I’ve been playing for a while and I’ve always played by ear, I do use tabs sometimes but mostly by hearing the verse and bridge, listening the chord progression. I would love to understand and learn theory. I’m not the sharpest tack in the box, there is so much that I don’t know but really want to learn. I’m reading a lot of the posts here in theory and applying it.
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Depending on the genres you want to play and whether your ambitions include composing your own tunes, you can get very far without a deeper insight into theory.
It’s commendable that you want to dive into it - it’s what I did when I picked up the bass, after not having played music actively for 20+ years, and after not having bothered with theory in my younger years.
Wanting to learn about theory should be curiosity-, interest- and fun-driven. Once you do put in the effort, you’ll see that this acquired knowledge will benefit you in multiple (and often unexpected) ways.
That all said, playing by ear, decoding melodies and chord progressions by ear is going to serve you well in most musical/playing situations.
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Yessir it’s mostly curiosity as to why/what I’ve been doing for 40 plus years lol. I, like you could have cared less in my younger years and I actually put everything down for almost 10 yrs and this year have gotten back into it. Theory intrigues me, I want to understand it (if I can). I almost feel as if I’m hearing an in depth conversation of politics and the only thing I know is who the president is🤷🏼♂️. I thoroughly enjoy Bass Buzz, I’m new here and feel this place is more me than the other one I was on. I don’t have 3, 5k dollar basses and want to wait for the oportune time to make someone look lesser than. Thank you Bass Buzz!!
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I’m new to bass, playing any instrument actually, and can play some by ear but am working on improving it. My goal is learning theory just so I can understand more of what the music is all about.
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I only wish I could play by ear. I only started playing this year, so it’s not something I’ve ever done and I’m not sure if I’d be capable of it.
However I do find that I enjoy exploring music theory, and Bassbuzz is a great way to mix this with practical application. I think this probably fits well with my analytical/engineering background.
I suspect it’s worth being able to both understand music theory and be able to play by ear, so I’ll need to figure out how to play by ear at some point in the future 
Phil
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My ear has always been poor. I can’t always tell which note is higher or lower in a pair, though I can tell they aren’t the same. I can’t tell 5ths from octaves. Play me a note and ask me to sing it or name it, and watch me collapse in confusion.
Thank goodness for frets!
The “Tenuto” app is a slow and painfully embarrassing slog, but it is very useful for anyone who may struggle with this like I do. You can adjust the difficulty down to “are these two notes the same?” and then gradually work your way forward adding complexity. I’m sweating through “here’s a note, is this next note a 5th or an octave?” I’ve been on this level for almost 3 months now, and I get it right about 3/4 of the time.
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I don’t know what 5ths are but I can tell most of the time if it’s a half step or whole step up or down. I know octaves, and use them quite often. Take the key of C the octave two strings down and two frets up. F would be two up and two frets back. I just want to understand what I’ve been doing and the theory behind it. I may be thinking too much, I think that’s the senior citizen in me now 
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The fretting exercise where you find a particular note on every string (up to the 12th fret) has been surprisingly useful for my attempt at ear training. I’m getting to where I can tell that I’ve “found” the wrong note. Say I’m looking for the C on each string, I can tell if I’ve found a B or C# by accident when I get to the A,D, and G strings. But I’ve got to have the C correctly on the E string from the very start to compare with.
Honestly, I’m far more interested in theory right now and the “why” of how everything works than I am in playing songs.
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I don’t know if that is possible with tinnitus.
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I’ve got multi-tonal tinnitus, which doesn’t make it any easier that’s for sure! (Why can’t it be in a nice major chord? But nooooooo, it’s my own personal choir of screeching Yoko Onos…)
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LOL, sorry for that. I don’t know what type of tinnitus I have, but millions of crickets and millions of cicadas keep me company when I am alone!
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I have the bad kind of tinnitus
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I read someone describe tinnitus as “aural wallpaper.”
Howard, you’ve got the arsenic green foil with black velvet flocking in a large paisley pattern wallpaper!
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Totally
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