Dazed Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 As a child of the 70's, this has a lot to answer for and I still love it! http://youtu.be/IC7l3V1nhWc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Most of the "guitarists" I knew had guitars which lived in the corner of their room unplayed - didn't want to be like that but wanted to play an instrument - both the bassists I knew could actually play - no brainer. Also preferred bass lines to guitar solos... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RhysP Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 I couldn't afford a synthesiser, which is what I really wanted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andytoad Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 My best mate playing the gu**ar! I honestly thought two less strings would be less effort. Little did I know it would come to this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonestar Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 (edited) A shot of John Entwistle with a reverse firebird in front of a stack of Sunn speakers playing Won't Get fooled again Edited February 23, 2017 by lonestar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Queen. I grew up being totally engrossed by Brian May's guitar playing. I suppose that was the band I heard the most despite being exposed to such a wide range of music as a kid. Everything from The Everly Brothers to Iron Maiden, The Damned, Glen Cambell to Jeff Wayne. Then there was that other guy playing an instrument that looked like it'd far better fit me..and it sounded cool... really cool.. When humming a tune, it was always the Bass line I gravitated to. I'd never remember lyrics but I could easily pick out a Bass line when others couldn't. This is certainly the video that changed it for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjsTwqPW-p0 I recorded the televised version and as a teen proceeded to learn every note of the gig, even the wrong ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbayne Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 I really wanted to be a drummer. I nearly bough a kit but my mum wouldnt let me have one in the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 I never thought I'd end up playing the instrument even though I always loved the bass sound in any music I heard. I had given up on music having left one school just as it was becoming a significant part of the curriculum to go to another where it was a subject of choice. For lots of reasons I could not make it my choice then. Later, I tried to learn guitar from a Bert Weedon Play in a Day book. It turned me off the idea completely and I never thought about playing anything until I was away from home and earning on my apprenticeship. I used to hang with a group of brothers three of whom still lived at home, the other three all successful jobbing musicians. All of the three younger ones played, the youngest being the most versatile and the closest in age to myself. He loved drums however and when he and another mate on guitar were jamming, I was persuaded to play. They told me to put one finger here and pluck then put it there and pluck, repeat and try to stay on the beat. All of this on one of the other brothers' left-handed perspex bass. I loved it despite being right handed. After a few months of regular jamming I bought my own instrument for right hand and relearned everything. We weren't covering anything. It was all "original" if a bit juvenile. We played at a couple of band play-offs for a laff but I soon had to decide whether to put the required time into continuing to perform and drop my apprenticeship or leave the band. I decided not to drop the apprenticeship because it came with more guarantees. The lads were a bit upset but soon forgave me. It took another thirty years before I decided I needed to play covers and applied myself properly to the task. In answer to the OP question, lack of something constructive to do whilst with my mates drew me to it. Not exactly boredom, more a need to have something better to do than the Beavis and Butthead thing all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geek99 Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 I realised that i found guitar a bit boring and I noticed how people reacted to bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Seasons in The Sun by Terry Jacks. I was only about 5 or 6 when it was out but the bass - which I ddn`t know was a bass at that time - was the sound I focused in on, and from there sought it out in any other songs. Was great when punk happened to find that the coolest looking members of most of the bands were the bassists. Think I sadly let the low-end down on this particular aspect...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 I was going to be the keyboard player in my school band but seeing as I didn't own a keyboard anyway and we decided that a bass player was more important. So I became a bass player. Being a bass trombonist at the time helped. We started off with two guitars, bass and vocals going through one small combo amp. We had that opened up by customs on our way to our very first gig in Germany - we were all part of the school choir doing an exchange visit with a woodwind band and performed the two songs we had written at the farewell party ) think that I'm the only one out of that band that ever carried on playing after we left school Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassTractor Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Bach --> Penderecki --> Squire --> bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kodiakblair Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Lad down the street was selling a bass for £1. I had £1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 2 things. . . My Spanish guitar had an action so high I couldn't press down all the strings at once. So no chance of chords. A best friend who already had a Futurama 2 Deluxe and Watkins Dominator and played all the guitar parts. We needed bass lines so that's how it all started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiophonic Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 (edited) In the first analysis - The first band I really liked was Hawkwind. The bass was really loud. Then I heard Killing Joke. The bass was really loud. Then I heard Gang of Four. The bass was really loud. It seemed pretty obvious at that point! On broader reflection, I'm definitely a team player and also prone to being a bit passive aggressive. So playing bass in bands (collaborative/supportive role) whilst disparaging showboating guitar players and sort of outdoing them by being subtle and melodic and holding it all down at the same time (passive aggressive), probably just suits my personality. Edited February 24, 2017 by radiophonic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjones Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 3 of my friends started a band. The guy who was to play bass decided it wasn't cool enough, so bought a guitar and sold his bass to me. I took his place in the band and the rest is history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CamdenRob Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 I was the least cool out of my group of friends when we formed a band when I was 13... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 I wasn't as good a guitarist as the other guitarist in the band we put together in the hall of residence I was in, and we needed a bassist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naetharu Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 I was a late-comer to bass. I was doing a post-grad degree at the time and really needed something to unwind with at the end of the day. Living in dorm rooms, it had to be an instrument that could be played via headphones. I chose bass rather than guitar as it seemed to be the more interesting instrument in a wide range of styles. Lots going on in classic rock and metal, but also funk, soul, jazz etc. I'm sure that had I spent more time thinking about it I could have found interesting guitar parts for these styles too but I certainly found that outside mainstream rock it was bass that often really stood out to me. Two and a bit years on an I am hooked Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barking Spiders Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 I'd been playing alto sax for 4 years before even looking at a bass. Initially I wanted to be like Charlie Parker, my old man being a fan. The bass player in a band I was in at the time went AWOL but left his EB copy behind so I thought it's only got 4 strings, can't be that hard. As he never came back for it I kept it, for another 12 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Japhet Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 I wasn't much of a guitarist but soon realised that the bass was the instrument that suited my character. I fit the John Entwhistle template rather than the Flea one. I've played in bands with some superb musicians and played hundreds of gigs I would never have got as a guitarist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzyvee Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Aston Familyman Barrett! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LewisK1975 Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 My mate was (and still is) a guitar player, and as a pair of spotty 13 year olds, it was him who suggested the bass to me, he wanted to have a mate who played bass, and I was the tallest mate, I think he had a perception that all the best players were tall. His old man bought and sold stuff, and I got a Marlin Slammer Precision copy for £25, and here I am nearly 30 years later, with 8 very nice Basses and 25 years of gigging behind me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Low End Bee Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 (edited) At 13 I decided I wanted to be in a band. I'd just come back from a shopping trip to Harlequin Records with Rattus Norvegicus and there was only one choice as to what instrument I was going to play. Edited February 24, 2017 by Low End Bee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 I was about 16, just started to learn a bit of accoustic guitar with friends at school recesses and jammimg along with them everytime we hanged out together, until three of my friends decided to form a band and asked me to join them. They told me i was going to play bass, i didn't even knew what a bass looked like in the flesh at that time. Best decision someone has ever made in my behalf! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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