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Bass by accident

#21
Formed a band playing rhythm guitar with two other guitar players and a drummer.

We looked forever and couldn't find a bass player and well... I was not great on guitar so I thought I'd give it a shot. I bought a bass and fell in love with it the first time I jammed.

All I can say is I'm really glad I stunk at guitar, it opened up a whole new world. :hyper:
 
#22
techall said:
Anybody else stumble and wind up on the bottom?
Click to expand...

Well put. The first time I picked up bass was because the other two guys in the prospective band already were equipped with full guitar and drum setups. I had played guitar for several years and just decided to go for it. I picked up drums myself for a couple of years, went back to guitar, then a friend suggested, "You're a pretty good bass player, I bet you could stay busy doing that." So that's been the M.O. for the past 14 years running. I love it. it just took me a long time to realize I love it, because I have commitment issues. :)
Take care over there. My nephew is a Marine sergeant there and I hope you both come home ASAP.
 
#23
Great thread!

Up until I was almost 17, I had no real interest in playing an instrument - briefly tried recorder and tin whistle, but the flames of desire for music were certainly not fanned by my Catholic high school music teacher who dished out liberal clumps around the ear'ole if he felt you weren't quite giving your all singing hymns accompanied by his piano.

F*&^@#$ W@#%^* :mad:

That all changed one night when I was on my way back from a junior disco.

Walked past a music store which still had the lights on in the display window.

All I noticed was this one P-bas no name copy staring back at me in the window.

It was like love at first sight - this instrument looked so sexy (OK I probably need to get out more) and for the affordable price of 69 GBP!

My dad took me back to the store the following week and I bought it and took lessons from a local bass teacher.

Within a couple of months I was playing in my first band and almost 24 years later, the sound and look of the bass guitar is still just as sexy to me now as it was then.
 
#24
I am enjoying the thread. Here is my humble story.

I begane life as a percussionist and singer. I got a degree in music education, and for part of the instrumental methods courses we had to learn to play to a minimum degree some from the different families of instruments. For my low string, I chose bass because I didn't want to fight with people who'd rather gravitate to the more popular cello. Somehow I took to it quite easily.

Forward from then to about 10 years later, and I was sitting in church right after the new year in 2005 when the preacher brought out a new guitar and bass and asked for musician volunteers. I had played guitar as a teenager because my dad is also a guitarist, but I never got very good at the instrument. I remember how much I'd enjoyed playing the orchestral bass, though, and I said I'd play the bass.

It's been love ever since, and I enjoy how well the instrument fits me. I haven't given up percussion or voice, or even oboe, but I am definitely enjoying the bass. It's a wonderful journey, and I'm glad I'm here.
 
#25
I always wanted to play it.....but too expensive here in Puerto Rico. I was almost out of hope and IT happened........an ad for a bass a Jay Turser P bass clone. I called...it included the bass, gig bag, practice amp, cable, another set of strings....all that for $100!!!! Bought it, played it and still loving it! I love Bass!
 
#27
I had a cousin who played guitar in a Country band. He bought a cheap clone-of-a-clone bass and an old Kay amp with the idea of teaching his wife to play bass. When that didn't work out, the bass and amp were passed down to me. I played that setup for about a year, then in 1974 I bought my first bass - a sunburst '72 Jazz Bass, followed soon after by an Acoustic 140 bass head and the matching 106 2 X 15 cabinet.

Amps have come and gone, and basses keep showing up - but I still have that '72 Jazz Bass, thirty-four years later.

-- Dan --
 
#28
Played guitar, then sax in high school. By college, I was gigging regularly with a couple of bands in Hollywood. Long story short, I was helping the bass player unload his stuff out of what is now the "Viper Room" (RIP River Phoenix), and came walking out the back door carrying his bass case when I was approached by a recording group manager to audition. They hadn't heard the set, running late, but were looking for someone to fill in for an injured band member and wanted certain physical characteristics (Native American, long braided hair) who played bass. I looked like the part (except I played guitar). Felt just a little bad about snaking the job from the bass player who was a blond white boy, but it was an audition.

Did the audition in a couple of days, I was hired and hit the road with the band by the end of the week. They had a few hits and played mostly small venues but as the headliners. It was my first experience traveling by bus on tour and it was great. Their bass player recovered and returned about a month later and I was unceremoniously dropped off the tour in Vegas. Went to the union hall and got a gig playing bass that afternoon at the T-Bird with a 'show band'.

After a couple of weeks playing "La-La-La-La" songs, was approached by a personal manager who asked if I could cut my hair a bit that he could get me a much better gig, with a 10% commission, playing with a better lounge act. That was the summer of 1972.
 
#30
I wanted to play the bass when I was 16 when I randomly picked up an Ibanez in Sam Ash and discovered I could play the bass riff in Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" without trying. I taught myself to play the piano after that, and when I was 18, my college dorm neighbor taught me to play guitar. After getting a Strat, and I would go to Guitar Center whenever I could to jam on bass. After years of anguish, I finally got my first bass this past summer, and at 20, I trade off between soloing on my Strat and playing my Mustang reissue. I am a bassist at the core.
 
#31
I did, however, have a few words to say to my mom, who was rather frustrated that my brother would have treated an instrument like that when it was her money that paid for it. So, after a lengthy discussion (much of which I wasn’t party to; it took place between my mom and my brother) it was decided that I would get to play Eric’s OTHER bass... a Rickenbacher 4003 with a tobacco finish. Now, THIS was cool! Also considering that Rush was fast becoming my favorite band, it was amazing that I was getting to play the same kind of bass Geddy Lee was playing. I couldn’t have been happier. And the rest is history!
Click to expand...

Score!

For me it was just about 4 years ago. Me and two friends would hang out at a diner once a week. They both played instruments, and they talked me into playing bass. So I bought a cheapo bass on Ebay and then bought a cheapo amplifier (160 watts), and then I was hooked.
 
#32
I was in ninth grade in high school. I had just switched to tuba that year, from playing trumpet before (turned out I'm a lot better at tuba than trumpet.) About halfway through the year, my band director came up to me and said "I want you to play bass in jazz band." At this time, I knew nothing of string instruments. I'm left handed, but all the school had was a purple right-handed Yamaha with P/J pickups (didn't know this at the time, I went back and looked at it). They also had a American P, but that was for the guy in the top jazz band. It turned out I liked it- the next year, I was in the top band playing that P, and then for my sixteenth birthday, my dad took me out and got me a used MIM Jazz bass, my first bass, and the one I keep coming back to.
 
#33
My folks bought me a keyboard when I was 13 or 14. I never really took to it other than I enjoyed playing the lower notes and in particular playing octaves. Hmmm.... Eventually it was sold as it was not getting played.

Fast-forward 3 years.

I'm just finishing high school and watching Rattle & Hum late one night on tv and I just had this feeling listening to and watching the bass player, Adam Clayton. There was a recognition there - a conscious feeling that bass was something I understood. Now that may sound like an arrogant kid, especially as I'd never even played a guitar let alone a bass guitar, but I was certain of it. I can't explain it rationally, but I knew from that moment that's what I wanted to do.

None of my friends played any instruments - let alone bass guitar. I didn't know anyone who did. So I got hold of the cheapest bass and amp (Aqua blue Washburn B2) I could find and started learning. The first thing was the middle-section of 'The Chain', and then songs from my record collection, which was mostly U2 at that time. I started gigging around a year later after joining a college band.

I'm still playing and learning 16 years later.
 
#34
I started playing piano when I was 6 or 7 and kept up with that until I was like 14. When I was 10 I started playing the trumpet and I kept with that until I left college. When I was in my second year of High School my band teacher restarted the jazz band and I found an old '70s Fender Mustang buried in one of the store-rooms. It needed some work done to it (strings and new tuners). I told him that if he would get the parts for it I would fix it up and play it for the jazz band. So I took it home to clean it up and see what else I needed to get it to work. He never got the things it needed and we both forgot that I had it at home. The next year I went to a different school and kept the bass hanging in my closet. A couple friends and I were talking at lunch one day and one of them said that he was trying to get a band together and that he played guitar and the other one was the singer. He also said that they were trying to find a bass player. I then remembered that I had this bass hanging in my closet at home. I told him about it and that I would fix it up and learn how to play it for him. And the rest, they say, is history. That was 10 years ago an I have never looked back.
 
#35
I sang tenor in church when I was young. As I grew older, my voice changed and I discovered bass. I had always admired the voice of an elderly gentleman, Who was one of two or three men that sang bass in the entire congregation of about 120 or so. Just listening to him taught me alot about bass.

In the 6th grade, I started playing trumpet in the school band. After the 8th grade, I laid down the trumpet and joined the high school choir singing bass.

Growing up going to family outings always kept me around music. My cousins, aunts, and uncles would always end up playing music. Mostly bluegrass and folk songs. My cousin always had a blast playing the stand-up bass and I had a blast watching and listening to him and singing along to his bass playing, adding runs that I thought he should be playing.

Fast forward to 2 1/2 years ago. I bought my first bass. A short scale Sammick Jazz. Messed around with a book and learnt a few things. A good friend of mine, who I played trumpet with in 6-8 grade and happens to be a drummer, was starting a band and invited me out to listen them. Their bass player was a flashy player who improvised everything. Sadly he would miss most of the changes. I downloaded the tabs( I know I know) to the four covers the were working on and played along with a cd. Their bass player worked out of town and would miss a couple of practices a month. I offered to fill in for him when he couldn't make it. I concentrated on learning the songs note for note and actually played the songs better than the guy I was filling in for. After a month or so of that, he got the boot and I was in my first band. Been holding down the bottom end ever since. My only regret since is that I didn't start earlier. I turn 40 in January.
 
#37
Around 1998, within one week most of our musicians transferred to other military basses and I was just starting out on guitar. The Young Adult Choir for the chapel was scheduled to sing the following Sunday so I went to one of the guitar stores that Wednesday afternoon in Watertown NY (not Black River Music, but the other one), bought a Peavey Fury (later sold it), learned the bass lines to three Kirk Franklin songs at rehearsal that night, and a new band started forming that Sunday. Wound up buying another bass from that store (great Washburn 5-string, traded for a guitar) and a fretless Hohner Jazz-style bass from Black River Music, which I still have.
:bassist:
 
#38
When I was in the 4th grade I joined orchestra. I wanted to play the cello but the instructor thought I was describing a bass, so I said sure I'll play bass. She ordered me the upright from the school warehouse to use for the semester, so I couldn't switch and the rest is history... I didn't even consider an electric until I was in high school.
 
#39
I was sitting in a local guitar shop one day when I was about 15 and one of the owners walked by and asked if I wanted to play bass this week with his band. Since I had a week off I agreed and have been doing it off and on for over 30 years. When I moved to TN I had just sold my music store but kept the last bass rig I had because I knew if times got tough I could make a living playing bass so I did for about 10 years after moving here. I've had some guitar jobs over the last 18 years but it's been 90% bass lately.
 
#40
This was many years ago. I was in a band and played rhythm guitar and did almost all the singing. We had a very good bassist. As time went on, I begin to realize I really preferred bass to anything. It's just way more interesting than anything else. Out of the blue, the bassist quit and joined the military. I told the rest of the band I wanted to take over on bass. There was some reluctance on their part. I had been doing fine on rhythm guitar. But I convinced them that I could learn bass quickly. I found that it was harder to play bass and sing as compared to playing rhythm, but I made the adjustment. I could write a thick book on how much my life changed after I started playing bass.
 

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