A lot of people seem to be posting this, and they all seem to be guitar players. The investment I'd recommend: a boomerang (or other looping device). It's awesome, and it allows you to lay down a bass line and some chords and then just let that play and throw down some sweet melodies...but even before I had that I never had that problem, so here's a solution: don't approach it (when playing by yourself) like a guitar. Don't go for chords or shred, just play the bass. I can see playing basslines as boring (as that is mostly root notes anyway), but to me playing by yourself isn't just practicing. Have fun improvising--to me its infinitely more fun on the bass. And always, if what you're playing bores you then step up the difficulty level. Challenge always increases interest.
Let's analyze the cost of rigs for the metal band I'm in:
Me - $900 (what you see in my sig, minus the 4x10 but plus the Eden D210T I'm getting...certainly not a high end rig but it works)
Guitar 1 - $1200 (or so, a Peavey XXL Head into a Mesa 2x12)
Guitar 2 - $1200 (or so, same head into a Vader 2x12)
Drums - $2400 (and he got this DW kit quoted to him for that much at a guitar center when it was really worth $3500...but he still go it for the quoted price)
As far as instruments go, I hear ya (but only slightly) IMO higher end basses cost more than guitars, but on the lower end of the spectrum (even Schecter, which is more middle range) the guitars are more expensive. One of the guitar players in said band has a Schecter Hellraiser 7-String which ran him 700-800...their highest-end 6 String (Stiletto Studio)? $650 (or something like that)
This mystifies me. I LOVE my live sound. I typically LOVE other bassists' live sounds too. Either your equipment is crap or you just haven't spent enough time with your eq, because to me this doesn't seem that hard. What I do hate about playing live (mentioned earlier) is the constant volume wars w/ guitarists. But recently I realized what this problem stems from-having two guitarists in a band. They don't seem to realize that there's two of them and one of you...until you point it out to them, and in my experience they realize that. Recommend to them (and everyone in a small electric ensemble situation, really) to have two channels: one for lead and one for everything else. All three of us in one of the bands I'm in do this (I use my overdrive as a solo boost) and it works really well. Really well.
I hate three things about playing bass:
-the above (volume wars)
-Bands where when you join they simply play there stuff and expect you to just look at their fretboard and play the root of the chord in whatever rhythm they're playing. It's painful as a bass player because you just wind up plugging away on the root and making tenative attempts to venture out because you don't know the exact key the song's in.
-People that think the bass is too high in the mix on recorded stuff. This *almost* never happens, so I was really mad when someone said this on our myspace (different band) about our latest cd: "I like the new song, but I would mess with the mix a bit. The guitar(s) are far too low in the mix."
-oh and a fourth: general ignorance about the instrument
but realize these aren't things I hate about the bass, it's others' perceptions of the bass
Link Removed to decide for yourself (I agree with them on that *one* of the guitars is way too soft, but definitely not both)
If he is "worth-his-weight", he'll do you right.
