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NWBasser
October 14th, 2009, 02:44 PM
Hello all,

My brother, FrankenFretter (aka Sean), referred me to this site as an interesting and friendly sort of place. I don't have a lot of time ATM, so will keep the intro short.

Contrary to what he said about me "drawing the short straw", I really wanted to play bass! It all came about after I heard "The Spirit of Radio" and was completely dazzled by Geddy's bass lines. As he said, we got some small inheritance and I got a used Ampeg V4B with 2x15 cab and Aria Pro II bass to start out with. It wasn't long before I tired of the muddy tone and went to an all Peavey setup with bass and big-rig amp for our high school rock band. That gear is long since gone.

After taking many bass lessons from a local guitar teacher (not the best approach IMO), I decided to learn some guitar as well. Many years and several guitars later, I'm still playing guitar and currently have an Epiphone Les Paul, an Ibanez A/E, an Ibanez acoustic, and a Schecter C1+ (selling it though due to the narrow neck). I enjoy guitar pretty well and spend about 30% of my playing time with it, but these days I still love shakin' up the place with a bass which remains my primary instrument.

After a considerable hiatus, I returned to bass playing with a vengence and now have three basses; a Lakland Daryl Jones (jazz bass), a Clement Custom PJ fretless (main player), and a GW Custom prototype 4. Current bass amp is a Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 that I run through either an Avatar B410 neo with the band or a Carvin BRX10.2 for shaking the homestead.

I'm having the time of my life with bass now and have "discovered" some of the great players like Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller, Stanley Clarke, Anthony Jackson, Jeff Berlin, etc.

Other aspects are that I now live in Kirkland, WA, work as a geologist, and am married with a 5-year old son.

Lots of stories that happened along the way that I'll have to get to in due time.:)

...and if you guys are anything like the folks at the bass players forums, I'll have to post gear pics ASAP!

bigG
October 14th, 2009, 07:36 PM
Welcome aboard, NWB! :dude

pes_laul
October 14th, 2009, 08:22 PM
Yeah bass!!!

Welcome to the forum dude, it's a pretty groovy place.

Well I'm a guitar player by heart I've recently picked up the bass (playing in jazz band for the high school and stuff) and it's pretty sweet :dude:

Kodiak3D
October 14th, 2009, 08:24 PM
Welcome aboard!

Robert
October 14th, 2009, 08:36 PM
Welcome my friend! We need low-enders like yerself around here, just to balance the 6 string talk a bit! :)

peachhead
October 14th, 2009, 09:59 PM
Welcome to the Fret and we'll try to keep the bass player jokes to a minimum (until tomorrow anyway)!

sunvalleylaw
October 14th, 2009, 11:05 PM
Hey NWBasser! Welcome! Though I am an expatriate living in Idaho, I am a born and raised Tacoman and still consider the PNW home. Welcome and have fun!

@nthony
October 15th, 2009, 01:12 AM
Hi there. Welcome! :happy

evenkeel
October 15th, 2009, 06:24 AM
Welcome to the group. :applause

FrankenFretter
October 15th, 2009, 07:01 AM
Ya snuck in on me, Jason. Welcome to The Fret!

NWBasser
October 15th, 2009, 10:43 AM
Ya snuck in on me, Jason. Welcome to The Fret!

Hi Bro!

I should have given you a heads-up that I'd get to the party.

NWBasser
October 15th, 2009, 11:00 AM
Welcome to the Fret and we'll try to keep the bass player jokes to a minimum (until tomorrow anyway)!

Cool, I like bass player jokes!

Please share!

FrankenFretter
October 15th, 2009, 12:19 PM
Hi Bro!

I should have given you a heads-up that I'd get to the party.

Glad you could make it. Be sure and read this (http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=403&highlight=With+this+amph+I+get+no+screaming+solos) string, so you understand the whole "amph" thing. Other things you should know: Robert does some great demos here, as well as giving video lessons. DVM (DuhVoodooMan) makes awesome pedals (don't have one YET, but that'll be resolved eventually), and Steve (Sunvalleylaw) is a mountain biker also. I'm sure you'll discover much more to distract you during your "free" time. You might even find a buyer for your Schecter.

Cheers!

-Sean

NWBasser
October 15th, 2009, 04:23 PM
Sean, I remember you telling the amph story.:AOK

I just read the thread too. He he, pretty darn funny stuff.

Maybe you guys can suggest a base amph that can coz masiv destrucshun wen I plae a screeetching soloe and wil taem weezils.

Brian Krashpad
October 16th, 2009, 06:14 AM
Welcome NWB! I'm a guitarist who's currently playing almost as much bass as guitar, they're both fun.

And yeah, we'll need pics.

;)

marnold
October 16th, 2009, 07:07 AM
I started life as a bass player, so it's always nice to see another one aboard. I'm totally with you about Geddy Lee, although the tune that did it for me was "Big Money." His playing during the verses is absolutely furious. My first bass "hero" was probably Queen's John Deacon after listening to their album "The Game." Then I became a metal head and in came guys like Rudy Sarzo, Billy Sheehan, and Steve Harris.

NWBasser
October 16th, 2009, 11:27 AM
I started life as a bass player, so it's always nice to see another one aboard. I'm totally with you about Geddy Lee, although the tune that did it for me was "Big Money." His playing during the verses is absolutely furious. My first bass "hero" was probably Queen's John Deacon after listening to their album "The Game." Then I became a metal head and in came guys like Rudy Sarzo, Billy Sheehan, and Steve Harris.

Right on! Yeah, Deacon is a pretty good player.

I got to see Sarzo play with BOC last year. He's quite a good player, but the FOH guys ruined his tone so it had no cajones to it. I really felt sorry for Rudy to have to work with that.

I still play some metal, but I'm also having fun playing funk and bit of jazzier material. I guess it's a bit more groove-oriented and less riff-oriented for me these days.

I've been working on playing some Maiden on guitar lately though...

NWBasser
October 16th, 2009, 11:37 AM
Welcome NWB! I'm a guitarist who's currently playing almost as much bass as guitar, they're both fun.

And yeah, we'll need pics.

;)

But, of course:

The Lakland

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f156/NWBasser_photos/newbassPhotos010.jpg

The Clement

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f156/NWBasser_photos/newbassPhotos001.jpg

The GW

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f156/NWBasser_photos/craigsitems004.jpg

And the band

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f156/NWBasser_photos/Damans012.jpg

I still need to get pictures of the Les Paul and my acoustics.

marnold
October 16th, 2009, 06:36 PM
Is it just an optical illusion or is the neck on that GW really big (as in wide)? Someone forgot to put the toofs in the Clement, tho :) I tried playing a fretless this summer. It was cool, but it also felt like I had never played bass before.

NWBasser
October 18th, 2009, 12:08 PM
The neck on the GW is only a little bit wider than a jazz neck. It has a round-flat-round back profile that I'm still getting used to since I normally play a C-shaped jazz neck.

I never expected fretless to be so fun. I started with lined fretboards and quickly adapted to unlined. And I never expected to play one in a hard rock setting! Flats on a fretless for hard rock can and does work far better than I ever expected.:rar

MAXIFUNK
October 20th, 2009, 12:32 AM
Welcome aboard! :applause

NWBasser
October 30th, 2009, 03:10 PM
Thank you to everyone here for the warm welcome!

mrmudcat
October 30th, 2009, 06:08 PM
welcome bottom ender:thwap

luvmyshiner
October 30th, 2009, 06:36 PM
Welcome aboard NW. Sorry I missed this one earlier. I'm not a bass player, but you have some beautiful slabs of wood there brother.

Commodore 64
November 9th, 2009, 12:42 PM
I'm new to the Fret too, and I'm posting here rather than in a new thread because...I'm a geologist too! I thought I should show some solidarity.

duhvoodooman
November 11th, 2009, 08:38 AM
An oh-so-overdue WELCOME to The Fret, NWB! :rockon: