Should I get a Bass Guitar?

[Flint]

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)