This thread reminds me of a comment I got at a gig with the cover band I was in a while back. A long time ago, I came up with this jazzy bass riff that was all chords, my uncle (the frontman) really liked it because I was messing around with it during a practice and the drummer and lead guitarist kicked in. He though it was a Joe Satriani song
(mainly because the guitarist shredded over top of it)
Anyways, it became a filler number. When we didn't have much of a crowd and were about to end a set (we played 4 a night), frontman would get a head start to the bar while we jammed.
After all was said and done some guy came up to me and said, "That riff is awesome! You play bass... but you're mainly a guitar player right?" I replied no, because at the time I didn't play guitar at all. He seemed really confused by that, he explained that he never knew chord could/would/should be played on a bass. So, the fact that I was playing chords convinced him that I was a guitarist.
Either that or I must have at some point played a wanky pentatonic solo and had a complete inability to lock in with the drummer... either way I was... flattered? Eh, probably not.
