Double Bass Anyone else ruined for bass guitar?

[AGCurry]

I've been playing nothing but double bass (and six-string guitar) for the last couple of years, with my bass guitars sitting in their cases.

Yesterday I decided a song I'm recording would benefit more from bass guitar than from double bass, so I pulled out a Precision and plugged it in.

It's been a couple of years since I played more than a few notes on a BG, but I figured that the thousands of hours I've spent playing BG over the last 50 years would come to the rescue.

I sounded pretty bad. In particular, right-hand attack and coordination between hands were significantly off.

Anyone else experience this?

 

[WillyW]

I have yet to purchase a DB, I'm scared to... I think I'd like it too much...

and it doesn't fit the music I normally play.... yet...

 

[neddyrow]

As my avatar shows, I've been playing a little more BG but like mentioned above, it doesn't fit most of the music I play. I play in an Olde Tyme Fiddle Band, a Traditional Bluegrass Band and even the Quazi-Rock Band I play in that has drums (a good drummer I still feel that what I can do on my upright fits better.

But in Quaratimes, I have been enjoying putting on some Grateful Dead on YouTube and Plugging in that BG and just get lost in the jam...

 

[lurk]

When I play BG it's usually because someone has hired me to read music. When I haven't touched mine in a while the touch etc. is ok, but I need to look at the neck to make shifts, and that means taking my eyes off the page, and that's a problem.

 

[bherman]

I try and pick mine up once or twice a week and play it just to keep me from losing muscle memory. Pre-COVID, I’d go to a local blues jam occasionally just for the chance to play my P.

 

[Ed S]

I gave my BG to my kid. She has it out in Calif. When we went to visit her last Feb, I picked it up and was astounded at how clumsy I felt.

Saw a bassist going to town on SNL last weekend, and made me wistful. I wonder how long it would take to get it back if I tried...

Of course, I like to fool myself that I am slightly more adept at upright!

 

[unbrokenchain]

I've found it to be kind of humbling whenever I'm asked to do BG these days. Yes, it's way easier, but that's actually what makes it difficult There's so little hand movement required to make the music, that it's tough to dial the effort back from the more active role on DB. But for some types of music, DB just doesn't work as well sonically (my opinion). The same sustain and exposed clarity that make BG not work well for certain types of (especially trad and acoustic) music are necessary ingredients in some other types. So I try and retain comfortability with BG even if I don't find it nearly as inspiring to come home and practice solo on..

 

[Ed Fuqua]

I don't think it counts as "ruined", but I stopped playing BG a few decades back as it become merely an instrument of commerce for me. The only time I played it was when somebody called with a gig and wanted BG. But being in the environment I was in, with so many really excellent musicians that played BG and sounded great doing that plus not really enjoying the music that called for me to play BG plus hearing, more and more, the sound of acoustic double bass as my voice in the music I DID want to play - all of that made the decision to stop playing bass guitar very easy. No regrets...

 

[charlie monroe]

I don't think it counts as "ruined", but I stopped playing BG a few decades back as it become merely an instrument of commerce for me. The only time I played it was when somebody called with a gig and wanted BG. But being in the environment I was in, with so many really excellent musicians that played BG and sounded great doing that plus not really enjoying the music that called for me to play BG plus hearing, more and more, the sound of acoustic double bass as my voice in the music I DID want to play - all of that made the decision to stop playing bass guitar very easy. No regrets...

Do you still own one or more BG's?

 

[turf3]

Well, I've never been a bass guitar player; I own one, but my first bass is upright and that's still my focus. I bought the BG for those situations where the load-in is just too absurd, primarily. I prefer playing upright.

Also, due to a damaged right index finger, I can't play two-fingered on BG even though I can on DB. Having to play everything one fingered limits what you can do on BG.

 

[notabene]

Sometimes injuries have forced me to play BG. I have found that a fretless one I have is a pretty easy shift. I gave away my Fender jazz (fretted) bass fo my son.

 

[Bruce Calin]

My experience is pretty similar to Ed F's. I had a pre-covid gig on BG that had some tricky reading so I did some shedding to get back in some sort of shape but it didn't make me want to do more with it. Since the pandemic I haven't touched it except to move it out of the way to get something else. There are some excellent BG players around here but they aren't readers so those are the calls I get. It's more a service than any sort of labor of love. I don't hate it but it's a tool for me.

 

[Ed Fuqua]

Do you still own one or more BG's?

Nope.

 

[AGCurry]

... Having to play everything one fingered limits what you can do on BG.

Don't tell that to James Jamerson!

 

[statsc]

I only play BG once or twice a year, when I get called for an electric blues or r&b gig. I also have trouble dialing back the energy needed to produce a sound. It takes a little bit to get used to the difference in scale also. The biggest thing though is the fact that a different right hand technique is required so that a different part of my first two fingers is used. By the end of the gig I have blisters, which I never get playing UB!

 

[garrett2]

I'm surprised you are ruined on BG since you still play six string. I find that when I pick up the 6 string or the mandolin I can play faster after I've done a lot of upright bowing practice (I only practice with a bow).

 

[james condino]

"....an instrument of commerce..."

 

[oren]

I played BG for 30-something years before taking up DB. Despite all the work and the fact that almost all of my gigs over the past ten years have been on DB, I’m still more fluid and facile on BG. I tend to use BG when I’m learning new musical concepts, particularly if they’re not bass-specific, and only later figure out how to apply them on DB.

Since the pandemic started I find myself enjoying playing BG more than I had in quite a while - it just seems like less work in my strikingly unmotivated state these days.

 

[BrotherMister]

I came to the BG first at 16, then purchased my first double at 18. I was at university as a BG player but figuring I was already in debt I'll never be able to pay back I doubled down and paid for DB lessons all throughout that time and well beyond it. Trying to juggle both has been insanely difficult over the years, and in my honest opinion you can really hear when someone really hasn't put the time into the BG, of which I know a great many DB players who are the by far the worst offenders of that. To quote a good friend of mine who is a theatre MD 'Why are there so many bad bass players about?'. As someone stated, and I read an interview with the great Anthony Jackson saying the same, that actually the BG is relatively simple to get off the ground but after a certain point it becomes as problematic and difficult as most other instruments. I think the problem many people also face, from both camps, is not accepting they are two different instruments that serve a similar function in a band. DB players picking up the BG is just as woeful as BG players picking up the DB, both require a lot of time to play and sound good on.

There are times where most of work will be on BG or then the DB so my practise becomes unfairly weighted but when I get back to the other one they are very quick to kick my butt and remind me I committed to this life long doubling struggle and it's no ones fault buy my own. The genuine joy of being stuck at home during covid is I'm actually shedding both consistently a good number of hours each day, which is very mentally exhausting.

Remind me why I do this again?

 

[brianrost]

The only difference if I play DB exclusively for a long while and come back to the BG is I need to use a lighter touch. Otherwise, no problem.