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How has your bass worn your body?

St Drogo

St Drogo

Oct 9, 2009
1,221
24
Netherlands
mtechoband.com
#1
We always hear about basses worn by our playing. keeping ones arm here has worn out my finish there and somesuch. How about the other way around?

So, apart from calluses, how has playing bass in general (or playing one particular model for years) worn your body? Are you unable to hold your wrist in a certain angle anymore? Is the skin on your lower arm worn thin because of years of hanging out close with mr. nitrocellulose? Do your fingertips have certain dents in them in exactly the places where they hit the pickups? Are you about a metre-and-a-half tall because you started playing a heavy T-40 while young and still growing?

If it's not to uncomfortable, tell us!
 
#2
Hmmm interesting topic.

I'm a finger player and when I strum chords I use use the tops of my fingernails to strike the strings. So my skin on the cuticles are always thrashed and very built up thick, and my fingernails growout kinda wavy. Gross, I know.

The other one would be I was leaping around at a gig and flew backwards off a stage, back around '01/'02, and landed on my ankle. Twisted it and it really hurt, but didn't break anything. Every now and then I feel it, especially if I sit too long with my legs at goofy angles.
 
#5
Billy Sheehan has pointed out in an interview on youtube that he spent so much time playing his basses that his shoulder has an indent from the strap pulling down for all those years, and his ribcage on his right side is flattened from having his basses played so tightly against his body.

As for me...I have a weird muscle that bulges out of my inner wrist when I flex...I think from repetitive 3 finger tremoloing...either that or something else I do in my off time...
 
#7
My fingers are all "swollen" I guess you could say. The pinky on my left hand is bigger than my right and so are a lot of my other fingers.

Also, whenever I play shows my bass always ends up slamming into my right hip alot, due to the way I move around, so I almost constantly have a giant bruise there. Feels bad man.
 
#8
I'm 60 years old and have been playing bass for over 40 years. Bass playing has done 0...zero...in terms of wear to my body, wrists, hands, arms, back, etc...

I broke my left wrist, twice, in my early 20's, about a year apart. After my wrist healed for the 2nd time I found it harder to play guitar. I have less grip in my left wrist now, so chording is sometimes a bit painful, but I manage...

...but playing bass requires different hand positions, more relaxed, at least in my experience. I've never had issues playing bass, and I still haul my full sized rig to gigs.
 
#9
With my genetic blood clotting condition, I have to take blood thinners and have my blood checked to keep it in balance once every two to three weeks. With bass playing, the only finger not calloused up to the point a lance cannot be used to get a few drops of blood for the checker machine is my right pinky.

I also have an extra cervical vertebrae and my lowest two lumbar vertebrae are congenitally fused. This plays hell with my shoulder with a strap for any extended period of time, even for a light bass.
 
#13
I sometimes have to switch to the right shoulder with my strap and play "side saddle" when it gets late in the day. Having a stool on stage helps relieve the left shoulder tension too. Since the majority of my bass playing happens in springtime (playing acoustic guitar more often the rest of the year), my callouses need to build up (better this year than last, though, which means I'm playing MORE!)
 
#16
Because of the combination of a disability at birth as well as a non-cancerous tumor found in 3 vertebrae when I was 21 I've taken the Ergonomic side of the basses I've played since then very seriously (about 2 months after my back surgery I played a 3+ hour set with my six-string, and even using a Comfort Strapp I couldn't more my back or lift my left arm for 36 hours after). So I'm very careful with the weight of a bass, how it hangs when in playing position and other physical aspects and because of this beyond the typical callouses one gets from fretting bass strings my basses haven't done anything to my body.
 
#18
When I play I tend to crook myself over the bass like all the cool kids ,aaand I also have the indentation on my thumb from the pickups , all my fingers on my right hand can't be straight , my left hand is awesomely strong even though i broke my arm about 5 years ago ....mmmmm what else is there?

O yeah my shoulder aches everyday!
 
#20
My left forearm is noticeably bigger than my right if I flex the muscle. I have a few shirts that have holes worn into them on the left shoulder from my strap too. No real issues or injuries though. I learned a long time ago that it might look cool to wear your bass way down low, but wearing it up high makes the upper reg a lot easier to play and won't give you tendonitis or Carpal Tunnel nearly as easily.
 

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