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What do you dislike/hate about playing our beloved instrument?

im not sayin the other instruments arent important but bass is kind of "the glue" to say, that keeps it together
1. it holds down the low end and gives it that kick
2. it helps keep beat and tempo
3. it gives that bass that the guitarist cant get
i just think bass is a very important part in the band
and possibly one of the most important parts of it
 
1.) It's harder for me to sing and play bass than guitar.

2.) Cost. It's like car vs. dumptruck. Everything costs more. I'm in the market for some cabs, and my guitarist just found out how much I'm looking to spend ($400-$500) and told me I was insane. Why? He then informed me that another 412 Marshal extension for him is like $100. :/
 
1.) It's harder for me to sing and play bass than guitar.

2.) Cost. It's like car vs. dumptruck. Everything costs more. I'm in the market for some cabs, and my guitarist just found out how much I'm looking to spend ($400-$500) and told me I was insane. Why? He then informed me that another 412 Marshal extension for him is like $100. :/


it is like that due to demand. the demand for guitar stuff is more so they make more supply. got some info from a guitar center rep. if more people played bass then the demand for its supplies would go up and the price would drop more.
 
getting treated like a dogsbody in bands, your musicianship unappreciated, and being expected to put up with crap drummers.
getting buried in the mix in studio recordings.

the "Jason Newsted syndrome", if you like.

all the reasons i left my last band. i worked my ass off to make an album with them, and i brought them from nothing to actually sounding good. they were very 80's glam and i made them more 80 glam metal lol. people actually liked the music MUCH more after i joined and i got them many more shows than they ever had. but then came recording time and i was no where. i wrote half the material (lyrics and parts) and most of my stuff i worked really hard to make some extreme funky bass lines. i hate rock ='d open "E". one song i wrote for a small movie deal i got us, and i had a very maiden bass line that EVERYONE loved and even the guitarist/ singer (who was cool but a push over to the drummer; 3 piece), but it ended up so drowned and mixed out i just walked. now they are doing squat HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAHA!

who wants to make a double bass and drums/keys only project, contact me.
 
Everything is more expensive (instruments, strings, amps) when compared to guitar;
You need more power to be heard;
Wrong notes and bad timing are more noticeable on the bass;
Playing guitar and singing is easier than playing bass and singing;
The load in/out when bringing an amp is necessary;
You usually can't be heard onstage;
Many soundmen are simply unable to make the bass sound good (live) in the mix;many others just don't bother trying;
Making a bass sound good in the mix can be very hard in some places;
I find my fellow bassists to be more prone to being gear snobs.
 
Our acoustic guitar player respects the bass, he is lost without it, and if I screw up the changes, he notices, everytime, and it screws him up too. So I try hard not to. :) Our electric player has no respect for bass, at least none that he demonstrates - he teases me for all the "one finger chords" and just laughs when I explain that when I play chords, I may play the notes with one finger at a time, but my chords are *six* finger chords (two on the right hand and four on the left). :) I know he's just teasing me because I let it get to me though, but I still always try to sting him back because I can't back down from a challenge I can win. He also doesn't listen to the rest of the band, or himself apparently, as he plays off-key notes all the time when he "improvises."

What do I dislike or hate about bass?

- expensive wattage and tone.
- lack of understanding from others about bass amplification and sound reinforcement, I get tired of explaining and I get the impression that they think I am making excuses for expensive gear and high-wattage amps to overcompensate for not being a guitar player. :rollno:
- not as portable or as pleasurable played solo as guitar - eg. no one sits around a campfire on a beach or in the woods playing their Fender P bass.

I don't consider bass strings to be expensive, considering how infrequently they need to be changed compared to guitar strings.
 
- expensive wattage and tone.
- lack of understanding from others about bass amplification and sound reinforcement, I get tired of explaining and I get the impression that they think I am making excuses for expensive gear and high-wattage amps to overcompensate for not being a guitar player.
- not as portable or as pleasurable played solo as guitar - eg. no one sits around a campfire on a beach or in the woods playing their Fender P bass.

My current band's drummer asked me not to lug my 215 for our last show because it was too heavy (I never asked him to help me move it mind you). I almost had to resort to a puppet show in order to explain that the reason I was needing that big heavy piece of equipement was because he couldn't turn down his pathetic drumming.