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!
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!
