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If not basses, what then?


NancyJohnson

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I honestly dread to think what life would be like if I'd played drums; it was an option in my early teens.  I'm currently up to seven basses, cabinets, small class-d head, peripherals, so god knows where things would be if I'd been a drummer.  

 

Given my propensity for just buying stuff, I suspect my drums would have looked something like this:

 

 

Screenshot_20220130-094513_Instagram.thumb.jpg.287cbeb7983803376aec446b64224b9e.jpg

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22 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

I honestly dread to think what life would be like if I'd played drums; it was an option in my early teens.  I'm currently up to seven basses, cabinets, small class-d head, peripherals, so god knows where things would be if I'd been a drummer.  

 

Given my propensity for just buying stuff, I suspect my drums would have looked something like this:

 

 

Screenshot_20220130-094513_Instagram.thumb.jpg.287cbeb7983803376aec446b64224b9e.jpg

I always felt that I wanted to be a drummer and was steered away from it by my parents. When my attention was grabbed by a bass I think they felt 'well, it's not a drum set' and went with it.

That's not to say I'm unhappy with where music has taken me on the bass, but I just can't help wondering what route the other journey might have taken.

I think there's a lot more to keep you occupied with a drum set though, so I'm not sure I'd have as many kits as basses 😂

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I started guitar lessons in my early teens, then got a girlfriend and stopped… picked up a guitar again in 2003 when my neighbour offered to teach me and quickly realised my hands don’t bend like the way others do, he suggested I try his old bass… it worked!  Kind of 😃

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8 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

I always felt that I wanted to be a drummer and was steered away from it by my parents. When my attention was grabbed by a bass I think they felt 'well, it's not a drum set' and went with it.

That's not to say I'm unhappy with where music has taken me on the bass, but I just can't help wondering what route the other journey might have taken.

I think there's a lot more to keep you occupied with a drum set though, so I'm not sure I'd have as many kits as basses 😂

 

My best mate is a drummer, but we haven't done anything together in years...our musical paths are quite different.  I think he's at five kits at the moment, although he only actually 'drums' when he's in a band environment.

 

From the drummers I know, most have at least two kits, plus several snares/pedals/cymbal sets.  The best kit is exclusively home use only, always set up but rarely used, dust/dirt free and more of a vanity thing.  The next kit (the one they use for gigs/rehearsals), is a beater...akin to the Rickenbacker owner gigging with a Rockingbetter.

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I’ve always liked the melodica, inspired really by Augustus Pablo but I’ve never got around to buying one, I’m watching a vintage one on eBay at the moment, I play a bit of piano so I’m hoping that will help although the melodica is in a different position, apart from that it’s only bass for me 🙂

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Guitars (already have six axes and a collection of classic, rack based preamps.)

 

But I was a drummer before taking up bass and I often wonder if that is where my heart truly belongs.  I took up bass after wrist injuries playing volleyball at high school and it was a hell of a lot more accessible cost wise and pragmatically. 

 

Still there's nothing quite like creating the pocket that everyone else sits in and then locking in with a decent bass player.

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If I wasn't a bass player I'd have been in trouble. I played drums at a basic level when I was a kid, maybe I would have developed that.

 

I also tried my hand with singing, guitar and piano and was pretty crap at all of them.

 

Basically I had to be a bass player.

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Guitars and drums. I play both. I have more basses than guitars but it's still too many guitars, really. With drums, I am strictly limiting myself to one kit due to space but... you know... a kit is made of many pieces but everything must fit on the mat, that's the rule.

 

drmbs.thumb.jpg.339cc7b4593084956dfbd60b733cae1f.jpg

Edited by Doctor J
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The only thing stopping me from getting drums is space. I will absolutely have another kit one day, even if it is another tiny fusion set up. Basses and guitars and my moderate studio set up (a work in progress) for my job are all catered for, so it’s really just a full on acoustic kit 😍 needed :) 

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16 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

I’d probably have been a rhythm guitarist, I’m pretty good at that but not too hot on that lead malarkey.

 

That's something I used to want to do. I got a spot in a jazz big band strumming chords and enjoyed it, before the lure of the bass took hold.

 

Otherwise, I used to blow money on bagpipes, chanters etc.

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6 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

I always felt that I wanted to be a drummer and was steered away from it by my parents. When my attention was grabbed by a bass I think they felt 'well, it's not a drum set' and went with it.

That's not to say I'm unhappy with where music has taken me on the bass, but I just can't help wondering what route the other journey might have taken.

I think there's a lot more to keep you occupied with a drum set though, so I'm not sure I'd have as many kits as basses 😂

It's never too late! Always played bass but bought my daughter a drum kit when she was young and I ended up playing it more than her. Upshot was I took up drums as well. The drum kits are not so much the issue as the interest in percussion it sparked, so now the house is full all sorts of weird instruments half of which I got because they looked cool but only played once.

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I have reached a point where I know myself well enough to acknowledge I have one of those personalities where I tend to get obsessed by the minutia of a subject when it sparks my interest.

 

I don’t know what alternative instrument I would have gone for, I always loved and still play acoustic guitar and have two (never electric, I just can’t get on with it), so maybe I would have gone further down that rabbit hole.

 

Outside of music, I can imagine any number of things that would have consumed my time and money, all of the following have had me spending hours reading online:

1. Watches

2. Clay pigeon shooting (and shotguns as a result)

3. Numismatics

4. Cycling (I have a weird fetish for bikes)

5. Lego (I still love and spend too much money on Lego….for my son of course)

 

I will point out, that of the above, I have only spent money on a road bike and Lego, but could have easily got consumed by any of them if bass wasn’t in my life.

Edited by NJE
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Good timing, I'm thinking of getting a drumset. I'm extremely lucky, I live in the country, fair size man cave, no close neighbours.

 

.... thought it might improve my rhythm....then thought that electronic drums maybe easier to hoof about and, don't regular drums need tuning and other maintenance? 

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I played drums at school and they were my 1st love, but bass is my true love. I'd quite happily have stuck with the tubthumping though, and no doubt by now I would have surrounded myself with a vast array of acoustic and electronic percussion.

5 hours ago, Dood said:

I will absolutely have another kit one day, even if it is another tiny fusion set up. 

Oh you'd love my mate's tiny vintage Slingerland Gene Krupa kit. Very compact and monumentally cool.

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