The Hat Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 For me it was Norman Watt Roy of Ian Dury & The Blockheads. Always very animated in his playing and I always feel he really feels that groove. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visog Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Chris Squire - tone, melody & musicality Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonybassplayer Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Initially got to be Slades Jim Lea then a few years after it was Geddy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassatnight Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 (edited) Derek Forbes, Mick Karn, Chris Squire and Bruce Foxton. Edited December 17, 2012 by bassatnight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve-bbb Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Squire Lea Lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Bruce Foxton, JJ Burnell & Glen Matlock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Steve Harris, John Entwistle, Cliff Burton and Mike Watt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Smalls Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 First time I noticed bass was when a lad at 6th form started playing in a band called the Action Transfers - he let me play his violin bass Then I heard Norman Watt-Roy and that was it, I gave up piano and got a mohawk together... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgraham Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Flea - Higher Ground intro alone made me decide I wanted to learn the bass. The subtle irony is that now I only play fretless and rarely slap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiltyG565 Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Flea. RHCP's later era stuff- californication to stadium arcadium. Not their best work, but it was enough to make me want to play. Let's hear it from the Flea fans! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si600 Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Steve Harris, and he's still better than me I was listening to some Less Than Jake for the first time in a while a week or so ago and Roger Manganalli is doing some nice stuff in the background, so I suppose that sort of Ska/Punk is what is really pushing me to change from playing straight 8ths to opening up my structure and I think I've got better for it. But that's only my opinion, the wife and the dog may disagree Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merlin Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 The girls up the youth club,seemed to like the local band,so why not...started to play bass.Sort of worked..after Bachman Turner Overdrive,great bass in there,it was the Whos,John E.And still is to this day still hearing lines and learning, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudewheresmybass Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Steve Harris and Neil Murray. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spike Vincent Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 JJ Burnel.Don't think I even knew what a bass was before then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mentalextra Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 [quote name='Spike Vincent' timestamp='1355303300' post='1896478'] JJ Burnel.Don't think I even knew what a bass was before then. [/quote] Me too, but I have gone off on some wierd tangents since the early days. Including a 25yr gap to get married, have kids and divorced etc. When I was 15yr old I worshipped the "yobbish" looking JJ and loved the sound of that bass. But it wasnt until I rediscovered the bass in later life and had the advantage of the internet that I found he was actually an accomplished classic guitarist before his strangler days? Very intelligent, from academic parents, very bohemian. Would love to read his biography not just the stranglers. I will also get around to reading Mick Karns at some point. Maybe Im on the "nice" list this Xmas for a change! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinball Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 It took me 40 years to get there but I blame lemmy. I think that after listening to a lot of Hawkwind, at high volume in the early 70's I developed a bass brain. Other influences were Jack Bruce and Andy Fraser. If I can't get "Free" tone out of my bass I'm not happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truckstop Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Chi Cheng. Huge sound, groovy as hell and cooler than the cold side of the pillow! Truckstop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChick Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 John Taylor made me discover a love of basslines.... but my final "push" from crossing the line between loving listening to bass to actually playing one was Ian Cattell, bassist from Brit Floyd. We went to a gig, was in the first row and I watched him intently all night, thinking 'I want to do that'. In the car on the way home I asked hubby "Would you mind if I learned to play bass guitar", he said "Go for it" and I did Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbayne Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Another vote for JJB and Foxton. Also Macca.after hearing Sgt Pepper for the first time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiamPodmore Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Specific songs that people played on are what did it for me. Cliff Burton on Master of Puppets, Flea on Zephyr Song, and Mike Kroeger on some of Nickelbacks heavier stuff. Liam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Dave Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Nobody. Seeing Slade on TV inspired me to want to become an entertaining musician but choosing bass as a main instrument was just a means to that end - mostly because other would be players I knew of the same age were more advanced than me on guitar and I figured I should carve my own niche with the differing instrument rather than try and catch them up. I have since become an admirer of many , many fine players - and I actively chose to copy lines by players Jim Lea - Geddy Lee and John McVie to help me learn the mechanics in the early days - but I've never had bass heroes. Never modeled myself on anyone. I figured rolling my own would be more satistying. All my musical heroes are songwriters. Artists - not craftsmen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benthos Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 I was always amazed by the sound of fretless bass, so for me it was Mick Karn and John Giblin before him. Danny Thompson on the double bass. Such a shame I rarely get to play either with my band :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockfordStone Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 strangely for me it was martin kemp of spandau ballet, i read his autobiography and it inspired me to take up bass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skol303 Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Cliff Burton. I was a metaller in my youth (still am deep down today - it never leaves you, like herpes! ) and he seemed like such an enigma in the scene at that time: the hippy image and of course those crazy solos. When bought 'Kill 'Em All' and heard Anesthesia for the first time I just thought to myself "Wow! I want to do that!!"... and so my obsession with bass begun. Through Cliff I also got into The Misfits and eventually Bach. Yeah, weird I know. Geezer Butler, Steve Harris and Dave Ellefson were also big influences. But Cliff, for me, was the daddy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkWJenkins Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 When I first heard Steve Harris playing on one of my parents old Maiden records (cannot for the life of me remember which though!) when I was about 10 years old, I knew I wanted to play bass, it just resonated with me for some unknown reason (even though I had no clue what a bass guitar was at that time). After convincing my parents to buy me a bass for christmas not long after that moment, my journey began. Still don't like Precisions though for some reason haha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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