Bass Quotes

I like to practice on the bass, but I don't do it as often as I should.

Lately Fish and I have been hooking up more, which is a good thing because it's just been a struggle for me as a bass player to play with someone who's so creative on the drums, and lately it's been really good, especially during sound checks.

But yeah, I played bass guitar in high school and in college and then I actually fractured my thumb, so my bass career went bye-bye.

Bill Withers and Curtis Mayfield, those are the people who informed me in playing the bass.

At the time, I didn't know that bass would not be enough for me. I'm not a bass player because bass is always a background instrument even to this very day.

That was the reasoning behind learning to play bass, and then after that it was more like it was neat to play songs together - for me to play bass and for him to play guitar.

I like to combine the dramatic emotional warmth of strings with the grooves and body business of drums and bass.

I play a percussion instrument, not a musical saw; it needs no amplification. Where it's needed, they put a microphone in front of the bass drum. But, I don't think it's necessary to play that way every night.

So I'll set a cycle in motion and pop it into record and I'll lay down a drum pattern, a bass line, a keyboard and guitar part, and once the groove is going I launch into the song and sing my song over the top.

You can't beat 2 guitars, bass, and drums.

I am more of a solo bass player and he needed somebody who would keep the role.

When I first began to write, I was writing on bass, because I was thinking more Public Image, more dub.

On Ain't No Telling I came up with the bass solo.

I was always the sexy bass player in the background while Robin stood centre. Barry and I played it up a bit, gave 'em a bit of thigh.

If you're working on a computer and you're editing bass, it looks like a warm curvy, sort of feminine object.

I came from an era when we didn't use electronic instruments. The bass wasn't even amplified. The sound was the sound you got.

I like the guitar better these days. I like the bass, too, but it's hard to fit a bass amp in a small car.

Last tour my bass rig was breaking down every other night. That was a pain. We would get on stage and Trey would count off the song, and I'd play the first note and nothing would be there. Those guys would just roll their eyes.

I heard the Beatles and the Stones, and Mom bought me an electric guitar. I played lead for four years and then switched to bass. One day someone suggested that I should sing, so I sheepishly stepped up to the microphone and the rest is rock history.

I can understand why some of these drummers and bass players become cult figures with all of their equipment and the incredible amount of technique they have. But there's very little that I think satisfies you intellectually or emotionally.

I love playing with Jeff. That's something I never really say in the press, but he's my favorite bass player. I've played right next to him for 10 years.

In 1972, I got my first electric bass and started playing the kind of instrument I play now. I found that the majority of musicians couldn't bear that. They are not used to listening to the bass because they think the bass is in the background to support them.

I don't want to wreck my voice. I love to concentrate on playing the bass and keeping it very rock-solid. If I were singing, I would have blown out my voice.

That was the producer who produced a couple of my solo albums. He produced my second, third and fourth solo albums. It was his project and I just joined him on it. I sang on one and played bass on another one.

It wasn't until after private lessons and learning bass lines that I even noticed bass in the music I was listening to at that age. My ears were blown wide open.

When I came into Metallica, I had to do justice to Cliff's work, but I also had to put my own signature on it. No one could be Cliff Burton; Cliff Burton was the Jimi Hendrix of bass.

If you play the very subtle jazz tunes with acoustic pianos, acoustic bass and it's a dead standard, you are going to play very differently. It depends on the music.

The press is like a big bass, you just stick a hook in their mouth and they'll take it.

You can actually go to school and college to learn how to play and get technical with the electric bass.

So I am one of those bass players who can do something and musically, it was back then and now it is even more, if you noticed on the new album, I am not playing all the time anymore.