Stratovarius Community

I was just wondering if there are any other bassists here... I see lots of posts about guitars/keyboards/etc but no bass!!!

I've been playing for nearly 2 years now. I started out with Iron Maiden, so Steve Harris has been a huge influence on my style.

I Play bass : o)
And guitar, frums and flute : o) And I´m singer too : o))

But bass is best for me

I began playing bass about a year ago.. I don't own a bass myself, but I played at a friend's place.. I never really got the hang of it, honestly. Even though I had quite some practice on fingerplaying, bass never really got to me. I just wasn't made for it, although I love watching people play bass.

Aneete wrote:I Play bass : o)
And guitar, frums and flute : o) And I´m singer too : o))

But bass is best for me

Awesome! At least now I know there's other bassists around here.

You're quite talented!

It's fun to play bass and keyboard sometimes. But I stick to my main instruments guitar, sax and voice. If I wanted to play bass like Sheehan, Flea or Kainulainen, I propably should priorize differently.

Veripalttu wrote:It's fun to play bass and keyboard sometimes. But I stick to my main instruments guitar, sax and voice. If I wanted to play bass like Sheehan, Flea or Kainulainen, I propably should priorize differently.

Jari is a huge inspiration to me... I'm not very good at slap bass tho, so Flea is out of the question.. haha. You have ambitious goals!

Right now I play with fingers and plec, but slapping wont be out of question. The bass player in my band does some really good slapping. Good bass players seem to be a dying breed dont you think?

Good metal bassists are very hard to find indeed... but I've met a lot in some bands my band has played with who are pretty cool people and know a lot about their instrument.

Truly AMAZING bassists like Victor Wooten seem to be the real dying breed sadly. I've yet to coem across any new bassists out there with his kind of skills and songwriting.

I'm not exactly brilliant, but I play bass. I can only play with a plectrum though. BTW, if you don't allready use guitarpro, I suggest you start using it. It makes learning songs a lot easier

huh i play bass for maybe 5 years.....i started to play it because hey everybody play the guitar so why not to try something different? the bass sound is as beautiful as the guitar sound, if you know how to play....i play with the fingers, its better for me

I play guitar in two rock bands, but in the case of bass: I play in a jazz band. It's really cool. You get a lot of chance to do solos, and fortunatley my bandmates love slapping solos... so do I. I also like to do really fast solos. I have a Fender Precision Bass Special V, and my opinion is that it's far the BEST bass that ever existed.

My greatest inspiration is Aladár Pege, he is an (supposed to be) internationally known hungarian jazz-bassist and double bassist


VINTAGE BASS RULES YEAH MAN

my younger brother plays bass and he is really good. he is very influenced by jazz and prog bassists. I don't think there are no more good bassists but most of them just shy away from rock and metal music because the bass in these styles is really overlooked don't you think?

I think not. The first thing I wonder about when listening to new music, is the cooperation of the percussion and the bass. Who cares about laymans?

The fact is, there are a lot of bassists out there that you hardly even notice them It's depressing to see some good bands with terrible bassists

Twilight Legionnaire wrote:The fact is, there are a lot of bassists out there that you hardly even notice them It's depressing to see some good bands with terrible bassists

I agree. It's terrible to hear. I play bass myself. I've played the non-electric bass for 10 years, I just started the electric one.

I bought a bass guitar about 3 weeks ago. So I would not count myself as a bass player yet, but anyway, I love the instrument, and practice everyday.
I play the drums though, and also can play the guitar to a certain degree, so I'm not new to the stringed instruments.

@Benphu

Nice to see some fellow Hungarian here. In which bands are you playing in?

edit: some typos corrected....

My bass-guitar is a Yamaha.. One friend of mine works in a Finnish music shop and I got it a bit cheaper what it had been. It took me about a year when I was intrested to play it! Strange... I guess I'm just so lazy..

My darling is an Ibanez SR500 4 string one, with active Bartolini pickups.
I have tried quite a lot of basses, but this was the one that had the right feel at the moment I take it into my hands. http://www.ibanez.co.jp/world/products/ ... 500BM.html
Intersting enough, I 'discovered' last week that Jari uses a 6 string bass from this Ibanez SR series, it is an SR3006ESOL I belive, only his is I guess from year 2000, and of course could been custom adjusted for him, especially the electronics. http://www.ibanez.co.jp/world/products/ ... 6ESOL.html

Hey, Paul, I ain't the only Hungarian around. There's Beast_Pete for example.

Írj a magyar topicba a más nyelvű beszélgetéseknél.

I play in three bands at the moment.

- A rock-metal band, which was called Wolvish in 2001, but I only play with them since august, and we don't have a name since then.

- A jazz band.

- And a progressive-instrumental band, which uses rock and metal riffs as fundament, we have a synth player too, and basicly everything we do is jam.

I'm a bassist as well, studying music at university in fact!

(I visit this forum a lot but im mostly a lurker and dont come into the musician section much)

All you bassists, come join the Harmony Central Bass Forum! I've learnt a lot from that place, and it's great fun. Quite a few metallers as well as a matter of fact.. http://acapella.harmony-central.com/for ... &x=14&y=13

My gear consists of a wonderful Ibanez SR406 (yes, influenced by Jari! and John Myung) a great Washburn XB-120, a Hartke HA4000 head and an Ashdown MAG 2x10 cabinet. The Hartke head is alright, but I want to sell it and get an Ashdown ABM head, I love those things!

I play metal mostly, but due to my studies (i'm a first year at Roehampton University in London, UK) I've learnt a lot of blues and jazz as well. But ultimately i want to put it all into metal, whatever I learn. I love stratovarius, they're my second favourite band ever (after the almighty Iron Maiden, of course!) but i listen to a lot of Black metal too, love Emperor, Mayhem, Immortal, Dimmu Borgir and of course, ROTTING CHRIST, possibly my favourite black metal band. Check them out!

Bassists unite!

It looks like the bassists are realy dying... No message for nearly a whole year... Well... I bought a bassguitar (old good czech "Focus" made in Taiwan ) a two and a half year ago and it was the best thing I've ever done.
Now I am finally playing in band that has a pretty big chance to make it through and became famous (at least in our town ). I've tried many styles, from rock to blues (just tried - as you can see, I am not so experienced - 2n'1/2 year isn't much... ) and stucked at eastern folklore mixed with Jazz, SKA and Rock (funny - my favourite music genre is Metal). But what I wanted to say - I've managed it into the band, because there were just a few skilled bassists. Hey guys! You all over the world - Grab some bass and start playing! Some may say that it isn't as attractive as playing a guitar, but it is unique - Don't you wanna be like Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller, Jaco Pastorius or Fieldy!

Bassists occur naturally through love of music. Or they're just guitarists who want to play more gigs, and don't count.

That's why bassists are better

Oh and I've updated my setup. I sold the Hartke head and bought a Gallien-Krueger 400RB IV, and an Ashdown AMB cabinet. Oh yeah baby.

Bass player here too! Never played in a band with a bass although.. I did with a guitar , and of course keys ... and sing in choruses parts if that counts as singing!

I have played guitar for about 2 years, i'm in a metal band, and we have an awesome bassist, but that's really sad, it's truly difficult finding nice bass players, what most people do is that they just follow the guitar while they could be doing a whole lotta things that would sound really nice!!!

one more here

Bass is the best instrument ever!
@NeonVomit : you have a really cool gear! The SR40x is a really good serie!

@Wanderer : I didn't know that you were a bass player!

Myself I have a Aria Pro II. A really cheap and crap model but I have been playing with it for so long (11 years) that it seems I can't get used of another one! I was thinking about a EDB600 but I am not too crazy of the sound of it. Too warm, too rock/hard, not enough polyvalent, not really good for a slapper...
Anyway, I should buy a new one, mine is half broken and I can't play with a 200€ model until the rest of my life! There are so many good basses. The thing, is to find the model which suits you the best.

I am not so crazy of 5 or 6 strings bass guitars.
People think that with a 6 strings bass guitar, you can play better solos. Not true at all! The size of the board & the space between the strings, that is not the best for solos. Actually, you can play wonderful solos with just a 4 strings one!

I have also been playing in some (terrible) bands in the past, but I got sick of it in 1998. Lack of interest in practicing (i stopped playing the bass for about 3 years), + some huge assholes who think they are the best guitar player / singer on this universe! Hopefully I will have a band soon with my girlfriend!

How many strings you have on a bass makes no difference at all. Victor Wooten and Jaco Pastorius manage(d) incredible solos on just 4 strings. I play a 6-string because it just suits me.

The wonderful thing about string instrument like bassguitar is a wide palette of techniques - some of them are completely different from another. When I use fingers - it's allright (nothing amazing, but at least others can hear that you know what you play ), but give me a pick and I am lost. Now I am learning how to slap n' pop - I've read tons of texts about how it is difficult and how satisfying it is to master it. I feel like I am starting all over from the beginning - like I've never hold a bass before. Some say that you may loose heart and give up - I think that this is the reason why NOT give up - never get bored of it, always try to learn something new...

I play bass. I played bass in a church band for quite a while a couple years ago. But i rather play regular guitar. just my opinion.

I´ve been playing bass for... Umm, what, five years now? My god, time does fly by! I played piano for two years and trumpet for five years before that so I´ve been occupied with music for ten years now. I really came close to dropping it over a year ago due to lack of motivation (and time) but then I moved to Helsinki and I happened to run into this great band without a bass player, auditioned and got the job - now I´m having musically (and non-musically probably as well ) the most stimulating time of my life! It´s just amazing what a motivating group can do. Go and check our stuff at http://www.crystal-blaze.com!

My bass gear at the moment is:

Fender Geddy Lee Jazz Bass (a killer!)
Ibanez BTB705OL (I´m trying to sell this and probably replace it later with a Warwick FNA Jazzman 5-string)
SWR 350x head
Hartke VX411 cab
EBS Multidrive