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Curious...do most of you own a bass guitar?

I've never owned one....it feels weird...I've been threatening to buy one (or a Bass VI) for years, but guitars always derail me.

Cast your vote!

I spent years without - telling myself I could double the guitar with the Whammy or any octave down pedal - but it never felt or sounded the same.
For recording demo tracks it makes a lot of sense to have one. Bass VI felt weird for me - tried it once in a store - but it was not convincing enough to be a guitar or a bass (for me) - but it sure is fun.
Last year I went from Fakenbacker to Squier VM Jag Bass (short scale) - and I really want to try learn how to slap. And I also want to learn some serious bass runs (instead of just doubling the guitar).

By my teens I had learned organ, then classical guitar, then drum kit, then bass guitar. I didn't play electric guitar until my late 20s, regrettably. So I had a Jazz bass a couple of years before that, and 3 other basses since.

Yes I do own a bass and at this point it's the longest surviving instrument in my care.

It's a Stagg J-bass copy in dark blue with a pearloid pickguard.

I've had it since 2001, bought new for college as most people on the course played guitar and no-one wanted to play bass, so I figured at the time I'd expand my repertoire. From what actual bass players tell me I'm a lot like Noel Redding, in that I'll play like a lead guitarist although I know and regularly use all the usual bassist tricks (walking basslines that run the scales, octave and fifth alternations, descending repeating riffs on one string, all that stuff). I also like string bends on bass too, but you have to use them sparingly otherwise even in a mix it can be too obvious. I'm pretty crap at slap to be honest; I've tried but it's really kind of a pain to do well, and I don't have time to master it.

I'm pretty sure it needs some TLC as the "front" pickup (the one furthest away from the bridge basically because it's not really anywhere near the neck) is a bit intermittent and the pots are super crackly. It's useful for laying guide bass lines down on GarageBand demos etc although I usually have to thicken it up with plugins and EQ. The headstock logo was on a little roundel plate but that's long gone.

I'd take pictures but it lives next to my old Plexi clone 2x12" cab and is covered in dust.





Something like this but with silver knobs, basically.

I like playing bass although the way I play generally means I'm doing glissandos all over the place to get the tone and feel I like so it tears my fingers to shreds and leaves blisters that take weeks to heal. A bass playing friend of mine describes it as "four railroad tracks stapled to metal railway sleepers" talking about the strings and the frets in comparison to regular solidbody electrics, and I often think about that when I'm ruining my fingers.

I keep mine strung with Rotosound strings - roundwound, 40-100. I dislike their guitar strings but for whatever reason their bass strings sound great, really bright and clear, hold their tone for a couple of years and are cheap. The same bass player I quoted recommended them, and I have to applaud his judgement.

MayTheFuzzBeWithYou wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 26, 2024 12:49 am

Bass VI felt weird for me - tried it once in a store - but it was not convincing enough to be a guitar or a bass (for me) - but it sure is fun.

Yeah I like them but I find most players don't really know what to do with them. My personal favourite use was on the first two Placebo records, where you have a power trio lineup trying to approximate an extra guitar using the Bass VI, which sounds kinda great when done right. The two bassists I know who are close friends of mine can achieve similar results (not the same effect but has the same use) by applying stuff like chorus and octavers - bass-specific pedals which can track the whole range without latency and can do one up and one down type octaving is super useful especially to fill sonic space when there's a lead break. In my originals band the bassist does stuff like that while I tend to add one or more delays, stereo chorus and sometimes a fifth up or down on a pitchshift/harmoniser type pedal (currently my super-cheap and surprisingly versatile Behringer FX600 - £20 shipped and I use everything on it except the flanger as I don't like flanger).

Placebo doing You Don't Care About Us live with a Bass VI. Potato quality video, audio is good, sad to see Molko doesn't have a Jag as he often did/does.

The Bass VI sounds the guy in Quicksand gets are so awesome...very close to a real bass ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEeUmDQXVDA round the 2'.30" mark) but with the extra thinner strings opening up so many possibilities...I am also tempted to get one, but I am afraid I won't be able to achieve the same sonic results.

I feel that I will be more creative with a Bass VI, but that I will get more "real world" use of something like a Jazz bass...I guess the answer is to get both?

I've almost always had a bass lying around of some kind. I used to get asked to dep on bass with local bands when needed and always like to have one to hand for recording.

I currently have a MIJ Jaguar bass in black that I put some weird Chinese rail pickups in that somehow sound amazing. It rarely gets played but it's nice to have around.

Former basses have been: 67 P Bass (in OLY) that I bought for £400 back in 1999 at a pawn shop, a couple of unbranded MIJ Jazz basses, a Mosrite bass copy (this was the coolest looking I've owned), Peavey T40 that destroyed my back, PJ Mustang bass, '78 Musicmaster bass, a Squier P Bass, a couple of Bass VI's that I really wanted to live but ended up hating, and the Jag Bass.

There's been a couple more I think but my memory is not great. I think it's worth having one, even if it's a cheap thing, just to noodle about on or to record with at home, or just to learn other parts to songs. Picking it up and blasting out, say, the bassline to Psycho Killer is super satisfying. Or any of the James Jameson Motown lines.

Treat yo self

It would really be cool to have a bass to loop some bass lines to jam to on my EH 720 looper for sure.

Maybe 2024 will be The Year of the Bass for me!

zhivago wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 26, 2024 3:53 am

The Bass VI sounds the guy in Quicksand gets are so awesome...very close to a real bass

This rules, it's like a combination of Cave-In and early Soundgarden, maybe with some punk-pop styling in there (vocally mostly). Gorgeous LPB colour Bass VI as well sounds a lot heavier than most of them, maybe he's added some low end in his rig. Lead singer is rocking a Cobain style Jag right?

Full Quicksand KEXP here

zhivago wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 26, 2024 4:26 am

It would really be cool to have a bass to loop some bass lines to jam to on my EH 720 looper for sure.

Maybe 2024 will be The Year of the Bass for me!

Why not. Get a middle of the road PJ Jazz bass...all the classic tones, nice narrow nut and an offset.

I started on bass a currently own three:
1) an affinity jazz that was the first instrument I bought, and am currently lending to a friend who wants to learn
2) a hagstrom Viking that I got for getting good GCSEs
3) an affinity P I bought recently because the hagstrom was all feedback in the band I’m playing bass in

Don’t play bass anywhere near as much as guitar but sometimes it’s all I do for a week or two. Deffinitely enjoy doing something different between bands.

The first gigs I actually got paid for I was playing bass on, and was arguably the instrument that I was most proficient on, being able to read music. It was in an orchestra pit for a town a couple of towns away from my hometown that was doing the same musical that my school had just done, where I had also played bass. $400 for 4 performances and 2 rehersals was a pretty good deal for 17 year old me in 2006.

After high school I fell out of playing bass for a while, and sold the basses that I had (A quilt top washburn P-Bass clone, and a Fender MIM Jazz V.) I had a few MIM Jazz basses after that that I always sold along, but then a couple of years ago I got a G&L Tribute L-2000 which I didn't like whatsoever. Ended up trading it straight up for a MIM P-Bass which I'm loving. Through a set of Duncan Quarter Pounders in there, and it does the P-Bass thing, which is all I ever really wanted.

I dont own more than six bass guitars?

crazyzeke wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 26, 2024 4:26 am

zhivago wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 26, 2024 3:53 am

The Bass VI sounds the guy in Quicksand gets are so awesome...very close to a real bass

This rules, it's like a combination of Cave-In and early Soundgarden, maybe with some punk-pop styling in there (vocally mostly). Gorgeous LPB colour Bass VI as well sounds a lot heavier than most of them, maybe he's added some low end in his rig. Lead singer is rocking a Cobain style Jag right?

Full Quicksand KEXP here

Oh yes, I was so happy to catch them live when they reunited...I got into hem first time round in the 90s. They were playing Les Pauls then.

JSett wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 26, 2024 4:31 am

zhivago wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 26, 2024 4:26 am

It would really be cool to have a bass to loop some bass lines to jam to on my EH 720 looper for sure.

Maybe 2024 will be The Year of the Bass for me!

Why not. Get a middle of the road PJ Jazz bass...all the classic tones, nice narrow nut and an offset.

I have one in my sights...let's see what happens...