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What made you take up bass?

R

RonChase

Aug 15, 2008
1,163
7
#1
Erring ready to snooze and having pillow talk with my wife(we are both busy bassists)she asks what makes people play bass and how many of you started on guitar so I thought I would take a
Poll as for me I do play guitar and am a singer songwriter but most of my calls or work are people looking for singing bassist, I did jump to bass in the 80s from guitar but I always loved bass and took it serious, I guess my reasons are many. I did initially do it for the loot and it seems I get in better bands a a bassist ( which tells you about my guitar playing) plus I do like to develop songs and play all the instruments , once the song is out I get hired gun musicians but what drew my peers to become bassists?
 
#2
What drew me to bass initially was Cliff Burton. I thought what he did was so cool; how he could be the center of attention or fade into the background. Plus, every two-bit wannabe metal musician out there plays guitar, so why not be different?

Ironically, once I actually took up bass, I ended up taking far more influence from Geddy Lee and Chris Squire (not so much now thanks to my suckage with a pick). I guess you could say that, so far, while metal got me into bass, prog has kept me with it.
 
#3
I've been playing music, Rhythm/Lead Guitar and Keys since I was 18. I'm now 65. Finding a bass player has always been the hardest part of getting a new project started yet, once found, the easiest way to get a new project off the ground. So this time, I decided I would eliminate that problem from the equation and learn bass myself. Now, wish I would have done it years ago but having my background has made it a little easier to keep up with the other guys. I'm having a blast!
 
#4
Ha! Nothing so cool. I played low brass in the high school band. One day the band director called me into his office and said "I want you to play tuba in the Jazz Band." I said "Um...... not cool." Two weeks later he called me back into his office and said "There's a Fender bass and an amp over in the corner. Go home and learn to play it. In six weeks, if you don't know how to play bass, you will be playing tuba in the Jazz Band."

It worked. I was playing (pretty basic) walking bass lines in about six weeks. The rest is history. Hair got long. Attention span got short. Along came rock n roll, chicks, and money (which at the time seemed like a lot of money). It just snowballed.
 
#5
My primary instrument is voice. I've worked with some fantastic musicians along the way and something about the low end just draws me. I think it has to do with being able to feel the notes rather than just hearing them.

So last year I decided to take the plunge and bought my bass. It's a slow process, but I just love this sound.
 
#6
Some guys I met in high school were starting a band and I wanted to play. So I told them I played bass, and they asked me to come jam. My older brothers both played guitar so I had always messed around with his guitars. Though had no idea what I was doing. I bought an Ibanex EX series bass and my dad got me a crate amp. The next week I was playing in a band with these guys, writing songs and learning how to play. Faked my way through it pretty well I guess? We ended up recording an album and playing lots of shows.
 
#7
I started off on piano as a child. After several years I thought the piano would start to go 'extinct' in modern music (bizzare hey?) so I took up drums. But playing drums bought too much attention from others, which I didn't like.
When I was about 13ish I fell in love with the sound of the bass, supporting every other instrument inconspicuously. I also overheard a family friend talking about how bassists are uncool and how many bassists she broke up with so I decided to do bass.
 
#12
I played guitar and drums and was sort of interested in bass just because I was interested in playing any instruments I could when I was a kid, but got really interested in it when an older bass player in town who had major label interest at one time and was making a good living told me, "Drummers are a dime a dozen and guitarists are only slightly better off, but a good bassist or keyboard player will always get work." Well I was trying to play keyboards but I could never quite put it together. But guitar was going pretty well so I tried bass, and he was right. Rare was the time I didn't have people calling me for gigs. They weren't always good gigs ;) but hey...
 
#13
My friend and I wanted to start a ska band. Nobody played any instruments, except 2-3 guys. Nobody wanted to take the bass, so I did, and I wasn't exactly sure what it was at the time.

About 12 years after, I'm glad to have done it.
 
#14
I played piano for a couple of years and did very well. My parents were very satisfied with this unknown ability, they even bought me a used piano in perfectly condition for around 1500$, I still feel guilty about that... Now how did I end playing bass? mmm well one day I decide to jam with guys I met at college, and they all were soo ****in good at impro and I sucked Dx . In 2 years my piano lessons never taught me how to do that, they were all about reading music and playing exactly as the scores. I took all my money (150$) and bought a bass at Ebay and paid exactly 4 bass lessons xD. Been playing since then, love to impro, and planning to pay for that piano with my actual job.
 
#16
Greetings from the North,

As a kid listening to Jamerson and McCartney on the Hi-Fi in Stereophonic Sound I was amazed! And when I saw that my older brother's girlfriends were bouncing to the bass at his parties I went hmmmm....... I wanna make 'em do that too! I was hooked!

Rezdog
 
#18
When I was twelve my father took me with him to his friends home for a weekend, a couple hours from my home. The friend played drums and his wife played bass. Behind their house was a huge building with various heads on the walls (they were hunters). The first night we were there, they all wanted to get high in the main house so they took me to the huge building out back. In the corner was a drum set, a huge amp, two Fender P's and a stereo. I wish I could remember what kind of amp it was. Anywho ...the wife handed me a Fender, plugged me in and turned me up, way up. I plucked the E string and nearly passed out. The sound was absolutely amazing. My stomach rumbled and my head vibrated. I put a ZZ Top cassette (Eliminator) in the stereo and played along for two days. They couldn't get me out of that room. I was hooked, big time. We got home and I begged for a bass. The next Christmas my parents gave me a Fender Precision MIJ sunburst with EMGs in it. I still have that bass.
 
#20
In 1973, when I was 12, my little sister's babysitter left a copy of Europe '72 at our house. I had just dragged a weird old tube powered phonograph up from the basement and was playing all the records I could find. This was the first time I really listened to the bass. Not only did I love the sound of it, but the lines were anything but the standard root and 5th. About a year later, there was a time slot at school where you could do remedial English or math, which I didn't need or orchestra. I was a budding oboist, so I did that. However, both myself and flute player were much more advanced than the rest of the orchestra, so we spent a lot of time trying amuse ourselves in the back bandroom. He knew how to play guitar and the next thing I knew he was teaching me where the notes were on a bass. We ended up starting a band lasted until the year after we graduated from high school. By then, it was under my skin pretty deep.
 

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