I would like to try using my fingers since that is what most people seem to suggest the most. To be truthful, if I lack the manual dexterity for it, i’ll just continue the regular guitar.
…QUITTER
Basically 
Naw, I wouldn’t really quit, not after spending the money to buy the gear. I’d just become a very frustrated person.
Doing basic/semi-basic stuff on a bass is a lot easier than doing basic/semi-basic stuff on a guitar. So even if you never got sick nasty with a bass, you would still be able to pick it up and make it sound good. If you pay attention to the bass in a lot of rock songs, they’re just following along with the guitar most of the time. It doesn’t have to be really complex to fill out the song.
Unfortunately that seems to be the truth. I personally like it more when the bass plays something different than the guitar, because it seems to add more texture to the song. I find it boring if the bass is just playing the root notes of the powerchords that the guitar is playing. :boring:
I’ve spend a lot of time trying to listen to the bass lines in songs, and I did notice that, also. I don’t nessessarily find it boring if they just play along, so to speak, but I do prefer it if they do something different.
Unfortunately that seems to be the truth. I personally like it more when the bass plays something different than the guitar, because it seems to add more texture to the song. I find it boring if the bass is just playing the root notes of the powerchords that the guitar is playing.
Man, good background bass is nice, but you know what I love? Bass SOLOS. Do you know of any good ones?
Oh, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with just playing the roots of power chords. Everything has it’s purpose, and the easiest way to make bass sound good is to use it to make the guitar sound fuller. Sometimes complicated bass lines aren’t the best idea. But what the hell, you probably know better than I do.
In my experience, a pick incorporates more precision and even sounds clearer at any case.
You get more precision from a pick than fingers? A single beastly piece of plastic controlled by your lumbering wrist gives you more accuracy than four very nimble, very intuitive, very stable appendages that you’ve been using all your life? I find that hard to believe. Accurate isn’t a word I’d use to describe flatpicking. If I wanted to play a line of clear ringing notes without missing any, I wouldn’t come within lightyears of even considering a pick. Especially if I’d have to play intervals that aren’t on adjecent strings.
Hades, if you want to hear bass solos, listen to just about any two-tone ska. Guitar becomes a rythm instrument and bass takes up the lead; it plays all the riffs and solos.
It’s all about what you’ve become good with. So I’d support him in either decision, or actually encourage him to use both. For guitar and bass, I tend to use fingerpicks, personally, so I get the clarity and force of a pick with the nimbleness of fingers, but there are people who can outplay me with a pick, people who can outplay them with their fingers, and people who can outplay them with a pick. It’s all what you’ve learned with and are good at. Neither is ‘better’ than the other.
Silhouette, you are correct, Peter used a six string bass at all times, but that’s because he doubled as a second guitarist, and played guitar before bass, so he just played a long-necked, low-tuned guitar, basically.
Slave 61, masked Slash-look-alike bassist of Rapid Fire Quarantine, plays a nine or sometimes eleven string bass. It is a completely seperate instrument from the normal bass, and is more like a bozouki than a bass.
I play the electric guitar…that should explain it.
i had that explained to me once. from what i was told it’s mostly the reason that all the guys want to impress the girls with how well they can play a guitar. i started out on a bass (Ibanez) and personally i like it better. right now i’m saving money for a bass tremolo. just an idea, and i heard they’ve just recently started producing them. does anyone know how they sound…like good and cool or bad and nasty?
EDIT: Good bass solo = Cliff Burton’s Aneshtesia (Pulling Teeth) off the MEtallica album Kill 'Em All
bleh…newstead sucked. cliff burton was a god in comparison (maybe it helps that he’s my favorite bass player anyways) and i like trajelio a lot better than i ever liked newstead. as far as i’m concerned,
Jason Newstead was a long running dud. -Joe
Yeah, I know. Infamous isn’t a good thing.
Newstead couldn’t hold a candle to Burton.
Well, i’ve been playing on an Ibanez SRX-300 the past few days (i’m at a big FOB on my way back to the states, and they have one here). It’s pretty fun, and thanks to my guitar experience it’s pretty easy to just ride along with guitarists when they’re playing. I learned a 12 bar blues line, which was pretty easy to play, but it’s supposed to be, so that’s cool. I’m definitely looking forward to getting my own bass and jamming out when I get home!
I’d like to see someone do a pinch harmonic without a plec. It’d be interesting to see.