I gave up playing in 1971 while I was in the Navy. After I got out I kind of lost interest and sold my stuff (61 pbass and a 66 Bassman amp). I bought a base and started playing about a year and a half ago. So that makes 47 years.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
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.
What's your longest hiatus from playing?
- Thread starter Texan
- Start date
I've never been tempted to "sell it all" with my bass gear. I'm pretty new and I definitely still love it all. But I have experience here in another avenue...
I make beer. or... I can. 10 gallons at a time, all grain recipes. Many of them my own. I make better beer than you can buy, for sure, because it's been judged, on multiple occasions, and I don't have to worry about cost effectiveness when it's just for personal consumption. I have a beautiful stainless steel brewery that I built myself over many years.
I haven't brewed regularly for a few years (maybe corresponding to my bass playing...). Many times, I've been tempted to "sell it all!" for one reason or another. Bass gear, fishing gear, etc....
The point being, if I were ever to "sell it all", I know that I would never brew again. And part of my hopes that when I'm an old man, I can go fishing, with homemade beer, and maybe play my basses when I get home while screaming at kids to get off my lawn.
I assume the same would go for bass gear. If you sell it all, you'll end up regretting it someday.
Take a break, maybe sell a few things you don't use much. But don't do anything that you'll regret.
I make beer. or... I can. 10 gallons at a time, all grain recipes. Many of them my own. I make better beer than you can buy, for sure, because it's been judged, on multiple occasions, and I don't have to worry about cost effectiveness when it's just for personal consumption. I have a beautiful stainless steel brewery that I built myself over many years.
I haven't brewed regularly for a few years (maybe corresponding to my bass playing...). Many times, I've been tempted to "sell it all!" for one reason or another. Bass gear, fishing gear, etc....
The point being, if I were ever to "sell it all", I know that I would never brew again. And part of my hopes that when I'm an old man, I can go fishing, with homemade beer, and maybe play my basses when I get home while screaming at kids to get off my lawn.
I assume the same would go for bass gear. If you sell it all, you'll end up regretting it someday.
Take a break, maybe sell a few things you don't use much. But don't do anything that you'll regret.
I stopped for a while after college (2009). I played occasionally in my bedroom but I didn’t jam with anyone and wasn’t part of a band. There was probably a 3-4 year stint where I only picked up a bass less than 5 times a year.
1991-1993, screwed around with scales, covers of 3 chord wonders, then life happened.
-19 years later-
Reaquainted myself with bass in 2012...like from the ground-up. A mind is a terrible thing to waste LOL.
Since then, my longest hiatus has been I think like 3 weeks...life again...
A week here and there as life goes on...
Have you thought about giving lessons and/or tutoring?
Keep your chin up kid!
Good luck.
-19 years later-
Reaquainted myself with bass in 2012...like from the ground-up. A mind is a terrible thing to waste LOL.
Since then, my longest hiatus has been I think like 3 weeks...life again...
A week here and there as life goes on...
Have you thought about giving lessons and/or tutoring?
Keep your chin up kid!
Good luck.
I quit my reasonably successful band when my kids were tots to spend more time with my family, and didn't play any gigs for about 6 years. I don't regret it, but I never fell in with the right people again, and have been playing in commercial cover bands for the last 10 years. A break is fine, but I recommend keeping your favorite instrument, don't let it become another TB "one that got away" story.
- Oct 18, 2012
- 6,683
- 5,538
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Fender, Spector, Ampeg, Curt Mangan, Nordstrand Pickups, Korg , Conquest Sound
I took 15 years off. I was in a band that gigged 5 nights per week for almost 4 years. We broke up in 1984 and I didn't play again until 1999. During the time off, I was playing semi-pro ice hockey. In 1999, I tore my left quadriceps muscle and the doctor said I would never play hockey again so I went back to music. I actually got back on the ice about a year later and still play hockey today but not at the same level that I had played in the past. At 58 years old, I'm just glad I can still skate.
I took a break for about a year and a half in the 90’s. I sold all my gear and threw myself into hand percussion, which I discovered is no fun to do by yourself.
EdwardofHuncote
I Still Dream of Jeannie
- Aug 21, 2013
- 6,667
- 2
- 16,464
- Disclosures
- I privately own and operate a local musical instument repair shop.
I'm on it, right now... played my last gig September 30th, had a C5-C7 cervical fusion surgery on October 9th. Hard to say when I'll be able to play again. I've got a couple things in the book for 2019, but who knows. 
Hmm... Hard to answer without giving a little background. I studied music in college for the first two years, and fully intended to make a career out of it. But after two years, I started asking myself what I was going to do with a music degree and how I would make a living. I changed my major to computer science and moved forward. Around that same time I got married. For the next ~25 years or so my primary focus was being a husband, a father, and building an IT career. I still played, but sometimes I would take breaks as long as a couple of years - then I would get the itch and start playing again. About 6 years ago my daughter went off to college, and I had already reached a very comfortable place in my career, so I had a kind of personal music renaissance, and I've been playing steady since then.
Last edited:
Six months.
I was in my mid 20s, had just gotten stuck, er I mean married to my now ex-wife, moved about 20 miles away from my hometown and had a decent Day Job with a (then) reputable hi-fi amplifier company. I simply didn't have "time" to play anymore.
That changed when a college buddy/drummer called on me to "just fill in for a few shows" due to his band's current bassist not holding it together (and in deference to him, he WAS seriously fighting a losing heroin battle) and ended up with them for the better part of 10 years on and off (two different band names, a format change, and an extra front-person in the later years).
Good times.
Sad part was that the bassist I replaced actually didn't die from an O.D.; he was killed in a drug deal gone bad, right in his own apartment... I still miss the guy though. When he was "on", he was freakin' amazing. When "out", not so much.
I was in my mid 20s, had just gotten stuck, er I mean married to my now ex-wife, moved about 20 miles away from my hometown and had a decent Day Job with a (then) reputable hi-fi amplifier company. I simply didn't have "time" to play anymore.
That changed when a college buddy/drummer called on me to "just fill in for a few shows" due to his band's current bassist not holding it together (and in deference to him, he WAS seriously fighting a losing heroin battle) and ended up with them for the better part of 10 years on and off (two different band names, a format change, and an extra front-person in the later years).
Good times.
Sad part was that the bassist I replaced actually didn't die from an O.D.; he was killed in a drug deal gone bad, right in his own apartment... I still miss the guy though. When he was "on", he was freakin' amazing. When "out", not so much.
I played through the 60s and 70s then in 1984 I moved to a new town to start a new job and put down the bass. Didn't play again until 2014, 30 years later, when I was asked to play in church. Still playing in church.
2004-2009. Didn't play much, due to the toxic environment with the ex wife, trying to obey her every command and such. Starting up again was the beginning of the end of that one, which coincided with the beginning of the new Timmy and I'm MUCH better off for it.
Edit: I almost forgot, during some of that bass hiatus, I did get roped into doing some church music duties, like choral arranging, song leading in worship (vocals, acoustic guitar), and a tiny bit of piano accompaniment, all in church.
Edit: I almost forgot, during some of that bass hiatus, I did get roped into doing some church music duties, like choral arranging, song leading in worship (vocals, acoustic guitar), and a tiny bit of piano accompaniment, all in church.
approximately 15 years.
In the spring of 1979 I was asked to schlep some of my Berklee classmates around in my van because they had put a band together, I decided that it would be good for me to sit sidestage and adjust the mix on their Acoustic powered head. I became a Berklee dropout, 4 semesters starting 1977.
They knew I was a bass player, but they thought I was into Devo and the Ramones, XTC and the Stooges and Sex Pistols (you get the idea...) because of my roommate. Anyway 9 months later I was in the band because the band had imploded, but was still schlepping and also playing bass and now running lights and sound.
Fast-forward to 1985. After a couple of bands and incarnations thereof, I became the house engineer at a dive bar club in Somerville MA and did that for about 2 1/2 years. Started renting out my PA gear around that time. I had stone-cold-quit playing. Still had my white Pedulla, but sold that around 1991-ish to buy some PA gear. (shoulda kept that bass...)
Fast-forward again to about 1999. Started playing again in a small church. Have a 1976 P-bass that I happened to find at a yard sale around 1992. He wanted $50, bought it for $30, needless to say best deal ever...
Became the worship team leader at the church around 2002 until that church imploded a couple of years later.
Now, I've been running my sound company for well over 30 years, haven't had a 'real' job since 1979. I visit open mics while I can, although we are really busy; and I'm learning upright bass. Bought a basket-case upright last year for $400 and I love it, did a bunch of work on it....of course not knowing what I was doing, btw.
It's been a good ride; I am so very, very thankful. We have so very much to be Thankful For...
In the spring of 1979 I was asked to schlep some of my Berklee classmates around in my van because they had put a band together, I decided that it would be good for me to sit sidestage and adjust the mix on their Acoustic powered head. I became a Berklee dropout, 4 semesters starting 1977.
They knew I was a bass player, but they thought I was into Devo and the Ramones, XTC and the Stooges and Sex Pistols (you get the idea...) because of my roommate. Anyway 9 months later I was in the band because the band had imploded, but was still schlepping and also playing bass and now running lights and sound.
Fast-forward to 1985. After a couple of bands and incarnations thereof, I became the house engineer at a dive bar club in Somerville MA and did that for about 2 1/2 years. Started renting out my PA gear around that time. I had stone-cold-quit playing. Still had my white Pedulla, but sold that around 1991-ish to buy some PA gear. (shoulda kept that bass...)
Fast-forward again to about 1999. Started playing again in a small church. Have a 1976 P-bass that I happened to find at a yard sale around 1992. He wanted $50, bought it for $30, needless to say best deal ever...
Became the worship team leader at the church around 2002 until that church imploded a couple of years later.
Now, I've been running my sound company for well over 30 years, haven't had a 'real' job since 1979. I visit open mics while I can, although we are really busy; and I'm learning upright bass. Bought a basket-case upright last year for $400 and I love it, did a bunch of work on it....of course not knowing what I was doing, btw.
It's been a good ride; I am so very, very thankful. We have so very much to be Thankful For...
At one point I didn't pickup a bass for 2-3 years and didn't play with anyone for maybe 10. I thought I had to do it to get my head straight and grow up a little. I thought it would make my first wife happy. Turns out that was impossible. It took me a few years into my second marriage to realise how bored I was without music. It gives me a sense of purpose and is a release valve for my daily stress. Even if it will never support me in any way, having music around me is important. I was forced into a brief time off of a few months this year and I hated it. I felt useless and lost.
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
Latest posts
-
-
-
Post a funnier picture than the one above - Parallel Universe Edition
- Latest: BassicJazzy
-
-
