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How have you changed as a bass player?

#24
After 20-odd years on bandstands large and small, and 10-odd years since I walked away from gigging, a few things come to mind.

I can buy this, that, or the other, and in a few minutes, I will sound like me.
I prefer 34" fives with nickel roundwounds, prefer 500w and up amps (I am the orginal 'big amp only turned up to 3' guy), and generally prefer single 15's or 12's to 2-10's or 4-10's. That alone puts me in a certain neighborhood tone-wise, but, what they hey, it's ME.

I play with my fingers or a pick, but I can't slap/pop at gunpoint. Oh well . . . .

I can make a cheap bass sound good, I can make a great bass sound great, but WITHOUT the right amp, I'm screwed. Cats 'round here talk, talk, talk about this or that bass, those strings, that wood, those pickups, or . . . they talk about this or that amp, but rarely the two together. Let me put an Alembic through a bum amp and a Squier through a great amp, and I'll take the latter case EVERY time. I've been there, done that. In my experience, a just OK bass through a great amp ALWAYS beats a big-dollar axe through a just OK amp.

Money can't buy taste, or tone, or time. How many times have I seen a guy with a 10 grand plus rig that couldn't hit his plate with his fork, only to leave and go to another club and find some left-for-dead 60's bass covered in stickers and cigarette burns with rusty strings into an amp that was almost shooting sparks out the top . . . . and that guy RULED. I bought two Alembic fives and I wasn't even on the same planet with Jimmy Johnson. Good luck with that 28-fret Alain Caron fretless FBass Sig axe . . . . .

I consider it a bad day if I don't learn SOMETHING. Which is why I am SO grateful that industry professionals like Mssr's Field, Genzler, Sadowsky and others lean in and try their best to explain and point our heads in the right direction, and all the builders and techs. This is where TB is irreplaceable for me. Not to mention the playing and playing-in-the-band advice from players way past my experience and education.

It's a well-used saying, but as much as I admire technique monsters, for me, less is ALWAYS more. I admire the hell out of Geddy Lee or Jeff Berlin or so many others, but I love McCartney, Sting, and all the recording bassists I cut my teeth on in the 60's and 70's, that's where I hear me. Duck Dunn, David Hood, Joe Osborne, Carol Kaye, James Jamerson, all those kinds of guys speak deeply to me. I'm utterly convinced how many notes will never replace the right notes.

At 67 and Old Enough to Know Better. . . . my day and my music has passed, I am now my parents when I laughed at their Perry Como and Dean Martin records while I was the hot-s**t hip guy with his Beatles and Zeppelin. It is time for new rats to run the race, which is as it should be. But when it comes to bass playing, I shall always remain a work in progress.
 
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#28
How have you changed as a bass player?
then: i used to like a few things, a few ways --- i was narrowing the playing field, trying to keep up. :wideyed:

now: i like a lot of things, in many ways --- i'm trying to expand the playing field, trying to keep up. :laugh:


joke number 37: an old bull and a young bull come over a hill and spot a gathering of heifers taking a drink from a stream down below. the young bull says "why don't we run down there and.........." :D
 
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#30
I'm still a major hack, but, I have learned some music theory and I can find the key of a song fairly quickly now and recognize chord progressions better. TBH, I don't practice a much as I used to (lazy) but, I want to rectify that and learn more songs. I also want to sight read as well. Always stops and starts so I never progres beyong beginner stage with my reading.
 
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#32
Two big things for me. First, I went from playing exclusively with a pick to fingers. What a big but important change that was. The other significant change is that I've learned to read standard music notation and along with that, a much better understanding of theory. Lots of other stuff, too, like not trying to play so many notes, but these two are the most significant changes for me.
 
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#33
-I am not as fast and had some skills atrophy because...
-...I play another instrument and bass doesn't get as much time as it used to.
-My playing is more tasteful.
-I used to be annoyed by the less is more speech but I appreciate it and agree now.
-I have not bought a new-to-me bass in 10 years. I used to buy and sell quite a bit but have what I need.
-I am far more open to genres I would have dismissed in my youngest years.
 
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#34
I actually became a bass player 30 years after being good at playing bass.
  • I started as very much a singer who picked up bass on the side. Around 1990.
  • Then I had the amazing opportunity to play early on with a guitar player who, for whatever reason, was really into how bass could be more of a sometimes out front of the mix instrument. Which challenged me a lot initially.
  • But stylistically, I long went back to a very felt not heard support role, again mainly singing/songwriting.
  • Then the singer/songwriter role, long story short, got me pushed into playing other instruments, guitar, keys. Usually the simple issue of me writing songs in obscure niches and being able to find bass players up for them. From about 2003 to 2020. I still did some fill in stuff and studio stuff on bass, so it wasn't like a total break.
  • Then during the start of Covid, in my isolation, I started reevaluating. In part, I had the spare time to really take stock of my home studio (the disorganized pile of instruments that it was). I realized I LOVE Bass. I think I had always thought of myself as a singer and multiinstrumentalist. Now I tell people I am a singer and bass player, who can play some other instruments.
 
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#36
I’ve been playing since 1988. All of what you said applies to me as well. I never stop trying to improve. Even in the last two years or so, during the lockdown periods I went completely back to fundamentals and focused on the groove, the song, less on fills or jumping out, and I’m a happier player for it.
 
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#38
I can stand to listen to things I record during practises, and hear them each day for a week without hating it after three days. It's got good enough to be fun, and someone who heard it said 'impressed', not a word people say when they're just trying to be polite to a person they know. It never felt natural when I heard my own efforts before, it does now.


Also, a lot more bass, a lot less overdrive! Harder sound, more lively by far.
 
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#40
In my old age, my musical concerns have narrowed to placement and duration: Where I play the note, and how long I hold it.

Edit: The reason I mention it might be because I am completely comfortable about what I'm doing. I've been playing with Link Removed since 2015 (minus 2020), and they have sort of become family. With all that entails: We all know how to make each other laugh. We all know how to push each other's buttons. And--the important part--we all know how lucky we are to be in this situation. We're not gonna fire the drummer. We all know our roles. And we're all busy just about every weekend (We take February off...always glad to split for a while, always glad to get back together.)
 
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