Bass or guitar?

[Kraku]

I'm thinking of broadening my instrument repertoire outside synthesizers and I was thinking of buying either a bassguitar or a guitar (electric, both of them).

During my time of writing music, I've done pretty much every genre of music you can think of. The only problem has always been that if the music required more traditional instruments, I was in trouble. Still I tried to emulate those sounds a bit using only synths. Naturally this sounds completely awful and I finally ended up doing 100% synth stuff.

Because of this, I've been lately doing only dancefloor stuff, but now I've decided to make some music with more traditional instruments in the mix. Electric bass guitar or an electric guitar (with appropriate VST amp sims) might be a good choise for me.

I'm not even sure what kind of music I'd end up writing with either or those instruments in my repertoire. I imagine that if I had an electric bass guitar, I might end up writing something along the lines of Depeche Mode, industrial, break beat or something completely different... If I had an electric guitar, I might write more traditional sounding band music, but then again that kind of music would need the bass also, so I don't know... Hmm

So which one would you recommend and why?

[skullsplitter]

You can process a guitar to sound like a bass but you can't make a bass sound like a guitar. Value for money I reckon.

[Hink]

or if you learn the guitar you learn the bass too, the opposite does not hold true...

[Har]

Or you could get a Chapman Stick that'll let you play bass AND guitar parts on the same instrument.
(though the actual playing technique is like neither)

http://www.stick.com/method/
http://www.eyeoncville.com/005/005vid04.htm

[jens]

you can't make a bass sound like a guitar

who told you that lie?

[skullsplitter]

Fair call ...
Also, the bass player seldom gets laid.

[Hink]

Or you could get a Chapman Stick that'll let you play bass AND guitar parts on the same instrument.
(though the actual playing technique is like neither)

http://www.stick.com/method/
http://www.eyeoncville.com/005/005vid04.htm

I sold one of those once, I had to call them to get the tuning...if I remember right it was tuned from the middle out, 4ths one way and 5ths the other...cant be sure though....what I do remember is how slack the strings were, unwound strings were just so loose as a guitarist it was quite unatural. However what a fun instrument to play...I never did much with it except have fun, but I could see myself owning one...

[Hink]

Fair call ...
Also, the bass player seldom gets laid.

maybe, but drummers sure bang a lot...

[jens]

Also, the bass player seldom gets laid.

another lie spread by the envious guitar-players who just can't cope with that their glorious days have gone

[McLilith]

Hmmm...

Guitar or bass guitar?

I used to work in a musical instrument store. I can remember lots of times when a young guitarist would walk into the store, looking at our guitar selection, and being accompanied by a cute girl every step of the way. Funny thing, I can't remember that happening on a regular basis with any other type of instrumentalist. Keyboards, drums, mallet instruments, brass, woodwinds, violins, cellos, banjo, mandolin, dobro, autoharp, or even bass guitar -- none of the players of those instruments came into the store with a cute babe as a standard accessory.



McLilith

--
John Mellencamp even wrote a song about this, remember?

[skullsplitter]

I played bass for 20 years. Trust me, it' true ...
But then maybe it's because I have a face like a dropped meat pie.
Might be time for a poll?

[Hink]

Also, the bass player seldom gets laid.

another lie spread by the envious guitar-players who just can't cope with that their glorious days have gone

no it's true...bass players just cant get it up as far as guitar players...

[AndrewSimon]

OK on the serious side.
I think it will be easier on your fingers going from keyboard to guitar then keyboard to bass.

if you learn the guitar you learn the bass too

Hmm.. I play the guitar and yes I can play bass lines on it as well but playing the same thing on a real bass is much harder. On bass you have to stretch your fingers much harder and the action is .... well the size of the grand canyon compare to a guitar.

[jens]

I played bass for 20 years. Trust me, it' true ...
But then maybe it's because I have a face like a dropped meat pie.
Might be time for a poll?

never seen your face so I can't comment on this but I know that at least round here the ladies usually don't like the guitar-players very much but think that the bass-players are the cutest guys in the band...

[Hink]

OK on the serious side.
I think it will be easier on your fingers going from keyboard to guitar then keyboard to bass.

if you learn the guitar you learn the bass too

Hmm.. I play the guitar and yes I can play bass lines on it as well but playing the same thing on a real bass is much harder. On bass you have to stretch your fingers much harder and the action is .... well the size of the grand canyon compare to a guitar.

if that's a problem you can always go with a 3/4 scale bass...many have. You're right there is a big difference and I have trouble using a pick on a bass because of guitar habits, but I always used a fretless (I sold it though, samples are quicker for me),,,the other thing about my basses, I cant even tell you the tunings I used to compensate for the differences between guitar and bass, basically I tuned the bass to the song. However I put it wrong...again, really my point is that it is easier to go from guitar to bass, then bass to guitar...

Of course when you get into techniques like slap it can get confusing, I cannot play slap bass very well at all....but my samples can..