The tables have turned! Bassists on guitar...

Hector_G · #1 05-25-2009, 02:26 PM

I see a lot of funny threads about how guitar players assume they can play bass.
Or how about when your guitarist picks up your bass and tries to slap.
Or them trying to tell you how to "fix" your tone or they try to mess with your settings.

I wonder how they feel when we pick up their guitars.
I haven't owned a guitar for quite some time, but I think I can hold my own. Of course I can't shred like my guitarist can but I can tear up a couple of Slayer songs (sans solos).
I can fake my way through a few "funk" riffs.

So how are you guys with the 6 tiny strings?

b4nny · #2 05-25-2009, 02:27 PM

Terrible, but I'm not too worried.

Kwin Smith · #3 05-25-2009, 02:36 PM

Funny.

I decided to quit my last band when the singer got pissed at me for being a better guitarist than the guy he brought in as "the future of this band"...

Zombbg4 · #4 05-25-2009, 02:39 PM

I had a guitar for a while when I was in my "get my hands on any possible instrument stage". Got decent at it but like many I play it more like a bass. Never bothered to figured out scales with that B string, always through me off.

Hector_G · #5 05-25-2009, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thunkinfunder

Funny.

I decided to quit my last band when the singer got pissed at me for being a better guitarist than the guy he brought in as "the future of this band"...

That's horrible. And sad. Not on your end of course!
+1 for bass players.

It seems in my situation, I know more about their equipment than they do. I end up telling them how to use their amps, PODs, pedals and how to EQ their damned tone so it doesn't sound like static when the whole band is playing.
Kind of frustrating.

HogieWan · #6 05-25-2009, 02:46 PM

I play a lot of guitar. For a while I've been the guitar player at my church, but the bass player is a high school student and has been out a lot with swimming meets, so I get to play bass again (have another guitar player).

Kipaste · #7 05-25-2009, 02:49 PM

Well.. I usually let them taste their own medicine and play guitar like it was a bass. And if they say it's sucks you probably know the anwer I have for them. Ironic is, that I've got some compliments on my slap guitar.

I can't play guitar to save my life, but just enough to get some simple funk and reggae riffs down on my home studio project. And that's all I wan't from guitar, just a little bit of texture. If I wan't a non-bass solo, I'll call a saxophone player.

bertbassplayer · #8 05-25-2009, 02:49 PM

I actually played guitar before bass, but I enjoy playing bass a lot more so it's my main, but I'm actually a pretty good guitarist so when one of the guitarists decides he wants to mess around on my bass I go mess around on his guitar. Actually all of us in the band are multi-instrumentalists. The two guitarists have previously played bass in bands, one of the guitarists and I have both played drums, and the drummer plays piano.

snapple · #9 05-25-2009, 02:55 PM

I'm usually the best guitar player in my band... I spend equal time practicing electric bass, guitar, and upright.

Gard · #10 05-25-2009, 04:40 PM

My major in college was classical & jazz guitar, so I'm usually able to pretty much keep up with the guitarists I play with. The last band I played guitar in, we covered instrumental rock and fusion stuff, so I was covering Eric Johnson and Allan Holdsworth tunes....

However, after being a full-time bassist for the past 15+ years now, a guitar feels like a toy to me!

I still have a good quality Takamine student-level (but GOOD student-level) classical guitar and a nice early 90's USA Fender Strat for puttering around on and recording a few things from time to time.

Due to being a music major in college, I'm also pretty functional on piano and with a bit of effort, I could convince the average listener that I can play violin/viola and clarinet (my mom had a nice clarinet, so when a woodwind or brass was required, that made my decision...).

grifff · #11 05-25-2009, 04:42 PM

To be honest I can play guitar better than both of the guitarists in my band. I've been playing guitar for much longer than I have played bass.

Dubista · #12 05-25-2009, 04:45 PM

I can hold my own.

+1 to knowing more about the guitarist's stuff than he does and having to make it not sound like static

darkladytaelyn · #13 05-25-2009, 05:24 PM

I learned guitar classically before switching to bass. I met my current guitarist in a school jazz band where I was on guitar, and he on bari sax. We used to jam as 2 guitarists for awhile, then I went full time on bass, and he actually said it sounds a lot more natural and that I make a better bassist.

All the same, though, I still have both a hollowbody and solid electric, and a tetrachordo bouzuki (never did much with that one). I write rhythm guitar parts on my solidbody sometimes just to get the full feel of it. But I usually end up looking like a fumbling idiot when I play because the scale is like tiny. I picked up an offbrand Les Paul just last night to show him a riff he wanted to learn from me on a cover song - I kept checking the fingerboard to make sure it wasn't a guitar hero controller!

Reversely, he picks up my five string, usually to play some cover 7-string guitar riff, noodles around for about 5 minutes and says, every time, "What am I doing with this again, I can't play bass..." and hands it back.

Lou Red · #14 05-25-2009, 05:45 PM

I've played it more than bass (3 years, as opposed to the low 1) but bass is just so much more natural and comfortable to me. Never looked back.

Stickk · #15 05-25-2009, 05:55 PM

I'm about the same on guitar as I am on bass. I'm better at bass though, its a more natural feel to me. When I do play guitar, I make like Jeff Beck and play with my fingers.

SoonerMatt · #16 05-25-2009, 06:01 PM

I have a guitar (Yamaha SC-300T) that I occasionally pick at, but I'm not that good, really. At least I know that my little red Strat-esque guitar will be worth quite a bit in about 10 years.

aikakone · #17 05-25-2009, 06:17 PM

I'm not a good guitarist at all, but I do play. I got one as a teenager and played it all the time as teenagers typically do, but I never got any good at it. It just wasn't the instrument for me. Now after having had bass lesson for over a year, I am playing lots of bass and now guitar after 20 years of nothing.

It's funny because I played a hymn at church while I and my parents sang (okay, impromptu family trio), and the preacher was so impressed he asked me where I learned my chords.

"From my friend Mel Bay."

Of course, in the same service, I was so happy to take off the guitar and get back to the bass. Bass does something for me that guitar never does... I'm happy when I play it.

**john turner** · #18 05-25-2009, 06:30 PM

guitar doesn't have enough strings.

.

David S · #19 05-25-2009, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hector_G

Or how about when your guitarist picks up your bass and ...............

Or them trying to tell you how to "fix" your tone or they try to mess with your settings.

So how are you guys with the 6 tiny strings?

Ever see Sheehan talk about "bass chiropractor"?

http://books.google.com/books?id=QxD...esult&resnum=5

Do that to a guitar and they will never touch your stuff again.

Jimbob Jones · #20 05-25-2009, 07:08 PM

I'm ok at guitar. Not nearly as good as I am at bass, but I could sit in with a band on rhythm with no problem, if I had too.