Guitar or bass?

I played guitar for years and always considered bass to be ‘boring’ until I actually played one.

Now I play/practice bass 90% of the time and rarely touch my guitars..what a turnabout its been for me.

Okay here's a question: Who can actually shred on a guitar? That's the question I'm asking. If you can't play stuff on guitar then yeah you'll like bass more.

I played bass for about a year. Switched to guitar just so I could join my buddy's band, who needed a rhythm player. Played guitar exclusively for about 15 years, and am damn good at it. Came back to bass about 5 months ago.

I can say with complete honesty I wish I'd never left bass, because after only five months back, I'm killing it! I can't help but think how much more awesome I'd be if I'd never left it.

Not only does the bass offer suport for the rythym of a melody, but I feel it offers the most influence on the song too. Sooner or later, everyone comes back to the bass line.

Just sayin'…

I saw a shirt a while back that said, “your girlfriend is watching that guitarist, but she's dancing to the bassist.”

I liked that.

I tried to play guitar when I first took an interest in music. Then my hands were nimble and flexible to handle all the chord changes. But I was bored with the guitar. Everyone was playing it, or wanted to play it.

But then I started breaking songs down and listening to each instrument and what it contributed to the song. And the bass was the only instrument that struck me as critical to a song's success. No other instrument was able to tie the rhythm and melody together. Or at least I wasn't able to hear another. And then you realize that your head is moving to the bass line (not what some guy just played up and down his guitar neck at screaming volume levels).

I don't get the fascination with people wanting to do so much with the bass. Sometimes less is more and all you need. Don't try to force 32-note riffs into a measure, when a whole note is all that the song needs.