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Who Was Your First...

#241
theFixer said:
Who was the first bassist that really turned your head? Who was that first guy that dropped such badass bottom on you, that you practically couldn't hear anything else?

I have 2 answers. The first guy to really turn my head towards the bass, and listen over & over specifically TO the bass... Noel Redding. I came from a strict religious home, so I didn't get to listen to ANY music that didn't have something to do with God, pickup trucks, hound dogs, or bar rooms (ironic cuz my folks didn't drink, nor would they ever darken the door of a drinking establishment). When I was in my teens, and capable of finding a few "bad influences"... Hendrix was among the first to pollute my soul with the devil's music. Everybody thinks that I was listening to Hendrix, for Hendrix. It was an obvious and simple reuse. I just went with it cuz I didn't wanna risk taking any s#!t from the other guys. I mean... THIS was HENDRIX man!!! This is the first time in my life that I've ever admitted out loud, that I was actually riding the Redding Railroad! I owe an apology to all bass players past, present, and future for having said this, but... one time, at the height of my adolescent enthusiasm... I was so blown away & excited by my Jimi Hendrix experience... I actually said these words to my friend... "Even the BASS is good!". :thumbsup:

Again... sorry...

Fast forward, like... a lotta years...

The first guy to make me dial into the bass & go, "Wait... what's that? NOBODY in Rock & Roll does THAT! Damn! I LIKE that! Maybe I should be doin' that."... Andy Fraser. You couldn't exist on Earth in the 1980's, and not hear "Alright Now" in every Classic Rock radio station's hourly rotation. The problem was... I didn't care. It was just another cool old song I didn't know anything about. It would take me well into the '90's before I would recognize what an idiot I was! I was hangin' out at my guitar player's house (I was a drummer at the time). He mentions the band FREE!. He's flabbergasted to find out I'm not familiar. He "goes in the vault" & comes back with their "Fire & Water" album. From the moment the needle hit the vinyl... I knew I'd been missing out on something great all these years. I could go on & on, but suffice to say that my ears quickly found some of the coolest bass playing I've ever heard. The band's musical style demanded a bass player who could fill a lotta space, and take on the role of a rhythm (and occasionally lead) instrument as well as hold down the bottom. Once again... I could go on & on... but I won't. If your not familiar with the band FREE! or Andy Fraser... do yourself a favor & GET familiar!

(sorry for the novel. I'm kinda a "word" guy)

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Hey man, I grew up in a super Jesus household too. First bass player that caught my ear was my buddy's dad, Carlos Debartolo, a sweet 6 string player with some of the tastiest bass lines and fills I can still remember from back in the 90's. My other buddy Stan Tadeja, a bass player who also inspired me, made me a tape of Jamiroquai's " Return of the Space Cowboy". It was Stuart Zender's wildly tasty bass lines and ridiculous fills that made me want to play the bass! Still love that album.
 
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#242
I've became aware of the bass with Korn. Then I started learning bass and felt like who played it and what was played wasn't that important as long as I was in the key and fit the chord the rest didn't matter ... especially with solo artist that pay a studio band for their album ...

So a few years latter I was doing my college studies in music and my electric bass / jazz teacher tried to introduce me to various bass player. At that time John Patitucci and John Myung were the one that fitted what was going on in my music life how I saw music and the instrument and kinda still do.
 
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#243
Clef_de_fa said:
I've became aware of the bass with Korn. Then I started learning bass and felt like who played it and what was played wasn't that important as long as I was in the key and fit the chord the rest didn't matter ... especially with solo artist that pay a studio band for their album ...

So a few years latter I was doing my college studies in music and my electric bass / jazz teacher tried to introduce me to various bass player. At that time John Patitucci and John Myung were the one that fitted what was going on in my music life how I saw music and the instrument and kinda still do.
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I'm a 4 string guy, but I'm going to get a sixer' someday. I love the cool stuff you can do with that C string. (And the B for that matter).
 
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#246
Pbassmanca said:
Does that sweet arse J bass have a second pickup at the bridge or is that a mute? :eyebrow:
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According to Berry Oakley's grandson Shaun Oakley, who posted this 5:11 minute YouTube video on "The Tractor", the bass's three P/U's are all functional. Although the configuration is really unusual. Apparently, one of the ABB's roadies helped in wiring Berry's J Bass this way. The answer is "yes".. The two Jazz pickups at the bridge are wired together (in parallel or series I'm not sure which). All three P/U's are wired to the 'blend' knob as you'd expect. Additionally, the Guild Starfire humbucker has separate 'vol/tone' controls added to the lower pickguard.



. .
 
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#248
Geddy. I was 12 or 13 and Moving Pictures had just come out and all I heard was Neil Peart, not that that's bad or anything. Then a few years later I finally heard the bass on that album and I was off and running.

Tom
 
#249
Rattman said:
According to Berry Oakley's grandson Shaun Oakley, who posted this 5:11 minute YouTube video on "The Tractor", the bass's three P/U's are all functional. Although the configuration is really unusual. Apparently, one of the ABB's roadies helped in wiring Berry's J Bass this way. The answer is "yes".. The two Jazz pickups at the bridge are wired together (in parallel or series I'm not sure which). All three P/U's are wired to the 'blend' knob as you'd expect. Additionally, the Guild Starfire humbucker has separate 'vol/tone' controls added to the lower pickguard.



. .
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Very interesting. That pickup would be relaying some interesting harmonic and fundamental content to the amplifier. I mean really , if you had that far bridge pickup along with one just in front of the standard bridge pickup, (So 4 pickups altogether) , there is a whole world of undiscovered tonal options at your finger tips..... Bootsy really did have it figured when he commissioned the space bass.....
1211150247343982588_806264_v1.jpg
 
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#250
All well before my time, but thanks to my old man having pretty good taste in music:
1) Mel Shacher
2) Geezer Butler
3) Geddy Lee
If it hadn't been for 'the bong-rattling bass of Mel Shacher', I very likely would've kept fooling around playing guitar, never gotten much better, and quit playing. Nearly all of the first, say, 30 bass lines I learned were Grand Funk, Sabbath, or Rush tunes, and to this day I favor all three of them in my playing style (consciously or not).
 
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#256
steamthief said:
Graham Maby. When Look Sharp! was released, it sounded so fresh, and it seemed to me that the bass line was the hook in just about every song. Almost forty years later, I still love it.
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I LOVE that album! You are absolutely right! They are all top-drawer musicians, but EVERYTHING about the bass is what hooks you & pulls you in. The tone, the level of the bass in the mix, the clever interplay between the bass & the other instruments... it's all GOLD I tell ya! Pure GOLD!!!

(shoes by Denson)
 
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#257
Mike Sorr said:
Mine was unquestionably Steve Harris. Funny story, Steve was an influence before I even knew who he was. I had a friend who was a drummer in a metal cover band back around 1981-82. I wasn't really playing any instrument seriously back then, just fooling around on guitar a bit with no direction, but I knew I wanted to play music. His band, Prowler, opened their set with Ides of March/Wrathchild. I had never heard of Iron Maiden and barely knew what a bass was. But when his bass player ripped into the opening notes of Wrathchild, I was hooked. I had to play bass. I went and bought a 1978 Precision Bass that a friend's dad was selling for $300, picked up the albums Iron Maiden and Killers and wore the grooves off the vinyl until I could play those lines better than Prowler's bass player. I became a Steve Harris fanatic...which eventually became a bit of a problem that I had to train myself out of.

This is where it all started for me...
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I bet yer buddy's Dad wouldn't have sold you that bass if he knew you were going to defile it with the devil's music!
 
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#259
jalapejoe said:
My two guys are NOT the greatest bass players but my uncle use to play quite a bit of them when I was young and that is what got me into bass big time. Gene Simmons KISS and Mel Schacher GFR. For Mel it was that song Inside Lookin Out
that bassline where he just slides down really low, holy smokes that just blew me away, coolest thing ever! Gene mostly his menacing look and prowess on stage, liked the music at the time too (was 9 in 1980)


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Hold your head high brother!!! You're like, the third person to offer up this combo! Mel Schacher is a total badass who doesn't get nearly enough credit, and Gene Simmons did one helluva job of playing exactly what their songs needed... and he did it with emmer effin' STYLE!!!
 
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