• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Do you let people play your bass?

Touch or no-touch

  • Total voters
    449
#161
Anyone that knows me has a fear instilled in their mortal hearts when it comes to even touching my equipment. (take that any direction you wish) I have properly established (by example) that NO ONE is to use or touch my 2 basses or my amp without asking me first or I will forcibly and violently remove them from the area.
but I'm not a total jerk about it, for I give fair warning with first time offenders, and I really have no problem with people trying out my rig, as long as they listen to my safety briefing and I have someone i trust in the room with them.
There are only two people in existance that can just walk up and use my bass rig with out asking, and those two people are Dad and my fiance.
 
#162
Great thread. In my trio, my brother and I occasionally swap (guitar for bass), and there are times I like to noodle away over a jammed bassline...although after about five minutes we swap back because a) he is a much better guitarist than me and more importantly b) I get frustrated that he isn't playing the bassline I'm hearing in my head and willing him to latch on to.

However, if the drummer asks "for a go", he is given very short change and put back in his little box! Whilst I dont use ridiculously expensive gear ( a Cort A4 my current weapon of choice!), there is no way he is using his hammer like fists on my gear. And as for leaving my amp ( an Ashdown ABM 900 ) in the rehearsal room...I only did that once and came back to find myself spending an hour trying to regain the settings I had so laboriously endeavoured to achieve...
 
#164
The basses I have aren't anything that special, so I'm not real protective about them. Glad to let people try them out if they're interested. I'd maybe hesitate to lend my bass to a band that uses blood and guts as stage props, but as long as I can see the guy knows how to handle an instrument I'm okay with it.
 
#166
There are exactly three people who I would let play my bass. And that's it. Otherwise, bring your own. I felt that, technically, I had to vote "yes" for this poll.

One of the joys of playing a 6-string bass is that it rarely, if ever, comes up. Most bassists I know on the scene look confused/lost when they pick one up and have more than 4 strings.
 
#167
If other guys hadn't let me play their basses I would have no idea what I liked. Sure, it's just a bass, but I like others do watch them carefully. I haven't had the problem so much with basses as I have with acoustic guitars when guys with picks start playing and flailing and scratching the top with the pick and grinding the back into their John Deere belt buckle.

I did have one problem with an upright...late night jam at a festival and a young kid was playing my bass. I headed back to my room and told him to bring the bass back when he was done (known him and his Dad for years). It didn't come back that night and when it did the back was a loose from the ribs on one side. Word was he went all Rockabilly and was standing on it. I didn't kill him, but it became a real learning experience for him. Luckily there was luthier I trusted right there who had a pile of clamps and we got it glued back in time for my show that night. Hasn't given me trouble since. The bass or the kid.
 
#172
I usually have no problem letting people play my bass if I either know them or know they are experienced players, but it has always been under my watching hawkeye. At the local café, we have jam nights where some of the local musicians meet and jam with each other. People does not always know each other. At these jams there are usually many guitar players but few on bass, most of them don't bring their instrument, so I let them use my Fender. Knowing most of those people who come to these jams are very experienced musicians, many of them more than me, I have no problems letting them play my instrument. I do love that Fender though, and would be ready to kill anyone who ever hurt it. I love the (mostly) positive comments about my bass, since it's quite special (Factory Special Run) and not your everyday Fender Jazz. I have gotten negative comments about the chrome pickup covers getting in the way of peoples fingers. To that I usually tell them that it's the way the instrument is supposed to be, and I like it that way.
I have on a few occasions let people that don't play music hold the bass at gigs, because they thought "it looked awesome." But that has always been with me standing next to them, and usually not letting them hold the instrument for more than a minute or so.
My band members usually just pick up the instrument without asking, but that's okay, because I know them very good, and I can at any time pick up the guitarists ES-335 and play or slam the drums without asking. If I weren't at the practice room though, they would at least call me to ask if they can use my rig (my bass NEVER stays at the practice room, if I'm not there, no matter what)

By the way, I voted Yes :)
 
#173
I let a fair amount of people play mine if they're interested, but it certainly depends on the situation and their level of intoxication.
The folks I play with are all responsible, and I trust them.
I wouldn't play with them regularly if I didn't.
I don't lend out my basses, though. I would if our guitar player wanted to use one for a recording session or something, I suppose, but it's never come up.

The boldest thing I ever did was let a rather drunk Rush fan hold my Rick 4080, but I was right there to catch it if anything looked amiss.
 
#174
A kid - easily young enough to be my son if I had one - came up to me after a club gig one night and asked if the bass I'd been playing was an Alembic (even pronouncing it correctly and not "Olympic"). I answered in the affirmative and the kid's eyes got REALLY big. He'd never even SEEN one before, only heard the legends.

"You wanna play it?" I asked.

I let the kid play it for a few minutes - not plugged in and under my immediate personal supervision - and I thought he was gonna either plotz, have an accident or keel over on the spot. Apparently it was everything he expected and then some. Kinda like my reaction to playing my first ever Alembic in a music store back in the 1970s. :D

But otherwise NO ONE touches the Alembic. My Jazz I can always fix, but not the Alembic.
 
#175
It depends on the bass for me. My Hondo and Ibanez, sure. My NJ Warlock, depends on the person. If I know they're a great player and take care of their instruments, I'll let them play it. It's the best bass I have, and it's by far my favorite in terms of resonance, feel and tone. I took it to my ex fiancee's one day to jam with her dad, and had it on a stand. She walked by, bumped the stand just a little bit and it fell off. I got 2 mean looking chips on the bottom horns, which are the most commonly chipped parts of a Warlock. It's a real pain in the ass to keep on a stand due to the shape, so I keep it on the wall when I'm at home. Other than that, the bass is in perfect condition, and I rarely bring it out of the house as a result.
 
#180
I do let my guitarists play through my Marshals live because they are the usual type with more talent than money and it gives us a better sound for what we are after.

Loaned out the my one and only fretless when I was 20 and never saw it again. Decided that from then on I would never loan an instrument out ever again.

Trying it out at a gig, nope.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back