The Bass Player Thread post your gear, rigs,samples of your work, influences favorite players

As was brought up in another thread, here's a place to discuss and share things you love about playing bass, what drew you to the instrument, what gear you have, your rigs, basses, effects, who influenced you and some favorite bass players or whatever else pops into your head that pertains to playing bass. I'd like to keep this kind of open ended so that as long as it pertains to bass whether it be electric or upright or an electric upright, it will always be on topic. So to start it off, here is some of my gear. This comprises my main live rig-



the head is a Sunn Coliseum and it's nearly as old as I am. I believe it's a '75 or '76 and the cab is a mesa powerhouse loaded w/ 1x15 and 4x10's.

My main bass is an '04 Ernie Ball Musicman Stingray. I also use a Malaysian made Fender Fretless Jazz which surprisingly plays really sweet and for the price...it's golden. I use that one for bluesier and jazzier stuff if I'm doing session work. when you run it through the rig it sounds tight as hell.



and here are some of the pedals currently in my live and studio repertoire



Because musicians are never above a little shameless self promotion, here's a preproduction demo of one of my bands songs-
this is Lady in the Radiator

blackironprison.bandcamp.com...

I encourage everyone to share music they've played on, studio live...whatever. So now that the ball is rolling everyone jump in and give it a little push!

Great gear set-up. Love the track but I couldn't get enough bottom end from my head set. I'll get to it again later tho,

Peace

a reply to: jude11

thanks, its just a rough mix or preproduction demos. The final product will be much heavier on the low end.

here's another song and rough mix

blackironprison.bandcamp.com...

This is me on the bass. Cremona Upright, Peavy 1000w amp, Electrovoice cab, and a K&K rockabilly pickup.

Jane Rose & The Deadend Boys -
Bitten: youtu.be...

I can't remember how to post a vid on my phone....

a reply to: leeb317

I dig it. Wish you were a little more up in the mix but it's still pretty sweet. How do you like the K&K? A couple of people I know swear by them. Not familiar with them myself beyond other peoples opinions. Is this you as well? If so, I definitely dig the tone. The sound guy still needs to give you more presence in the mix though.

Nice set up.

I don't play as much anymore. I still pick up my cheap Fender acoustic bass and pick a little for the kids now and then.

My set up back in the day was a SWR Working Man head with a Peavey 4-10 cabinet on top of an Ampeg 15 and 10 inch combo cabinet. The rig slammed though, it got me a noise violation ticket..lol...I had a nice Fender five string jazz bass and a killer Jackson bass(forget the model now).

I miss tge good old days of my buddy firing up the Marshall halfstack and jamming all night.

a reply to: peter vlar
Glad you dig, thanks. I love my K&K pickup.
That one is not me. The album that was on was recorded at Fry Pharmacy in Lakewood, TN. It's an all analog studio where everything goes straight to tape old school style.

Here is a live of us where I can be heard better.
youtu.be...

A guitar player drops in to say: thanks for all the support over the years.

I have a question, though. How many of you took up the bass as your first instrument?

How many of you grew up really yearning to play bass?

originally posted by: Astyanax
A guitar player drops in to say: thanks for all the support over the years.

I have a question, though. How many of you took up the bass as your first instrument?

How many of you grew up really yearning to play bass?

I'm me of the rare ones who didn't begin as a failed guitar player. I've been playing for 27 years and still can't play guitar. Mostly because I couldn't use a pick if my life depended in it.

I was young when I started to distinguish between guitar and bass nd start picking out cool bass lines. The first one that made me really want to play bass was Megadeth's 'Peace Sells But Who's Buying?' But it was another 2 years before I could talk my mom into getting me a bass and I've never looked back.

a reply to: peter vlar

I always wanted to play drums, really. But I wanted to sing too, and I didn't fancy doing it from behind a drumkit.

A couple of people I know came to electric bass from ’cello and acoustic bass.

a reply to: peter vlar

Hey! When I first started Peace Sells was one of the first bass lines I learned too!!!! Awesome.

Anybody while learning ever do this - "If I can just learn to play the bass line for this song I'll be happy and feel like I have accomplished bass playing....then you learn that song and you're like....If I could only learn to play THIS song I'll be happy with my bass playing abilities." I did that. I heard Sir Psyho Sexy by the chilli peppers and I was like. "If I can only learn this bass line I'll be happy....The I heard Infectious Grooves and I had to learn their stuff. Then I heard Victor Wootens 'You aint got no groove if you aint got no pocket" and I was like holy smokes. If I can only learn that song I'll be happy....It just keeps going on and on for me I guess.

a reply to: BASSPLYR
Oh I'm still guilty of that! The day we stop challenging ourselves and trying to progress is the day they should stick us in the ground.

a reply to: peter vlar

SO what are you learning or figuring these days. Any songs?

For me, this might sound crazy, I've been transcribing the lead guitar parts of Satriani's Clouds Race Across the Sky onto my bass. Started with trying to merge the bass line with the guitar "9" chords as some two hand tapping and got that part combined and down. Then I went well what about the basic melody it's simple enough. Then I got about 15 measures into the solo section and went crap this is going to be really physically difficult to play. His legato is insane enough on a guitar, on a bass..... Thinking I might have to just put that one down.

Go back to playing old school jamiroqui's return of the space cowboy or something.

originally posted by: Astyanax
A guitar player drops in to say: thanks for all the support over the years.

I have a question, though. How many of you took up the bass as your first instrument?

How many of you grew up really yearning to play bass?

Started on drums.

Then Piano

Next was classical guitar

Went to Electric Guitar

Next was acoustic 12 string

Then bass

Then Elec bass

And finally harmonica.

The instruments got smaller because they were easy to haul around when traveling and hitch hiking.

The bass? Only because it was always difficult to find a good bass player for any bands I was in and no other members wanted to play bass so I jumped up.

A very long and strange trip it has been.

Peace

a reply to: jude11

I first got started in bass because my best friend in middle school played the guitar and all the chicks fawned all over him. In my head I went "hey I know! I'll play the bass, form a band and then all the chicks will be fawning over me too!!!! It's a perfect plan!" Didn't work out that way though. Found out that chicks don't dig bass players in middle school.

SO to get more attention I simply just learned harder and harder material. Got better than the guitarist. Like I could play his parts on my bass better than he could on his guitar. So he split. Took all the girls with him. Ran into a bass player who was almost comparable in high school, but he was waaaaaay more popular than me. So he got all the chicks, I sat at home on Saturday nights figuring out bach's cello suites for the bass and jamiroqui tunes. Bass never really panned out in the get chicks department for me. But it did turn into my best friend during a long period of my life when I was very lonely and in some ways angry. Kinda sad that my best friend at the time was an inanimate object. But it was my only voice back then.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Right now I'm battling my way through King Crimson's Larks Tongue in Aspic. It's kind of sporadic though because I'm also working on original music as well but all the cool ideas I have only sound cool in the context of a metal band because most metal heads haven't listened to much Jaco so when I'm throwing in a bunch of natural harmonics they think it's super cool while I'm just copping stuff Jaco did 35 years ago.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

I was so into music by the time I started bass that my first was a Cort 5 string. Weighed about 50 lbs it seemed.

Loved that extra string when I figured out how to integrate it into what I was doing. It became the reason for a heavier sound for me with the 'B'. My fav tuning is always a drop 'D' as my blues inclinations and love of Metal can have a nice marriage.

Don't get me started on the 12 string acoustic. Still my fav to play. I tried going back to a six string but it just wasn't as smooth while not having enough strings.

Peace

a reply to: peter vlar

Portrait of tracy is still one of my favorite bass songs. Continuum also. ALso Weather reports "a remark you made" almost sounds like the bass is crying or talking in that song.

originally posted by: peter vlar
a reply to: BASSPLYR

Right now I'm battling my way through King Crimson's Larks Tongue in Aspic. It's kind of sporadic though because I'm also working on original music as well but all the cool ideas I have only sound cool in the context of a metal band because most metal heads haven't listened to much Jaco so when I'm throwing in a bunch of natural harmonics they think it's super cool while I'm just copping stuff Jaco did 35 years ago.

King Crimson? Man, gotta dig through my old stuff now!

Please tell me that you got some Gentle Giant in the wings, Budgie or even Atomic Rooster?

Jude211

a reply to: Astyanax

I started with violin at 3 yrs, quit when i was 8 cause i moved and switched teachers. The new teacher was an ass who concentrated on form, while my other teacher was ALL about the music. Started messing around with my buddies bass at 15, which really helped with guitar cause it taught me the roots of all the notes. Got my first guitar at 16 and have been playing ever since. oh, i also learned some basic beat on the drum around the same time i was messin with buddies bass.