Post a pic of your Bass god from your teen years

[miles'tone]

Andy Rourke 😗👌

It was only relatively recently that I discovered that most of his beautiful, melodic and highly memorable driving bass contributions to The Smiths were performed using regular (and pretty high tension) Rotosound 66s, but tuned up to F#! He made it look easy.

Fabulous talent.

Edited May 22, 2024 by miles'tone

[dmccombe7]

3 hours ago, miles'tone said:

Andy Rourke 😗👌

It was only relatively recently that I discovered that most of his beautiful, melodic and highly memorable driving bass contributions to The Smiths were performed using regular (and pretty high tension) Rotosound 66s, but tuned up to F#! He made it look easy.

Fabulous talent.

Not a fan of the Smiths i'm afraid but i've never heard of tuning up to F#. Why not just play it 2 frets up with normal tuning. Bit baffled by that one.

Was there a reason for it that i'm missing ?

Genuinely curious.

Love his bass rig. I had one of those big Peavey heads. They were amazing but heavy beasts but you could get a huge array of tones from them. 

Dave

[bakerster135]

12 hours ago, NHM said:

Let's hear it for Dave Pegg

Ahh, this is a great one actually! I started trying to play Dirty Linen all the way through in my teen years and I'm still trying at 40!

[Steve Browning]

12 hours ago, rushbo said:

Has anyone mentioned John Deacon yet? The bass break in "Liar" from the first Queen album was the first time a bass part really hit home with me.

 

You even managed to pick the same picture! Great choice. 

[bakerster135]

50 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Not a fan of the Smiths i'm afraid but i've never heard of tuning up to F#. Why not just play it 2 frets up with normal tuning. Bit baffled by that one.

Was there a reason for it that i'm missing ?

Genuinely curious.

Love his bass rig. I had one of those big Peavey heads. They were amazing but heavy beasts but you could get a huge array of tones from them. 

Dave

 

I believe it was due to Johnny Marr mostly playing with a capo on second fret or tuning up to F#, and as Andy's basslines were quite busy it allowed him to get around easier while still being able to use the E string open.

 

Obviously he could've also used a capo, but as any bassist who's tried that likely knows they don't tend to work too well on bass and often end up muting one of the open strings.

Edited May 22, 2024 by bakerster135

[bakerster135]

Double post, doh!

Edited May 22, 2024 by bakerster135

[miles'tone]

24 minutes ago, bakerster135 said:

 

I believe it was due to Johnny Marr mostly playing with a capo on second fret or tuning up to F#, and as Andy's basslines were quite busy it allowed him to get around easier while still being able to use the E string open.

 

Obviously he could've also used a capo, but as any bassist who's tried that likely knows they don't tend to work too well on bass and often end up muting one of the open strings.

I've often wondered if Johnny Marr wrote and played in that tuning to suit Morrissey's natural vocal range at the time. It worked for them anyway. 

[Geek99]

On 20/05/2024 at 19:47, Jackroadkill said:

Extra points if you can name them all (no reverse-Googling allowed!).

 

Cliff Burton, obviously, too.

 

 

 

Is that Enid ?

[Cosmo Valdemar]

11 hours ago, bakerster135 said:

Ahh, this is a great one actually! I started trying to play Dirty Linen all the way through in my teen years and I'm still trying at 40!

Dirty Linen's dead easy to play. At half the speed.

[Jackroadkill]

11 hours ago, Geek99 said:

Is that Enid ?

 

From Painted Lady?  No, it's Melissa Auf Der Maur, who played in Hole and has been involved in many other projects, most notably her own albums under the Auf Der Maur name.  She's a superb lyricist and vocalist as well as a great bass player.

[Geek99]

No, Enid from girl school I was thinking of 

[TimR]

Great thread and photos. 

 

Mine (from my teenage years) have already been posted several times now.

John Deacon

Geddy Lee

Billy Sheehan

 

 

[KingBollock]

First, I’d have to go with the two that got me into bass: 

 

Lemmy

 

Steve Harris

 

Also:

 

Billy Sheehan

 

Jo Bench

 

Edited May 24, 2024 by KingBollock

[godathunder]

now, some three plus decades from my teens, almost all of the bassists posted have been influences on my playing

however, someones mention of sisters of mercy reminded me:

 

 

Patricia Morrison had a huge influence on me in my late teens, admittedly not in terms of bass playing though

 

edit: possibly in terms of right hand technique.........

 

Edited May 24, 2024 by godathunder
rudeness

[diskwave]

Nice old thread this. We've all cited our famous heroes but to be honest there was a guy back in the very early 80's who played in our local area, probably the smoothest bassist Ive ever heard/seen and he's still at it as far as I know.....Guy had a huge influence on me. Some people are born to play a certain instrument and he was a heck of a melodic player, one of those that made it look like he wasnt even trying. Funny thing was I eventually replaced him in a pretty good show band but I was never as good... And I knew it. 

[paddy109]

Slightly left field but as a teen Psychobilly I would often travel to The Klubfoot and especially if Frenzy were playing.

Steve Whitehouse played high octane slap bass and main vocals. 

[Frank Blank]

40 minutes ago, paddy109 said:

I would often travel to The Klubfoot …

Man, some great gigs there, good times.

[tegs07]

11 minutes ago, Frank Blank said:

Man, some great gigs there, good times.

strange to think some of us probably were at the same place, same time but had no idea …

[Frank Blank]

25 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

…but had no idea …

Due to the same drugs.

[paddy109]

11 minutes ago, Frank Blank said:

Due to the same drugs.

High on Wrecking and testosterone!

[samkeen]

[Leonard Smalls]

2 hours ago, Frank Blank said:

some great gigs there

Saw The Guana Batz and The Wigsville Spliffs... And more oddly, the Chilli Peppers (though that was the plain old Clarendon)

[Lozz196]

As a rather bizarre one, given its links to psychobilly, I saw Wrathchild at Klub Foot.

[StingRayBoy42]

[Japhet]

Juan Nelson (RIP)

 

PS; Not from my teens! That would be Andy Fraser.

 

Edited May 24, 2024 by Japhet