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Why we love playing bass.

#41
JeremyhilaryPhd said:
It was all Paul McCartney for me. I love the Beatles and when i saw that Hofner, I just lost it
Click to expand...

Same here. I wanted, for some unknown reason, to play the violin when we were given the chance for beginning band or orchestra in the 4th grade. Violins weren't cheap in the late 50s but clarinets were, and it was my mother's instrument during her teen years of WW2. Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman... you get the picture. I gave it a good shot for a couple of years, but I really wanted that violin.

When the Beatles made their U.S. TV appearance in 1964 on the Ed Sullivan show, Paul McCartney's violin-shaped Hofner bass and that too cool to describe sound and that was it for me. There was my "violin" all along. Thereafter, I always found myself listening more for the bass in any band. Still do.:bassist:
 
#42
Sounds as if we have a pattern here. Here's my version. But is it possible you could apply a similar structure to players of any instrument, just changing the names of the heroes?
1. Like everyone else and their granny in the 60s I had a shot at playing guitar.
2. Later on (much later, in my case) there was a gap for a bass player in a band my friends were starting. I thought "Why not?".
3. I loved the sound.
4. I listened properly to familiar music and realised what I'd been hearing for years. McCartney leading the Beatles. Jamerson on everything but particularly on "I Was Made to Love Her".
5. That's the hill I'm going to start to climb.
 
#43
Yes, I also started playing guitar and in the bands I was in my teens we could never get somebody with a bass, or somebody that could at least follow a song with the bass.
So I went to a music shop, traded my crappy guitar (plus @$100) for a Fender Musicmaster bass and within a couple weeks I got a call from a band that was looking for a bass player who could sing harmonies. And it was a band with paying gigs, something new to me.
After a while I was in love with the grooves, as I began to hear the beauty of the lower notes and their purpose in a band.
 
#44
When I first thought about playing bass I thought there was no use, I didn't understand the truth behind why most people pick up a bass, I used to think "you can't really hear it, it's not flashy it's usually dull and boring" I was COMPLETELY wrong!' I didn't know what I was talking about until I heard Flea. Flea's baselines are what persuaded me to try bass and I love it, I play bass because I enjoy the bass lines I can create and i enjoy the different sounds and emotions that you hear/feel from a bass just as much as guitar.
 
#45
I love the feel of the thick strings (I play fingerstyle). Guitarstrings just feel flimsy to me in comparison, I like the feel of digging in and the instrument fighting back.

I love the simplicity of not having to tap-dance on a lot of pedals/stompboxes. It's just plug and play.
 
#46
Everybody's got their experiences here, and the most significant (IMHO) come from TBers from the '60s!
I love you guys (ok: in manly/musicwise way, right?!:D)...

I play post thrash metal and, even if I got (from a few
yr on only) excellent (IMHO) basses, I do need head &
cabinets able to kick @$$ and a bunch of stomps in my
pedalboard.

My beloved younger brother (who actually taught me to
play the bass) is much better than me, and enjoys funk
and nearly no fx at all. But I've to get thru a double 7er
downtuned guitars attack, and still have to "kill'em all"...
So here I am: fingerplayin', lookin' for deepest/eviliest
lowend that is, headbangin', backsingin' and jumpin' on a
s#itload of wreckin' pedals!

PS: please forgive my anger... it's a really bad moment in my life, I'm livin' right now... I'm just stickin' to my maple necks!

Ultra low end forever men:ninja:

Cheers,
Wallace
 
#48
The raw aggressive power of the bass. Man we shake walls. Besides in Funk Music the bass is out front, and the bass players get the girls.
 
#49
Me and my best friend in high school (no music experience) decided we were going to start a band. He chose the guitar... I chose the bass... We don't play in a band anymore but bass is what I started on and I always feel more comfortable on the bass in a band setting than guitar. I am a pretty competent guitar player but I am a WAY better bassist.

And in this small town and the local metal scene I think I am one of like 3 bassists that I know of. All the other bands have guitar players borrowing other people's bass lol.
 
#50
When I first started, it was 1981. I was at a friends house, he was trying to start a band. He played guitar. His dad had a bass, and these two HUGE Kustom tuck & roll cabs, and he let me try it out.

One not was all it took. The whole room shook, my pant legs moved, my teeth rattled.

I still have that boner.
 
#51
I was very young my Dad played guitar and his best friend played bass.They used to get together on Thursday nights in the living room and play country music. The bass was a Fender P and the amp was first in the case later it got switch for a Fender Bassman that was the first time I felt the notes in my chest. Even though he played with a pick and pretty clacky (honky tonk music) the sound and feel of the notes were noting like the guitar not to mention he was always smiling and having a great time which I related to the bass. He would sometimes leave it at the house and though we were forbidden to touch it you know my little hands couldn't wait to have that bass in them. Of course with no amp I couldn't get it to shake the floor which was disheartening but, I knew that was what I wanted to play. So bass was part of music class so I signed up thinking it was the bass guitar it wasn't it of course was an upright which I started playing at 9 years old left handed force to play righty didn't get my first bass guitar till I was 11 been rocking the 4 strings ever since. I'm going to be 50 freaking four this year. There isn't a day goes by that I do not pick up the bass to noodle if only for a few minutes it will always be part of me.
 
#54
While playing "Willie goes round in circles" yesterday with the "new" drummer on my fretted 5...
I was totally digging this new drummers pocket, and all the space it allowed me to syncopate ever so slightly.
Then i think back to our last drummer, how we treated most songs like "Little Feat" type rhythm experiences and my main axe back then was 6 string fretless.
Same song, same band, different drummer, different bass.
I love to develop relationships with the drum beats and get so tight you couldn't slip a dime in!!!
 
#55
When I was baby, before I could walk, my parents had a big console stereo that had some form of a subwoofer in it. It had massive bass response. I used to pull up to the stereo and bounce to the bass line. As I grew older, I was always trying to figure out a way to get more bass from my stereo. I built custom speaker enclosures and used external power amps to get more bottom end.

When I started driving, I began installing "ghetto blaster" stereos in my friends cars as well as my own. I attended "db drag races" where the bass would often times blow the windshield out of the car.

No other stringed instrument has the sheer power of the bass. It's the part of the music you FEEL. It makes you bob your head and sway from side to side.

Bass has been in my blood since before I can remember. So sad I waited till I was 38 to begin playing. But I'm hooked now. It's one of the great joys in life!
 
#56
Bass worked out well for me. I was a guitarist, but a band with a good friend of mine needed a bass player and he thought I'd fit in great (no longer with this band which is too bad). The next day I went out and bought a bass and started playing around with it a lot. I'm a pretty good guitarist and became a pretty good bassist too, trained in classical playing and jazz for seven years, been playing for nine.

Eventually, I just got to the point where the bass kind of suited me better as a musician. I felt like I could express myself better on the bass, and while my guitar skills are fairly good every person I know prefers how I sound on a bass. In general I feel more comfortable on a bass. I think everyone that plays multiple instruments has one that really does it for them, and the bass is just that for me.
 
#57
Bach, Beethoven and one cut on the Exodus Soundtrack called "Escape". Sounds like a full complement of Dble Basses, like ten, bowing this huge swell.

I think fundamentally we are attracted to the frequency range or sound of an instrument. Sometimes it seems we are attracted to the function we hear that instrument provide however unconscious that perception.

That being said, I was surrounded by Motown, early British Invasion, Jazz and Classical. I've been playing since 1966.

So. My girlfriend played first cello. She asked me to play bass and join the 9th grade orchestra. So is that the reason? :) I'd rather not discuss miniskirts and proper cello playing posture.
 
#58
JeremyhilaryPhd said:
It was all Paul McCartney for me. I love the Beatles and when i saw that Hofner, I just lost it
Click to expand...

The first bass I ever saw up close (and touched) was an old violin bass my Uncle had. I was helping my cousins move and I saw that in the moving truck. I don't know if it was a Hofner but I thought it looked cool & felt cool. I ended up playing bass a few years after that.

JayfromDeeKay said:
I love the feel of the thick strings (I play fingerstyle). Guitarstrings just feel flimsy to me in comparison, I like the feel of digging in and the instrument fighting back.

I love the simplicity of not having to tap-dance on a lot of pedals/stompboxes. It's just plug and play.
Click to expand...

And this is mostly what got me back into playing bass! :cool:
 
#60
JayfromDeeKay said:
I love the feel of the thick strings (I play fingerstyle). Guitarstrings just feel flimsy to me in comparison, I like the feel of digging in and the instrument fighting back.

I love the simplicity of not having to tap-dance on a lot of pedals/stompboxes. It's just plug and play.
Click to expand...

real guitarist's dont use pedals. i use way more pedals when playing bass.
 

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