Who was the earliest influence that you tried to sound like

[Reggaebass]

6 hours ago, EssentialTension said:

 

Never heard that before, very good 👍

[Dr.Dave]

Nobody in the sense you mean. I taught myself to play by copying people like Jim Lea and Geddy Lee but I knew I was just using them as teachers. I only ever wanted to roll my own.

[NAS Bass]

Jean Jaques Burnel for me. I'd heard lots before him but would never had said they had a particular sound or 'tone' that was so different. 

 

His sound and style hooked me from the off

[clauster]

Paul Gardiner from Tubeway Army/Gary Numan.  

[casapete]

Mine were the usual suspects for someone growing up in the 60’s. 

Jamerson / Babbit at Motown were probably my biggest influence but I could never get

close to playing like them, so was also drawn to Bill Wyman / Keith’s stuff with the Stones,

along with McCartney, and of course all the basslines in the great rock and roll stuff by

Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Elvis. 

Into my later teenage years in the 70’s I loved the playing of Ronnie Lane, and hearing what

Andy Fraser was doing in Free made an impression too, as did Garry Tallent’s stuff with 

Bruce Springsteen. I never got into Jaco / Stanley Clarke or prog stuff like a lot of other

people did at the time, preferring some of the punk / new wave players.

[Bassassin]

JJ Burnel was the reason I picked up a bass. Heard The Stranglers & thought - I want to make that noise.

 

Me & a bunch of school pals decided to form a band (none of us could play anything!) and no-one else wanted to play bass... Oh good!

[Spoombung]

Chris Squire.

 

As a matter of fact I'd still like to sound like him.

 

 

[Spoombung]

On 28/10/2022 at 17:22, pete.young said:

Colin Hodgkinson. I found a copy of the Back Door album in a second-hand shop . Never heard anything like it before or since.

 

I learned to play along to that first album. 

[Nebadon2000]

Bruce Thomas; The 2 John's and Mel a close second and third. I grew to love Fernando Saunders during his Lou Reed and Marianne Faithful days

[Gray C]

John Taylor of Duran Duran, that’s why my first ever bass was an Aria. Just wish I could play ‘Rio’ like him, maybe then I could give up the day job! 🤣

[Barking Spiders]

Growing up in the 80s for me it was mostly Derek Forbes, especially the Empires & Dance to New Gold Dream era. I also nicked my elder brother's Stranglers albums to try and emulate JJ's tone on tunes like Peaches. Never did though.

[BigRedX]

No-one really. I was always more interested in the overall sound of the song then any one instrument. If there was ever a time I wanted to copy anyone it was at the beginning of my synth playing days in the early 80s when my influences would have been The Normal, Vice Versa, early Human League and Freur.

[NancyJohnson]

I think the first time I was aware of bass was Steve Priest's bits towards the end of Rock & Roll Disgrace and the bass breaks in Man With The Golden Arm.  I wasn't playing at this point but it was just something I loved the sound of.  I suppose my more formulative grounding would have been Geddy Lee (All The World's A Stage), Sparks (Martin Gordon era) and bass-heavy singles by The Stranglers (although I was never a fan).  Despite loving Kiss, I couldn't see anything of merit from Gene Simmons' tone.

 

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, but the reason I loved Thunderbirds was more about Overend Watts and Jackie Fox than Nikki Sixx.  Shhh.

[Grahambythesea]

Probably Chas Chandler, although I’ve never been a plectrum bassist.

 

[White Cloud]

Geddy Lee: I bought 'Exit Stage Left' upon its release and that was that. Mind blown.

[bassbiscuits]

Steve Harris first and foremost thanks to Live After Death, but honourable mentions to Gene Simmons and GnR’s Duff McKagan, both of whom I loved and nicked loads of ideas from which still pop up in my playing now.
 

Got me learning both finger style and picking from the start. 

[bassbiscuits]

On 29/10/2022 at 20:58, Cato said:

Steve Harris from Iron Maiden.

 

Maiden were the band that got a teenage me into proper music, so naturally when I started playing bass it was Steve I tried to emulafe.

 

My music tastes have had a couple of fairly drastic changes of  direction since then and I no longer listen to Maiden or any 'heavy' music but my default right hand setting when noodling on the bass is still the Harris gallop.

Exactly this. No longer really into Maiden but no hiding where my right hand approach comes from!

[NancyJohnson]

On 01/11/2022 at 20:54, White Cloud said:

Geddy Lee: I bought 'Exit Stage Left' upon its release and that was that. Mind blown.

 

Interesting how people's entry points to bands alter one's perception.  This album was the beginning of the end (of Rush fandom) for me; mud.

[Guest]

I'm sure that if I traced back the various influences that have molded my (rather unconscious) sense of the noise I'm usually trying to make, then they would all go back to Bernard Edwards — but I would never be so foolish as to try to emulate him.

 

One player I have deliberately tried to copy is Craig Adams, specifically his mid 80s live sound. His right hand gets a tone that is both clear and weighty, his left hand keeps his line clean and unbroken; altogether it's a massive, unyielding, unrelenting thing, rolling on and on, there's never any let up, and there's nowhere to hide. I couldn't believe how long it took me before I wasn't mortified by my own attempts.

[StickyDBRmf]

"Sound like" as opposed to "copy", Chris Squire, Stanley Clarke, John Wetton. Tried to copy a lot of guys.

[Grimalkin]

Geddy Lee I suppose, I still think the Rickenbacker tone on "Exit Stage Left" is one of the best. I dropped all of the rock stuff as soon as I heard Nathan Watts playing on Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life", it was a whole different bass scene for me from there on. And then there was Jaco, and that changed everything again.

[speed]

Sting  ( message in a bottle ) started it off 

[paul_5]

Geddy Lee’s amazing ‘just crunchy enough’ jazz bass tone for me.

[40hz]

When I started playing bass in 2003 aged 17, it was Stuart Zender. It was all sparked off by listening to the song 'Travelling Without Moving'. I then downloaded a load of live bootlegs from Limewire and could scarcely believe a Bass guitar could sound that good. His insane feel and phrasing, combined with that rubbery, growling tone. I started to try and ape that - I'm no closer 20 years (and numerous Warwicks) later! 

[bassbloke]

DD Verni - Overkill.  I bought Years of Decay around the same time I started playing bass (16).  Considering bass tended to be buried beneath twin guitars on most metal and thrash albums, his tone and presence in the mix was something else!

 

I remember wearing my bass as low as possible and cranking the treble up full.