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Who plays guitar as well?

The Bass Abides

The Bass Abides

Mar 3, 2019
166
316
#1
So the title says it all. I’m curious what your experience with guitar might be? Did you start on guitar and switch over? Have you played bass from the get go and never picked up a guitar? Did playing guitar help you as a bass payer? I’d love to hear you experience with the guitar.

Me? I tinkered with the guitar, but never got very serious. I’ve really only gotten more serious about the bass over the past year or so...and I feel more at home.
 
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#3
I started on the guitar but knew that I wanted to play bass all along.

When I was at the top of my game I was told more than once that I was a far better acoustic guitar player than a bass player. And I did continue to play acoustic - at least occasionally - during my very long hiatus from playing bass.

And I've always owned more guitars than basses at any given time. But that's more of a collector bug than a real necessity.
 
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#4
I started on guitar, then switched to bass. I've been playing rhythm guitar in my country band for the past few months.

harolds09 copy.jpg
 
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#5
Started on drums. Was so-so. Switched to guitar. Three months later showed up to form a band. I was the least experienced so off to bassland I went. Never looked back.

I have kept up my rhythm guitar and can play some blues lead. There's always an acoustic 6 string guitar at home on a stand at the ready. Same for a keyboard. I also have an '84 Les Paul Studio (broken head stock right now) and a Strat clone.

I also took a few college music classes and picked up some keys. Actually played keys in a working Latin rock/RnB cover band for about a year. Played rhythm guitar on a few songs.

Pretty much retired so I spend my time trying to edumacate my TB brethren as much as I can. :thumbsup:
 
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#12
The Bass Abides said:
So the title says it all. I’m curious what your experience with guitar might be? Did you start on guitar and switch over? Have you played bass from the get go and never picked up a guitar? Did playing guitar help you as a bass payer? I’d love to hear you experience with the guitar.

Me? I tinkered with the guitar, but never got very serious. I’ve really only gotten more serious about the bass over the past year or so...and I feel more at home.
Click to expand...
I just dabble/noodle
 
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#18
I also started on guitar but have always wanted to be a bassist. I was a decent guitar player (still am) but switched to bass in college because my friends needed a bassist. It gave me the chance to live out my dream so to speak. I prefer bass - I feel more comfortable laying a groove than trying to play lead on guitar. However my collection definitely leans more heavily towards guitars than basses. I enjoy picking up a guitar and coming up with chord progressions and noodling around. But most of my band experience has been as a bassist.
 
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#19
The Bass Abides said:
So the title says it all. I’m curious what your experience with guitar might be? Did you start on guitar and switch over? Have you played bass from the get go and never picked up a guitar? Did playing guitar help you as a bass payer? I’d love to hear you experience with the guitar.

Me? I tinkered with the guitar, but never got very serious. I’ve really only gotten more serious about the bass over the past year or so...and I feel more at home.
Click to expand...

I started out on guitar, and didn't touch a bass for years. It helped me in the sense that my fretting hand dexterity was good from day one when I first grabbed a bass. The distances were wider, but you adapt. I only arrived to bass by 'mistake'. A public jam session where we had no bass players... so I gave someone my guitar and I took the bass, and I LOVED IT. Within a month I bought a bass and a year later I joined a band on bass... Now I only ever play guitar at home, recording etc. I was never a great guitarist but I can manage, I'm a better bassist now (10 years later), but I find it useful to be able to play guitar in order to record little demos to show to the band, or at rehearsals etc.

It's also cool to be able to break the myth of "bass player is a failed guitarist". Yeah, I know it's silly, but a couple of times I've encountered a guitarist with a bad attitude and it was fun to casually grab his guitar and show off a little, then return it "man, that's a nice guitar" knowing that the guy feels a little silly for trying to belittle someone else. ;)
 
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#20
I learned bass and guitar simultaneously but only got to play bass in bands, I dreamed of playing guitar in a band.

Then about 10 years after my first (school) band broke up I got a call from the guitarist, who had switched to bass, asking if I would like to play lead, I jumped at the chance.

Initially we had a rhythm and lead guitar, bass and drums and played guitar rock, I loved it. We then gained a keyboard player (Phil Allspace - he had 10 digits and was determined to get as many on the keys as possible). He didn't like being upstaged by a lead guitarist and did his best to select songs with no lead break. My job then was to play line end fills and the very occasional lead break, to say I was bored was an understatement.

After 12 years of this I was getting rather bored and was considering quitting (the money was good and the hang was ok) when the bass player quit and I seamlessly switched to bass, I've never been so happy!
 

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