Who influenced you to pick up and start playing Bass.

[Guest gazzatriumph]

I picked up the bass aged 14 in 1975 a Gibson SG copy, I was just drawn to the instrument.  I'd had a few acoustic guitar lessons previously learning the chords. Then The Stranglers and JJ came along and confirmed I'd made the right choice.

Edited November 20, 2019 by gazzatriumph

[BrunoBass]

On 14/11/2019 at 20:02, AndyTravis said:

Nicky Wire of the manics. Loved them around the time of everything must go. And his playing was so simple I could play along easily.

Then I saw Stefan Olsdal from Placebo. And the. I realised bass players were so cool.

Big Manics fan here. It amuses me how Nicky likes to play the anti musician when he’s actually a perfectly capable bass player. I think James Dean Bradfield played the bass on their early stuff though? 

I remember hearing Stefan’s tone on the breakdown in Nancy Boy and thinking ‘I want that tone’. Massive.

[Low End Bee]

Overend Watts is the first one I can recall as being a bass player in a band. Rather than there just being people with different sized guitars.

As I have bored people with before... In 1977 I knew I wanted to be in a band. I was flicking through a Rose Morris mail order catalogue. Guitars, drums, bass, saxophone, stylophone, etc. The newly released Rattus Norvegicus was on the turntable and as I opened the page for basses JJB's bass announced itself very forcefully on the intro to Hanging Around. Sold. Thank you Mr Burnel for starting me on a 40 plus years journey of expense and dissapointment with the occasional brilliant bit thrown in. 

[PlasmaZombies]

Flea and Steve Harris.

Also a big shout out to my group of friends in school who all played guitar or drums and no one played bass in our entire year group. There was a gap in the market that was easy to fill.

[Andy_L]

My brother. He left the band so we needed a bass player. I was the second best guitarist...

[Hellzero]

My parents, as they hated the noise I was making back then when I was 16. Guitar was too clean and acceptable, so I switched to fretless bass : horrible when you start and play out of tune. Youth rebellion, man. 😁

[Stub Mandrel]

It's so sad how many people took up bass because 'everyone else wanted to play guitar' or 'no-one played bass'.

There's no difference in 'skill' between bass and guitar IMHO, they just suit different sorts of people and I suspect most bassists become more 'musical' than most guitarists.

[Ted Theodore Logan, III]

I'd say “Lil' Wayne" was my greatest influence...

He played the guitar so badly that it inspired me to play bass...

 

[davepb24]

Without a doubt Peter Hook. But the more I thought about it I realised the reason I  love such albums as "Dreamtime" , "The Nephilim", "First And Last And Always" is... because of the bass playing...

[Clarky72]

Nikki Sixx

[hubrad]

Danny Thompson and Dave Pegg for the obvious reasons.

A chap who lived locally called Mic Hale, who rang up one evening and asked me to play bass in his ceilidh band for a one off, when I'd never actually played bass before . . 'I can lend you a bass'.

[ezbass]

I posted on page one that Pino was the reason that I picked the bass up. However, what I didn't mention was that some years after switching to bass, i was asked to play guitar in a band, which resulted in me going back to to the skinny stringed thing full time (for shame ). However, I still continued to really enjoy the low end of recordings and live acts more than the other elements. The start of the returning point was when I was listening to an Eric Johnson live album whilst doing the ironing (very rock and roll, I know 🤘) and really listening to what Chris Maresh was doing behind EJ, it occurred to me that that was what I wanted to do, support the song/lead musician, whilst still being to do my own thing. Here's a track from that album (fast forward to 1:50 to avoid the guitar intro shenanigans)

And another written by Maresh 

 

[thebassist]

Some brilliant stories here!

A mate of a mate needed a bass player for his band at school so I lied and said I could play bass a little bit - I got a cheap Jazz knock off, played along to Definitely Maybe and muddled through the first few meet ups.

In hindsight, none of us were particularly good so I blended in just fine.

[dave moffat]

No-one in particular, always been drawn to the low end, granddaughter starting to learn bass at school booted my donkey to dig mine out of the back of the wardrobe and make a good go of learning to play it. Jane Buckley playing Uke bass in a 'Touch of Purple' concert confirmed I'd made the right decision, to me that bass underpinning everything elevated the concert from OK to outstanding. I think that everyone wanting to play guitar probably pointed me towards bass anyway as I'm a contrary bugger and bass is 'different'.

[Staggering on]

The phrase "contrary bugger" in the previous post pretty much fits me I think, and of course the fact that bass is 'different'.

Edit: The "contrary" part also applies to my choice of instruments I guess. Engelhardt DB(one of those love it or loathe it things), a Yamaha SLB 200 EUB( "you paid how much for that thing?"), Yamaha RBX750A EB( anyone ever even heard of these?) AND(wait for it!) I play tenor banjo in one band I'm in.

Edited February 5, 2020 by Staggering on

[dmccombe7]

So long ago i can't remember any one particular bass player but i had just bought Kiss Destroyer, Thin Lizzy Jailbreak and Alice Cooper Killer albums so i reckon it must have been them or maybe Deep Purple with Glenn Hughes.

Dave

[fleabag]

My mate Jerry.

This is his band Red,  back in the 80's.  Keyboardist at rehearsals was ex Tom Robinson member Mark Ambler, though he never made it on the album. He was bit of a prat

So, i used to go to rehearsals for this album with Jerry,  and gitwrist Dennis,  because we shared a huge house with more musos at the time, in Oxford. I loved his playing so much i was influenced by him a lot to take up the bass, even though i was a drummer at the time. Jerry played  fretted and fretless Rick 4001's at the time, so i assume the bass on this album was one of his Ricks

The whole album is fabulous, though an aquired taste.  Not for everyone, but  loved it and still have it on vinyl, but would really like it transferred at some point

 

Edited February 6, 2020 by fleabag

[dmccombe7]

Liking that Red album. Might have a wee search for that.

Dave

[fleabag]

You mean a search to buy it ?  That may be tricky, but the link in my post is the whole album anyway

[dmccombe7]

10 minutes ago, fleabag said:

You mean a search to buy it ?  That may be tricky, but the link in my post is the whole album anyway

Can't seem to find it anywhere. Its portrayed with the likes of Brand X, Soft Machine Jazz-Rock Fusion which i was into quite a bit in late 70's / early 80's.

Reminds me a lot of Camel with Richard Sinclair era.

Now on my Youtube favs

Dave

[fleabag]

Yup, i guess its pretty rare.  They weren't famous, and only made the one album

[Japhet]

I remember listening with great interest to the basslines of James Jamerson and Bob Babbitt which probably piqued my curiosity. I think there were 2 players though who really pushed me over the edge on 2 particular records. Firstly was Trevor Bolder on Aladdin Sane and secondly was John Entwhistle on Quadraphenia. Both came up with some exquisite and unusual lines to such an extent that I wore those records out and am still blown away by them decades later.

[40hz]

It was Stuart Zender for me. The bass breakdown in the song 'Travelling Without Moving'. I had to play the instrument that made that funky sound. Hearing that back in 2003, I went out and bought my first bass.

He's continued to be my number one influence and the bass player to me that encapsulates everything a bass player should be about.

His iconic Warwicks in tow, with tone for absolute days and utterly sublime feel and groove. He always shone brighter in the live Jamiroquai gigs than he did on record, which is saying something. It was such a shame what happened there with him and the band in general.

So, thank you Stuart!

Edited February 6, 2020 by 40hz

[Stub Mandrel]

50 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Its portrayed with the likes of Brand X, Soft Machine Jazz-Rock Fusion which i was into quite a bit in late 70's / early 80's.

Reminds me a lot of Camel

The crappy graphics put me off, but when I read that I thought 'must listen' 🙂

[fleabag]

Those graphics look like they were done by a comic book artist, i must admit.