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why bass?
- Thread starter mikal
- Start date
If I never hear another distorted electric guitar in my life, that would be just fine with me. It's but one facet of the instrument that IMO had been already flogged to a little greasy spot a quarter-century ago.
Back before the dawn of time, when MTV actually played music videos almost all the time, and when I was in high school, they decided to celebrate International Guitar Month one year by showing a concert film every night of the month. I saw one night that they were going to show Iron Maiden's 'Live After Death', so I thought I would watch it; I only knew of Iron Maiden from a marching band member who had one of their tapes (Powerslave, specifically), but I'd never heard them.
STEVE EFFING HARRIS, YOU GUYS.
Now before all this, I had grown up on country & western music - what they call 'classic country' now, I guess - and some early pop once I found out other forms of music existed past C&W. I didn't think anything about bass, because I never heard it stand out or really do anything.
Until this film.
The dude is running around the stage like a bat out of hell, fingers flying across the strings. "Aces High", "2 Minutes to Midnight", "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" - I was completely blown away. The things he was doing on that bass, I didn't realize was even possible. Sure, if you compare it to someone like Victor Wooten or Michael Manring, it may seem simplistic, but I didn't know about any of those cats at the time. This was god-tier to me.
I recorded it when it came on again later that night, and played it until the tape broke (VHS, you young whippersnappers).
A few months later, for my seventeenth birthday, I got an Olympic 4-string bass from a local pawn shop. The thing must have weight about twenty pounds, and it had a hairline crack in the neck at the nut.
I got a copy of that Iron Maiden album from a friend's brother and learned almost everything on it.
It was all downhill from there.
STEVE EFFING HARRIS, YOU GUYS.Now before all this, I had grown up on country & western music - what they call 'classic country' now, I guess - and some early pop once I found out other forms of music existed past C&W. I didn't think anything about bass, because I never heard it stand out or really do anything.
Until this film.
The dude is running around the stage like a bat out of hell, fingers flying across the strings. "Aces High", "2 Minutes to Midnight", "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" - I was completely blown away. The things he was doing on that bass, I didn't realize was even possible. Sure, if you compare it to someone like Victor Wooten or Michael Manring, it may seem simplistic, but I didn't know about any of those cats at the time. This was god-tier to me.
I recorded it when it came on again later that night, and played it until the tape broke (VHS, you young whippersnappers).
A few months later, for my seventeenth birthday, I got an Olympic 4-string bass from a local pawn shop. The thing must have weight about twenty pounds, and it had a hairline crack in the neck at the nut.
I got a copy of that Iron Maiden album from a friend's brother and learned almost everything on it.
It was all downhill from there.
Keys are the hardest spot to fill. We're trying to do it right now. I started playing bass at 15 b/c my two friends in summer camp played guitar and it felt right immediately.
Look for another band!
Look for another band!
I was working for this guy when I was 13. I was his gopher, what ever he wanted done I did it. Waxing floors, break concrete, cut his lawn, I got to paint once in a while too. (He was a painter by trade)
Anyway, he had this 3/4 scale fretless that he was screwing around with one day when I came in for water. That was it...... I was hooked. He taught me the basics, and from then on I was working for lessons. Never looked back.
Oh, to fit in on TB the answer is --- Because it was right!
Anyway, he had this 3/4 scale fretless that he was screwing around with one day when I came in for water. That was it...... I was hooked. He taught me the basics, and from then on I was working for lessons. Never looked back.
Oh, to fit in on TB the answer is --- Because it was right!
At first? Purely to be in the band I wanted. They needed a bass player so I adapted from guitar.
Now I actually quite enjoy playing bass but only in a band situation, I find it really boring on its own.
Now I actually quite enjoy playing bass but only in a band situation, I find it really boring on its own.
I was...
A real answer to this would be I was listening to Anthrax with a buddy of mine when I was 12. Caught in a Mosh came on, I said "Holy crap, I want to do that!" and the rest is history. Irony being I still haven't learned Caught in a Mosh. :scowl:
I'm a fairly accomplished guitarist and keyboardist. I have played one or both of those instruments in several bands. Yet I have spent most of my performance time over the past 35 years as the bass player, at which I am equally proficient. Why forsake guitar and keys slots for bass? Because, so often, it is the forgotten, undervalued instrument in so many bands, taken for granted, and poorly executed. When someone who really understands the bass slot steps in and gets it done right, it literally turns heads and vastly improves a band, all other things being equal.
And, unlike some other instruments, there is never a shortage of bands who want you when you are a really good bass player.
And, unlike some other instruments, there is never a shortage of bands who want you when you are a really good bass player.
It feels right for me. Plus, Cliff Burton entranced me with the idea of taking the spotlight on my own terms: it isn't unusual for the bass to be in the background, but it can take the front just as easily. It's a chameleon instrument 
So many really good points. Music without bass? Outrageous!
The above quote is why I got away from bass when I was younger. I don't play along with albums, its not a lot of fun for me. I like to tinker with melodies, shapes, scales, modes. Just running them over and over soothes me. But, sitting in my parents basement playing alone wasn't as fun as even scaling an acoustic.
Now I'm a little older, with a little more cash. So, I bought a few pedals. Now, this is fun! Octaves, delays, envelope pedals! When I get bored with running those through my bass amp, I use an a b y pedal and send a signal out to my guitar amp through a few effects that create ambient sounds, and control the ambience with a volume pedal. It gives me a backdrop to jam on.
Well, this forum is great!
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Why bass? Because it gets the meat curtains flapping. Without bass making up for his sonic deficiencies, the lead guitarist would never, ever get laid.
