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Why did you start playing bass?


Naetharu
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It's funny it seems most were either pushed into it as there was no one else wanting to play bass or ended up doing it because there was already a guitarist, I was totally the opposite, I started on guitar because I couldn't find a bass I could afford, I spent two years playing the guitar (a £25.00 Satellite Strat copy) before I found a £50.00 un-named Precision, the rest....they say, is history!

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I was 16 and the band at the time couldn't find a bass player - I was playing rhythm guitar. The lead guitarist also had a Hofner bass guitar, so I asked if I could try it - he said OK and within seconds I knew that I had found my instrument.

I'm now 63 and I still play Bass.

Chris

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Because I wasn't allowed to play drums when I was 12. Had absolutely no interest in guitar (and still don't) and my mates dragged me to see The Hamsters in a local pub. The bass player had this massive trace elliot stack and a really scooped sound that shook the foundations. He grooved so hard and I just I just loved the sheer size of the bass sound. Job done. Next week I had my 1St bass. A week later I was in my first band.

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[quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1450474442' post='2933272']
Because I wasn't allowed to play drums when I was 12. Had absolutely no interest in guitar (and still don't) and my mates dragged me to see The Hamsters in a local pub. The bass player had this massive trace elliot stack and a really scooped sound that shook the foundations. He grooved so hard and I just I just loved the sheer size of the bass sound. Job done. Next week I had my 1St bass. A week later I was in my first band.
[/quote]
I had the opposite problem, when I was twelve my dad wanted me to play drums.

He had decided he wanted to manage a band and forced my three brothers and me to take up instruments. He had decided I was going to be the drummer, but I was feeling rebellious (a dangerous thing against such a bully) and didn't want him to have it all his own way (if it had been up to me I would have had a radio controlled monster truck). I was really into Iron Maiden and Motorhead, so bass made sense to me. I suggested it and, as he hadn't even considered the bass, he agreed.

I still want a radio controlled monster truck.

Edited by KingBollock
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[quote name='Naetharu' timestamp='1450369328' post='2932129']
Hi folks,

I was just reading another thread which got me to thinking about why I took up playing bass in the first place. It's funny really, since its not an obvious instrument to go for. I guess for me it arose as an interested after seeing lots of live music and being really impressed by a few of the players. Also, I think bass seemed a little more 'exotic' than guitar, which was played by everyone and their mother.

So, if you feel like sharing I'd be really interested to hear what reasons you had for taking up bass in the first place?
[/quote]

Actually I started on both bass and guitar, but like you I realized some time ago that bass was where it was at for me. The big fat sound, the beautiful lines, and yes, that not everyone does a bass. I've never looked back. I still have a couple of my old guitars hanging around. I pick them up every now and then.

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When I first began appreciating music and buying records in my teens, my dad had a half decent Ferguson record-player that, unlike many; actually delivered plenty of low-end.

When I was around 16, that record-player became mine and by this time I found I was always following the bass-line in any music that I heard. The low notes really inspired me. I'd never even seen a bass guitar up close at this point, let alone actually tried playing one, but my cousin was a keen guitarist and I remember being unimpressed at the tendency for guitar strings to break at the least provocation. So guitar was definitely not for me - far too fragile!

I bought my first bass back in 1981 and been playing on and off ever since.

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I had no intention of playing bass...or any other instrument. When I was at school (some 30 years ago!) my mates had a band but couldn't get a bass player and they went to the effort of buying a bass from an auction and turned up at my house with it and told me to give it a go. I loved it!
The school band didn't work out so I auditioned for a band but unknown to me they were one of the top covers bands in my hometown at the time and I got the job. I didn't rate myself from the beginning and I lacked belief as i was still learning it but the band I joined said I had a natural feel and groove and I did find it easy to pick up basslines... the rest was history. That instrument has introduced me to so many people and I've formed so many friendships from it over the years and its taken me to some great places. I love and respect the bass and my journey isnt over yet...long may it continue! Oddly enough the lads that got me that bass guitar have never played since that school band but i've kept going.Whenever we meet up now we always laugh about it...not bad for a boy that wasn't interested in playing Bass :i-m_so_happy:

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Mate got a 6-string for Christmas. He got bored of it mainly because he broke two strings immediately and had no Bert Weedon Play In a Day type book to show him chords etc. I sat downstairs one night while he was entertaining his girlfriend upstairs and plonked away on the E and A strings along to Never Mind the Bollocks. Realising that I was playing something vaguely resembling what was on the record thought I'd better try a proper bass out. Went to the shop a few days later. Sat down with this long-necked heavy monster. That was the bass, not the shop assistant. Don't remember the brand, only remember it being red. Plucked the E string.

THRUUUUUUMMMMMMMM.............

Oh man, I'm having some of that!

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[quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1450645095' post='2934596']
And now a guitar has two more strings than a guitar!
[/quote]
And now I play guitar more than bass.....weird! One of these days I'll catch up and have as many strings as all the modern players!

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Started on guitar, joined up with three others in the hall of residence I was in to form a band, which gave us two guitarists and a third member who could switch between guitar and keyboards (and sing, talented git). So I started playing basslines on the bottom strings of the guitar and then went out and bought a bass.

I did have a couple more abortive attempts to be a guitarist with a band, but finished up as a bassist full time, with the only guitaring I do being to accompany Mrs Zero in an acoustic duo, because she lets me. She might just be being kind.

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[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1450428181' post='2932608']
So the majority of us took up bass because it was the only instrument left in our first bands?

... doesn't say much about our instruments appeal does it :blink:
[/quote]

Some yin to balance out the yang. I took up bass coz I really wanted to play bass. As a kid I did a lot of singing in a church and gospel youth choirs. When my voice broke in early teens it was "Hello Mr Bassman", which I really, really enjoyed. So I started to listen to the bass in ther Rock music I had. When I was about 15 I convinced my brother to take me along to the rehearsal of his cover band (he played drums). The bassist played a Black and white Ricky with (irrc) chequerboard binding (although I could be making that last bit up). I was mesmerised by that bass and a just watched and listened to him playing all evening. From that moment on it had to be bass.

After a couple more years of constant parent pestering I got a bass for my 18th birthday and have been playing bass since.

It wasn't til 10 years later that I bought myself an acoustic guitar and started to learn 6 string.

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Like many of us, I suspect, I always liked the low end. I spent the summer holidays in 1967 mainly at my best friend's house, playing Monopoly and listening to music. We used his dad's hifi, and for the first time, I was able to hear the bass properly. In 1970, I moved to a technical school nearby, and some of the guys had a band. This was the first time I'd ever seen electric instruments in the flesh. The bass player was using a hollow Les Paul shaped Framus Star bass. It was a Will Smith/Independence Day moment - "I just got to get me one of these!
Was eventually good friends with that bass player, and even owned that bass for a couple of years.
Never stopped since.

Edited by Telebass
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I am a born again bassist :) I played guitar from mid-teens until I left university, so through most the 70s, which was followed by a musical void until my mid 40s 'mid life crisis' came along. By that time I had started to listen to and appreciate music in a different way and I thought it would be nice to pick up playing music again, but this time with bass. I bought myself a Peavey starter kit - played every day for a week, then every week for a month, then it sat in the corner gathering dust. Couple of years later I decided to go for it again, practiced like mad, jammed with some other guys in the same position, then joined another lot who were better than me. Had my first paying gig at 50, that was 8 years ago. Feels like a small piece of me that was missing all those years is back in place.

I would say that playing bass and being in bands has changed my outlook on music completely. Rarely do I sit down and listen to recorded music these days, certainly not with the intensity that I used to. My enjoyment comes from the process of a bunch of people being on stage and making music together - whether it is me and one of my bands or watching other bands live. I get to hear enough recorded music to point me in the right direction, but to see it recreated live is what it is all about as far as I am concerned. Discounting local pub bands I went to 30 gigs this year :)

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