When did you become a bass player?

[Siggy]

1964, 4 piece, 3 guitars 1 drum. After the 1st gig every one looked at me and said "We need a bass player". Best decision I've never made.

 

[Tricaptain]

Metallica, Anthrax and Iron Maiden!

I was introduced to these (and a bunch of other amazing bands) back in the very late 80s. I think that my friends were into the idea of playing instruments, and that's what got me curious.

From there, I'd gotten a cheap guitar to mess with; not because I preferred to be a guitarist, but it was what was available at that moment in time. Not long afterward, a friend of mine sold me his Hondo II Precision Bass. It was large, heavy, clunky... and I think that's what I really liked about it. It was like a subconscious challenge to be able to wield a broadsword. I'd soon begin feeling a stronger connection with songs I was able to learn, and the learning progressed exponentially over time.

While I like messing with guitar, I've always felt a more natural connection with bass. The biggest bonus for me ever since what that I'd already liked different types of music, and the role of the bass as (obviously) a rhythm instrument further fascinated me. Couple that with being able to melodic as well as rhythmic, and I felt like I had the power to have more than just one function in a song.

Cheers!

 

[Lava]

The day I heard Steve Harris' bass line intro to Wrathchild I knew I had to learn to play bass. I started on my cheap classical guitar that day and haven't stopped since.

 

[skyline_01]

I was about 13 and my older cousin got a Series 10 bass, a RockTown amp, and Mel Bay instruction book for his birthday. I had already been in band for a couple years and could read music so I started to read through the book and also play along with songs on the radio. He lost interest in it after a short while but I kept up with it and I've been at it for about 31 years now.

 

[BBQV]

I started my musical journey aged six, on trumpet with the Salvation Army. Over the next few years I wandered down through the registers and ended up with the Eb tuba. This suited me fine, and as a teenager I started playing AC/DC and ZZ Top songs with a band at school. Not much need for tuba there, so I went for the bass. That was more than 35 years ago and I'm still here...

 

[TheDominoKid]

It was 1994... I had seen a bunch of STP videos and decided Robert DeLeo was the coolest person on the planet. So after conning my mother into getting me a bass when my father was on a business trip, I became a bass guitarist. Then I discovered Mike Watt, John Entwistle, and Flea.

 

[lizardking837]

I played for about a year until I really 'got it' once I learned how to play Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith I was hooked. The next big jump for me about about 4 months later when I heard Sunshine of your Love and White Room by Cream and committed myself to learning them. From there it's all been natural.

 

[Pfun]

I was fortunate to have parents who loved music...prolly was jamming in the womb

 

[bassliner50]

April 3, 1966.

 

[BakedMaple]

I have dabbled very little for over 20 years, but made the final decision in the last 6 months that I am a bass player.

 

[tedious1]

After firing the original bass player for the second time...

 

[Slinger]

Whenever it happens I'll be sure to let you know. In my darker moments, I still consider myself a guitarist who owns 5 basses.

 

[2cooltoolz]

I was a teenager in the late 60s-early 70s. Everything was bands. Beatles et al. Television was "The Monkees", "The Archies", "Josie and The Pussycats", "The Banana Splits". "American Bandstand" and "Soul Train" on Saturdays. Concert shows at night:

"Don Kirshner's Rock Concert", “In Concert”, “The Midnight Special“, “Solid Gold“. Every kid in my neighborhood had an electric guitar.


Teen clubs, school dances, NOT teen clubs, country clubs, private parties hired bands to play. I started playing guitar around 13, 1966ish. Played in a lot of bands, moving through Beach Boys, Ventures, Monkees into Stones, Cream, Hendrix, Pink Floyd.


Then around 1970, Led Zeppelin. BOOM! JPJ was the first bassist who made me think, "I wanna do THAT!" Okay, just for future reference:


Bought my first bass, a 1959ish Fender Precision, for $75. It was beat up and mistreated, but I loved it. And No, I do not.

 

[DWBass]

I was 12-13. Early 70's. Heard bass on a real stereo system and was hooked. Traded my guitar in for a bass.

 

[Kmonk]

I started playing bass in the late 1970s. I was a guitar player in a 3 piece band (2 guitars and drums). We used to play house parties but couldn't find a bass player. I used to do fills on the guitar to compensate for some of the emptiness left by not having a bass player. One night during rehearsal, the other guitarist mentioned that my fills reminded him of bass lines and suggested I switch to bass. He made the same comment at the next rehearsal. The next morning I was playing my guitar at home and thinking about what the other guitarist had said. I came to the realization that he was right and I called him that day and asked him to go to the music store and help me pick out a bass and an amp. Bass came very easy to me and within 6 months we had become a 5 piece band and were playing clubs. We went on to gig 5 nights per week for almost 4 years before the band broke up. I still play guitar and also play keys but my primary instrument is still bass.

 

[Felken]

I was on track to be a bass player growing up and never knew it.

I played low brass elementary/middle school.

My older brother took up guitar in middle school. I thought he was the coolest person ever.

About the time a neighbor moved in who played bass, my band director asked me to play TUBA in the jazz band. After flatly turning that down, I was called into his office a couple weeks later. He pointed in the corner. "Jazz band status in a few weeks. You better get ready." There sat a new P bass and a Peavey TNT amp. I suppose that's the moment it officially happened in the Fall of '86. That neighbor helped get me started and I was off to the races.

Cool. My dad plays Tuba and bass.

 

[Blenin]

I started playing when i was around 12. Being named after Paul McCartney (truth), and growing up with older siblings listening to The Beatles, it was bound to happen. I also grew up a block away from Steve, the original bass player and founding member of Heart. I used to mow his parents lawn and hang out at the house. He was a big influence on me as a young musician as well.

 

[heynorm]

Some time in early 1965 when I was 14. Stopped by to hear a friend’s surf combo practice at Jr. High band room after school. The band teacher’s Kay bass and combo sitting there, so I was invited to pick it up. I understood 1-4-5 but don’t know if I was even in the same key with them. They said “You’re in!” Came home to supper that night with a blister on my thumb! I’m still learning and now busier than at any time in my life.

 

[Garry Raines]

In 1970 my neighbor came home from Germany on leave from the Army and brought a copy of a Hofner. He didn't want to take it back with him and he left it with me until he got back home. A kid I hung with played drums and a kid down the street played a little guitar, so I was in a band the next day. I was 15. Now I'm 63 and putting together a new band. Hope to be gigging again by the new year.

 

[Charlzm]

I remember watching Paul Simon on SNL doing Diamonds On The Soles of Her Shoes. Watching it with My dad, who’s favorite musician was Brian Wilson, And he said “ This bass the player is insane.” Even though I did not touch A bass guitar for at least five more years after this, I remember this moment, and I think it is when I became a bass player.

I became a bass player in high school when I realized I sucked at guitar and then got a call from some acquaintances asking if I could play bass for their embryonic band.