HELP!!! Multiple Personality Disorder!!!

OK, so I have played both Bass and Guitar for about 18 years. mostly guitar. every now and then I pick up a bass and get nuts about it.... then go back to guitar, then bass...

get the idea?

I woke up a guitar player, but now I'm a bass player.

What do I do? How do I cope? do I just get a double neck and a back brace?

ARRGH!!!

Gene

around here have the same disorder. I know I do, except that mine is the reverse of yours...mostly a bass player, sometimes a guitar player. All of the newest gear I've bought is guitar related. I don't know if it's the challange of becoming a good guitar player,(I'm NOT!), or if I'm just bored. I love playing bass, been doing it for 40 years, I have some really cool basses,(pic's in my profile) but I still want to play other insturments. I'm currently trying to learn Banjo and fiddle. I think I need professional help. or maybe a good teacher? 'Slaper

I spent the 80s playing bass in bands, the 90s playing guitar in bands, and now am gigging very regularly as a bassist again. I figured out that what I am is a musician! I like making music on whatever instrument is needed. I have rudimentary skills on mandolin, keys and harmonica, too (just not enough time to develop them).

It's all good!

Tim

I figured out that what I am is a musician! I like making music on whatever instrument is needed. ... It's all good!

Yup, Tim's got it. Bass is just a different way to approach the music -- but it's still playing music!

I first learned to play bass in the early 70s, when I'd already been playing guitar for about 10 years. With what seemed like everyone and his brother playing guitar back then, I figured it might come in handy someday. Sure enough, I got a six-night-a-week bass gig shortly thereafter, and I discovered how much FUN it was to be a bottom-feeder! :-) I've been doing it ever since.

These daze, about half my gigs are on bass. Some rock/country/blues etc., and some jazz gigs where I play fretless. I enjoy them just as much as the guitfiddle gigs, sometimes more.

Besides, playing bass gives you yet another excuse to feed your G.A.S.... ;-) CS

P.S. Tim, it's getting near the end of the summer, and I don't know if I'll make it down to O.C. or not. :-| How long does your gig last?

Count me in too. I started in 85 as a Bass Player. Then switched to guitar in 92 in college where I was an upright bass major and played guitar in jazz band. Joined the Army as a Bass Player in 96 and have spent the past the past 8 years going back and forth. I have spent half of my time in the Army on guitar. We have more bass players than guitar players it seems at times and I have just as much if not more guitar experience than a lot of guitar players in the Army.


But what am I......I play Electric Bass, Upright Bass and Guitar(Telecasters to be exact). I love old school funk(Stingray) bass music and Country Twang (Buck, Derailers, Paisley, Brent Mason). I do not know who I am either. LOL but I like it.

... of those with multiple musical personalities. I started on guitar ( and many of it's personalities) and as I got into multitracking (pre-Fostex using a couple of tape recorders) I learned enough about bass and keyboards to express myself and do some demos. After discovering Bob Brozman, I immersed myself in Hawaiian guitar and hot jazz with plectrum banjo as a rhythm instrument. That led me to early jazz guitar. Around that time David Grisman's "Tone Poems" cd's started coming out and I finally had an idea how to use my archtop acoustic and mandolin together, learning to play both parts because none of my friends cared a lick for any of the music I'm into. I always took side trips with the Tele to keep the rust off of that part of my personality and a couple of years after selling my Tele bass that jones came back so strong that I finagled my way into a `62 RI, currently on hiatus as I re-explore my electric guitar leanings again. I'm trying to keep my hand in a lot of things so if the opportunity ever presents itself to get with some folks and jam there'll have to be someplace I can fit in. I think I need someone to play with! As someone above said, "It's all good". Music in all it's forms has me in it's grip; little does music know, I'm holding onto it just as tightly.

P.S. Tim, it's getting near the end of the summer, and I don't know if I'll make it down to O.C. or not. :-| How long does your gig last?

Next weekend is our last for the summer, then we're taking a few weeks off to figure out what's next (we're looking at making much more of our living as musicians, living in a resort may make that possible....).

Hey, if you can make it, cool, if not, cool too. Mike and I will be up in October to see Delbert at the Birchmere (with James Pennebaker on guitar and fiddle!), and in November to see Richard Thompson.

Cheers, Tim

It's good to know I'm not alone.

This past weekend I was:
Bass Player (jazz Bass)
A gibson (Les Paul) player. (watched Snowy White play for Roger Waters)
A G&L (ASAT) player.
An acoustic guitar player.
Bass Player again.
Tele Player(52 RI, luv that butterscotch)
still Tele Player (nashville this time)
now.... bass player? (Roger Waters is Kuul)

at least it keeps me from being boring....

g.

I'm new here in the bass forum but I think you guys are fine.
The basses you guys play are basically guitars. Yep, technically, they're bass guitars...so you're just guitar players...The bass "bass" is the one that's played in stand position either with a bow or with fingers....

The basses you guys play are basically guitars. Yep, technically, they're bass guitars...so you're just guitar players...The bass "bass" is the one that's played in stand position either with a bow or with fingers....

Well, tecnically, Double Bass, or Up Right Bass. That was what I started out on in the 7th grade in 1963. Before that I had a little acoustic that my brother gave me for my 10th birthday. Then in 8th grade, I started my first Rock band, playing guitar. Played lead guitar for another year, then the rock band needed a new bass player, so I bought a Bass guitar. Played bass guitar with my band, and URB in the school bands through high school and college. Didn't play anything but bass for the next 20 years, then, bought a guitar for one of my sons to play. The other son was already learning bass, so I started playing guitar so I could teach it. Now, I find myself playing guitar and bass about equal amounts. They are completly different animals as I'm shure anyone who switches back and forth will know. If you approach bass the same way as guitar, it dosen't work. You will sound like a guitar player playing bass. It's a different feel all together. I find much satisfaction in playing bass, and alot of challanges playing guitar.
'slaper

no confusion here. I'm a bassist who writes on and loves guitars. Never really gonna be a guitarist. When I'm holding a guitar, I'm a writer (or a wanker depending on the day LOL). When I hold a bass, I'm a musician. The thing just calls to me in a totally different way. Doesn't make me love guitars less - guitars are art! That new floral Tele blows me away, so does my old Ferdie Tele and 335 clone. But - hand me an el cheapo bass and I'll find a groove!

No question - bassist!