Reasons To Be A Bassist

[el murdoque]

Reasons to be a bassist:

1. You get to play the bass.

 

[SteveHeissner]

1. Chicks
2. Beer
3. The need to get vaccinated yearly
4. The opportunity to play great (or less than great) music and have a blast doing it.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Chicks!

.....pretty much leave me alone 'cuz I'm a bass player.

Riis

 

[FretNoMore]

Chicks!

.....pretty much leave me alone 'cuz I'm a bass player.

Riis

At my age that is no longer much of a problem but I do agree it's actually a bonus. Especially drunk ladies at gigs, I don't mind at all if they all flock to the singer or guitarist.

 

[Zooberwerx]

At my age that is no longer much of a problem but I do agree it's actually a bonus. Especially drunk ladies at gigs, I don't mind at all if they all flock to the singer or guitarist.

We're all 50 and above...I'm 56. If I really want to go the distance with an admirer...my age bracket, of course...I just use my smartphone to show her my 401K / pension balance.

Riis

 

[danosix]

1. No need for picks (unless you use picks)
2. better finger muscles.
3. less strings to worry about( 4 strings)
4. Tabs are easier.
5. you recieve more credit because some people think bass us harder.
there is alit more stuff but my mind just went blank.

To avoid being a guitar player.
To avoid being a drummer.
To avoid being a front-man.
Cause (most of us) can't be a keyboard player.
You get to make jokes about: GPs, Ds, FMs and KBs - which you couldn't otherwise make.

If you're looking for a serious answer, I don't think there is one.
You tend play the instrument you:
a. gravitate to (like the: sound, function, feel, aesthetic of).
b. started on.
c. can play well enough to pass for a musician on.
Or at least that's how many of us GET here - I know I'm personally a better musician and guitar player now than many people I know who remained 6 stringers, but I along with many TBer (and other BPs not on TB) got given the bass because we were the least "advanced" guitar players in our first bands.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

Natural progression:
During the day I work for an agency that provides services and assistance to mentally challenged adults.
At night I play bass with guitar players and drummers.

 

[Ramleg85]

I've been balding for a while now. I can rock a shaved head with fake oakleys and a ugly dress type shirt with super colorful vibrant peppers all over it and it all works so well.

 

[bassbully]

Because hauling drums, setting them up, tearing them back down and hauling them home again gets old after forty years or so...






Oh, and it's fun and makes me a better drummer.

Yea I always felt bad for drummers. They have so much large gear to haul and setup. I always try to help drummers I have played with load in and out.

 

[orange joe]

Because not matter what I've always had a bass in my life.Through thick and thin,ex girl friends,old friends and new.Playing the bass has been one of the few things in my life that has and continues to bring me constant and renewing joy into my life.I consider myself very fortunate to be able to play the bass in a way that others can see the joy as well

 

[Slevage]

1. No need for picks (unless you use picks)
2. better finger muscles.
3. less strings to worry about( 4 strings)
4. Tabs are easier.
5. you recieve more credit because some people think bass us harder.
there is alit more stuff but my mind just went blank.

I cut the tabs off my basses when I buy them.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

Because you get to drive the bus and most people in the audience don't even know you're doing it.

There it is. As Garry Tallent said, "Nobody knows what I'm doing until I stop doing it."

 

[Moosehead1966]

CAUSE I LIKE TA SLAP DA BASS! No, kidding.. I play bass because I like setting the groove and like the fact that bass players generally are in demand. Marc

 

[danosix]

Yea I always felt bad for drummers. They have so much large gear to haul and setup. I always try to help drummers I have played with load in and out.

Well, there gear is generally a good deal LIGHTER than the big parts of our rigs when going for equivalent volumes... An SVT HEAD alone will weigh as much as most of the drummers I've played with.
But I do try to help them as set up and take-down time is a good deal longer with all those bits to put together.

 

[bassbully]

Well, there gear is generally a good deal LIGHTER than the big parts of our rigs when going for equivalent volumes... An SVT HEAD alone will weigh as much as most of the drummers I've played with.
But I do try to help them as set up and take-down time is a good deal longer with all those bits to put together.

The trick is to not use that heavy old SVT, Peavey gear. We have come a long way as bass players with gear. Class D amps and Neo cabs get it done IMO. Drummers gear can be light to a degree but the hardware is not and the amount of pieces makes it a job.

 

[JIO]

The trick is to not use that heavy old SVT, Peavey gear. We have come a long way as bass players with gear. Class D amps and Neo cabs get it done IMO. Drummers gear can be light to a degree but the hardware is not and the amount of pieces makes it a job.

I also feel for drummers and all their kit - better being a bass player in this regard.

 

[danosix]

The trick is to not use that heavy old SVT, Peavey gear. We have come a long way as bass players with gear. Class D amps and Neo cabs get it done IMO. Drummers gear can be light to a degree but the hardware is not and the amount of pieces makes it a job.

Well, like I said, I do help too. And I don't use either SVTs or Peavey - just chose them as a perfect example (and many do still) - but even a neo 15 cab will still weight as much as most modern kits (they've gotten lighter too with quality birch and more efficiently designed hardware - and of course memory hardware makes the actual assembly a whole lot easier than it once was.
My point wasn't don't help (I always do), but just don't feel TOO bad, you still likely have the single largest, heaviest piece of equipment in the band (unless the singer's still draggin around a similar era Peavey rig).
Class D is nice - so is NEO - but they also don't sound the same (note I didn't say "not as good") and if you want a particular sound sometimes you have to go the other way - and for many of us the good sounding Class D and NEO stuff is simply out of our budgets when we have perfectly serviceable "old-style" stuff.

 

[bassbully]

Well, like I said, I do help too. And I don't use either SVTs or Peavey - just chose them as a perfect example (and many do still) - but even a neo 15 cab will still weight as much as most modern kits (they've gotten lighter too with quality birch and more efficiently designed hardware - and of course memory hardware makes the actual assembly a whole lot easier than it once was.
My point wasn't don't help (I always do), but just don't feel TOO bad, you still likely have the single largest, heaviest piece of equipment in the band (unless the singer's still draggin around a similar era Peavey rig).
Class D is nice - so is NEO - but they also don't sound the same (note I didn't say "not as good") and if you want a particular sound sometimes you have to go the other way - and for many of us the good sounding Class D and NEO stuff is simply out of our budgets when we have perfectly serviceable "old-style" stuff.

I hear you. I travel light and load in and out is very quick. Our drummer is always last to load out.

 

[ac11367]

I love the vast sonic space that is available to my bass line compositions, being in a band with only one guitarist and no keyboardist.

 

[Big Hoss]

Because we like to play an instrument with out put measured on the Richter scale...