Choosing bass over guitar

[Barking Spiders]

I like playing guitar and bass equally but is there anyone here that used to play or tried out the guitar but preferred the bass. If so, what swung it for you?

[FuNkShUi]

I started on guitar. Started learning bass. Went back to guitar. Got asked to play bass in a band.
Wasnt too keen as i thought of it as "just following the chords".
Had a lesson which opened my eyes and ears to the possibilities of what a bass could be and haven't looked back since.
I still play guitar in a duo, but bass is 100% my main instrument

[Mattpt85]

I started on guitar for a couple of years then tried bass and never looked back.
Just felt right and much preferred the sound

[bonzodog]

I played bass in bands from 15 till 18 then swapped to guitar all through my 20s till I stopped playing.
After marriage and starting a family I got asked to go back to playing in a band a few years ago but only vacancy was for a bassist . Within minutes it felt like I was back to what I enjoyed most and now wish I had continued as a bass player after my teens.

[RhysP]

I went the other way. Started out playing bass & played nothing else for many years.
Got into guitar after I stopped gigging as I find that bass is a pretty boring instrument to play on it's own.

[fretmeister]

I play both.

I started on guitar and then offered to help out in a woodwind school band on bass and then started realising it was a very different instrument.

If I had to stick with 1, I'd stick with bass. There is just something about it, controlling the feel of a piece of music. Being in the background a bit, but still being far more important than many non-players realise.

It's also so easy to sit in with a huge variety of music. Almost everything has a bass part of some kind. Might be piano, double bass, tuba etc etc. But there is always something to play.

[uk_lefty]

Started on bass for usual reasons, all my mates at school played guitar, I could write lyrics but was no singer... So bass it was! Later took to guitar after a chance encounter with an ex pro guitarist who told me to learn guitar so that I understood chords, he was shocked I hadn't started on guitar. Bought an acoustic and have done some duo stuff where I have played guitar but always have and always will considered myself a bass player who owns a guitar, not a bass or guitar player.

[tonyquipment]

Started as rhythm guitar ... With a friend who also played rhythm guitar..

Made no sense to have two people mashing away the same chords...

So I said okay. I'll play the bass. Which was a case of root notes but that suited me fine. Then figured out you can play more than just the root note and started experimenting with octaves and walking.

I still like mashing away dem chords though.

[xgsjx]

I started on keys, got a guitar, then got a bass. Bass was my fave instrument to play for a long time, but as of recent, I've found keys more fun.
Whilst I'm a competent enough guitarist, it's never been a more fun instrument to play than bass.

[Cat Burrito]

I play both having spent the majority of my playing career as a bassist. I got more into guitar circa 2006 because I was working with a multi-instrumentalist songwriter and wanted to stretch out. I reverted back to being a bassist when life dictated I cut my musical outgoings but wound up auditioning for a guitar gig a couple of years ago simply because I liked the band.

I think what many musicians fail to understand is that just because you play one doesn't mean you can play the other. I had to work really hard to not sound like a bassist playing guitar and even had a year plus of lessons with exactly that remit attached to them. I enjoy both now. Bass is perhaps more natural but I like the fact I have to work at guitar and do get good feedback from audience members about my guitar playing these days.

[BigRedX]

I started on guitar, but I was always interested in all aspects of making music so I wanted to be able to play as many instruments as possible. I consider myself to be a composer first and foremost so the instruments I play are simply a way of creating and performing my music. Over the 40 or so years I've been in bands, I've played guitar, bass and synth at various times depending on what the bands that I wanted to be in needed. These days I mostly play bass because it's easier for a musician of my abilities to find a decent band playing bass rather than guitar or synth.

Edited September 6, 2016 by BigRedX

[Cato]

I started out teaching myself on a battered student classical someone gave me.

Got my first bass at 15 played bass in bands for a couple of years but when I got to uni I kind of fell into playing guitar and doing lead vocals (I've never been able to sing and play bass simultaneously, some would suggest I've never been able to do either seperately).

I've spent most of my time in bands playing guitar, but I never stopped thinking of myself as a bass player.

I certainly enjoy the bass more and I can do a lot more with it these days than just thrashing out chords to generic indie tunes, which, in hindsight is how I spent quite a lot of my musical 'career' in my 20s and early 30s.

Edited September 6, 2016 by Cato

[Trueno]

I've been messing with guitars for 45 years and still not much cop at it. I still have a couple because I can play a few chunky chords or cack-handed fills if I'm recording. I've spent thousands (and thousands) of hours playing various instruments over the years... if I'd spent all that time practising guitar I'd be quite good at it by now. There is something deep in my psyche that prevents it.
I think it might be...
1. A guitar has two strings too many... and funny tuning so you can't quite repeat the same patterns all over the fretboard (like you can with a bass). Note... I've only ever played four string bass
2. All the instruments I play (woodwind and bass) are monophonic... clearly playing one note at a time is enough for me
3. Too many damned guitarists to compete with anyway
4. I've always thought the bass player was the coolest guy on the stage... even cooler than the sax player.

[BrunoBass]

I started on guitar when I was 14, learned a bunch of chords and started writing songs. 30 years on that's as far as I've got on guitar and it's all I still do. The difference is I'm now 47 and I play my songs in pubs and cafes. To me the guitar is a tool for writing songs, and I've never had the desire to be a 'guitarist'.

Bass however is a different thing altogether. I couldn't afford a bass guitar until I started work at 17 so I used to tune the strings of my £10 junk shop acoustic down and play along to bass lines on records. As soon as I got a bass I joined a band and applied myself to being the best bass player I could possibly be. I do have a desire to be the best I can be and that's what keeps me going, even if I know my skill/talent level hovers around mediocre. So I guess developing an affinity with an instrument and feeling the desire to improve for the sake of playing is what lead me to choose bass over guitar.

[ezbass]

I picked up the guitar when I was about twelve and was ok, come my mid-twenties I wanted to get more work (guitarists are ten a penny after all), so I switched to bass, which I've always loved the sound of. Wouldn't you know it I was then being asked to play guitar! Anyway, I went back to the six string razor and got quite good IMO (Musicians Institute course and all that) gigged a fair bit, but was never really happy as I always felt others were much better and natural at than I was, so, at forty, I went back to the bass and haven't looked back since. Mrs Ez has said I'm a much better bass player than a guitarist (although I still play and own two) and I feel far more at home with the bass.

Edited September 6, 2016 by ezbass

[Roger2611]

I started on guitar at the age of sixteen, I wanted to play bass but second hand basses were harder to find back then so I ended up with a "cracking" Satterlite Strat. I got my first bass about 6 months later

[luckydog]

I started as a guitarist, but the endless stream of women throwing themselves at me wore me out. Rather than give up playing, I switched to bass. That fixed it overnight, and I never looked back. Whenever I get the urge to play guitar, I think of those dark times and how my humble bass saved me from becoming a withered wreck.

Thank you for listening.



LD

[Geek99]

I started with a cheap Strat but always felt vaguely dissatisfied. Two years later I bought a jap p clone and I just loved it's grace and beauty. The sixer just looked like a toy. Bass lets you be in control of the flow and underpin everyone ; you fatten the sound and lift your partners out of "weedy acoustic world"
Bass makes people dance ; that's why my sound check is disco inferno or groove is in the heart

[mcnach]

[quote name='Barking Spiders' timestamp='1473161996' post='3127494']
I like playing guitar and bass equally but is there anyone here that used to play or tried out the guitar but preferred the bass. If so, what swung it for you?
[/quote]


I started out on guitar. I was not amazing but I could play a bit, but I never had any interest in playing live or bands. I tried the band thing but I found it difficult to find reliable people and I just wasn't bothered. Recording at home was enough, with the very rare occasion where I'd end up on a stage for a bit somewhere.

I bought a crappy bass, because the recordings sounded better with some bass in the background going dum dum dum dum... but I never really cared.

Then one day I ended up at a work event thing where we had a bit of a jam... but no bass player. I took the bass and gave somebody else my guitar. I knew the drummer as we had jammed a lot together... and found that we could communicate well... and suddenly bass was a bit more fun. Instead of going dum dum dum dum following the chords, I was just playing whatever I wanted and watching the drummer for changes etc... and I ended up leading, with the guitarist playing wonderful stuff that I could not come up with.
That was fine, when it was about 10 of us between players and people sitting down... then the rest of the people started to arrive. This was at a function room in a hotel. And they wanted to dance. So... we provided the music. And THAT is when I fell in love with bass. I had a blast, and loved the ability to play with the rhythm and make people respond to it. I was so lucky to have such a good drummer...

So after that I went and bought a 'real' bass. And I started paying attention. And I had to play with another drummer, live, so I started joining bands... and I haven't looked back. I still play guitar but very rarely.

I cannot believe that I ignored bass for so many years. Playing bass led me to play in bands as it's not as good an instrument to play alone by yourself, and that led to a lot of fun in the fast 7 years or so, including meeting my girlfriend who started out simply as a fan of the band who'd appear often at our local gigs.

And that's the story.

[pintspiller]

Competent guitarist. Played bass on my demos. Formed a band with another guitarist, filled in until a bassist could b found. Ended up lumbered. As much as I like playing guitar, the only way I have played in bands for 20 years has been on bass

[Hobbayne]

I started on bass and picked up the guitar about 8 years later. Hearing how the major and minor chords worked together made me appreciate how bass lines were constructed. Still prefer the bass though.

[Woodinblack]

I am not a bad guitarist. Certainly as good as a lot I see in cover bands, and I still have guitars.

I just find the bass more fun and feel more at home with it.

[josie]

I only ever wanted to play bass - as soon as I found out (age about 14) that there was more music in the world than my parents' taste for Bach and Mozart, I just somehow intuitively [b]knew[/b] that the bass was the base / backbone / most important instrument in the band. A lot of what I've enjoyed doing in other areas of my life has had a similar back room / engine room / mostly invisible / hold everything together role. (Try being Secretary of an Industrial and Provident Society, aka a co-op.)

When I finally (age 59) summoned up the courage to get my first guitar, it was a 6-string acoustic - because it seemed obvious and versatile and a safe choice (and because on the day I went in to Johnny Roadhouse in Manchester they had an utterly gorgeous, ridiculously cheap 2nd-hand Faith Venus who jumped off the wall and told me she was coming home with me). After about 6 months of learning chords and struggling to find songs I liked that were simple enough for me to actually play, I reminded myself that I had only ever wanted to play bass - found my wonderful GMR and have barely touched the Faith since.

I'm surprised at how many good guitar players tell me they think playing bass must be harder. They have to learn whole chord shapes and deal with the G / B string jag on the fretboard, I play one note at a time and can move any shape anywhere, even on a 5-string. If I get out of my depth in a fast-paced jam I can pare it back to root notes and still maintain the link / foundation role.

But the bottom line is just instinct, gut-and-bone-marrow, I love playing bass.

[highwayman]

I became disinchanted with the guitar when I realized that I could say nothing with it that my favourite players (Billy Gibbons, George Lynch, Richie Kotzen +) hadn't already done & without their natural ability.
Whilst still new to the bass, I have a clear sound & style in my mind that I intend on achieving that, while maybe not reinventing the wheel, will be individually mine. That gives me a greater sense of anticipation than the guitar did.

[ivansc]

June 1954 got a guitar for my tenth birthday. September 1954 got a gig playing a borrowed banjo in a trad jazz band.
1962 Moved to Cambridge and couldnt find a gig playing banjo so I bought an electric guitar and amp. Started playing lead guitar in a RnR band.
1963 we got a really good guitar player so I bought a 1962 Fender Precision off a pal and played bass from then on.
1970s I had a side project going called the Kebab Brothers (we were all pretty overweigh at the time) in which I switched between guitar and bass.
Since then I have pretty much played whatever was required. Electric bass in The Saints, an old 60`s band I play in, and guitar mostly for my own stuff.
I just cant stick with one over the other and dont suppose I ever will.
Hand and shoulder arthritis means I aint the player I once was but I still get by OK.

Edited September 7, 2016 by ivansc