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How did you pick up bass stories?

Lanzy

Lanzy

Guest
Dec 5, 2014
242
32
#1
Hi all, I picked up bass within this year, and I was wondering if any of you had good stories about how you began playing bass. Heres mine:

last year/ 2 years ago I was filling in for a baseball team, and got to lacrosse practice late that day. I was all about sports and never once thought about taking up an instrument seriously. Of course, at lacrosse practice, this kid (My teammate) decided to hit me in the head as hard as he could with his lacrosse stick. He dented my new helmet and I was out for 11 weeks. I decided to play hockey the next season, (My first year) and I got hit so hard i did a flip and landed on my head. I was out for 13 or 14 weeks and decided it was time to forget contact sports and find a new hobby. I always liked how the bass sounded, and was told that Joe, who was the bassist for the middle school orchestra last year, was going to a private school. I was sold on bass and I've been working on it since.

Thats my story, sorry for the grammar, it was typed fast in an email to a friend ^^
 
#8
I'd thought about buying and trying bass for years. Then one night I was apparently blackout drunk and also apparently low-balled a seller and wound up a week later with my wife answering the doorbell, a UPS driver saying, "Boy, you must have bought something expensive because this one requires a signature!" and here we are.
 
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#9
dickseacup said:
I'd thought about buying and trying bass for years. Then one night I was apparently blackout drunk and also apparently low-balled a seller and wound up a week later with my wife answering the doorbell, a UPS driver saying, "Boy, you must have bought something expensive because this one requires a signature!" and here we are.
Click to expand...

Now aren't you glad you got drunk? xD
 
#10
I started off getting my first guitar out of a landfill.Literally my dad went to take our trash off one day a someone had threw an acoustic guitar out in the landfill.He grabbed it thinking I might want it cause I had been asking for one.

Friend of his came over cleaned it up and put strings one it.Surprisingly it playing fine.

His friend showed me a few chords and my next door neighbor/best friend at the time played guitar and showed me alot more.

Fast forward about 10yrs and my band that I was playing in had broke up due to me and my roommate drummer having it out.

After that I just kinda went and jammed with ppl for a while.I got tired of showing up somewhere and me and 3 other guys all playing guitar trying to out ego each other.

So I went and picked up a bass.Been playing ever since.
 
#11
hopsbb said:
I started off getting my first guitar out of a landfill.Literally my dad went to take our trash off one day a someone had threw an acoustic guitar out in the landfill.He grabbed it thinking I might want it cause I had been asking for one.

Friend of his came over cleaned it up and put strings one it.Surprisingly it playing fine.

His friend showed me a few chords and my next door neighbor/best friend at the time played guitar and showed me alot more.

Fast forward about 10yrs and my band that I was playing in had broke up due to me and my roommate drummer having it out.

After that I just kinda went and jammed with ppl for a while.I got tired of showing up somewhere and me and 3 other guys all playing guitar trying to out ego each other.

So I went and picked up a bass.Been playing ever since.
Click to expand...

Nice, seeking alt roots. I got my only bass for $5 off the internet due to the gift cards we had....put new strings on it it sounds great, close to a mim standard p bass but lighter and not as rich
 
#12
I played various wind instruments in high school and then played nothing till I was about 27. One day at my buddies house I picked up his Hofner violin bass and noodled around not having any idea what I was doing, but I knew I liked it. Later that day I went to GC and bought a Dean acoustic. 30 plus bass purchases, returns, sales, and trades later and I have a couple of keepers and I'm a somewhat competent bass player.
 
#13
Three of us cut class one day and went to my friends house, we jammed all afternoon on bass, drums, piano and guitar. I liked playing bass the best even though I didn't know what I was doing, my dad got me my first bass for my birthday. Almost twenty years on and I still love it. Sometimes cutting class is for the best.
 
#15
Whether this is a good story or not is not may call :) ....

At 15, my brother played drums in a band. Interestingly enough, James Lomenzo (who we all know), and Steve Augeri (who was the very first Steve Perry replacement), were also in that band. They were my first real live musical influences. I had to learn to play guitar or bass! Didn't matter. Steve used to leave his guitar in my house, a beautiful black strat, and not lock the case. I played it every chance I got, having learned 2 bar chords, Deuce, She, and Firehouse. James's bass was never left behind... or if I remember correctly, when he was in the band they rehearsed at one of the other guys houses (which they'd allow me to sit in on every now and then). Anyhow, about 2 months into my playing, I had to get my own band together. Had a friend who played bass, and he WOULD leave his bass at my house. The bass sucked. Strings were about an inch off the neck, and at age 15 I simply believed that was the way it was supposed to be. I tried, and tried, but the guitar proved much easier, and much more fun to play.

Fast forward about a decade, I had drifted a bit away from R&R and into theater, and though I still did some recording and played on my own, a friend's band needed a bass player. They asked if I was interested and I figured what the heck. They were a bunch of angels as I really wanted to learn to play with my fingers (as opposed to a pick), and they allowed me to be a sloppy mofo till I got it down. And I did. And we sounded awesome. And I fell in love with the bass. And I sold all my guitars. And bought bass after bass after bass... and got to play gigs I'd never have gotten on guitar :), and yeah, that's pretty much it.

Bass was always my instrument. I wish I had gotten my hand on James' bass, and not that other dudes. Oh hwell.
 
#16
I was fifteen or so. One friend had a drum set, two others had guitars, i thought the bass solo at the beginning of NIB was the awesomest thing I'd ever heard so i got a bass. It's been almost twenty years. I also learned to play drums and did that in quite a few bands, but bass is my first and best instrument.
 
#17
Well, I didn't have a choice. I had been playing trumpet since the fourth grade, so my musical inclinations were there, just not on strings.

My younger brother had been learning guitar, taking lessons for a couple years. He was in high school, and I was in college at the time. I guess he decided that he was ready to start a band, because for my birthday that year, he went to the local guitar shop and put a hundred bucks down on a bass they had there. The bass was on layaway, just waiting for me to pay it off and pick it up, which I did pretty quickly.

I was so excited about it! We had always joked, but it never really occurred to me that I might love playing bass. I was finding it fun, but had no amp. Didn't for awhile. I found myself listening to my favorite albums and playing along on the bass.

With no amp, I had to twist my head to get my ear close to the neck so I could actually hear what I was playing. What a mess! I got an amp, a Peavey TKO combo, and the rest is history. I've been playing now for close to 20 years.
 
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#20
After I got out of Navy boot camp, I went to Memphis for electronics training. The base there was a major aviation training center and had thousands of students. They had a marching band, a drill team, and a choir made up of students. If you belonged to one of those groups, you got out of some unpleasant chores. I had been playing trombone since elementry school and gladly signed up.
One day I went to the rehearsal hall and found a group of 2 guitars, drums, and tenor sax. I got to talking to the leader and he was complaining about not being able to find anyone who played electric bass. Since my only exposure to bass at all was messing around with an upright in high school out of curiousity because my dad played one. I asked if an electric bass was like an upright or a guitar. He explained it and I said I thought I could learn it, so I asked if showed up with an electric bass would he help me learn it and maybe I could be the bass player after I had learned it. He said if I showed up with a bass, I would be the bass player. And so I was.
 

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