Easy - are you a player or a poser? If you are a player, wear it so it's comfortable to play. If you are a poser, wear it so you look cool.
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Strap length. on your chest? or at your knees?
- Thread starter BHester93
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Easy - are you a player or a poser? If you are a player, wear it so it's comfortable to play. If you are a poser, wear it so you look cool.
It's really about how much you really play vs how much you pose in the mirror! Kind of waist-level works for me - too high and I feel "strapped in" and trapped, too low and my wrists take a beating (and I think it looks a bit stoopid!). Comfort through a long gig is paramount...
I wear mine up high. I'm new to bass, but been playing guitar for decades. With guitars, I keep raising the straps higher as I get older.
I wear it pretty low. The bottom of my bass is about to my mid-knee. I used to wear it a bit lower even. I 'm not gonna lie, of course i DID start this way because i thought it looked cool. I was 17 too, so forgive me. But the thing is, because i've played this way for years, well that's how i became comfortable playing it. So now even if i wanted it high, i couldn't. Or at least it would take forever to adapt my playing. Anyway i find that my tremolo picking suffers greatly when i wear it higher. Also, i consider myself fairly proeficient on a technical level so wearing it low hasn't, i feel, hindered me in any way. On the D and G string, reaching up to fret 19th is no problem. If i want to reach it on the E and A (which...why would I want to most days) i still can through the technique of hip/thigh playing (swing your bass to your side and rest it on your thigh/hip for easier access to the higher frets).
And btw, i believe one of the early advocate of low bass slinging and who influenced many others was Paul Simonon (also possibly the coolest looking bassist that ever lived). Both Peter Hook and Simon Gallup copied their stance on him (Hook said so himself). At 17, i was copying mine on Gallup (though this was also the time of grunge and those guys hung it low too...Krist Novoselic anyone? That guy was slinging his WAY low)
And btw, i believe one of the early advocate of low bass slinging and who influenced many others was Paul Simonon (also possibly the coolest looking bassist that ever lived). Both Peter Hook and Simon Gallup copied their stance on him (Hook said so himself). At 17, i was copying mine on Gallup (though this was also the time of grunge and those guys hung it low too...Krist Novoselic anyone? That guy was slinging his WAY low)
Many people (possibly including me) could challenge that.
I mean, why not have both? Be a good player AND look cool. I find this is the ultimate goal to achieve isn't it? i'd think so. Don't you just hate when a musician is good looking, cool looking (btw, the definition of cool differs from one person to the other, as it should too), and also can actually really play? Yes you do. You know why? Cause you wish you were them. I know I do.
I'm glad I started off with my bass in an acceptably low position. I'm tall with long arms and big hands so it all works out for me.
And yes playing good is important of course, but if you can play good and look good too why not do it? I'm sorry but guys with their bass up all high about their chest, with their right arm all cocked and their wrist radically bent to pluck the strings looks hilarious to me. I love Entwistle, but I wouldn't want to look like he does when he plays. You guys need to leave that funny look in the studio!
Another thing is I never, ever play sitting down. I see no point in that at all. When I can't be bothered to stand when I play it is time to hang up the old bass.
And for the uninformed, a poser only looks good. If you look good and can back it up with your playing you are no poser, but jealous people might call you one.
My two cents of course.
Cheers!
MJW
And yes playing good is important of course, but if you can play good and look good too why not do it? I'm sorry but guys with their bass up all high about their chest, with their right arm all cocked and their wrist radically bent to pluck the strings looks hilarious to me. I love Entwistle, but I wouldn't want to look like he does when he plays. You guys need to leave that funny look in the studio!
Another thing is I never, ever play sitting down. I see no point in that at all. When I can't be bothered to stand when I play it is time to hang up the old bass.
And for the uninformed, a poser only looks good. If you look good and can back it up with your playing you are no poser, but jealous people might call you one.
My two cents of course.
Cheers!
MJW
I have my bass around stomach height not low but not to high, where it's comfortable for me...when you wear something to look cool you are doing it to please others which is really uncool I think... Wear it how you want.
I like to play naked, so my bass is usually at my knees... It's only because I'm such a man that my bass needs to be so low.
- Jul 7, 2010
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That's exactly how I feel about people who sling their basses below the groin, hunched forward like Lurch just to reach the strings..
Step 1 - Learn how to play well
Step 2 - Write good memorable basslines that serve the song while also standing out
Step 3 - Get a cool looking bass (tone is secondary, besides you can cheat it with good gear)
Step 4 - Play that thing low OR high(though jacked super high on your chest never looks good....kinda like how if its hanging way past knee level it wouldn't) but make sure to look like a hundred bucks doing it, you ARE doing a show, so not why put one on a little.
Step5 - Bask in worship
Last time i checked, i'm pretty sure we all mainly wanted to make sure we got more girls than the singer or guitarist. Am i right or am i right?
And about enstwistle,he doesn't count, that guy LOOKED cooler than everyone BECAUSE he looked like he didn't even care that he was on stage, in The Who. He could pull it off, (and while having his bass fairly high too). But that's cause he's Enstwistle. You are not. Don't think you can just stand there and play and still be cool. Nah-uh.
Answer your own questions much? I think you do.
I never said you couldn't be both comfortable AND look cool. If you are comfortable and it looks cool that's a bonus. I shouldn't even have to explain this, but a poser wears their bass to look cool without concern for comfort. IMHO.
I don't know about you guys, but I have a hell of a lot better to do with my life than make judgments on people's character by how they wear their instruments.
To avoid CTS or other ailments, I was taught one simple trick for where to have my bass (regardless of cool or not cool). Sit in a chair sitting comfortably (back straight and feet on the floor). Let the bass rest on your leg. Set your strap to that and then stand up. For me, that ends up being just north of my belt buckle when standing. I haven't had tendonitis, or any other back issues of any kind since adopting that idea. I believe Roy Vogt taught me that.
I am thinking noob when I see a bass player hanging the awe to the floor, and I`ve been 98% right
a noob, or some dude in a suit from the biz (who knows nothing about playing any instrument) makes the bass player play it lower cuz it looks "cool."
