Should I get a Bass Guitar?
 

I’ve always been drawn to the high, melodic bass sound of 1980s “new wave” bands. Like the intro to this song. Peter Hook played 4-string bass (except a 6-string on one Joy Division album), but only played on double-octave necks.


Then, I’ve been listening to the Cure a lot lately, and I learned that their guitar parts aren’t guitars. Except they are?


That’s a bassline on a standard bass… with the melody on a “guitar” tuned EADGBE one octave lower than a guitar. It’s a Fender Bass VI. It’s got 6 bass strings, 21 frets on a narrow (guitar-like), but 30” neck. It has a ‘bass cut’ switch.

It’s all over the Cure album, Disintegration, from 1989. Their highest selling record. Check out the intro to Lullaby. That’s what the “Cure sound” is—a specific instrument. And many others have used it, and for widely different reasons.


I’m autistically obsessed enough with this to get one of these Bass VIs.


Reasons:

• I’ve thought about learning the bass (standard), but was never inspired to take action
• There are plenty of standard guitar players and bass players, another one isn’t needed
• I can learn to play by picking single-note melodies to relatively simple, but memorable songs
• It uses standard guitar tuning— I will be learning where things are on a *guitar* fret board
• I will become a better drummer, with a higher level of musical literacy (among other reasons)
• I could compose original music, and get into multi-tracking (already have the gear, mostly)

In fact, I heard that Peter Hook was mad at Simon Gallop/Cure for stealing his approach of playing up the neck! And making a lot more money at it than he did.

The most famous Peter Hook is this song, which became one of those transformative songs for a generation of English bands.



Now I'ma let you finish but here is the greatest Fender VI song of all time, along with one of the greatest American entertainers of all time... lip-synching it. But the solo is just Fender VI, to its roots.



There ain't nothing nohow wrong with that.

So there isn't any one definitive bass experience. But personally I feel like you should get a standard 4, like a Ibanez Soundgear, or a cheap Yammy like another Dwellar has checked out in my PMs. And then, a Fender Rumble Amp, anything but the Rumble 15 which is too small to get the actual bass sound out. I'm about to pull the plug on a Rumble 40 to have something portable for patio gigs.

The reason I say that is because it's a much fuller, richer bass sound... notice that when Robert Smith is using it, there's Simon Gallup playing a traditional 4 right next to him, because they still need something boomy to round out the low end.

That experience, the standard 4, gets you the experience that 95% of all 20th Century music was made with.

Solid observations, thank you.

Peter Hook's bass has always intrigued me-- like Chris Squire, you can *whistle* the bass part.

The truth is I've had guitars/basses sitting around the house for my whole life. I've picked them up and quickly realized I don't have the discipline for the learning curve.

With a marginally useless instrument like the Bass VI, it's no pressure. I can pretend I'm a teenager whose favorite band is the Cure, learn like two songs and play them for a month. After that, if I've developed some muscle memory, I can decide if I really want to pursue playing stringed instruments.



More: the Bass VI isn't much for chords, it really wants single notes. Robert Smith's melodies, on thick strings, with chorus, have more body-- they occupy more space. I won't get bored learning to navigate the fret board, because single, picked notes are the best-sounding thing I can play.

I could side-man on open jams and noodle around, trying to find little melodies. Use the bass-cut switch and run straight into my mini-PA. I could learn a bunch of chords, then pick single-note melodies out of the deconstructed chord notes, like a jazz guitarist on a hollow-body?

(I don't actually want to learn the bass... all I want bass players to do is play fundamentals.)

Have you ever listened to Royal Blood? That guy makes his bass sound like a guitar.

Just one last thing on "Wichita Lineman" because I love it so much

The song is from the P.O.V. of a lineman, a man's man, out there doing tough work - so then, it's no accident that the 8 bars of solo come from the Fender VI. The bass solo IS the lineman. He's not going to whine and cry like some Van Halen solo. He's a tough solo, doing a simple but tough job. And it's not a complicated statement. It's 8 bars of this is what it is, out on the lonesome road between the verses.

It's funky-strung.

I recognize the weed talking there

So's yer mom

Sigh...

You had pretty good run of Not Being A Fucking Asshat.

All good things, I guess.

Bucketheaded bastard.

Take a joke Mary. Wasn't even really directed at you. I just thought it sounded funny.

What would it even mean?

No idea.

What, nor why.

I'm good.

You good?

Then we're good.

I've always liked you Digr. You're too similar to me, for getting along to be easy, is all.

When humans listen to music they want to hear the bass...

the bass...

the bass...

the bass.