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When you were new to TB... (Poll)

What was your level of experience when you joined TB?

  • Total voters
    430
#41
How old were you when you first started playing?
13

How long have you played to this day?
Ive been a “bassist” through and through for 31 years but I knock off 20 years credit for “quiet time” while raising a family.

How long had you played when you signed up?
See above

Are you/were you a working musician?
As a pro/semi pro ? No Do I gig for spare change? Yes

What kind of music do/did you play?
Started with Zep, now (will) play everything, want to be more jazz proficient.

What made you want to pick up bass?
Was exposed to a lot of music from a young age. I always sensed and appreciated the bass in the songs I heard. The feeling of power from the Ampegs in my brothers rock band. Also was a bit of an audiophile longhair in limbo between stoners & nerds (uhh too much irrelevant info??).
 
#42
How old were you when you first started playing?
Age 10 piano, then switched to bass at age 15 for the ladies...

How long have you played to this day?
Bassist for 25 years

How long had you played when you signed up?
About 24 years.

Are you/were you a working musician?
Used to be. Did a lot of jingle work with my former band. These days, I do the cover band thing.

What kind of music do/did you play?
Most flavors of rock and roll.

What made you want to pick up bass?
Too many guitarists in my hometown.
 
#43
How old were you when you first started playing?
15 or so

How long had you played when you signed up?
Probably 15 years

Are you/were you a working musician?
Describe working. I've been paid to play once. I play at a large church regularly and whenever people I know need a bass player for something and they ask me.

What kind of music do/did you play?
Anything I enjoy. Lots of praise and worship, metal, punk. Really anything other than country, hip hop, and that Taylor Swift meets Katy Perry stuff my daughters enjoy.

What made you want to pick up bass?
I just kind of wanted to play bass since I was about 9 or 10. I wanted to play a cooler instrument than the clarinet.
 
#44
How old were you when you first started playing? About 11 years old
How long had you played when you signed up? I reckon a few months, maybe a year.
Are you/were you a working musician? Not yet, but I aspire to be!
What kind of music do/did you play? I love to play prog. metal on bass, but what I adore about bass over guitar is that so many basslines have a great groove and hold down the song, which feels awesome.
What made you want to pick up bass? I saw my local guitar shop had a Westone bass from the 80s. At that time, I was obsessed with 'vintage' instruments, and at the time, the 1980s felt like an extremely long time ago, so I bought it and learned how to play bass. I had sort of wanted to play bass after I listened to Danger Days by My Chemical Romance, and I loved what Mikey Way did on it. But that 80s Westone really pushed me over the edge.
 
#45
How old were you when you first started playing?
13.

How long had you played when you signed up?
15 years.

Are you/were you a working musician?
I had been in multiple bands paying very low-paying gigs every now and then.
Since joining TB, I've started taking bass more seriously and both of my current bands have paid gigs twice a month.

What kind of music do/did you play?
Started with punk, hardcore and metal.
Moved to alternative rock and top 40 covers.
Now I play reggae/pop originals and funk/soul/disco covers.

What made you want to pick up bass?
I already had multiple friends that played guitar and drums, but knew no bass players.
 
#46
How old were you when you first started playing?
My first formal exposure to music started with piano and guitar lessons at 10; I started playing bass at 17.

How long have you played to this day?
Been playing bass for just over four years now.

How long had you played when you signed up?
Less than a year... I think my first post was about removing the Greasebucket tone circuit from an American Special.

Are you/were you a working musician?
Nope.

What kind of music do/did you play?
Mostly classic rock and blues

What made you want to pick up bass?
One summer afternoon, I was listening to Led Zeppelin II all the way through (until then I'd always just skipped around my albums, repeating the songs I dug, skipping certain others entirely). The arrangement of the track listing sort of struck a chord with me... all sorts of styles–blues, folk, and dirty, gritty rock–seamlessly weaving from one to another. When I gave it another listen, I started noticing just how dynamic all the basslines were... from the pumping rock riffs to the drifting, lyrical musings to the groovy R&B breakdown on The Lemon Song.

He laid down so much sound... but somehow, it all just fit. Blew my freakin' mind! I saved up and got myself a Jazz that fall.
 
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#47
How old were you when you first started playing?
I was 16 years old.

How long have you played to this day?
35 years, minus two or three in the second half of the Nineties..

How long had you played when you signed up?
30 years.

Are you/were you a working musician?
It's never been my primary source of income, though I made some money playing a cover band in and around Pensacola, FL in the mid 80's.

What kind of music do/did you play?
Progressive rock, hard rock, metal and combinations of the three are my thing.

What made you want to pick up bass?
Geddy Lee, followed closely by Chris Squire. Their bass parts made me start hearing the bass guitar in music.
 
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#48
1) Drums at 12, Bass at 28.

2) 20 years on the Bass.

3) 6 years as a Bass player.

4) Was in a cover band at the time with plenty of gigs.

5) Rock/metal/originals/country.

6) Friend's band already had a drummer, needed a Bass player
 
#49
How old were you when you first started playing?
I was 19 years old. (started guitar at around 15)

How long have you played to this day?
24 years

How long had you played when you signed up?
Probably about 15 yrs

Are you/were you a working musician?
Only ever a serious hobby. I gig but I don't really consider it a source of income.

What kind of music do/did you play?
Gigging I have two bands, one is funk/pop/disco/motown covers, the other is more classic rock. I also play metal and other styles on guitar but not in a band. I am also very into flamenco guitar at the moment.

What made you want to pick up bass?
Flea, specifically the Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
 
#50
How old were you when you first started playing?
16

How long have you played to this day?
7 months, give or take a month

How long had you played when you signed up?
6 months give or take

Are you/were you a working musician?
Yes, well if you considered the fact it was my only source of income

What kind of music do/did you play?
Punk, Ska, Metal, Indie, Hard rock,

What made you want to pick up bass?
I had 3 friends, 2 played guitar and one played drums and they needed a bass player to start gigging so i started playing and doing vocals and in 4-5 months i was playing with them opening for bands like Dead kennedys, T.S.O.L, Adolecents.
 
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#51
How old were you when you first started playing?
16 years old

How long had you played when you signed up?
30+ years

Are you/were you a working musician?
Goes back and forth. Haven't gotten paid for it in over a year now

What kind of music do/did you play?
Started by dividing my time between the HS Jazz Band and a rock garage band. Eventually broadened my horizons a bit by learning some Prog/Fusion kinda stuff, plus a side order of proto-alt.country (think CSN&Y, Poco, that sort of thing). Crappy marriage and the even more painful aftermath forced an 8 year 'sabbatical'. Finally got back into it doing Fools On Stools gigs exclusively on acoustic guitar. When that eventually ended (the gig, not my playing), got back into playing bass in an interesting variety of situations. Currently in a Classic Rock cover band, scuffling for gigs in a severely shrunken market

What made you want to pick up bass?
Good advice from my first musical mentor: "Good guitar players are a dime a dozen. Good bass players are far more rare. If you want to play a lot and be able to pick and choose your gigs freely, learn bass and learn it well"

As time went on, I not only adapted to the instrument but came to love it purely for its own merits. At this point in my life, I think of myself as a bass player first and everything else second
 
#52
I voted less than one year, but in fact I joined up the day bought my first bass and decided to learn to play.

How old were you when you first started playing? - 52
How long had you played when you signed up? - About 20 minutes
Are you/were you a working musician? - Not unless you consider playing on weekends for peanuts to be a working musician :)
What kind of music do/did you play? - Classic Rock and Acoustic Coffeehouse
What made you want to pick up bass? - Always wanted to play an instrument and guitar was too hard
 
Last edited:
#53
ArtechnikA said:
all my Google bass question searches took me there.
Click to expand...

I found TB the same way. I had been playing for about 40 years when I signed up.

I've been playing since middle school (12 or 13). I was a working musician by age 17 (10-12 gigs per month). Quit playing/gigging in my 20's to raise a family. Started again after the kids were grown and gone.

My genres are funk/R&B, gospel (which is almost the same as funk/R&B), and jazz.
 
#54
First started?- 13

How long had you played when you signed up?- 38+ years.

Are you a working musician?- No, not for decades.

What kind of music did you play? -Straight up rock, then punk.

What made you pick up bass?- When I was young, every fool wanted to play guitar. If you wanted to get in a band, you had to be different. Plus I had a big whonkin' Ampeg that could hold it's own against dueling a Marshall and a Fender Twin. That will get you attention, but magnifies mistakes. You have to be better.
 
#56
twinjet said:
How old were you when you first started playing?
Click to expand...
About 14 or 15. Getting a bass was a bribe to get me through the 9th grade.

twinjet said:
How long have you played to this day?
Click to expand...
About 25 years or so.

twinjet said:
How long had you played when you signed up?
Click to expand...
I signed up in 2009, so right around 20 years (off and on.)

twinjet said:
Are you/were you a working musician?
Click to expand...
I guess that depends what you mean. My regular source of income has never been music. When I was a kid and it was possible to "make it" I never found a committed project and missed that boat. Then I took a while off to be a "grown-up", and picked it up again around 2006. I got into the band I'm in now in 2010 and I'm a "professional" in that I've been paid for shows and have CDs + merch that people besides my friends have purchased. However, I feel that making a living at being in a metal band that plays originals will never make any substantial money.

twinjet said:
What kind of music do/did you play?
Click to expand...
My first band was a death\grind metal band. Then I did some rock and experimental stuff, was in a punk band for 2 seconds, and now my band is a combination of classic metal, with a little doom and thrash (it works) thrown in.

twinjet said:
What made you want to pick up bass?
Click to expand...
Watching a VHS of Iron Maiden's Live After Death in like 1987. I saw Steve Harris and I was hooked. Geezer and Duff McKagan inspired me, but actually seeing Steve sold it.
 
#57
There's another category that might be I interesting. How many years did you use talkbass as a resource before joining? I know I often referenced this sight for information long long before I created an account or posted anything.

Although I started playing bass in a high school stage band ... I had several VERY long periods of time where I didn't play at all ... Then picked it back up again. So I really can't claim any of those dormant years as having playing experience. Not sure there's a category for that either. But it describes many of my fellow band mates.
 
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#58
I started playing guitar and bass at age 12, then didn't play at all in my 30s because I was moving around a lot for work (I'm 44 now). Started playing again about 4 years ago and found TB as the result of a Google search about something bass-related.

I'm strictly a weekend warrior but do play an occasional show during the week. I like heavy, fast guitar-oriented music (mainly metal, punk, hardcore, noise rock). I started playing because I thought the metal guys in the 80s looked cool when they played and I wanted to do that, too.
 
#59
How old were you when you first started playing?

19 but had previously played clarinet and organ.

How long had you played when you signed up?

26 years I guess.

Are you/were you a working musician?

I've always been part-time except for six months when I lost my day job :confused:

What kind of music do/did you play?

Good music :cool: rock, blues, cajun, C&W, bluegrass, celtic, folk, swing

What made you want to pick up bass?

 

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