Why did you start this?

[chris_b]

The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks, Pretty Things and Animals were a bad influence on everyone in the 60's, and I was going to the party.  I was going to be rich, cool and famous. In  any order!

 

The  Spanish guitar my parents bought me had an action you could fly a plane under. I couldn't press all 6 strings down at the same time, so no chords, just single notes. A friend and I got together to play songs and all I could do was single notes. He showed me the bass lines and hey presto, turns out I could do that. The penny dropped and my course was set.

 

An electric bass (Framus Star Bass, small body) followed the next year, an amp and my first band followed the year after. Two years after that I was a professional musician. Many decades have passed and I'm still fired up every time I pick up my basses (Sadowsky and Mike Lull).

Edited Wednesday at 21:35 by chris_b

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

At the time, I thought of myself as unteachably inept at any sort of physical skill – I was crap at sports, a risk to myself and others in a workshop and had displayed a spectacular lack of musical ability throughout my childhood. I figured trying to play an instrument again would just be setting myself up for embarrassing failure. 

 

I still feel 'imposter' syndrome about my bass playing. It feels like I've got away with this huge bluff.

[Skinnyman]

This journey, into bass playing? What made you pick up that first bass at the start of this long and winding road?

When I was about 6 or 7 I heard Bert Kaempfert’s A Swingin’ Safari and Ladi Geisler’s bass just captivated me. From that day I wanted to play bass - wind forward forty years and my mid-life crisis finally gave me the impetus to actually learn…

 

Do you still have the same fire and enthusiasm? Do you still love it?

 

I still love it but the enthusiasm to play has been tempered by the realisation that I’m not actually very good and I now spread my lack of talent thinly across lots of instruments rather than just being poor at only one. 

 

What has changed along the way? Your taste in music, taste in basses?

 

I used to be a bit of a music snob and wouldn’t listen to a lot of stuff. Learning to play and being in a few bands has widened my appreciation and there’s not very little I don’t like. 
 

What was the first bass? And what’s the latest? 

First bass was a Tanglewood that was quite decent to learn on. First “proper” bass was the Ric 4003 I’d always promised myself and which I got as soon as I knew I was going to stick with it. Since then dozens of basses have gone through my hands and all of them have now gone with the exception of that first Ric (which I will never sell) and a bitsa SG Nanyo Bass Collection that I’ve recently brought back from the brink and is now my go-to recording bass because it sounds so….fat-but-focused if that makes sense. 

[Dad3353]

1 hour ago, Jackroadkill said:

Relent!

 

Are you General Clamour..? 

 

...

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

I should have mentioned (confessed)  my latest bass - a Kay Gremlin.

 

I suppose starting on a Kay guitar, I feel sorry for them- I have a Kay Tulip too.

[Stub Mandrel]

2 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Are you General Clamour..? 

 

...

 

 

 

Or Sgt. Rock?

[police squad]

 

This journey, into bass playing? What made you pick up that first bass at the start of this long and winding road?

 

You drive me crazy by Shakin Stevens. No idea why but I'd played violin since the age of 6 and my brother and Dad played guitar so I'd always picked them up.

My brother was very supportive and helped me a lot when I got my first bass aged 13 (1981)

 

Do you still have the same fire and enthusiasm? Do you still love it?

No. No fire left in me now. I play in a couple of really good tribute bands with my mates but I actually get more excited about singing these days

 

What has changed along the way? Your taste in music, taste in basses?

Discovered Fender P basses about 7 years into my playing. Swapped my Manson 335 for a late 70s black with maple board P bass. There was the sound I wanted.

Always played rock and blues, The Police and The Jam and Duran Duean were my biggest influences on my playing, and still are

 

What was the first bass? And what’s the latest

First bass was a Tempest SG thing (a Kay with 2 pickups) Then a Fender Musicmaster, Then a Manson Explorer. I've had Musicman, Custom built stuff, Rickenbackers, Vintage Fenders, Gibsons and currently rocking 2 Warwicks in the U2 tribute, Harley Benton PB50 in the Police, HW built 4003 in the Jam and a JMJ Mustang for the blues/rock thing.

And my 73 P bass that I had for 35 years now

[Wombat]

8 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I still feel 'imposter' syndrome about my bass playing. It feels like I've got away with this huge bluff.

It’s all a huge bluff… 🙄

[Wombat]

43 minutes ago, police squad said:

 

What was the first bass? And what’s the latest

First bass was a Tempest SG thing (a Kay with 2 pickups) Then a Fender Musicmaster, Then a Manson Explorer.

Did you have ‘The Manson Explorer’ that was on their advertising at the time? The stripy one? There are (or used to be!) pictures of it on the Manson history page of their website. I have a Kestrel that’s a ‘twin’ woods wise.

[Jackroadkill]

9 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Are you General Clamour..? 

 

...

 

 

 

9 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Or Sgt. Rock?

 

General Incompetence, probably!

[snorkie635]

9 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Are you General Clamour..? 

 

...

 

 

Dorothy C Lamour?

[BigRedX]

12 hours ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

At around the same time, oddly, I also developed a sort of nagging and largely irrational anxiety about the prospect of learning to drive. Like, I was aware that this was a thing – a physical skill – I'd need to do, and I was concerned that I would turn out to be just as bad at that as I had been at everything else. I started thinking that perhaps I should try to learn to do something (play an instrument? juggle? knit?) to reassure myself that I was capable of learning something new.

 

I felt the same way when I initially started to learn to drive at 17, and as a result didn't learn properly until I was in my early 30s, although the fact that before then I wasn't in a position to afford to buy or run a car anyway may have had a lot to do with it. I quickly realised even though I did pass my test on the third attempt, I am actually a terrible driver with no road sense and therefore I don't drive and the roads are a much safer place as a result.

 

I'm also a terrible bass player (and guitarist and synth player) but the difference is that no one is going to die as a result of my poor instrumental technique. And, even if I say so myself, I think I'm a decent composer and therefore I have no hesitation about getting up on stage and playing, no matter how badly I might be doing it, because the songs will still shine through.

 

 

[ezbass]

4 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I am actually a terrible driver with no road sense and therefore I don't drive and the roads are a much safer place as a result.

If only more people were as self aware in this case. Well played, Sir. 👏👏👏

[EssexBuccaneer]

Well I discovered rock music through seeing guns n roses on MTV around 91 - I would have been 10-11 years old. I got one of those ‘everything you need’ electric guitar sets from Argos for Christmas that year, and I became a very mediocre rhythm guitarist over the years that followed. I wanted desperately to be a widdly, flashy lead player but lacked the willpower to consistently practice. I was a good enough rhythm player to join a metal band at 15-16 writing our own material and playing locally. 
 

At 17 we weee established on the local scene and our mates band’s bass player left. I got on well with them and they asked if I could stand in on bass until they found a replacement. I’d never played bass before but figured it’d be ok if I stuck to root notes and learned as I went along. It was a total revelation, and I never really went back to guitar. 
 

I vowed never to play covers because that was an admission of giving up on the dream. Except a couple of years later I received a great job offer which meant I had to quit playing live (shift work and regular rehearsals don’t match)

 

After 17 years climbing the ranks, the shifts ended as I moved into management and the first thing I wanted to do was start playing live again - and at 42 (at the time) playing covers in pubs sounded a lot of fun - and guess what?! It is!

 

What I enjoy about playing covers, is that it’s made me a better player. I used to write basslines for my own ability - so I progressed very little as I was never challenged. Learning ‘professional’ basslines has made me better at what I do - so now I’m just marginally above ‘barely competent’

[cetera]

18 hours ago, Rayman said:

What made you pick up that first bass at the start of this long and winding road?

 

Do you still have the same fire and enthusiasm? Do you still love it?

 

What has changed along the way? Your taste in music, taste in basses?

 

What was the first bass? And what’s the latest? 

My 1st proper gig was Adam & The Ants at Dominion Theatre in late 1981 on the Prince Charming Tou and I thought that the bassist Gary Tibbs was uber-cool. Then we had a family holiday to see my Uncle, Aunt & Cousin in early 1982 and discovered KISS, and more importantly Gene Simmons. I loved their music and Gene's persona was amazing.... and I loved his huge, growly bass tone. As soon as we returned to the UK I started guitar lessons and then moved over to bass..

 

Yep, I still have the same enthusiasm for the bass. It grounds me, I love the way it is the foundation of popular music and is the glue that holds everything together. Playing bass has also opened up the World to me. Playing in bands has taken me from Monaco to Scandinavia to Romania to Japan... and stages from the local 'Dog & Duck' to Tokyo Ariake Colisseum and Dynamo Bucharest football stadium. I'm incredibly grateful and humbled for those opportunities.

From discovering Gene Simmons used Spector in KISS' heyday, and then finding out that amazing white that Sting was playing on the Synchronicity tour was also a Spector it became my dream bass, though I didn't actually get my 1st one until around 1994 (a mint 'used' Brooklyn-era NS2 from the Bass Centre! Took me a year to pay off!). I've been a huge fan ever since.... as you've probably noticed

 

My taste through the 80's until the early/mid 90's was always heavy rock/classic rock. When grunge came along I wasn't particularly enamoured so my tastes widened into classic Motown/Philly, Funk, Prog, Pomp, AOR/Melodic Rock, Jazz-Rock and well written 'pop' music (ELO, 10CC, Supertramp, Steely Dan etc).

 

My 1st bass was a Kay Tulip. Action and sound was horrible but it started the journey and I soon got an Aria Cardinal CSB380 as a 1st proper bass.

My latest bass purchase is a wonderful Japan-market-only Spector Euro CST 4 in desert island/blueburst (see thread in 'Bass Guitars).

Edited yesterday at 09:25 by cetera

[Joe Nation]

I was never very musical as a kid - my sister played flute and violin to a moderately good standard, I had a couple of cousins who played cello, French horn and other things pretty well (one is now semi-pro in a folk trio). I dabbled with trombone in primary school and drums in high school but never did more than a couple of terms of lessons. Then when I started 6th form in the summer of '99, I went from a small rural school to a big-ish college in town and discovered other people. New friends, wider circles, socialising, pubs!

 

In our gang there was one guy who was a total metal head and wanna-be Steve Vai, another guitarist who was actually good (and very humble with it, he's now a pro tutor) and a drummer with Marfan's syndrome who we called Fingers. They needed a bassist and the only one we knew was into The Smiths and stuff like that, he wasn't interested but I asked him for some tips. First bass was a black Yamaha P-bass bought second hand with a massive combo (I think it was 100w and had a 20" cone, it was big enough to sit on without touching the floor, perfect for a beginner!). I was never really into metal and all I ever did was chug roots, but it was cool. We were called Chasin' The Dragon (I was too young and innocent to know what that meant at the time), I don't think we ever actually played a whole song all the way through! We spent a lot more time drinking than playing.

 

I drifted off into different circles after a few years but kept playing for my own amusement. I had a black and white Squier Jazz for a while, then a Jackson Kelly, gave fretless a go then gave it up, I had a Peavey thru-neck and possibly a couple of others, before gradually losing interest. Uni, jobs, wife, kids, mortgages came next and I finally picked up another bass (a Rockbass Fortress) again a couple of years ago. I dabbled here and there until the bug bit hard again a few months ago - I just traded up to a Squier CV60s Jazz and I realised why I never felt like I wanted to play the Fortress, it was so heavy and chunky, the Jazz feels so easy by comparison. I've even actually started to learn some music theory, instead of just learning songs by tab.

Edited yesterday at 09:41 by Joe Nation

[Geek99]

I was never encouraged to do music. My parents were both musical but just couldn’t be bothered 

 

I was inspired to bass by watching Adam Clayton at live aid. I’m no more talented now than I was then but I live the feeling of “filling out the sound” 

[police squad]

2 hours ago, Wombat said:

Did you have ‘The Manson Explorer’ that was on their advertising at the time? The stripy one? There are (or used to be!) pictures of it on the Manson history page of their website. I have a Kestrel that’s a ‘twin’ woods wise.

no I had a black one with white dots on it. Came from Livewire in Cardiff. It's also been owned by two other basschatters

 

[Jackroadkill]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

I'm also a terrible bass player

 

From the videos I've seen of your bands I don't think you've much to worry about in the playing stakes.  I wish I was as terrible as you!

[Franticsmurf]

As a nipper I'd been to my mates with a bunch of friends - my mate played bass and guitar in the school orchestra and the rest of those present, bar me, played instruments and or sang. I was handed the bass guitar when we started to jam. I liked being part of 'a band' and shortly after saw a bass guitar in a second hand shop. It was £17 - I have no idea what it was. By the time I'd saved up it had gone. Then, for my 16th birthday my dad bought me an electric guitar. I taught myself to play it and by the time I went to college I was writing songs with my best mate from school, who was a drummer (and had been with me on that jam session several years before). 

 

I played guitar in the first three bands I was in (playing predominately originals) but they got nowhere and I began to realise that everyone played guitar better than I did.  And also that we always had problems with the bass guitarists. I was offered a chance to play in a covers duo with another mate - he wanted a bass guitar player and by this time I'd picked up the 'bassics' while recording originals. I enjoyed the bass and when he suggested getting a drummer in I was suddenly in a band. Since then (that would have been about 1993/4) I have mostly played bass in the bands I've worked with. Occasionally I'd take on rhythm guitar duties and during a 3 year period in a 5 piece I'd swap bass and rhythm guitar roles with another member of the band. But I always came back to bass an always described myself as a bassist who plays a bit of guitar.  

 

I still have some of the fire - it depend on the music I'm playing and the people I'm with as I tend to feed of other people's enthusiasm. I'm currently learning a set of covers for a one-off dep for a mate and I'm struggling to get any 'fire' as I don't know most of the songs and none of them really inspire me to play. 

 

I changed in terms of attitude from 'whatever' (when I first started in a cover band - it was the attitude of the guitarist/singer to playing songs properly and it rubbed off on me as we were very busy) to 'I want to play my best on this' which is my approach to everything now. In terms of basses all that really changed was my self confidence in playing a big bass as I'm only 5'7" and in the early days I thought the 4-in-line headstock basses looked silly around my neck. Now I don't care. 

 

First bass was a Colombus Jazz which I used for recording and the occasional gig. Mine was a great bass - I loved the sound on tape and it played well enough that I learnt all the basic stuff on it. My latest bass is an Ibanez GR300EM, light weight for longer gigs and as a partner to my GSR205 5 string. 

[Leonard Smalls]

My mum was a piano teacher, so from about the age of 6 I played piano...

Then I heard "Hit me With Your Rhythm Stick"... And a bit later I went to my first proper "big" gig, Ian Dury and the Blockheads closely followed by The Clash on the London Calling tour and realised that bass was cool.

Then in 6th form we got a band together (me on keys) with our RE teacher to play some Barclay James Harvest and Dylan stuff as a pre-amble to a school showing of "The War Game" and Mike played on his brother's violin bass (it's your fault, @lurksalot!), which was the 1st bass I got to play. 

I gave up the piano, went to uni and got into The Funk; my flatmate had an old acoustic guitar with the two top strings broken so I used it to jam along to Bootsy and Parliament. As soon as I could play something vaguely funky I got together with the boys from Chestnut Avenue and we formed A Band - Dredd and the Badass Weeds and within a week we were gigging, me having borrowed a short-scale Gibson off Jez (later of MDMA then The Utah Saints). And the rest is history! They went off and had lots of musical success, while I moved to London and formed a bizarre punkfunk band who liked to dress funny. 

[Marvin]

My mates and I wanted to start a band when we were at college. I was left with the choice of bass or drums. I had nowhere to put a drum kit, so bass it was.

 

Bass was the first instrument I'd ever picked up and to this day I cannot play guitar. That's not, I can play a bit but not good enough to play in a band, I literally cannot play and have never played guitar.

 

So bass it was and still is. I did have a long break from my early 20s to my mid 30s where I didn't play at all. I'm glad I got back into it.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I just like spending lots of money on more instruments than I need.

[Lozz196]

19 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I just like spending lots of money on more instruments than I need.

Is the most honest Basschat answer

[Wombat]

Yes, but is he happy!