Bass Player Confessions

[vvvmmm]

I never change strings, only replace broken ones (except once I put flats onna beatle-bass clone).

 

[SC Bassboy]

Confessions eh? Hoo boy, here goes......

I am one of many failed guitarists that moved to play bass since the band needed one. I just evolved from there. In retrospect, I'm very glad it happened this way. I actually really love playing bass in a band setting and it really suits my personality.

Originally I was to be a drummer. I played drums, owned a drum set and never once thought about a stringed instrument. Turns out Jarod Carmack, one of my best friends in high school, was a better drummer than me even though he had only ever played along to songs on his bedroom pillows with a pair of drumsticks. In short order I paid $75 for an old Fender Musicmaster bass and the rest became history (I still have the Musicmaster).

 

[vvvmmm]

What happened re Jarod Carmack?

I mean, did he ever getta actual kit?

 

[57pbass]

I store my milk and ice cream in my Ampeg 8 x 10

 

[Ostie]

Once at a gig, I don’t remember if it was first set or second, but I couldn’t get any sound out of my instrument. Checked the pots, checked the cables, checked everything…..except the “stand by” switch. Problem solved!

 

[sikamikanico]

I haven’t gigged/played in a band in a couple years, so I started experimenting with my basses more. I wired them all straight to output, but was lazy and just hooked everything up using test leads with alligator clips. I created a decade control (cap switch) using the same method and put everything in a shielded cardboard box. Everything still works well

Also, at this point, I spend more time on Talkbass than practicing/playing

 

[Rolling Thunder]

I feel as if ramps ruin the looks of every single bass they're placed on. So go ahead, shoot me, I'm a bad person.

I had to look this up. Those are like tennis balls on the feet of your walker.

 

[timmus]

Playing this past Christmas Eve...did the sound check...all ok (I use wireless IEMs). First note of the actual concert, I hear nothing....at all .

Check quickly to make sure tuner pedal is in "through" (not "tune" position)...check.
Make sure IEM belt pack is on and it is....check.
Check volume on bass...full max CW...check
Check to make sure cord is completely plugged into bass and tuner....check.
No way to really check to make sure signal is getting to the FOH board in the middle of a song...I need a VU meter after the last pedal on my board so I can actually see lights lighting to my playing. Buy a VU meter....check.

By this time we are halfway through the first song....guitarist is looking at me like what's going on? I shrug.

For some reason I'm thinking bad output on bass so I quickly swap to the spare bass I always keep setup, just in case....Nada!

Spare cable swapped in...check

Still nothing...

I'm starting to panic big time...I can hear my bass sound coming out of the FOH speakers but not my IEMs. I pulled an IEM out of one of my ears so I could hear myself and try to play my part. Drums too loud and FOH speakers too far forward of the band to hear anything clearly (I'm partially deaf).

At the end of the song, the guitarist stops and looks at me like, do you need more time? I hold up one finger (no, not that one)...I just need a minute to suss this out.

I reached down (again!) and check the volume on my IEM beltpack like I'd already done twice)...

Low and behold...somehow, the control had been turned full CCW! . I never mess with that knob. All I can think is that I was wearing a leather vest that night, which I rarely do and the bottom edge of the vest caught on the knob and rotated it to max CCW.

I know, I know....if I was hearing myself in the FOH, my setup was actually working but I wasn't thinking that clearly at the time.

Everything proceeded normally after that snafu but because of my previous panic, I played like crap the rest of the set.

I removed that knob off my IEM beltpack that night.

 

[Major Seven]

Playing a tribute to Talking Heads, we were one of a dozen bands in succession, playing three songs each. I provided the bass backline for all bass players. When it was my time to hookup and play, I had one pedal between my bass and the amp/DI...an EHX pitchfork which allowed me to detune on a single stomp. I plugged everything in big a hurry and got no sound, nothing. I panicked...called the sound guy up on stage he looked and said "bad pedal maybe, just go direct to amp", so I unplugged the pedal and went direct from bass to amp. The next day I plug into the pedal at home, it works fine, then I realize what I actually did on stage and the sound tech didnt even see it.

I plugged the bass into the pedals output.

I had a professor who was going to show us some things on an overhead projector. She struggled about 5 minutes trying to get it to work before I showed her that it needed to be plugged in.

 

[Major Seven]

I think I might be a little autistic………..

When I play bass, my thumb needs to be against the pickup at all times otherwise I get lost and can’t keep going on.

When there’s a chrome guard on the p bass pickup, I just can’t play.

Also, when I play with a vintage p bass with a very wide and fat neck, my playing style is completely different and much slower than with a slim jazz bass neck. I tend to emphasize on low notes keeping the sustain a tad longer on these. Sounds good but totally different. Just like if the instrument was dictating me how and what to play, almost like if I couldn’t control it.

I play completely different with a P than I do with a jazz. The bass really does play you.

 

[Major Seven]

+1 on turning up the knobs on an unplugged bass.

Moreso the P pickup than the bridge to get that mid scoop out

 

[Major Seven]

M

4. The idea of using those pedals with screens and colored lights terrifies me. I could barely turn them on. All that technology seems ridiculous for the kind of rock I play. I'm surprised that anyone actually needs them.

5. That damn presence knob. I'll die without ever understanding what they were trying to do by putting that on amplifiers.

My neighbor's car talks to you when you go over the speed limit. That is going TOO FAR!

 

[Major Seven]

First step is admitting the problem.

I actually don't like flats.

 

[Major Seven]

I was very naive. I just assumed i could plug it into my stereo.

At 5 years old watching my dad change the tubes is our B&W tv, I thought that what we were watching was contained in the tubes so I was telling
him what to leave out and what to put back in.

 

[backin82]

I have several...
1. I can't play slap (thump/pop) bass proficiently. I'm so bad at it.
2. I can't read bass clef (grew up playing trumpet).
3. I know almost zero classic rock bands or songs. I listened to a full Pink Floyd performance for the first time yesterday, actually (hated most of it).
4. I loathe bass solos.
5. Pretty sure I still don't exactly know what a compressor does or how it sounds.
6. I've never found a parametric EQ that I liked.
7. I've never played an all-tube head that I liked.

 

[Gervais Cote]

I play completely different with a P than I do with a jazz. The bass really does play you.

Glad to hear I’m not the only one !

(Honey, could you please cancel my upcoming sessions with my psychologist ?)

 

[rodak]

I was very naive. I just assumed i could plug it into my stereo.

I actually tried to talk our local TV repairman into putting a preamp input jack on our old tube-powered tabletop AM radio. I figured it could probably be done, but he didn't know how. I think a lot of TV guys back then only knew how to swap out tubes.

 

[Dincrest]

1) I prefer my less expensive bass over my high-end one.

2) I've sometimes selected strings based on silk-end colors for aesthetic purposes.

3) I... feel like a bit of a hypocrite. I try and offer helpful insight on TalkBass (though I'm sometimes a snarky jokester), but sometimes what I say runs counter to what I do/have done (especially if one were to click on my name and look at my post history). Like that Green Day song, I often feel like "i'm a walking contradiction" around here. (E.g. I try and say "let your hands rather than tension number charts be the judge" when it comes to strings, yet I continue to look at those tension number charts).

4) I sometimes contemplate closing my TalkBass account so I will be forced to TalkBass/GAS/overthink less and simply PlayBass more.

 

[DirtDog]

I’m secretly a guitar player. Been in deep cover for the last couple of decades.

 

[bitterminnows]

4. Did not like using Rotosound 66 strings when I tried them. I got them because of Geddy Lee and Chris Squire. They sound great—but as I learned—only for a short time, which was after they’d been broken in a little. At the beginning, they were way too metallic sounding. Then after the brief sweet spot, they were super dead.