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Why did you Start to play Bass?

#42
...hearing one player on three tunes...Jack Casady playing White Rabbit and Somebody to Love in '66 and '67, and The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil in '67 on the After Bathing at Baxter's album. I still own and listen to both of those albums, and can still remember the first time that I heard both of those tunes on AM radio, and the enormous impact they had on me, even through a crappy radio.

Then, after seeing the 'plane do that stuff in person a few times in '67 and '68, and being crushed by the impact of their for-the-times mammoth live sound...man, I just couldn't resist it after that, and the quest started for me in '68, when I bought my first P-bass...I've been chasing that man's impact, tone, and musical presence for years, too...

sign me a dinosaur still playing and still loving it...

RC a/k/a "notrt"
 
#43
I started to play bass because I liked the way the instrument sounded.

When I was a kid, my older brother played drums, guitar, and a little bass.

I wanted to be like him, so I tried guitar. I couldn't barre the F chord. He told me my fingers were too short and stubby, and that I would never be able to play guitar.

A couple of years later, my Dad's church split and all of the musicians left. Several of us kids decided to learn to play instruments, since we had no music. I started on drums, and eventually started playing bass when my bass playing friend quit coming.

Moved to Miscellaneous.
 
#45
I started on guitar at around 12 years old but didn't do much until my freshman year in HS. My senior year in HS I was getting this itch that wouldn't go away. I would stare at these four stinged beasts and go 'hmm..., I bet I could do something with one of them!' Then a girlfriend lent me this cassette tape. Iron Maiden Killers album. :eek: I was floored and that was it.
 
#46
This is a bit embarrasing...
I started playing classical spanish guitar when I was 7 years old, having my lessons at school. Then, I moved schools to find that my new school did not do guitar lessons. I did not play guitar for a couple of years because of this, then I decided to get back in to it when I was about 11, so I got a guitar tuition book. I had only ever played with my fingers, playing single notes in the classical style. The book I had bought was a rock guitar book and was all about playing chords. I just could not do it. However, there was one page at the back about bass, and with my 11-year-old intelligence, I thought that bass was just guitar played with your fingers. I had played ith my fingers on classical spanish guitar, so I thought: "Instead of guitar, I'll play bass". I received a cheap bass for my next birthday.
I never had a teacher, I just played tabs. The first things I played were blink 182 songs, because they are so simple. (I now hate blink 182 and have realised how rubbish they are). This progressed into more interesting lines, like Nirvana's "come as you are". After a few months, my playing progressed again, into scales and funk lines.
My biggest influences starting off were the guys out of the rock bands i liked, such as Nirvana. Nowadays, my influences are Mark King, Stanley Clarke and people who play grooving, tight funk lines.
 
#47
Shalom, man! I went to Israel 2 years ago- it was amazing. Do you like Orphaned Land?

I picked up bass because I was tired of guitar- I just couldn't dig it. Also, I'm a big guy- 6'7- and my hands could NOT fit on the tiny shortscale I got for my 13th birthday. So two years later I bought a crummy Squire P-Bass and Crate amp, and formed a band that would never play live, even after 2 and a half years of "existence."

Three years later, I still haven't found another band, or played live. :bawl:

Influences: Steve Harris, Roger Patterson, Ron Royce, Charles Mingus, Martin Mendez, Jack Bruce...too many others.
 
#48
I initially picked up a bass so that I could record some lines for some of my originals that I was recording on my computer. It was a cheap Squire P-bass and came with a 10 watt practice amp.

Fast forward a few years and I hear the afternoon DJ on a local station putting out a call for musicians to form a classic rock band. I answered (I had been playing guitar for about 25 years). Turns out that he and another guy were already the guitar players (although we did add a third guitarist later) so they asked me to play bass. I was hooked. Traded my old bass, 2 electric guitars, a 12 string acoustic and an old Peavey 12 channel mixing board from my current set up.

The whole time that I played guitar (I still do), I could never solo worth a d@&$ and my rythym wasn't all that great either. I though about switching to bass a few years ago but never did. Now I'm better on bass than I ever was on guitar. :hyper:
 
#50
In the beginning, I wanted to be a guitar player. I started taking lessons, but soon discovered that I couldn't play guitar clean enough because of my huge hands. My brother already played bass for like 3 years at this point, so I just switched over to bass lessons and started practicing on my brother's bass.
 
#52
What made me play bass? Money. I saw everyone and their brother learning guitar, drums and keyboards, so I figured that a good bassist could probably work constantly. I was right.
 
#53
well everyone played guitar and "sang" and i, for some reason still unknown to me, i always loved "that one awsome dude w/ that huge instrument, we know as a bass!, and i feel in love w/ the way that man put thump and held his own in the band and was the unsung hero thats my reason and i later found this man to be tim c from audioslave and RATM back then 4 years ago. thats my story and im stickin 2 it
 
#55
For me it was Holoween 78 or 79 I saw Kiss meets the phantom on TV and I thought Gene was the coolest thing since sliced bread, I would have been 7 or 8 yrs old. 15 I took up the bass in music class in high school and I thought Nikki Sixx was the coolest thing, not for his playing abilities, but the overall package. Now I am 34 and I still think Sixx is the greatest, but I also love Geddy, Flea,ect..
 
#56
I started on guitar in middle school...

My skateboard buddies formed a band but they consisted of a drummer and 2 guitarists who were better than me.

My main issue was not practicing a ton and being a lefty playing a right handed guitar. (I figured i would suck either way mind as well go with the majority) Well the picking hand was never up to par.

Well my friends band had a great bassist for our age (who is now a Berklee graduate). He never showed up, just to one or 2 practices and shows.. They needed a perminent bassist so they asked me to be their bassist. Their old bassist taught me some tunes and I picked right up. It was sooo much easier to pedal my fingers than use that stupid pick.

Best decision I made. I sold my guitar and Marshall half stack for a Ibanez SR-800 and Hartke head and cabinet and the rest is history!.....

Ironically, I have been broke ever since hehe.
 
#57
...But my story is that I started out on electric guitar. I always loved the way they sounded. soooooo evil with all that distortion :D
But, when I played, no matter how much I cranked the bass knobs (on the amp and dist), or lowered the tuning, it sounded too "high". Then I got a stereo with a sub, and quickly realized that the overly distorted guitars got nowhere without bass. So I decided that at the next oppertunity I got to get one, I would. Got a bass last summer and have never looked back.

I rarely play my guitar anymore, and when I do I feel like I'm gonna break it ;) Just recently found the low, fat and very omonous sound that I was looking for and couldn't be happier.

Now I just gotta find the perfect OD/Dist/Fuzz (somthin' that RUMBLES) and I'm set!
 
#58
I started playing rock drums but by the time I had gotten competent at that I had played and/or was taught enough of the scales and fundamentals that I have played most positions in a rock band.

My main inspiration for bass is Bruce Thomas from Elvis Costello & The Attractions.

I cannot however, sing lead. I am decent at back-ups.
 
#60
I was destined to play bass. Even as a little kid, whenever I would hear a song on the radio or on my brother's turntable, I would completely focus in on the bass line and not even hear anything else. When I would listen to stereo LPs, I'd tweak the balance as best I could to remove those annoying guitars and keys so I could just listen to the bass parts. Years later, when one of my college buddies suggested we form a band, I knew immediately which instrument I was going to play. Even now, I often determine the worth of a song simply by the bassline. I can't help it.
 

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