Way back in the 5th grade, my music teacher was convinced that I should play the clarinet. My parents rented one and I had it for 6 months. Notice That I didn’t say played it? About 6 years ago, I won a Squire signed by Steve Winwood the bought a Steve Harris Signature Bass that I got him to sign at his first gig in Florida. I didn’t play either because I didn’t want to rub the sharpie sigs off, so I bought a Fender player series P bass. I tried the Fender online lessons, but they didn’t click for me. I watched a couple of Josh’s fee videos and now I’m here! I have to hand it to Josh, he put something better together than all the teaching heads at Fender! Might I add that I should have never opened the GAS topic, because now I have 10 basses! A little encouragement from a friend in NC steered me along also!
After being slightly too much work for my professional parents in late 80s Surrey (England) I was sent to boarding school in the era of The Stone Roses, The Pixies, Ride and Groove is in the flipping heart.
A year or so in, my study mate Richard Hughes, seemingly effortless wielder of a glittering blue strat, Rugby prodigy, scholar and literary knowledge font had teemed up with his classmate drummer and The Cure tragic, John Parry. Being Rick’s friend partly due to my taste in “cool” music he asked to form a band and the only available option was bass. The other member then was Omo, who could play well but ultimately parted ways due to good old musical differences. Ah, you’re never too young apparently.
Anyway I begged dad for a bass and was rewarded with a trip to one of Guildford’s music shops, quite possibly the og Anderton’s premises. I came out with P Bass clone that weighed more than I did, no idea about set up or anything like that. Looking back it was was a bad instrument but I knew no better.
The culmination was in a few years of twanging away with a pick was a spot in the school rock concert a few years later, covering things like Head On, and Lazarus (Boo Radleys).
A short but seemingly long time later I found myself at Nottingham uni in 95, got quickly together with some other lads and played a combination of original stuff and a few covers. This was the early Britpop era so you get the picture.
I missed out on an early Super Furry Animals gig because we were playing the same night, a legit excuse!
Ross the frontman went on to better things and years later I saw him play in London a few times with my first radio.
My next foray was a three piece formed when the drummer asked in the chat of an online game of Battlefield 2 if there were any London based bass players looking for a band, so naturally I jumped on it and the 3-piece Impossible Things was formed. I bought a Mexican Jazz from GAK. We practiced in a cat piss smelling basement bedroom in New Cross. We drank
heavily and often hit the local pubs and venues after for Tuesday night tequilas. Being a little older and probably a little bit patronising I started the creative process fairly often and saw myself as a proto facsimile Peter Hook, trying to work chords into my rudimentary songs. I even sang in front of real people at the new cross tavern once and nobody threw anything!
That fell apart when one of the guys moved back to Stoke.
Did a few rehearsals with a brother pair but that amounted to nothing but tinnitus. Use earplugs, kids!
Moving on many years I now live in Australia. Around the COVID time, a bit before maybe I decided Bass was unfinished business. I did bass buzz, with the incentive that my by now ruined jazz would be replaced when I completed the course. I did, I gave my loft-injured bass to my friends son and bought a mij fender jazz.
After a couple more years of home practice and disco noodling I find myself in a group of like minded guys, one of whom drums in an established Aussie indie band but is our main songwriter and lead guitar. they asked me to be a permanent member so I must be doing something right finally!
Anyway we are working on a demo and hope to gig in Brisbane very soon. We’re called The Media.
Sorry for the very self indulgent, very long winded post.
When our drummer’s own beats have been mixed in I’ll share our music here. It’s a kind of shoegaze tinged indie rock, I guess.
Oh nice, I saw them a few times back then when I lived in Cardiff 
Can’t say it better than this 
I don’t know why I love it but I do, it’s always been about the bass.
Awesome sotry and I’m really looking forward to hearing this one as someone who’s also been big into shoegaze for decades (I’ve posted a Slowdive cover in the covers thread so far).
Ah, many happy memories of New Cross! I went to Goldsmiths’ in the late 80s.
I think on balance they’re my all time favourite band. Saw them many times here and there. I also love Gruff’s solo work and there’s some great bass on his recent stuff. B
A month ago, I fainted. Apparently the weird fatigue I’d been feeling for weeks was something. Saw the doctor, and we still don’t know what’s up. But I’m under doctors orders not to exercise until we know. This eliminated my two biggest hobbies.
For years I’ve been thinking of learning bass. Decided this is the perfect opportunity to avoid going stir crazy. Three weeks ago, I went and bought a used Sire v3.
My first rock concert was Yes back in the mid-90’s. I was in awe of Chris Squire’s presence on stage and he’s remained my favorite bassist. Although in the past couple years John Taylor of Duran Duran has quickly risen to 2nd place.
I grew up as a singer, and I’ve done social partner dance (Swing, Blues, Tango, etc.) my whole life, but never played any sort of guitar. I find the lead role in partner dancing very analogous to what the bass is doing in music. It’s what I key off of most frequently. I think the mindset of being a good lead is very similar: be solid, hold down the groove, make space and let your partner look good, fill the gaps, lead the changes…
Earlier this week I had my first big “Aha!” moment where I think I shifted from beginning to playing bass to being a beginning bassist - I was just playing the couple simple grooves I have locked down (“I Turn My Camera On”, “Sweet Jane” per Cowboy Junkies, and “Fade Into You”), and I was able to vary my tone to fit the song just by changing where and how I plucked.
Maaaan, his name is John Taylor and he’s a bass god!! He’s actually my #1 fav bassist, saw them two weeks ago at Latitude!
Duran Duran Rio Live (Latitude Festival 28-07-24)
Derp. Edited. I’m horrible with names. I know it’s a “JT”. I’m just glad I didn’t call him James Taylor.
(I also mix up Edgar Wright with Edgar Winter regularly.)
We (our frontman) recently got all of the sharing stuff sorted so follow the link for more links! The music goes live on Friday here in Australia so maybe Saturday for the US.
We made these recordings a few months ago. I’m sure I’m not the first person to wish they could spend more time perfecting their basslines, but that’s life and what I did as the time was the best I could do at that point.
We will be releasing two more EPs this year and I am confident each one will improve on the last! We’ve had some good airplay on the local indie radio station, 4zzz Brisbane.
Awesome! I subbed up and grabbed a copy of the album off of bandcamp. Great playing on the track. What did you end up using on it effects wise?
My favourite Susi Quatro and Chris Norman song.
I’d always been a guitar player. Most of my life I was a self-taught hacker, but after I retired I had the time and drive to delve into it a bit more seriously, including some classical training. Things were going well enough, and I was making slow but steady progress even to the point where I was writing some simple etudes for my own edification.
Then one day, I decided to make a salad.
In a cabinet above the stove I kept a mandoline slicer. For those unfamiliar, it’s a tool that has a piece you hold a vegetable with and use to slide that vegetable across a (very sharp) blade mounted on the slicer itself. Taking it down with my right hand, I started to drop it. And what do we often do, without thinking, when we drop something? We reach out to catch it.
Well, I caught the damn thing; caught it real good you might say. The blade sliced my 2, 3, and 4 fingers just above what doctors call the distal interphalangeal joint. My 3 finger–the ring finger–took the least of it. The 2 (middle) and 4 (pinky) fingers took far worse, and the pad of my pinky was a few fractions of an inch from being severed entirely. All three fingers suffered muscle and nerve damage. My range of motion wasn’t affected, thankfully. Twenty stitches across the three digits and slowly I began to heal.
For a time, there was no touching of any musical instruments. Months later, when the urge to try again and see how things felt came on, I dusted the guitar off and gave it a go. It felt…odd. I still had pain and other sensations when fretting, playing a pull-off with my 4 finger was out of the question, and the slinky strings of the guitar, steel or nylon strung, just didn’t feel good under the fingers, if I could feel them at all.
Back into the case the guitar went and, to this date, it’s stayed there.
Some time before all of this I bought a Squier Classic Vibe 70s Jazz Bass, partially to have a four-string around to experiment on, and partially just because I thought it looked nice. Most of its life had been spent in its case, but I still had it. So, some time after putting the guitar away for what I figured would be the final time, and in a spirit of “I wonder if this will feel any better…” I took it out and plunked around on it a bit.
It did feel better. Mind you, it didn’t feel great. I have subcutaneous scar tissue that will be with me for a good long time, and nerve damage to go along with it. In a few months time I will celebrate the one-year anniversary of my little mishap, and I still have what can kindly be called “altered tactile sensations” in those three fingers. But where the guitar, with its thin, slinky strings spaced fairly close together, no longer feels right, the bass feels…a lot closer to right.
So I picked up the bass instead of the guitar. One door closes, another one opens and all that. The thick strings–flatwounds or tapewounds only for me, please and thank you–spaced further apart as they are do feel better, even if I play through intermittent pain and other hard-to-describe sensations every day. I either deal with the temporary discomfort of working around an injury, or I pack up all the gear, sell it, and find something else to occupy my time. And honestly, that day may yet come.
But for now, I choose to continue with the instrument and with music, even knowing deep down that I may never be able to do with it what someone with full feeling in their fretting hand might be able to. Django Reinhardt had it tougher than me and he made a go of it. I’d be foolish not to at least try.
So that’s my bass origin story. Sorry if it was overlong. I tend toward verbosity. Apologies all around.
P.S.–
In the time it took me to realize what happened I was already bleeding profusely. In a few seconds I was able to grab a kitchen towel and put direct pressure on my fingers, but even in that few seconds I started getting dizzy and nauseous from the sudden blood loss, and I fell back against the kitchen island hard enough to bruise my right arm. It was then that I remembered the package of BleedStop coagulant I’d put in the first aid kit under the sink. I was able to get a packet open and dress the wounds enough to stop the bleeding and drive myself to the urgent care.
If you don’t have some sort of coagulant around your place, go get some. Now. Make it a priority. BleedStop, QuikClot, whatever it is, get a package for the house and another for the car. Do this the next time you’re out.
I live alone. If I’d passed out from blood loss, or even wasn’t able to stop it with pressure alone, my tale could have had a much sadder ending. Be prepared, friends. You never know when you may need something.
I’d never heard of that tool until someone in her previously posted about getting an injury from one.
I think I’ll stick to a regular kitchen knife.
Good call, though they do make mandoline slicers with shrouded blades.
On getting home from the urgent care with my newly-stitched fingers I threw the slicer away. But even now, I am more slow and deliberate with the chef’s knife. I’ve become very careful around sharp edges…
use a cut resistant kevlar glove - i have a couple of mandolins and use them often and never once had a cut when wearing a glove, and really i am not even careful. (obviously catching it in mid-air while its falling from a cabinet is a different story).
https://www.amazon.com/NoCry-Cut-Resistant-Gloves-Performance/dp/B00MXUHHGK/
This is good advice. I always used to keep styptic pencils around but something more capable is probably a good idea.
Pweww, you got lucky there…
I’ve been a mechanic for 35 years now , working with a lot of heavy machinery and equipment (I work on trains and diesel locomotives)
The only work related accident that needed a trip to the ER was when I cut my thumb badly while opening a can of tomato soup in the canteen, go figure 
I tried a few instruments at school like the recorder and violin but got disillusioned after a few months and stopped probably believing I had no musical talent. But now in my later 50s and watching many videos of Josh on YouTube i decided to take the plunge and bought a bass. Unlike guitar players we are very unlikely to get someone saying you play bass give us a song that will never happen with us we can just mingle with the crowd. 
