Electric Or Bass?

[Machx72]

I recently decided to take up guitar, but I don't know whether I want to go with the electric guitar or the bass guitar.

One one hand, my uncle is the bass player for an alternative rock band that's inches away from being famous, so I could learn from him.

On the other... Well, I've got no argument for guitar. Other than that I want to learn the guitar for one of my favorite songs, "The Memory Remains" by Metallica.

But I also wanna learn the bass for my other favorite song by Metallica, "For Whom The Bell Tolls."

I have no real bias toward one or the other... But I'm debating on which to go with.

What do you all think?

 

[Ongie]

***redacted***

 

[Machx72]

I'm more than likely going to look into actually playing in a band... Whether it be serious or not... Or even whether or not I just jump around playing with different groups [I know of at least one group around here that does that kind of thing].

 

[The Lumberjack]

I've played bass for about 6 years and I have to say I love it. I decided to learn when a buddy and myself decided to start a band before either of us knew how to play. He called shotgun on six string, so I went with bass and I'm so happy I did. Bass is also in very high demand in almost any music scene like Ongie said. I've been in 3 different bands and anytime I quit one it wasn't but a few days before I had 3 or 4 offers from other bands wanting me to come jam. Electric is fun, but don't be cliche.

 

[black_dust]

I say Electric guitar, once you have mastered that, its sooooo easy to transfer over to bass

 

[The Lumberjack]

I say Electric guitar, once you have mastered that, its sooooo easy to transfer over to bass

Yeah it's easy for a guitarist to become a bass player, but not a bassist.

 

[Ongie]

***redacted***.

 

[Machx72]

Well my close friend who I've talked with about starting a band wants to do guitar, but will ultimately do whatever I don't do...

Although both of us think it'd be a pretty wise idea to go with the bass given my uncle's situation [I'd have a perfect mentor for it]... Although like I said, I have no personal bias toward either side.

For a while before, I'd solely looked at bass guitar, but lately I've been second-guessing it. I may take bass simply because of my uncle's position. Who knows.

 

[KingOfDreams]

And if you don't believe me... You should search "Vic Wooten" on youtube. Vic is the best damned bassist I've ever seen.

He's technically good and I've liked some of his stuff but Les Claypool is far more interesting and enjoyable in my opinion. But to answer the question, try out both and see what you like best. I play both personally.

 

[jaguarr]

Jaco Pastorius, FTW!

jag

 

[ScottyBBadd]

Bands are more likely to be looking for bassists than guitarists.

 

[ScottyBBadd]

And if you don't believe me... You should search "Vic Wooten" on youtube. Vic is the best damned bassist I've ever seen.

I am more into Steve Harris, and Geddy Lee.

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

If you learn guitar, you can also play bass.
But learning bass will not teach you the chords necessary to play guitar.

So learn guitar.
Little bit/lot harder....Way more rewarding...unless you're going to get into the realm of bass virtuosity, which would take years and years.

 

[Mr Sparkle]

while I respect the fact that Wil knows tons more about guitar work than me, I can also say that I think Bass is an entirely different thing.
I remember reading about How Les Claypool did nothing but play bass for years and couldn't play a guitar to save his life.
and some other greats CAN play guitar throuhg their bass playing ( Geddy Lee I'm looking at you and your 747 size nose) but it's true that's it's easier to get to Bass through guitar.
wait...what?
ah nevermind.

 

[Sun_Down]

If you wanna play by yourself, I'd say guitar. If you want to always be in demand, take up bass. I started on bass and I still remember the salesman telling me I'd made a good choice because "The world always needs bass players". Regardless of what you choose, you can always pick up the other later. I picked up guitar very easily after only a few months on bass.

And don't ever let anyone tell you that bass is "easy". Yes, it's very easy to be a mediocre bassist, but it's just as easy to be a mediocre guitarist. A good bassist can fly all over the fretboard, a great one knows when not to.

 

[chamber-music]

who are you guys favourite Bass players. I think Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers can play anything and Jared Followill from the Kings of Leon has been putting out some solid stuff.

 

[Motown Marvel]

if your planning on learning "alt. rock" then please dont pick up either instrument. theres enough of that crap in the world today, we dont need anymore.

 

[Machx72]

I'm not looking at alternative rock... I'm looking at metal.

I'm just saying, however, that since my uncle is now a professional bassist for a band, he'd be a good person to look to for help.

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

ah nevermind.

Yeah. I'm saying that if a guitar is playing bass and the band is playing an A minor, b00m, he knows which notes will work.
But if all you know is bass, and you're now on guitar, you won't necessarily know that and it really comes down to as simple and silly a thing as the B string on a guitar.......unless you're one of these bastards who plays a 5 or 6 string bass.

if your planning on learning "alt. rock" then please dont pick up either instrument. theres enough of that crap in the world today, we dont need anymore.

No. There's no such thing as "enough" guitar. The thing that makes it crap is not that it's written/performed/recorded on a guitar. It's that the songwriters/performers are writing/performing Crap-Music.

We always need more GOOD guitar music. Always.
In 1966 you could've said, "If you're gonna play this "Hard Blues-Oriented Rock, then don't. We have enough of that crap as it is.", then we would've never had a lot of God-Like bands.

 

[Motown Marvel]

No. There's no such thing as "enough" guitar. The thing that makes it crap is not that it's written/performed/recorded on a guitar. It's that the songwriters/performers are writing/performing Crap-Music.

We always need more GOOD guitar music. Always.
In 1966 you could've said, "If you're gonna play this "Hard Blues-Oriented Rock, then don't. We have enough of that crap as it is.", then we would've never had a lot of God-Like bands.

well, thats my point, "good guitar" is scarce in alt. rock....

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

Yes.
You know, it was funny, in the late 90's "Alternative Rock" became the establishment. It was then the thing to which you needed to find an "alternative".

It's a sloppy name for a genre.

Or maybe it was even sooner...like, when U2 and R.E.M. became mega-huge failsafe global Superstar bands.

Heh, I remember when there was this new, obscure band called "U2" that no one had heard of, blowing our minds. lol
That's how old U2 and I are.

 

[jaguarr]

Musicianship has, unfortunately, become horribly stunted in today's music climate. I really miss the days when people who were incredible musicians were revered for their hard-earned skills and natural born talent. Now it's become all about the image the artist has and how hard they can have their material pushed by their marketers. People are sheep and will swallow whatever pablum they are told is "cool" by the industry, and thus you have absolute shyte on the radio. To the point that I can't even listen to the radio anymore except for blues night on one of my local stations. But so much of the new music I hear is sorely lacking in any real musicianship or songwriting skills. It's all so mediocre because, while they may look pretty, the people performing it are mediocre as far as their talent level goes. There are certainly pockets of talent out there, but even some of those folks have had to dumb down what they do in order to sell records. John Mayer is a good example of that. It's pathetic. I'll never stifle anyone's desire to create or learn how to play an instrument. They may resurface five years from now and blow my mind with something amazing. However, if they suck or are generating sonic tripe I'll also be the first to tell them so.

jag

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

Musicianship has, unfortunately, become horribly stunted in today's music climate. I really miss the days when people who were incredible musicians were revered for their hard-earned skills and natural born talent. Now it's become all about the image the artist has and how hard they can have their material pushed by their marketers. People are sheep and will swallow whatever pablum they are told is "cool" by the industry, and thus you have absolute shyte on the radio. To the point that I can't even listen to the radio anymore except for blues night on one of my local stations. But so much of the new music I hear is sorely lacking in any real musicianship or songwriting skills. It's all so mediocre because, while they may look pretty, the people performing it are mediocre as far as their talent level goes. There are certainly pockets of talent out there, but even some of those folks have had to dumb down what they do in order to sell records. John Mayer is a good example of that. It's pathetic. I'll never stifle anyone's desire to create or learn how to play an instrument. They may resurface five years from now and blow my mind with something amazing. However, if they suck or are generating sonic tripe I'll also be the first to tell them so.

jag

This is almost ****ing eerie because an hour or so ago I was on a smoke break and this song of mine came into my head, that is Rocking, somewhat structurally simple, has a kind of hipster irony to it, but has a lot of "musicianship" and technical, fast playing...and I was thinking, "I've got to get my new ****ing computer and record that and post it for jag so he knows I actually am a hot guitarist, not to be represented by that scratch track that dunce keyboardist put online without telling anyone.

And then I was thinking, "There's no one who's ever heard that song who didn't like/love it, that I know of...whether it be real Metal dudes, or White Stripey Post Modern Too Cool For School Hipsters....which sent me off into imagining the possibility of a world where there's a backlash against what the post-Nirvana scene has become, where it could come full circle and talent might come back into vogue.

Then I was thinking about John Mayer....how, while I'd never buy any of his stuff or listen to it repeatedly, it did warm my heart to learn that he actually has FEEL.....and SKILL.... and can actually play.....both good melodic stuff, and ripping, fast stuff....

How did THAT guy slip in? lol

 

[Machx72]

To be quite honest, I know very little about the sciences behind music. I can't read musical notes [and when I say, "can't," I mean, "can't," because even when I was in band in school, I could never pick up on it no matter how hard the teacher had tried... So they always had to have someone tell me when to do what]. Fortunately, the tabs list everything out in a pretty basic way, so I may have an easier time with whichever guitar I choose.

However, I agree that today's music is becoming more and more pathetic. Rap and punk deserve the most credit toward the destruction of the music industry, I think.

I'm not big in Alternative Rock either. Even with my own uncle's band... When I first heard the single that was released from their album, I wasn't necessarily fond of it... Predominantly because the intro annoyed me.
I listened deeper into the song, and into their other songs, and I was shocked at how catchy their music really was... Especially since I've always been into old school rap, hip-hop, and 80s rock, and never really HUGE on the popular/mainstream stuff.

Also, the only real bass I've taken interest in is Metallica's heavy style. Most of the other music I've listened to [granted, it's not very much when it comes to rock] has not been very bass-heavy, but I love Metallica's use of it... Especially during Cliff Burton's Era [whose style is pretty much what first caught my ears with bass]. The only bass I have any real knowledge of us... Well... Hip-Hop's, which is a new world.

 

[jaguarr]

Mayer plays some pretty decent blues-lite stuff. It's a shame he's been soaked in the urine-like stench of pop mediocrity for so long. Maybe he'll continue down this road of blues exploration he's been on and really do something worthwhile with his career. He's definitely got chops.

I think guys like Jack White have brought the guitar and an ability to actually PLAY the f**king thing back into nouveau in the mainstream again. It's taking time for people to catch on and really start learning all over again, but it's slowly happening. Most of the really, really cool musicianship is happening in the semi-underground blues scene with guys like Joe Bonamassa, Michael Lee Firkins, Jimmy D. Lane, Jay Hooks and others. There's still a lot of schlock bands out there flying under the radar that are really just glorified garage bands without a whole lot of talent, to be honest. The other hotbed for some really hot-sh1t musicianship that will B-L-O-W your mind is coming out of Europe and Scandinavia where hard rock and metal are experiencing a MASSIVE resurgence and those guys are really playing the living hell out of their instruments. They've got a HUGE focus on musicianship in those bands and that's really awesome to see. So much of pop music today is all about who the producer was on the album and it happens just as much with Rick Rubin as it does with Timbaland. F**k the producers. Capture the magic that a band has and help them achieve their vision for crying out loud. Producers shouldn't be rock stars.

I finally got reconnected with my old guitarist from my old blues band. I think we're going to do some experimenting with some electronica/keyboard stuff I've been mucking with and let him play over the top of it and see what comes of that. Should be interesting.

jag