Anyone play both acoustic and bass guitar?

[KingNothing]

I've been playing bass lines on my acoustic for a while so today I borrowed my friend's bass to see what it was like. It's a lot of fun, but man, so much more effort than my acoustic. The action is mountainous compared to my acoustic and the strings are twice as thick.

BTW, "Fool in the Rain" by Led Zeppelin is an AWESOME song to play bass to.

 

[Zim Hosein]

I do not have any musical talent!

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: KingNothing
I've been playing bass lines on my acoustic for a while so today I borrowed my friend's bass to see what it was like. It's a lot of fun, but man, so much more effort than my acoustic. The action is mountainous compared to my acoustic and the strings are twice as thick.

BTW, "Fool in the Rain" by Led Zeppelin is an AWESOME song to play bass to.

wow....nice song to start out with

 

[TechnoKid]

acoustic bass or electric? if its acoustic, is it one of the reeeeally big ones like jazz bands use?

I'm not very good at guitar yet, my sis got a classical 1/2 takamine for last summer to learn and well I've been playing it more than she has lately.

 

[bleeb]

I play bass. It's FUN.

 

[Siva]

transition from guitar to bass isn't too hard... it just kinda requires a readjustment in your approach to playing, not necissarily training (aside from certain bass only techniques like slap)

 

[KingNothing]

It's an electric bass. It's either an Ernie Ball or an Ernie Ball knockoff, and I'm inclined to think a knockoff.

The biggest problem for me right now is hammer-ons and pull-offs. The much-higher action and the slightly bigger frets make it a lot harder than on my acoustic.

Siva, what kind of readjustment are you talking about?

 

[dpk777]

i went from bass to acoustic

 

[artikk]

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein
I do not have any musical talent!

except singing for me.

 

[meltdown75]

I don't play but I really respect an awesome bass player - sometimes it can be overlooked but the bass lines of some tunes are awesome. You guys must love Les Claypool. I'm a Primus fan and he sounds amazing.

Funny you mentioned Zeppelin, I just grabbed 2 LZ CDs for work today.

 

[KingNothing]

bump for tips on getting the hammer-ons and pull-offs

 

[MartyMcFly3]

I play bass... I love it

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: KingNothing
bump for tips on getting the hammer-ons and pull-offs

I started on electric guitar and now play bass too. Bass is much easier to get started on b/c it's typically one note as opposed to a chord. But hammer-ons and pull-offs are very hard on a bass but they are possible. You need to make sure the string height is good, not too high. You also need to make sure you have some hand and finger strength built up, you have to put some serious effort into hammer those strings down b/c they are so thick. And finally, make sure you have your amp loud enough so you'll actually pickup the hammer on and pull off notes. I have active pickups (which might help, i don't know) but if the amp is turned down to quiet practice levels it is much harder, but once that sound gets loud enough it picks up every little movement. And use bass harmonics just b/c it's cool.

 

[Nutdotnet]

Originally posted by: dpk777
i went from bass to acoustic

Same here...well, I play both but my bass was stolen last year and haven't had the heart to replace it yet (you tend to grow attached)...

Best solution for mastering the hammer-on, etc...for the bass? PRACTICE!

 

[meltdown75]

This is a follow-up to my post above ^. A question for the bass players - just how good is Les Claypool in the bass guitarist world? Would he be considered one of the best? Thanks in advance - I'm curious because I really enjoy a lot of Primus stuff.

 

[nakedfrog]

I am bass-less at the moment, but have owned a couple.
STP had some pretty good bass lines too, check out the bass line for Plush or Big Empty.
[edit]
Hm... maybe we should arrange an ATOT Omaha Jam Session sometime

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
This is a follow-up to my post above ^. A question for the bass players - just how good is Les Claypool in the bass guitarist world? Would he be considered one of the best? Thanks in advance - I'm curious because I really enjoy a lot of Primus stuff.

Les Claypool is awesome on the bass and would most likely be considered in the top group. Of course there are many different styles of playing bass so you will have many opinions but the best bass players I've heard of and listened to extensively are, Les Claypool (primus), John Myung (Dream Theather - I saw him play a 6 string bass live and I've never seen anyone move so fast on that thing), Stu Hamm (played with Satriani a lot). I'm sure there are some blues, classical, or jazz bassists that i don't know of that are awesome too.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: TheNinja

Originally posted by: meltdown75
This is a follow-up to my post above ^. A question for the bass players - just how good is Les Claypool in the bass guitarist world? Would he be considered one of the best? Thanks in advance - I'm curious because I really enjoy a lot of Primus stuff.

Les Claypool is awesome on the bass and would most likely be considered in the top group. Of course there are many different styles of playing bass so you will have many opinions but the best bass players I've heard of and listened to extensively are, Les Claypool (primus), John Myung (Dream Theather - I saw him play a 6 string bass live and I've never seen anyone move so fast on that thing), Stu Hamm (played with Satriani a lot). I'm sure there are some blues, classical, or jazz bassists that i don't know of that are awesome too.

I'm about to totally flip out on you for not including Geddy Lee.

 

[Fritzo]

I've toyed with the bass and the mandolin. You have to be good at fingerpicking to be a decent bassist. My accuracy isn't all that great, but I can scrap by. The mandolin was very easy to pick up. I gotta get me one of them

 

[Nutdotnet]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
This is a follow-up to my post above ^. A question for the bass players - just how good is Les Claypool in the bass guitarist world? Would he be considered one of the best? Thanks in advance - I'm curious because I really enjoy a lot of Primus stuff.

Yes, Les Claypool is the man...so is Flea.