• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Things bassist hate, Part 2

#221
Practicing along with a recording and getting your line memorized, then arriving at audition/fill in and being told they use different key/tuning/structure (seriously, moving solos, breaks, adding stuff, ugh)

Being told to turn down until I can't hear myself in the mix and having to play by feel alone

Being told not to use effects ever ("it distracts from the awesome sound of my guitar")

Having to hold the groove for 3+ minutes while drummer and both guitarists go into solo la-la land
-This has gotten more amusing since I got my Ditto Looper. I just loop the groove and then stop playing and fiddle about with stuff (beer, gear, etc). *Never live of course*

Neighbors
-Nobody complains about the guitar amp shredding my ear drums to tatters, but that barely audible bass amp is rattling their picture frames off the walls apparently
 
#222
A lot of these are funny to me because they've never happened to me. I never play with keyboardists, no one tells me what to play or how to play it, and since I don't do covers or pick up bands the songs don't change between practices.

Here are mine:
1.) I hate being a second class citizen in the musical world. A store will have 3/4 of their show floor dedicated to every version and color of guitar you could want, every configuration of combo amp, while bass players get a corner or alcove with a junk selection of beat basses and 4 combo amps.

2.) The fact that a 50w 1x12 guitar combo amp is louder than my 200w bass combo does stink, but when the guitarist are loading their heavy all tube heads and Marshall stacks that my mini-rig of doom can stand up against, I feel better.

3.) Being told that "bass players that use effects just want to be guitarists."

4.) Other musicians that can't play to a click track. Recording 101 man!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Brazilfunk
#225
Band members who Come to gigs unprepared: showing up without necessities like electrical supplies such as a quad box, extension cord, or power strip, or Are always needing to borrow something to get thru a gig; a shoulder strap, cable, tuner, guitar stand, picks, etc.,

I use to be the 'go to guy' in the band for the others who forgot something. But, after it seemed to be evolving into an ongoing thing, one day I decided to say 'no' and suggested a fast trip to GC to get what was needed. That happened a couple of times with the same guitar player and then he
surprisingly got his SH*T together.
 
#226
Octavio said:
2. Learning a song at home in the correct key, then showing up for practice and the guitarist wants to play it in another key.
Click to expand...

+1 Yep, even with a 5 string bass, if you have learned it a certain way, and your hands/muscles have memorized it this way, it's annoying.. Doable, but annoying.

adk teleman said:
I am pretty mellow but here are my peeves:
1) When someone is trying to talk and people are noodling and not listening...gets on my last nerve!
Click to expand...

+5 Ohh.. When you have to provide directions, comments or just say something important and they just won't stop micro-soloing at 11 and never look up.. You have to tap their shoulder for them to realize that they are the only ones not listening..
 
#227
I'll never forget a wedding I played at with an oldies trio. We took our break and while we were eating, the wedding party took the stage playing OUR instruments without even asking us! We found the appropriate breaker and killed the power. After the end of our break, we reset the circuit breaker and continued our playing. Next break we stayed close to the stage.
 
#228
One thing I REALLY hate, aside from all that's been mentioned here, is playing on a stage that resonates with a certain note on the bass, and no matter where or how you place your amp, the whole stage vibrates if you hit the magic note. I also hate being chewed out for wearing ear plugs on stage in a blues band with two extremely loud guitarists.
 
Last edited:
#229
strictlybass_ic said:
Practicing along with a recording and getting your line memorized, then arriving at audition/fill in and being told they use different key/tuning/structure (seriously, moving solos, breaks, adding stuff, ugh)

Being told to turn down until I can't hear myself in the mix and having to play by feel alone

Being told not to use effects ever ("it distracts from the awesome sound of my guitar")

Having to hold the groove for 3+ minutes while drummer and both guitarists go into solo la-la land
-This has gotten more amusing since I got my Ditto Looper. I just loop the groove and then stop playing and fiddle about with stuff (beer, gear, etc). *Never live of course*

Neighbors
-Nobody complains about the guitar amp shredding my ear drums to tatters, but that barely audible bass amp is rattling their picture frames off the walls apparently
Click to expand...
Sitting upstairs while my band plays downstairs listening to the guitard's wife complain about how loudly I'm playing, ( it was the guitard playing a JazzMaster). Then explaining to her that I was standing in front of her and thus it wasn't me playing downstairs.

And not just once or twice.
 
#231
soulman969 said:
Drummers who can't keep the tempo. (The slutty blond smiling at you from the bar will still be here when we break)

Keyboard players who insist on playing conflicting bass lines with their left hand. (That's my turf pal, don't interfere)

To much guitar in the monitor. (I can hear your half stack without it)

Singing an under harmony to the main melody. (try picking those notes out with the bass amp in your ear)
Click to expand...
I used to play with one keyboardist who would steal any cool bass part. And then moan and complain when I would try to liven up an eight note root pump thing.

There are a lot of real cool bass parts out there. Fight for your right to play them!
 
#232
vasilio said:
Guitar player who writes a new song - but only shows me the chords and refuses to sing the melody to it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just play the notes Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Click to expand...
Arranging a tune goes a long way to making it the type of sound people listen to.

Imaging White Room with no Rondo.

Maybe the song doesn't have a melody. World Go Round in Circle. Show me a song that has no melody.
 
Last edited:
#233
Tiny bar/restaurant gigs where I have to lift my headstock to let pass every single person who needs to use the restroom like I'm freakin' Tollbooth Willie. All while playing 3 and a half hours with no setlist, praying that I can recognize the opening guitar lick to every song no matter how many months it's been since we've played it last, and while singing harmony to boot (of course I'm assigned all the low parts, too ;)).

Then I remember that my meal was comped, the Beam & Cokes are bottomless and free, and I go home with some paper in my pocket. I hate all the same BS that you guys do, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kustom_Thunder and Flad
#234
I remembered this thread at my gig tonight. The guitar/singer/BL busted a d string and only brought an acoustic for a spare!?!? Anyway, he plugs into the PA and asks the drummer to go out and listen and the drummer says "Sounds pretty good but probably a little too much bass, you gotta leave some room for Mikey"! I was shocked and was sure to thank him as soon as he was in ear shot!
 
#235
jj4001 said:
Tiny bar/restaurant gigs where I have to lift my headstock to let pass every single person who needs to use the restroom like I'm freakin' Tollbooth Willie. All while playing 3 and a half hours with no setlist, praying that I can recognize the opening guitar lick to every song no matter how many months it's been since we've played it last, and while singing harmony to boot (of course I'm assigned all the low parts, too ;)).

Then I remember that my meal was comped, the Beam & Cokes are bottomless and free, and I go home with some paper in my pocket. I hate all the same BS that you guys do, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Click to expand...
Tell passer bys you're the WC Frau and try to get a quarter or half a buck form each of them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jj4001
#236
When the guitar player only knows three keys, all the blues songs are in E, all the Country songs are in G and all the rock-n-olides are in A. And none of the songs are in the original key.
 
#238
Two more things I need to vent on because they've popped up recently:

Guitar player refusing to acknowledge the importance of an adequate bass cab and expecting me to do a whole TOUR just winging it and hoping there will be a cab for me to use at all of the gigs because he doesn't want to spend the money we've saved up for a van on, you know, an actual van. (And while we're at it, mini-vans and conversion vans are indeed TERRIBLE ideas. But I'm the one who doesn't know what he's talking about even though I'm the one who spent 7 years touring the US and UK.)

Being treated like a dope because I need to actually know what the chords are to play new material as opposed to just banging out a 4/4 beat with two sticks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kustom_Thunder
#239
I like how the band I'm in now had a guitar player that talked us into using band money to buy an old 15 passenger van with band money. Then he put it in his name and a month latter quit the band without reson and it wasn't just that we found out the band had no money what so ever becuse he had spent it all on god knows what. And I'm the idiot that wanted to open a bank acount for the bad
 
#240
We got a new drummer earlier this year. Tons of experience and steady as a steam train, but mostly experience from jazz rock and softer music genres that the blues/bluesrock/poprock/classic rock we play. I really want this guy to stay in the band, and we generally get along fine. He really contributes with his experience positively.

BUT: Being a cover band, we play a lot of different songs, some where there is obviously some grit to the original bass line. So I use my fuzz/overdrive etc. to obtain that fatness I think is needed for that particular song. Then he kicks in "Is that some OVERDRIVE I hear on the bass?! No, no, no. Never! It is always best to have a clean, fat jazz bass sound. Bridge pickup kind!" Now, I play PJ type basses mostly, and I CAN use that J pickup, but honestly, I prefer to suit the tone of my bass to the song. He never complains when I play clean, even when I only use the P pickup with the tone knob rolled down on some songs, but his allergy to overdrive drives me nuts... It's like me saying "NEVER play those cymbals, I want a CLEAN rhythm with bass drum, snare and a hi-hat. And keep it closed most of the time." I don't know how I can make him see that different songs need different sounds and that sometimes overdrive just works on bass, too.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back