• 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.

Who plays both guitar and bass?

#21
Started on guitar but not to serious. Got serious about playing and switched to bass. Played bass a few years and got gig as recording engineer and worked studio and live audio for years. Then got back into guitar got very serious went to music school, gigged, did some session work, but then go into computer world and liked the money. Got back in to playing bass about seven years ago. Now (getting older) back into recording and playing bass and guitar for some things.

So have played both seriously at one point and knowledge of one has helped the other and musical knowledge in general.
 
#22
I played guitar for many years before picking up the bass. My first bass was a fretless and I think that was what allowed me to become as bassist instead of a guitard playing bass. You just can't "play guitar" on fretless, so it make me think of the lines like a bass player. I play some keys too.
When it comes down to it, I just love to play music!

-m
 
#23
Jordasch said:
Im a bassist at heart, but I enjoy playing some simple chords and songs when with friends and family.

Im a bassist that doodles on guitar. Nothing more, nothing less.
Click to expand...

That's how I am. I have a six string and a twelve string acoustic, and a Squier Telecaster. I'm not anything great on guitar by any stretch of the imagination, but every now and then I like to pick one up and strum some chords on it- especially the twelve string.
 
#26
i play guitar and bass, i have always preffered the sound and feel of bass plus the fact that there are so many different styles. and i'm not sure how you would feel about this but i find that advanced bass methods were harder to master than advanced guitar methods. anyone here also play a banjo? i picked one up for laughs and enjoyed it.
 
#28
I am definitely a guitarist, but love the bass. Was in a band in the late 80's early 90's that was 3 guitar players and a drummer. The band owned a beat up Steiny clone, and I really dug playing it. Just couldn't sing backup vocals with it though.

I continue to play bass off and on, and love to just groove.
 
#29
I started on guitar. First one was the K-Mart Blue Light Special Mom got me for Christmas the year I was too old for toys, and she had no idea what to get me. I plunked around, tried to teach myself, and just about gave up but started lessons just to give it a fair shot. Discovered girls and cars about then, and again almost quit. But one day I heard "B. B. Kings Greatest Hits", "The Best of Cream", "Blind Faith" "Buffalo Springfield Again", and "Abbey Road". That changed things a lot...

Years later my best friend has a Mustang Bass he refinished, and asked me to wire it back up when he was done. He calls a few days later and asks if it's ready so I say "Yeah, when do you need it?" Roger says "I don't, but you do. I told Dave you'd play bass for him this weekend". There was a local country band that gigged pretty steady but had never had a steady bassist. They were kind of raw, and inexperienced, and didn't really understand music all that well. Anyway I wound up doing a benefit gig and a paying gig with them. I was SURE they were going to never talk to me again, because I didn't know anything at all... But they asked me if I wanted to the next week's gig. I asked for some details and they told me it was a local place where we played Wednesday through Saturday for $50/night. I was making $200/week doing HVAC work for Dad, so getting the same amount for learning to play bass sounded very attractive. It kinda went on from there until another band with a really really good drummer hired me- then I became a bassist! The first time you feel the drums and bass driving the bus, and it's all over!!

I managed a guitar store for 11 years after that, and I still play guitar a good bit. It's a great instrument to learn harmony on, and at the age of 54 I still think the primary function of an electric guitar is to P&$$ off SOMEONE's parents. I've been in a couple of bands where I played guitar. In one I was the 3rd guitarist (yeah, what a HORRIBLE CONCEPT!) where I constantly was able to just play guitar like I'd want it done when I play bass. I let the bass make the changes- like staying on a C major triad as the changes went from C to A, and let the bass make the Amin7 happen; chomping on 2 and 4 only and leaving room for the bass, stuff like that.

In the other gig, I was "the string section" along with two keyboard players and a drummer who played mostly hand percussion (conga, bongo, djembe) and a "cocktail set". I played acoustic and electric guitar, bass (fretted and fretless) and even used my Ashbory for a few weeks. The guitar rig is:

Guild Starfire IV
Fender Strat (MIM Classic '60 w/Duncan AlNiCo Pro PUPS)
Guild F-47CE amplified acoustic
Fender Blues Jr.
Peavey Delta Blues 210
Peavey Acoustasonic 112 (acoustic guitar amp)
Vox Wha
Boss Compressor
Reverend Drive Train Overdrive
Boss Chorus (which will probably get replaced with an analog delay)
Ernie Ball Volume pedal

I've also got a Guild A-50 small bodied flat top that's great for fingerpicking.

jte
 
#30
Jordasch said:
I do agree with this. I also think, though its a bit hypocritical since I havent myself, that all bassist should learn to read music and play piano.
Click to expand...

Piano does help a lot too, and reading music is a must (bass clef atleast, but treble too if your playing piano, and alto if you feeling like wasting time.) Piano is especially helpful with visualizing the modes, and I tend to go to the piano when I write songs.
 
#32
I still have the guitars & amps, but RARELY pick them up anymore - did an original 16 song release as a guitarist (played for about a year). 'Think I did it just to see if I could - gotta say, it was fun at the time. Also gotta say, I don't look back; bass is where it's at!
 
#33
I play bass and I play with my guitar. Started out on tuba, then learned to play bass around 1980. Pickup up a Peavey Patriot (that I still have) around '86 just to doodle with. Sounds nuts but learning tuba first gave me a good understanding of the importance of having a solid foundation in the music. Still occasionally pick up my Conn 20J just to keep in shape.
 
#34
I've been a guitarist for over 20 years. I've done studio stuff as well as many gigs as a guitarist. However, I picked up bass, since my church needed a bassist. No one would let their pride go to be a bassist, since we were all young and arrogant at the time, so I reluctantly humbled myself. Boy am I glad I did too. I love the bass. I've been playing for about 8 years now but the 20+ years of guitar have really allowed me to progress quickly on the bass. I played scales I already knew on guitar and it it's actually less confusing, since bass is tuned in perfect 4ths, where the guitar is tuned in 4ths up until you get to the high B string. The only thing I needed to learn, and it took some time, was technique. I'm not perfect yet but I'm a lot better of than if I were to learn bass at first. I recommend everyone learn at least 2 instruments.
 
#36
I play both, though because I started off as a bassist, I think that my guitar style is definitely more influenced buy Duck Dunn and Stanley Clarke than Kirk Hammett and Steve Vai. I really just got into playing guitar because I was sick of every guitarist and singer that I knew playing the same boring songs, and decided to show them how it should be done!

Cockiness aside, to me they're really just different tools to use, and I'm still the same guy playing guitar that I am playing bass. I would say that a different musical side of me comes out with bass vs electric guitar vs acoustic guitar. I think that sometimes I make bands a little frustrated due to my reluctance to play guitar solos and eagerness to not play so that the bass, drums and keys can step forward dynamically.
 
#37
I mastered guitar first. Picked one up and learned all the notes in just two weeks. I know, I know, but I'm gifted.

Then I figured (since I'm basically a lazy guy), that since bass is easier (less notes), I'd try that. I mean, really, after mastering guitar, that automatically means I've mastered bass, right?

:p
 
#38
I play both. I started out as a guitar player, but have played bass in bands consistently for the last 25 years. I lived in Houston for a couple of years and had a chance to play with a childhood friend's band. He already had a bass player, so I played second guitar in that band. I can do enough on guitary to provide good solid rhythm, some harmony leads and some pure leads, but I'm really a MUCH better bass player. Now that I'm back in Austin, in back on bass and really much more at home.
 
#39
I started out on guitar at age 10 but by age 14 was gigging on bass under the rule that the least-best-looking guitarist in the band plays bass. Seriously, my dad was a jazz fan and I grew up with Ray Brown's bass playing in my ear so I always liked it. I kept up both through about age 30, then retired from the scene for reasons having to do with parenthood and my day job. When I came back, it was just as a bass player, both upright and electric, and I really don't have much interest in guitar anymore. I play harmonica as a second instrument.
 
#40
Actually, I've played guitar for 39 years. Love it. But...
I've played bass off and on for the past 10 or 12 years. In the last year or so though I've really fallen in love with bass. Don't gig anymore but for jams I always bring the bass and sometimes a guitar too. One of the guitarists I play with started on bass so he'll swap over when I play guitar.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back