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When did you realize you were a bassist?

Frety_Kruger

Frety_Kruger

Mar 31, 2020
204
536
#1
When did you realize you were a bass player?
For me im the classic example of just not being good enough. I remember getting an electric guitar because I loved Dimebag Darrell and I wanted to play like him. Then I realized I could spend 1000 years of my time and never get that good.
I can't lie no bass player inspired me to pick up a bass. I picked one up because I sucked at guitar lmao
(Not saying bass is easier to learn either so relax lol )
Bass came alot more naturally to me and I feel like I understood the instrument and its place in the music a little better. Just my reality would love to hear yours!!
Cheers
 
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#2
I started out playing guitar at 12. When I thought my guitarist was better than me at the 6 string I volunteered to be our bassist. We did well and I enjoyed it. I sold it when we split up. I played drums in another band after that for a few years. My hands really missed playing bass so I bought a cheap Ibanez 5 string just to play at night for enjoyment. Now I’m reunited with that guitar player in another band and I feel I am a better bassist now than I ever was when I played every single day. Within just a few weeks of getting that Ibanez I could do things I couldn’t do before in all the previous years. I have a nice big Trace Rig, an Elite Jazz and a new Ric and I couldn’t be happier. I never gave up guitar. I own several and can play Jimmy Page like nobody’s business.
 
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#4
grouse789 said:
I realized I was a bass player before I ever played bass. Meaning, when I discovered Rush in 1987 I realized I was listening and humming the bass parts. Yes , I must play this stuff I thought , and so it began....
Click to expand...

Similarly, from a young age, I was drawn to the bass parts. I’d speed up the records to make the bass parts pop out more.

My dad had a nylon string guitar that I began messing with.

My parents tried to get me to take guitar lessons when I was 14-15, but I just taught myself the bass parts to songs I heard, using my two fingers instead of the pick.

After a few months I convinced them to rent me a bass, and it was “off to the races”.
 
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#8
When I did a gig with "grownups".

I started in jazz band in high school. That, of course, pointed me to garage bands with kids my age. I did a few shows with various bands.

But then I got a call from the guy who lived behind us, who grew up with my mother. He played in a cover/bar band. Their bass player had quit on a Tuesday and they needed a fill-in for the weekend.

I got a crash course at the guitar players house for a few days. When I got up on stage in a bar at 16 years old with a bunch of players twice my age or more, I knew I was going to be doing this as part of my life from then on. And, so far, it's been true for well over three decades.
 
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#13
Count me as one of those who always naturally hummed along with the bass. But I got a bass and a guitar at the same time this year and spend about the same amount of time studying each. If I stick with it, probably the bass will come out on top.

But my wife started at the same time, and she very much prefers the bass... I even had to buy her one of her own... so I might be forced to be the guitarist.

("Be the guitarist." Hah. It honestly feels like it will take a million years to learn to play that thing, but only half a million for the bass.)
 
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#14
I became a bassist because it was the shortest path between me and being in a band...

Way back in the mid 80's I had a colleague at work who was (and still is) a great blues guitar player. He had moved to my town for work, and said he wanted to put a band together. I was a decent guitar player but not in his league. So I said "I'll play bass." I went and bought a a used 78 P-bass (about $400 or so), borrowed an amp, and listened to a bunch of blues records. We found a friend of a friend who played hamonica and sang. Then we put up a flyer at the local music store looking for a drummer, and the first guy who showed up was a seriously good Berklee grad; I couldn't believe it. Anyway, from that first practice with butterflies in my stomach I knew this was where I could fit in.

I think that's it: I LOVE playing music in a band, and bass is the way i can fit in, given that I'm an average guitarist, mediocre at best on keys, a fair-to-middling banjoist and a wanna-be pedal steel player. I got away from bass for awhile -- I played banjo and some guitar in a working bluegrass band for about a decade or so, but then I got the call from some friends in a country band, and away I went... Now I'm doing funk/soul/jazz, and that's because the bass connected me to another genre and group of cool people. That's why I dig it, and that's why I'm a bassist.
 
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#15
8th grade ‘93. Went to some music store in Lodi with my friend Byron so he could buy some strings for his Jackson Dinky. I hadn’t even seen a bass before. Loved Metallica, Megadeth, and Rush at the time. Knew I dug the “bass sound”. Guitar was impossible. Anyways, on a corner display was a 4 string bass (Jackson P I believe) in white with neon green, yellow and pink spatter paint. Sat down, plugged it in, turned the amp on, and plucked to low E. I INSTANTLY knew, I was meant to play bass. Next year as a freshman in high school I joined the jazz band and borrowed the schools Peavey Fury 4 stringer until I got my first bass (an Aria Pro II) for Christmas. That solidified it. Nothing was even remotely as cool or fun as playing bass. Not. Even. Close.
 
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#16
i always wanted to play music. so i college a friend lent me guitar. I didn't do a thing with it, i maybe touched it twice. went with him to get an amp at guitar center and i was like what the heck is that thing? it was a bass and yes, i had no clue. it was like the heavens parted and God shone his light down on me! i haven't really put it down since. and i actually just restored that very bass.
 
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#17
pretty much from the get-go:D
My Dad was a working pro in Chicago and would head off to gigs in the evenings dressed in his black & white hauling his URB. It just seemed like what Dads did to me and I knew I wanted to do it too. As soon as I could (barely) get my hand around the neck and play (about 5 years old) I knew that's what I wanted to do. I played a 1/4 size URB starting in 3rd grade in the grade school orchestra and played all UR the way through college and as a young working pro myself. I picked up electric when I was in middle school and eventually stopped hauling the upright, although I can still use it pretty well if called on.

I also sang in choir (and had 14 years of piano training) and by the time I was in highschool I was in the bass section in the choir and that was a great experience too as far as being connected to bass tone/harmony/feeling.
 
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#19
1965, when I was 7 years old. My folks got a new Magnavox console stereo and I just loved that "low, deep sound" coming from it. I even asked my parents, "Why can't the car radio sound all deep and low like the radio in our house?" My dad explained what a bass guitar was and I knew right then that's what I wanted to play. Took a few years, but finally got a bass.
 
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