Guitar Players who have switched to Bass

[Isabellacat]

I've read Geezer Butler was a guitar player first before he switched to bass with Sabbath.


I'm actually thinking about switching to bass whenever I get a chance to record a new demo,and then lay down the lead guitar tracks later on but have the basslines as a foundation.

I don't use a pick either when I play bass,I love to finger it.

[spookstrickland]

I've read Geezer Butler was a guitar player first before he switched to bass with Sabbath.


I'm actually thinking about switching to bass whenever I get a chance to record a new demo,and then lay down the lead guitar tracks later on but have the basslines as a foundation.

I don't use a pick either when I play bass,I love to finger it.

I think fingers are the way to go too.  My favorite bass tones are from Jack Bruce and John Paul Jones.

[bass sic]

Wether or not you use fingers, practice with a pick too. I never learned to use a pick till I started playing guitar and it really hurt me over the years. It's another tool in the box that you can use. You playing guitar already shouldn't have a problem doing both.

[SpaceTrucker]

Also if your gonna use a pick, learn Carol Kaye's method. Heard it works wonders preventing Carpel tunnel. Thats just what I heard on Talkbass. Some of those guys know a lot. The others just repeat it with errors. 

[jibberish]

finger picking is awesome, but you have to be able to pick anyway to serve the song if that's what would work better.
finger picking is just fun as hell and sounds cool.
BUT serve the song.

spook, i sound like a broken record, but the $185 total(shipped to ohio) agile p bass is a stellar deal. thing plays like a dream. that is really the key thing a beginner/noodler needs.

mk, now you can start putting basslines into your tunes.

i'm doing that now and the arranging is a bit tough, not having 100 songs under my belt like i do on guitar. for me, once you play a ton of songs you can borrow bits and pieces and tricks from all the songs, or get a good feel how certain things are usually done, which you were already forced to learn just by learning the song.

so i learned "swing on this". way too fun playing along with the song grooving out that bass line heh. 
and...um.....yeah so i learned that one...and um  well gee whiz, i better learn another one. double my reper-toe-warie boy howdy

[Isabellacat]

finger picking is awesome, but you have to be able to pick anyway to serve the song if that's what would work better.
finger picking is just fun as hell and sounds cool.
BUT serve the song.

spook, i sound like a broken record, but the $185 total(shipped to ohio) agile p bass is a stellar deal. thing plays like a dream. that is really the key thing a beginner/noodler needs.

mk, now you can start putting basslines into your tunes.

i'm doing that now and the arranging is a bit tough, not having 100 songs under my belt like i do on guitar. for me, once you play a ton of songs you can borrow bits and pieces and tricks from all the songs, or get a good feel how certain things are usually done, which you were already forced to learn just by learning the song.

so i learned "swing on this". way too fun playing along with the song grooving out that bass line heh. 
and...um.....yeah so i learned that one...and um  well gee whiz, i better learn another one. double my reper-toe-warie boy howdy

The only time I've seen Geezer use a pick is during 'Children of the Grave', I guess because it's a fast bassline.

Steve Harris finger picks right? or does he use a pick? can't remember.

As far as bassists who do use a guitar pick, I dig Krist Novoselic's style.

[Hemisaurus]

[MichaelZodiac]

I learned playing bass with my fingers playing most of the time Children of the Grave. Fast tune but not so hard.

Easily one of my favorite Youtube vids for a number of reasons:
Geezer rocking out, hard.
Iommi rocking out, hard.
Ozzy being Ozzy and showing his but.
Into the Void is my favorite Sabbath tune.

[spookstrickland]

finger picking is awesome, but you have to be able to pick anyway to serve the song if that's what would work better.
finger picking is just fun as hell and sounds cool.
BUT serve the song.

spook, i sound like a broken record, but the $185 total(shipped to ohio) agile p bass is a stellar deal. thing plays like a dream. that is really the key thing a beginner/noodler needs.

mk, now you can start putting basslines into your tunes.

i'm doing that now and the arranging is a bit tough, not having 100 songs under my belt like i do on guitar. for me, once you play a ton of songs you can borrow bits and pieces and tricks from all the songs, or get a good feel how certain things are usually done, which you were already forced to learn just by learning the song.

so i learned "swing on this". way too fun playing along with the song grooving out that bass line heh. 
and...um.....yeah so i learned that one...and um  well gee whiz, i better learn another one. double my reper-toe-warie boy howdy

185 shipped is a good deal for sure.  I'm going to try and find a Peavey t-series bass locally. I really dig those but if that does not work out I might go that route.

Thanks

[spookstrickland]

Also if your gonna use a pick, learn Carol Kaye's method. Heard it works wonders preventing Carpel tunnel. Thats just what I heard on Talkbass. Some of those guys know a lot. The others just repeat it with errors. 

Wow I just looked into that, it's great.  I had been having problems with my hands and I had been having to re-adjust my playing style and I felt like a retard because it wasn't the "Classic" guitar players style and low and behold it is the Carol Kaye Method.

I'm going to really dig in deep on other instructional videos.

Thanks

[jibberish]

a good bass workout puts way more of a smokin' on my fret hand. the bigger stretches and continuous moving and just beefier wire to push down... i think i would eventually fuck my hand up too.  man those stretches yow. i am adjusting to floating my hand better and moving the whole hand vs fret-to-fret stretching as i get more comfy with the whole rig.
here again, my guitar habits often include creeping around like a spider from chord form to chord form, orchestrating the simultaneous repositioning of several fingers in a new fret pattern. bass habits need to be more cherry picking on the fly, just seeing the entire fretboard for most of the time and be ready to go anywhere on it.

so i actually dont spent long in any one sitting with the bass...i have afraid for my hand. and i sure as shit am not getting any younger and i guarantee you that certain guitar habits are not helping the bass playing cause for me.

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[idle musing segment of this post]
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i should start checking out short scales like if ibanez has one. that would probably play like a regular guitar, although probably not with full size tone. i'm pondering ibanez because they have the best action for a cheap off-the-GC-wall guitar and i assume that carries over to their cheap basses. i would ghey out and check out a bass that basically played like a guitar. this agile is nice and easy, but it's the full size deal. maybe agile has a short scale..things to look into...

[grimniggzy]

finger picking is awesome, but you have to be able to pick anyway to serve the song if that's what would work better.
finger picking is just fun as hell and sounds cool.
BUT serve the song.

spook, i sound like a broken record, but the $185 total(shipped to ohio) agile p bass is a stellar deal. thing plays like a dream. that is really the key thing a beginner/noodler needs.

mk, now you can start putting basslines into your tunes.

i'm doing that now and the arranging is a bit tough, not having 100 songs under my belt like i do on guitar. for me, once you play a ton of songs you can borrow bits and pieces and tricks from all the songs, or get a good feel how certain things are usually done, which you were already forced to learn just by learning the song.

so i learned "swing on this". way too fun playing along with the song grooving out that bass line heh. 
and...um.....yeah so i learned that one...and um  well gee whiz, i better learn another one. double my reper-toe-warie boy howdy

The only time I've seen Geezer use a pick is during 'Children of the Grave', I guess because it's a fast bassline.

Steve Harris finger picks right? or does he use a pick? can't remember.

As far as bassists who do use a guitar pick, I dig Krist Novoselic's style.

Pretty sure Geezer uses a pick a lot more than you'd think. But I think Harris is 100% fingers all the time.

[Danny G]

When I picked up the bass after playing guitar for years I went from being a part-time musician to a full-time musician. But I also made sure to actually LEARN the bass rather than just play root notes and follow the guitarist.


Anything that broadens your horizons and options musically is never a bad thing.

[moose23]

Anyone have some good links for Carol Kaye chordal playing lessons? Looks like something well worth learning..

[Isabellacat]

finger picking is awesome, but you have to be able to pick anyway to serve the song if that's what would work better.
finger picking is just fun as hell and sounds cool.
BUT serve the song.

spook, i sound like a broken record, but the $185 total(shipped to ohio) agile p bass is a stellar deal. thing plays like a dream. that is really the key thing a beginner/noodler needs.

mk, now you can start putting basslines into your tunes.

i'm doing that now and the arranging is a bit tough, not having 100 songs under my belt like i do on guitar. for me, once you play a ton of songs you can borrow bits and pieces and tricks from all the songs, or get a good feel how certain things are usually done, which you were already forced to learn just by learning the song.

so i learned "swing on this". way too fun playing along with the song grooving out that bass line heh. 
and...um.....yeah so i learned that one...and um  well gee whiz, i better learn another one. double my reper-toe-warie boy howdy

The only time I've seen Geezer use a pick is during 'Children of the Grave', I guess because it's a fast bassline.

Steve Harris finger picks right? or does he use a pick? can't remember.

As far as bassists who do use a guitar pick, I dig Krist Novoselic's style.

Pretty sure Geezer uses a pick a lot more than you'd think. But I think Harris is 100% fingers all the time.

Damn. Steve Harris RULES. Yea now I remember watching the Maiden '81 London concert and he never used a pick the whole time.

[Chovie D]

I love to finger it.

[Lumpy]

a good bass workout puts way more of a smokin' on my fret hand. the bigger stretches and continuous moving and just beefier wire to push down...

You don't have to press hard - pretty much same as guitar (oh maybe .125 lbs of pressure, which a child can do). Common mistake to squeeze. Also, you don't have to stretch to reach notes if you don't want to. Slide your hand more, maybe you won't 'shred' that way but you won't have tendonitis either. Carol Kaye says fuck the 1-finger-per-fret thing, and don't even use your ring finger (except to reinforce your pinky. So you'll cover three frets with index-middle-pinky/ring combo, and move your hand when needed. Important to stay relaxed.

I like a hybrid of those approaches - one finger per fret when absolutely needed, the Carol Kaye way when not needed/coasting.

[El Zombre]

I'm trying to do too much to get much headway with playing the bass, so take this with a grain of salt, but I had kind of a mind blowing conversation with my uncle, who's apparently been playing in a pop cover band all this time. Basically, I always assumed a bass player's fingers are all calloused to hell. Nope, he says, the real professional bass players just tickle the strings when they pluck. Slap bass is different, but if you don't play that, your right hand (provided you're right handed) oughtn't be calloused at all.

[VOLVO)))]

I use all my fingers, 'cept for my pinkie on my right hand. I use all four on my left, and my thumb for octaves. Three fingers, and a thumb on my right hand. I do a bunch of slappy shit when I play. My hands are solid steel, these days.

[jibberish]

a good bass workout puts way more of a smokin' on my fret hand. the bigger stretches and continuous moving and just beefier wire to push down...

You don't have to press hard - pretty much same as guitar (oh maybe .125 lbs of pressure, which a child can do). Common mistake to squeeze. Also, you don't have to stretch to reach notes if you don't want to. Slide your hand more, maybe you won't 'shred' that way but you won't have tendonitis either. Carol Kaye says fuck the 1-finger-per-fret thing, and don't even use your ring finger (except to reinforce your pinky. So you'll cover three frets with index-middle-pinky/ring combo, and move your hand when needed. Important to stay relaxed.

I like a hybrid of those approaches - one finger per fret when absolutely needed, the Carol Kaye way when not needed/coasting.

  fortunately, i dont have the squeeze problem. it is more at speed just the inertia or w/e of th estring is more effort to get down in the same time as a guitar string and a further distance to get to the next note=faster moves between frets=more energy.  my ability to lay down a bunch of notes isnt beginner anymore(guit player advantage).
may also hav eto check out that carole kaye method and fuck this 1 finger per fret business(guitar player DIS advantage). i have been working on moving my hand more as a way around the stretching. i also have been imitating django reinhardt a little here and there zipping up the fretboard on 2 strings with 2 fingers on the guitar. so maybe i need to apply this idea, or th ehybrid. i understand a srs sequence of fill notes you want to set up a 4-fret block you can whip out with a set hand, then the rest do how it feels better, at least that sounds like a plan.

[eyeprod]

Playing bass is fun as hell for me. I wish I could do it more often in a band situation. I've sorta got a loose side project going where I'm playing bass and a big kick drum. Another guy is playing guitar and we trade off riffing and droning. The music is really improv with unpredictable changes. It's great because I control the whole rhythm section and it gets pretty tight, where it might otherwise be difficult to achieve if I didn't also play the kick. 

To me, it seems important to have a good sense of structure and rhythm, while being tasteful, if you want to pick up the bass. Guitar playing skills definitely help, but I find that the key to good bass is keeping it simple, meaning play only a fraction of what you would do on guitar.

[Chovie D]

To me, it seems important to have a good sense of structure and rhythm, while being tasteful, if you want to pick up the bass. Guitar playing skills definitely help, but I find that the key to good bass is keeping it simple, meaning play only a fraction of what you would do on guitar.

I was avoiding chiming in on this  but you said exactly what i wanted to say so +1

as a guitarist when i play bass, I have to be conscious of not overplaying.
I think another really importnat quality for a bass player is groove or funk or swing, whatever you wanna call it.
Its a quality i dont have so i consider myself to be amongst the worst bass players even tho technically I can shred on a bass and have much experience including stand up bass.

IN regards to spooks original idea, that this would get him more gigs....my experience has been that it does not work that way.
But by all means, every guitar player, especially if you write and record music should own a bass and have some proficiency with it.

i find a pick to be more effective for hard rock, especially those power chords i like to use in heavy music. Dave Curran from Unsane is a great example of that kind of playing , one of my favorite bass players in hard rock..and the motherfucker has groove forever.

[At_Giza]

To me, it seems important to have a good sense of structure and rhythm, while being tasteful, if you want to pick up the bass. Guitar playing skills definitely help, but I find that the key to good bass is keeping it simple, meaning play only a fraction of what you would do on guitar.

I wish my buddy could get this through his thick skull. He was never a really good guitar player to begin with (talented in writing, to be sure, but just shitty at the instrument from lack of practice. And always whining about not having time to practice, still does that, it's a bit irritating). He tries to write a whole song on his bass. Which is fine, but he forgets that there's also my guitar to take into account. I keep telling him to go the Cisneros and Om route (mainly so I can just kick his ass out the band and do my own thing), though only if he wants to continue to lay shit down that takes up all the space.

He doesn't get that simplicity is key for the Doom he wants to play. He's got the 5 string bass hard on right now, which is all fine and dandy, but it just gives him another excuse for more notes and shit. I sat down with his 4 string and strung five or six notes, I forget, into something simple that would be a great foundation for guitar riffage, but he took nothing away from that and continues to write the whole song on his bass. I think he forgets that bass is not guitar, and that his current hard on for Reverend Bizarre is no excuse to pull constant "Doom Over The World"-type basslines. 

[SpaceTrucker]

Another tip for playing bass(not that I really played with a full band just guitarists) is that instead of playing more notes. Know at what time(fractions of a note) to hold it, and when to stop a note, can add more to the feel of a line than just more notes. Also Ghost notes(muting with your fretting hand, I think)

also, I never really learned Carol Kayes method, and don't feel the need to(hardly ever play with a pick). For some odd reason, a one finger per fret idea is just fine with me, of course my hands look like catchers mitts. also when I drink things my pinkie sticks out. so I don't know how I do it.

I want to get started on upright bass and mandolin soon. I figure once I learn mandolin I can jump to violin(same scale length and tuning). and then bridge that gap on viola and chello. Meanwhile learn to sight read music(really my main goal after learnin bluegrass mandolin.

[spookstrickland]

To me, it seems important to have a good sense of structure and rhythm, while being tasteful, if you want to pick up the bass. Guitar playing skills definitely help, but I find that the key to good bass is keeping it simple, meaning play only a fraction of what you would do on guitar.

IN regards to spooks original idea, that this would get him more gigs....my experience has been that it does not work that way.
But by all means, every guitar player, especially if you write and record music should own a bass and have some proficiency with it.

i find a pick to be more effective for hard rock, especially those power chords i like to use in heavy music. Dave Curran from Unsane is a great example of that kind of playing , one of my favorite bass players in hard rock..and the motherfucker has groove forever.

Well shoot, I thought bass players were in much higher demand that guitar players.  Well I'm going to re-hab my bass anyway should be fun experiment to see what kind of beast it turns out to be.  I'm thinking of chiselling out a bigger hole and putting in one of them big Gibson EB style pickups in there.  I always loved Jack Bruce's bass tone.