Originally Posted by: 911JB This one is a Fender strat. For some reason the fender seams easier to play for me than the hamer.[/quote]
Awesome guitar! Congrats. Strats are my favorites. :)
[QUOTE=911JB]My question is, What are your opinions on trying to learn both at the same time? Am I hurting myself by doing this? Has anyone else done this? Should I put one down and concentrate on the other until I am further down the road?

As long as you are making progress & having fun, that's fine! I learned to play guitar first as a kid. Then when I was jamming with other people I noticed there was always a need for a bass player. Always too many guitarists! So I learned to play bass to have more opportunities to jam.

My first bass was just a piece of junk guitar I got at a yard sale for $10. :p I reamed out the headstock holes, put some leftover bass machine heads in it that a friend had lying around. Then I strung it with light bass strings. I wasn't much to look at, but it got the job done for a couple of formative years.

It helped a lot because I was able to play, jam & even gig with some guitarists that were better & more experienced players & performers than I was.

So, I got a lot of jamming, playing & performing experience, learned a lot about what the bass role is in the music & had a lot of fun along the way.

Once I started writing & recording my own music I had a clear idea of what I wanted the bass to do, or what it could do. For the last 10 years or so I've played the bass on all my own projects.

Over the years I've gotten picked up a lot of extra work being able to play bass. The more skills you have as a freelance musician, the better your chances of success.

I find it is fun sometimes to warm up on bass because the strings are so big that's it's like a workout! Kind of like a baseball player putting a metal donut on a bat & swinging it before actually going to bat. Then, when I pick up the guitar it seems really easy to play!

Have fun!