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Can you also play guitar?

#61
I picked up guitar in more recent years (a 7-string tuned F# B F# B E G C, which is an odd tuning) and use it to write. Mainly br00tal and prog stuff.

I have an E-standard guitar too that I picked up for learning. I still need to learn the basic strumming patterns.
 
#62
I have fat fingers also, started out on bass 25 years ago, picked up the guitar 3 years ago, put in at least 1/hour a day working on it, took an online course for music theory geared toward just the guitar(this helped me a lot) I can play rhythm & lead but have 0% confidence playing guitar in public.
I started out in my current project on rhythm guitar and sharing some leads, played almost a year and was always nervous as crap, esp during leads. Our bass player had health issues and had to drop out of the band, I was forced on the bass while we looked for another bass player, it was the best thing that has happened to me, it felt like I was with an old friend again, my band mates told me to stop looking for another bass player, they like the bands sound with me on the bass, I still play the guitar, mostly acoustic but just for me personally.
 
#63
started on piano at age 6 ( now age 58 ) ... then trumpet , gtr , bass ...

i do understand about the fingers on guitar strings .. !! look for a slightly wider neck .. classical nylon gtrs have wider necks ...

i know several really good guitarists with chubby fingers .. !!?? baffles my mind !
 
#68
I got pretty good at guitar by playing what I thought Tony Iommi was playing on Sabbath records without actually looking up the tabs. Taught me how to bar strings, play power chords, do gnarly bends and hammer ons, and a lot more without learning whole guitar chords first. Palm-muting is just as important for guitar as muting is for bass.
 
#76
The only guitar I can play is my Fender acoustic bass strung with piccolo strings tuned standard 440. I can actually do guitar stuff, but with all the spacing that all us bass players crave...on a regular guitar....ummmm...nah...
God knows I've tried but I'm just not cut from that cloth.
 
#79
Guitar's an endless source of fun, once you get the knack. Stick with it and it WILL happen.

The brain craves cords and will wrestle relentlessly with the digits to gain mastery - very similar with bass. It's a bit of a stretch, takes time but, one day, out of the blue, your brain will win the battle and heavenly music will burst like sunshine out of your hands. And you'll never look back. :)
 
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#80
I play guitar. I started out. Now, I kept both going together with keyboards, and the bedroom musician effect, with doing everything of my own (Mike Oldfield effect). Overdubs, dubs and layers. No one came around to my place to play. Now, I've since 10-15 years back made bass my primary instrument, and lo and behold, I've become much better at guitar as a fringe benefit effect. Knowing what not to play. Not being that PIA guitard. And the main thing is, that's as I grow older, a few things makes it more advantageous to be the bass player:

1. You get fatter fingers. Ask anyone married, what happens to their wedding ring...it is a little tighter isn't it? All guitar necks but classical guitar, are way too narrow for me by now.
2. You keep track of one note at a time basically.
3. Sight has gone to shite, so you don't have to watch razor sharp at 6 thin strings all of the time. 4 thick big long fat ones, I can see the difference between.
4. Hearing, I don't hear the top end anymore, losing any judgement on the treble control. Bass and low frequency will take time before it disappears.
5. Hassle. On guitar, I just had to plug into this or that, and MY pedalboard, and MY amp, and MY gear, lots of cables. Had to use heavy tube amps, and no lightweight speakers.
6. On bass, I have ONE CABLE and a decent amp. Turn up, plug it in, turn it on, tune up and play. Very very ergonomic.
7. Yes I am getting more spolied, complacent, and wants to cruise just comfortable these days. Then bass is a perfect vehicle.
8. Some people - actually - have said that I am a better bassist than guitarist, for ages. On guitar, it's more angular, naff, than on bass. On bass, everything seems to flow more effortlessly without me woodshedding or honing anything specific.
9. Headless basses takes up as much space as a regular headstocked guitar. Suits me just fine. No, I don't use 6 string basses to compensate my shortcomings...:)
10. The main thing, culprit, was that when hearing regionally and locally bands that played covers and jammed, I thought when hearing the other bassists "oh well, but the tune doesn't go like that" even more so than the other instruments playing.
11. When I play with some unknown, they say that it's preferable to have the bassist actually know a tune by heart, and keep it down, and in the pocket, that one that plays flamboyantly and wants to show off and impress all of the time and knowing any tune. I e being virtuosic. Leave that to the gtrds who can cruise on top and even "sit out the middle eight" which they've never learned anyway.
12. Which make bass a way more social instrument than guitar. You can sit alone and w*nk away on you guitar in your bedroom, but bass needs a band to be played in. Drums, gtr, keys, all the rest. Must get out and play with someone. This is just as important.
 
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