Did you convert from the guitar?

I didn't 'convert' as such, but I started guitar before I started bass.

 

I am in the same boat as Moley...I started playing guitar first, learned my way around the keyboards, added some classical guitar and lute, and THEN I picked up the bass. So I don't think that I am a convert...just one who has come to understand and appreciate what a well written and performed bass line can do for a song.

 

I started on bass and never learned any other instrument, except vocals, and maybe a few metal songs on guitar. I can also play a simple rhythm on drums, but don't ask me to hit that cymbal on time, though!!!

 

I started on bass. As long as I can remember when I listen to music the bass is what my ears tuned into. Even as a 8 or 9 year old. My dad got me my first bass in 1973 when I was 12. I guess I was born a bass player. Is that possible?

 

I've played drums for 33 years. I don't think I'll ever be a "convert", although I haven't put in any serious shedding on the kit for about a year.

 

Before the guitar, I took 5 years of accordian lessons. Don't ask. I played guitar for several years (and still do on some occasions), but when I picked up my first bass (age 19), there was no looking back. I think playing as many instruments as you can is great in helping you understand music theory.

 

dont feel bad about neglecting the guitar...you should feel bad if you neglect MUSIC.

You're on the right track - you're becoming a better musician for it.

Maybe one day you can be like me and play all the instruments on your demo

oh, and to answer the question - I had some piano lessons, then I picked up guitar. Since everyone around me was playing guitar, I switched to bass (6 mos. after I started guitar) and I got all the work

 

I played bass first, and now I play some rhythm guitar too.

 

I played guitar for a little longer than 20 years before I ever touched a bass. I was the rhythm guitarist in a band for quite awhile too. I just kind of got burned out on it and always having to compete for my position with a bazillion people who thought they could play guitar also. After seeing my band desperate for a bass player for the second time in 6 months, I volunteered to give it a try. Little did I know what I was in for. Once I did that first gig and heard that thunder I could produce, I never looked back. My guitar is hanging on the wall with dead strings, a dead battery and an inch of dust on it...

 

I started out on guitar, and I still play. I like the range of possibilities of guitars, acoustic and electric. I'm just so much more intrigued by the bass, and the way I can contribute to making music with it. People look at the bass as a simplfied guitar, but once you get into it, it becomes a wholely different monster.

 

I started practicing on an acoustic guitar before buying a bass. Not sure if that counts or not...

 

I played Guitar for 10 years or so. Some friends wanted to put a band together so i said that I would play bass. (I was the only one who had the cash to go and buy one) Because I was the lest talented on guitar. That was just about 1 year ago, now my G&L L500 sits in my room with dust and lame strings. I now find the guitar to not be as much fun as the bass so I play the bass(to feel the thunder is insane.)

 

I played sax in grade school (4th grade) till I was old enough for my folks to let me learn bass too. I would've started on URB but my school didn't do strings.

I started guitar 3 years after bass and thou I'm a bassist, I've gigged with my guitar a few times for bands in a pinch. My music time averages about 80% bass, 15% guitar and 5% piano

 

I played electric and classical guitar before I started bass.

 

I played guitar for 13 years before becoming "reformed".



My major in college was music, my first instrument was classical guitar, then switched to jazz. I gigged a good bit as a guitarist, last band I was in was all instrumental, doing some original stuff, covers by Eric Johnson, Allan Holdsworth (yes, I actually could play that stuff! ), all of the Rush instrumentals and some odd things we could find that were somewhere on the cusp between rock, jazz, & blues.

One night, I realized that the whole reason I started was the reaction I had to Geddy Lee's playing. I sold my guitar amps and most of my guitars (kept a Strat, a custom made that has a LOT of sentimental value, and my classical guitar), bought a great bass and decent amp and never looked back.

I still play around with my guitars, and keep them in "fighting trim" out of respect to them, but I am a bassist.

 

Yup. I started on the guitar in 1974, then picked up the bass in 1979.

I don't remember if I instinctively hummed bass lines to songs before I started learning bass, or if playing bass led me to start doing that. If the former, it's evidence that I was naturally inclined to play bass.

 

sure did!

 

Am I the only one who played BASS first?

 

Yep, played guitar for a few years before getting a bass, I made the switch right around the same time I started getting serious about music... or I started getting serious about the same time I made the switch, not sure which.

Bought the bass as something else to mess around with as a hobby, 10 weeks later I was a gigging bassist. As someone else said, it's great to be so in demand rather than fighting through auditions.