Crisis

[ShaolinLambKiller]

Look forward to the opportunity to try out a totally neglected g.a.s. that you only had for guitar. Never been in the same shoes because I always played both pretty much immediately. More so bass in bands than guitar then drums about 4 years later.

[Big Mon]

I'm thinking I'll find a cheapo Bronco and see what happens.

There have definitely been times when I wondered if I should just play bass full time. I played bass in a Sabbath cover band (we were called Hank and the Hot Nuts and for each Sabbath song we covered, we'd change one word in the song title to "nuts", as in almonds, peanuts, hazel nut, etc). And most of the stuff I've recorded was me playing all the instruments. So why not just play both? When you get in a rut on one, you can put it down for awhile, then play the other until you get in a rut with it.

Did you feel competent enough with the bass before starting with that band or did you use the band as an excuse to learn?

Well, in a band I was in prior to that one, my house was our practice space. And the bass player would always leave his bass since we practiced almost every day after school. So I spent a good bit of time working on things that complimented my guitar parts. And when all that was done, I started learning the bass parts to cover tunes for shits n' gigz. So yeah, I felt pretty confident in my abilities before playing with that band. I definitely understand where you're coming from with the "maybe I should just switch" feeling.

[backwardsvoyager]

The only way i really distinguish between playing bass and playing guitar is the string spacing.
After playing guitar for ages and trying out other instruments i thought about it less like "i'm a guitarist" and more like, "i'm suited to fingerstyle string playing with narrow string spacing", which is specific but i find i can transfer onto any kind of scale length or whatever as long as the string spacing is appropriate for the way my fingers move. The actual pitch of the instrument becomes unimportant and something that can be changed to suit the context.
I think it's awesome that extended range guitars, baritones, bass vi etc are picking up in popularity and there's no reason to feel like you're just a guitarist or a bassist, you just need to find instruments that allow you to express yourself most freely rather than trying to fit a predefined mold of an existing instrument player.

[kbit]

Bass is way more fun. Objectively proven

[Mudfuzz]

The only way i really distinguish between playing bass and playing guitar is the string spacing.
After playing guitar for ages and trying out other instruments i thought about it less like "i'm a guitarist" and more like, "i'm suited to fingerstyle string playing with narrow string spacing", which is specific but i find i can transfer onto any kind of scale length or whatever as long as the string spacing is appropriate for the way my fingers move. The actual pitch of the instrument becomes unimportant and something that can be changed to suit the context.
I think it's awesome that extended range guitars, baritones, bass vi etc are picking up in popularity and there's no reason to feel like you're just a guitarist or a bassist, you just need to find instruments that allow you to express yourself most freely rather than trying to fit a predefined mold of an existing instrument player.

I agree, I am looking forward to extended range instruments getting into the wrong hands for some interesting stuff
on the other hand I feel the opposite about the spacing thing, Bass VIs are cool and fun to play but, too me they feel too guitar like and the tight spacing gets in my way. What it makes me want is to swap out the bridge pickup in one of my "normal" 6 string basses for a guitar pickup vs a modern style bass pickup for more variants in sounds.. also I've been having thoughts about something like a 8 string [like a bass VI with two more low strings] with the spacing somewhere in-between a normal bass and guitar... most likely if I really want it I'll have to build it myself… I hate fretting but anyway or something yeah.

[goroth]

The only way i really distinguish between playing bass and playing guitar is the string spacing.
After playing guitar for ages and trying out other instruments i thought about it less like "i'm a guitarist" and more like, "i'm suited to fingerstyle string playing with narrow string spacing", which is specific but i find i can transfer onto any kind of scale length or whatever as long as the string spacing is appropriate for the way my fingers move. The actual pitch of the instrument becomes unimportant and something that can be changed to suit the context.
I think it's awesome that extended range guitars, baritones, bass vi etc are picking up in popularity and there's no reason to feel like you're just a guitarist or a bassist, you just need to find instruments that allow you to express yourself most freely rather than trying to fit a predefined mold of an existing instrument player.

Of course I can play the notes on the bass. And I play quite rhythmically anyway when I play the guitar, so I'm down with that. But every time I play with a good bassist I'm reminded of the fact that I don't approach the instrument like a good bassist, and thus I'm not a bassist, and I have no problems saying that I'm not a bassist.

[fishtankdork]

growing up i was classically trained on bass viola. music and theory classes and everything. naturally ontop of orchestras i got into jazzbands easy growing up being one of the few younger guys who could sight read. i had a sweet bass rig, HATED pedals because i thought it was a mask, i had 2 modulus q6s and a 1950's kay (still have that actually ). well one day i joined a death metal band playing bass to branch out. it really branched me out. i had super fun jamming with the guys on guitars during offpractice/fool around time. after that band dissipated after a couple years i bought a gibson banjo. weird right? after 2 years of banjo playing i bought a 1958 guild starfire guitar and a fender twin and i just fell in love. i was good at bass, prob better than guitar at that time, but i had years of bass training however something just felt so damned right and natural on guitar. i felt like i wasted all that time on bass. its been 7 years and i exclusively play guitar now (been playing music for 18 years), i dont get hired gigs as much but everybody plays guitar so its a little harder haha AND I FUCKING LOVE PEDALS NOW. modulation for life son. also i kinda suck at bass now. sometimes its take a journey to find where you belong! i certainly totally related to OP

[Hyphen Nation]

OP:

Buy a bass. Play the bass.
Have fun. If it's more fun, stick with bass. You'll probably find you'll go back and forth.

I've always been surrounded by multi-instrumentalists, so I've always taken that approach [except for drums, I genuinely suck at playing a drum kit for more than a few minutes].

What ever you learned playing guitar will transfer.

If you picked up bass today, it doesn't invalidate your previous 20 years.

[alexa.]

I just went to the guitar shop and spent some time playing a bass. I think maybe I was supposed to be a bass player this whole time. It just felt and sounded so right. I've played guitar for over 20 years now.

Anyone here ever switched instruments after so much investment of time and money?

Mostly I'm just annoyed that I might have to buy a bass amp...

Haha dude, I've been going through the same thing (in reverse) a month ago! I'm a bass player for 7 years now. Got myself a guitar and I'm enjoying it a lot more then I have bass (at least it feels like it atm). And I feel the experience of playing bass enriched my approach to the instrument and I'm having a blast.

And you won't need an amp until you get to the band phase. Just get an amplug or plug it in a preamp to headphones, or computer linein, or press the head of the bass to a big wooden wardrobe then play

[jrmy]

Speaking as a bass player, I'm'a say:

If you loved playing the bass, get (or borrow) a bass
Play it through whatever you have
Play it through "guitar" amps
Play it through any pedal you like ("low-end loss" be damned)
Screw playing rhythmically, unless you deem it appropriate to the moment
Weave a screwdriver between the strings and make it sound like a steel drum
Clip paper clips all over the strings to make it buzz
Play solos
Play chords
Or don't
Make whale sounds
Make screechy sounds
Make thumpy sounds
Just make sounds you like

Life's too short to get hung up about music. Make more of it, not less.

[Chankgeez]

Make whale sounds

... or moose sounds.

Around the 5 minute mark:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is0SGbUTh20[/youtube]

[D.o.S.]

Funk music is the blues lawyer jams of the bass world.

[Chankgeez]

I didn't know Marcus Miller was entitled to add "Esquire" to the end of his name.

[WayToHip]

I went from playing left handed to normal. I definitely think I wasted my time trying to play left handed.
I bought a bass for shits and giggles and now I can say I'm more inspired to play bass than guitar.
So go with what feels good. And I have no idea what this "guitarist playing bass" stigma is.

[misterstomach]

i agree for the most part. but i often see bands and get irritated when the bass player is playing bass like a guitarist who happened to pick up a bass. any guitarist can technically play a bass, but a lot can't seem to pull off actually playing bass like a good bass player.

That's kinda snobby though. Sometimes it's more about how it all sounds in the end than the method you use to get there.

When I was growing up, a friend's dad was a jazz bassist. He'd heard there was a really fantastic new bassist on the scene. So, he and another bassist buddy went to go check out a gig. His buddy walked out as soon as he saw the bassist was playing with a pick. How ridiculous is that? I guess those stylistic choices cross some people's line?

i didn't mean it to sound like that kind of snob. i don't care about things like if someone uses a pick or not or whatever or what their technique is or how they hold an instrument or anything weird like that. i meant more that sometimes i see bands and the bass player is using picking patterns and harmonizing in ways that are like they are filling the role of another guitar player in the band. like they are playing more with the guitars than with the drums, if that makes sense. which can be a fine artistic choice and sound good for certain instances. but i enjoy when bass is played as a rhythm instrument, in that it works and plays with the drums to define the rhythm and flow of the song, which is a task that i think is harder for drums to pull off alone. so when the bass is being played more in the role of a guitar, it sometimes sounds to me like a piece of the puzzle is all fuckered up. it's why i don't really think of myself as being a very good bass player. good bass players that i've played with will hear a riff and write a bass line that i just wouldn't have thought of cause i'm thinking about the riff as a guitar player, if that makes sense. i'm just not practiced in thinking about it or hearing it like that. not the way folks who are really good at it do. and sometimes i'll see bands and be like, that band is awesome, but it's obvious that their bassist is totally a guitar player, and usually i think they would have been better if their bassist played like a bass player. This is also why i think it often doesn't end up working out so well for a guitarist to just run an octave pedal to a bass amp as a "substitute" for having an actual bass player. Lots of people really are really good at doing both. i'm just saying that to me they are different instruments in their execution in a band context, and sometimes i don't think people take the time to figure out how play them that way.

maybe that sounds less snobby, i don't know. i'm kind of a snob, but hopefully that at least communicates what i was getting at more.

obviously rules and such are broken to glorious effect all the time and i'm certainly not saying i have the "right" idea about anything. these are just personal opinions and general observations. do whatever you want. have fun, get a bass. i should probably get a bass and practice playing like a bass player.