What if i picked up guitar?..

[4stringrob]

I'd encourage you to play around on a guitar as well as on a piano/keyboard. I like to experiment with chords, and my bass playing benefits from it (besides just being a fun thing to do).

 

[Dogbertday]

Guitar can be fun, and it's a lot more deterity friendly than bass which you have to combine strength into that equation. I took a year of guitar not so long ago and it deffinately helped to at least learn what life was like on the other side and to be able to pick one up and play a little bit. Can't hurt to learn the basics and soo if you like it. I would play it more if I wasn't working so much playing bass.. haha

I know though that I will generally extend the range of my bass by using pinch harmonics between the 7th and 17th frets... then you move the node a bit to move the whole deal up a 4th... then move a little more and you're up 2 octavtes from the non-harmonic-ed note. It's a good trick for blues solos, and sounds decent with some distortion on it...

however I only generally use this technique when I know there's someone else holding down the low end if I leave it (ie.. a keyboard or horn section)

 

[k5pS]

Playing guitar while also being a bassist will benefit both:

Knowing the ins and outs of guitar (chords, soloing) will make you know what to do as a bassist when you're accompanying a guitarist;

and, knowing the frustrations of bassists with guitarists, help you write rhythm and leads on guitar more sympathetically with the low end (and the rest of the band).

Plus, if the time comes and you start to miss just being the low end, the bass will still be there.

--

One thing I noticed with guitars is that they require a bit more control: with all those small strings, and its treble-ness, it's much, much easier to generate unwanted noise, as compared to, say, a p-bass on flatwounds. Overcoming guitar sloppiness would really benefit your bass playing that way.

 

[xzzy]

The hardest part for me when switching between bass and guitar is that my fingers feel extremely fat when I pick up the guitar. It goes away after about 10 minutes of warming up, but it still feels odd and makes me afraid my skills are slipping.

The other difficulty is switching modes in my brain. It takes a little while to stop playing the guitar like a bass, or the bass like a guitar.

But with all that in mind, studying both instruments has really benefited my understanding of music theory.

 

[wicked_child]

In my case, learning the guitar made me very aware of chord structure, scales, and as a result made it easy for me to be able to play over chord progressions and easily dealing with minors etc....

Go for it, it will be a plus!

I agree with this. The more you know about what the guitarist is doing or is going to do, the better you jam/play. Its a lot easier to improvise too.

i dont really play shred guitar but with my bass background, i am a solid rhythm guitarist.