My amp is Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 through 2 Mesa Powerhouse Cabs (2x10 & 1X15). For effects I use lots of fuzz and distortion, and my current pedalboard includes an MXR Blowtorch, Bass Big Muff, Ibanez PD-7 and SB-7, Polish Love O/D, and a Korg Pitchblack pedal tuner.