The Acoustic Guitar Forum

Go Back   The Acoustic Guitar Forum > General Acoustic Guitar and Amplification Discussion > PLAY and Write

Reply
 
Thread Tools
  #1  
Old 07-17-2019, 07:14 PM
agfsteve agfsteve is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Northeast Tennessee, USA
Posts: 1,062
Default Bass guitar: Distraction, or helpful aid?

How much does playing bass help with playing acoustic guitar?

I'm excited about potentially playing bass (as a hobby, I'm pretty much a shut-in, LOL), but I am worried that time playing bass will be time away from guitar.

The obvious answer is that if I spend time playing bass that would otherwise be spent in non-musical exploits (watching TV, taxidermy, flower arranging, etc.), then that's "additive", whereas bass-playing instead of guitar playing would be "subtractive".

Is my enthusiasm for bass just a perverse GAS attack that I'll later be ashamed of? LOL.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 07-18-2019, 04:27 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 6,450
Default

Reasons for taking up the bass:

1. More paid work available. Because everyone wants to be a guitarist, so there are too many of those around.

2. Getting kicks out of funky grooves with a drummer.

3. Exercising those guitar playing fingers with bigger stretches and bigger strings.

4. Smirking at the idiocies of singers and guitarists showing off out front, while knowing that without you the bottom would fall out of the music, literally. If you stopped playing, then they'd look really stupid. All musicians know the value of the bass, even if audiences don't (until the bass stops).

5. More paid work available. Did I say that?
__________________
"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 07-18-2019, 11:08 AM
agfsteve agfsteve is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Northeast Tennessee, USA
Posts: 1,062
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by JonPR View Post
Reasons for taking up the bass:

1. More paid work available. Because everyone wants to be a guitarist, so there are too many of those around.

2. Getting kicks out of funky grooves with a drummer.

3. Exercising those guitar playing fingers with bigger stretches and bigger strings.

4. Smirking at the idiocies of singers and guitarists showing off out front, while knowing that without you the bottom would fall out of the music, literally. If you stopped playing, then they'd look really stupid. All musicians know the value of the bass, even if audiences don't (until the bass stops).

5. More paid work available. Did I say that?
OK, looks like only reason #3 might apply to me, because I would be doing it exclusively as a hobby.

I think I'll try to suppress my bass GAS.

Thanks!
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 07-18-2019, 02:22 PM
mr. beaumont mr. beaumont is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 10,189
Default

Play bass with a drummer who expects a good bass player and you'll learn more about rhythm than you'd ever imagine!
__________________
Jeff Matz, Jazz Guitar:

http://www.youtube.com/user/jeffreymatz
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 07-18-2019, 03:18 PM
wkbryan wkbryan is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: South central Alabama. Montgomery area.
Posts: 196
Default

For years I was exclusively a bass player, and only picked up acoustic guitar because I wasn't having many opportunities to play, and certainly couldn't accompany my singer wife with just a bass. Though I rarely play bass anymore I believe that practicing either instrument positively influences my playing on the other.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 07-18-2019, 04:13 PM
Sonics Sonics is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 1,479
Default

Are you a songwriter/composer? Sheryl Crow reports that playing bass helped her tremendously.

https://www.bassplayer.com/artists/s...-right-reasons


And there's this guy...

__________________
________________________________
Carvin SH 575, AE185-12
Faith Eclipse 12 string
Fender RK Tele
Godin ACS SA, 5th Ave
Gretsch G7593, G9240
Martin JC-16ME Aura, J12-16GT, 000C Nylon
Ovation:
Adamas U681T, Elite 5868, Elite DS778TX, Elite Collectors '98
Custom Legend, Legend LX 12 string, Balladeer, Classical
Parker MIDIfly, P10E
Steinberger Synapse
Taylor 320, NS34
Yamaha SA503
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 07-18-2019, 07:27 PM
agfsteve agfsteve is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Northeast Tennessee, USA
Posts: 1,062
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonics View Post
Are you a songwriter/composer? Sheryl Crow reports that playing bass helped her tremendously...
No, just a fingerpicking hermit.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 07-18-2019, 09:23 PM
Rudy4 Rudy4 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 8,796
Default

I play a few different instruments and I do get a fair amount of calls for paid gigs, so that's one of my reasons for playing, but there's more.

I happen to love sitting around and playing for my own enjoyment. I play short scale fretless and find it's much more friendly for "older" players who don't enjoy the longer standard scale. I also played upright acoustic bass and gave that up for the smaller and easier to haul rig.

I've been really enjoying home playing lately because I purchased a inexpensive looper. I keep the guitar on the left side of the stereo input and my bass rig on the right input. I grab the guitar and lay down a verse and chorus section, pick up the bass and add the supporting bass line. That gives me what is essentially instant backing tracks and it's almost as much fun as having a couple of my playing buddies over.

Having the bass in my looper tracks adds so much more to my practice time. It's really the secret sauce to playing at home for me.

It IS a bit "hermitesque, but if I'm gonna be a hermit I want it to at least be FUN!

Last edited by Rudy4; 07-18-2019 at 09:28 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 07-19-2019, 05:18 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 6,450
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by agfsteve View Post
OK, looks like only reason #3 might apply to me, because I would be doing it exclusively as a hobby.

I think I'll try to suppress my bass GAS.

Thanks!
Actually I forgot another good reason for a hobbyist: adding bass lines to your own recordings - if your hobby extends to songwriting, or even just jamming to backing tracks.
Of course, you can use samples. Even though I play bass guitar myself, I usually just find myself using sampled bass with software notation. Lazy! But saves having to fix timing and dynamic errors in my playing...
__________________
"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen.
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 07-19-2019, 05:36 AM
Silly Moustache Silly Moustache is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: The Isle of Albion
Posts: 22,068
Default

I bought a bass guitar to recrd my latest album (ages ago) and enjoyed it so much that I'd often play over the recordeind judst for fun. Later, I was asked to join a fledgling bluegrass band playing Dobro but they had no bass player, so I sang and played (electric) bass for some time.

Loved it - obviously I prefer a double bass but they's heavy and hurt your hands!

Our (d)bass player is a lovely bloke, but not really a musician, - mostly just Is and Vs but he plays in, I think, three or four (?) bands.
__________________
Silly Moustache,
Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer.
I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom!
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 07-19-2019, 07:47 AM
agfsteve agfsteve is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Northeast Tennessee, USA
Posts: 1,062
Default

OP again here.

I did actually have a bass for a year or so before I had to sell all my stuff to move across country.

It was so much fun, but I struggled big time with timing. Even just sitting on the root of the chords in a I IV V, playing quarter notes at a comfortable BPM was difficult to keep going for a whole song. I'd be bouncing along pretty good for a few bars, and then I'd have a little "spasm", or whatever, where my plucking finger didn't seem to get the memo to play on the beat, and it would hurriedly play the note, and disrupt the groove. Or the opposite, where my finger would just be too "enthusiastic", and get the note in early, again disrupting the groove.

Since then (after moving to Tennessee a couple of years ago), I've been focusing exclusively on fingerpicking acoustic, but I decided to buy my nephew a bass and amp for his 40th birthday (he's never played before), and in doing the research on what to buy, I started salivating over the instruments, LOL.

So I'm probably trying to justify a bass acquisition as an aid to improving my guitar skills.
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 07-19-2019, 11:43 AM
Birdbrain Birdbrain is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Denver
Posts: 1,085
Default Try it!

A few years ago, I became aware of the short-scale bass options out there. With short fingers that can barely span three frets on a standard 34-inch scale bass, I always felt locked out of of the bass world. Then I started looking at Kala U-Basses, Taylor and Guild mini acoustic basses and, what I wound up with- the cheap and cheerful Ibanez Mikro bass, a 28-inch-scale solidbody electric.

Not only am I having fun every time I plug it in, I find it's helped my acoustic guitar playing. Since I was never trained in standard bass fingerstyle, I fell into simple thumb-and-finger Travis picking. That transferred back to the guitar so naturally that it helped me break a barrier on that instrument, too.

My electric bass experiment cost me about $250 for a new bass and a used Fender amp. That's a most favorable cost-to-grin ratio, indeed. And since the Mikro Bass is such a unique creation, I won't be spending any more on upgrades. Tonight I'll be at a jam session with too many guitarists. Rather than trying to wedge more guitar notes into that mess, it's great to stake claim to the lower register. There's always more room in the basement!
__________________
- Tacoma ER22C
- Tacoma CiC Chief
- Tacoma EK36C (ancient cedar Little Jumbo, '01, #145/150)
- Seagull SWS Maritime Mini Jumbo ('16)
- Simon & Patrick Pro Folk Rosewood ('01)
- Godin Montreal Premiere Supreme
- Ibanez Mikro Bass
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 07-19-2019, 12:08 PM
agfsteve agfsteve is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Northeast Tennessee, USA
Posts: 1,062
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Birdbrain View Post
A few years ago, I became aware of the short-scale bass options out there. With short fingers that can barely span three frets on a standard 34-inch scale bass, I always felt locked out of of the bass world. Then I started looking at Kala U-Basses, Taylor and Guild mini acoustic basses and, what I wound up with- the cheap and cheerful Ibanez Mikro bass, a 28-inch-scale solidbody electric.

Not only am I having fun every time I plug it in, I find it's helped my acoustic guitar playing. Since I was never trained in standard bass fingerstyle, I fell into simple thumb-and-finger Travis picking. That transferred back to the guitar so naturally that it helped me break a barrier on that instrument, too.

My electric bass experiment cost me about $250 for a new bass and a used Fender amp. That's a most favorable cost-to-grin ratio, indeed. And since the Mikro Bass is such a unique creation, I won't be spending any more on upgrades. Tonight I'll be at a jam session with too many guitarists. Rather than trying to wedge more guitar notes into that mess, it's great to stake claim to the lower register. There's always more room in the basement!
Yes! This is the exact response I was hoping for--GAS refueled! LOL.

I was initially thinking of getting that exact same bass, the Ibanez Mikro. But one thing that I didn't like was that the output jack is on the under side / edge (the most common place), but I want to plug a wireless transmitter in there, and I'm worried that it would be easy to break it off or otherwise damage it in that location, so I then narrowed down my search criteria to basses with the output jack on the front, like a regular P or J bass.

But back to a more important question: So you actually pick your bass Travis-picking style? I am very interested in exploring that. How does it vary for you from Travis style on an acoustic guitar? I'm trying to imagine what Travis style on a bass would feel like under my picking hand.
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 07-19-2019, 02:22 PM
Birdbrain Birdbrain is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Denver
Posts: 1,085
Default Don't take my word for it...

I'm probably the least experienced bass player hereabouts. My "technique" is barely worth describing, but I mostly play with my thumb and forefinger. When I want a sharper attack, I'll switch to a felt pick, or a heavy acrylic V-Pick. The point is, the wide string spacing of the bass suddenly made my fingerpicking much cleaner and easier. That transferred back to the guitar, and I'm now getting decent at primitive two-finger work. Pathetic, yes, but a small breakthrough from the plateau I'd been stuck on. Switching to a 1/8" nut width on my current Seagulls helped with this, as well.

Knowing nothing about wireless stage setups, I'd suppose you could use a short male-to-female patch cord to bring the signal to the back of the body, where a transmitter could be mounted. Or the bass could be drilled to re-route the signal to a jack on the front or back. These are so cheap ($150+) that you don't have to worry much about modifications, even unsuccessful ones.
__________________
- Tacoma ER22C
- Tacoma CiC Chief
- Tacoma EK36C (ancient cedar Little Jumbo, '01, #145/150)
- Seagull SWS Maritime Mini Jumbo ('16)
- Simon & Patrick Pro Folk Rosewood ('01)
- Godin Montreal Premiere Supreme
- Ibanez Mikro Bass
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 07-19-2019, 03:33 PM
Birdbrain Birdbrain is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Denver
Posts: 1,085
Default P.S...

I just found a huge discussion, over a hundred threads & ten years running, on the Ibanez Mikro Bass over at talkbass.com. Look for the "Official" Owners Club.
__________________
- Tacoma ER22C
- Tacoma CiC Chief
- Tacoma EK36C (ancient cedar Little Jumbo, '01, #145/150)
- Seagull SWS Maritime Mini Jumbo ('16)
- Simon & Patrick Pro Folk Rosewood ('01)
- Godin Montreal Premiere Supreme
- Ibanez Mikro Bass
Reply With Quote
Reply

  The Acoustic Guitar Forum > General Acoustic Guitar and Amplification Discussion > PLAY and Write

Thread Tools





All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:23 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Copyright ©2000 - 2022, The Acoustic Guitar Forum
vB Ad Management by =RedTyger=