To all BASS TAB Copy Pasters Out There

Danny – same here, except I don't use a piano lol I strap on my bass, turn on my amp, sit my big ass down in front of my PC and open a song, painstakingly going through it, measure by measure, note by note, until I've come up with the most accurate transcription I can muster (even if I get a little tone deaf from time to time lol). I've received a couple notices from another bass site telling me my tabs have been accepted there, and yeah, it does piss me off. It sucks that any old rectum-licker with a mouse and an internet connection can copy, paste and steal others' work. But there's not much anyone can do about it; once it's out there it's out there, easy prey for any jerk-hole who wants to steal it.

Call it the price we pay for being generous.

Marko, I am glad you are here and do not want you to leave.

Creating your own bass lines is capital advice, and I think that is where everyone who takes up the bass wants to get to in their playing - or it should be. However, getting there requires getting through a learning curve. I see tabs as a component of that learning curve.

Instruction, whether face-to-face or through an online source, paid or free, is not limited to learning scales, arpeggios, etc.; it includes learning songs. This is where tabs and sheet music (for those who can read music) are invaluable. A beginning student who learns to play a song is going to be much more committed than the poor sod who walks out of a first lesson knowing a scale. That's my experience anyway.

I see, and use, tabs as an instructional tool. If an instructor shows someone how to play a song or riff, is that stealing? How many aspiring-guitar-player-thieves have stolen from Led Zeppelin by walking into a guitar shop and playing the Stairway to Heaven riff? I don't accept your premise that playing the same bass line or riff that another bass player has played and/or recorded is thievery.

If I received any kind of monetary compensation for making tabs and did not have a license to use that music, then that would be stealing. Fair use under copyright law allows noncommercial, educational use of copyrighted material. If I believed that tabbing was thievery, I would not tab songs. In writing a tab, I hope to help someone learn to be a better bass player, as well as learn myself from more accomplished, professional players (Sid Vicious excepted, though he is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which I will never be!)
Cheers.

Sid, it is thievery when an individual is the first to publish a particular rendition of a famous bass line, then someone comes along and copies a tab to the exact likeness as if they were the first ones to have done it. That's my opinion and sorry if it makes me seem arrogant or whatever the case may be. I'm a firm believer that credit should be given where credit is due.

I think tabbers would definitely be more okay with it if permission was asked first. I know I would. Asking permission first shows respect and appreciation to the original tabber. They wouldn't feel cheated out of their hard work.

Well said lovetheeighties!
As far as I'm concerned I'm friends with everyone in here & appreciate all the contributions made to help make this site what it is.