What's harder, guitar or bass??

I've already got a good guitar and also thinking about getting a bass. Which one is harder to play? Most of the people i talk to say it's easy but they don't get much into the hard stuff like primus or anything. to me it doesn't really look all that hard to play but then again i thought the guitar didn't look all that hard to play when i saw other people playing it. and also, is it easy to learn tricks and such on bass? I really want to know before i dish out the money.

It depends of corse. Playn´ stuff like rock and metal, bass might be easyer ´cause you get rid of solos and stuff but playng stuff like Dream Theater, it can be rough. We have an amazing bass player in our band and when we´re playn´ somthing (fast riff) by Theater my hand movement is so little but he´s is so big because there´s lot more space betwen frets on bas. So it´s prety hard to play fast there.

Than al this picking with finger seems amazing to me. I suggest you to use 3 fingers instead of normaly 2.

When it comes to extreme stuff bass may be more difficult when playn riffs.

Although guitar & bass look very similar, they are pretty different instruments... it's relatively easier to change from guitar to bass than changing from bass to guitar, but being able to play bass masters stuff like 'billy sheehan' & 'jon myung' definately will take a lot of time & practice.

As I said they are quite different, my advice is to see which instrument you think you'll be better at if you play it, make a decision and stick with it.

I play both 6/12-string guitar and 4 string bass, all are fun. My wife plays a whole bunch of wind instruments as well as the piano (non of which I can play) however she mentioned she was into the idea of playing the bass so we got a Squire P-bass starter pack and it is fantastic, Id recommend it t any one.

As far as which is easier, I’d say they are about the same. I think it depends solely on what you play. Although the scales are the same shape, dont expect to play the same thing on the bass as you do on the guitar. Technically, basses have drainpipes for strings, which can really chew your finger ends. The frets are further apart which makes your fingers tiered faster. Practice cures both of these things so it is not a biggy.

If you are going to get a bass, you may want to think carefully about scale length, as my Peavey Cirrus is a monster relative to the little Squire P- fellow. Strings are important 2, I’m playing GSH boomers and I love them. It is also worth checking out flat as opposed to round wound strings.

I’m using a Line6 Bass Pod, which is very versatile; you can go from Lemmy to Mark King with ease! It is great for recording with. I have never gigged with it but have no reason to think It would suddenly die on me.

Best of luck dude
S

the point is that guitarrists that start plaing bass often still think in a guitarrists way. The important thing when playing bass it not to play stuff like jon myung or pastorius. the important thing is punch, power and groove. Bass and drums is the backbone of a good band. if the bass is not in perfect groove with the drumms, then the gutarrists can do what they want - it´ll sound like crap. It is not the task of the bass to play fast, shred or fingerbreaking licks - it´s task is to play dynamic and groovy.

Well, from my experience if you can play guitar pretty good than you should be able to play bass pretty well. I have almost completely switched to bass now because I like it now and there is a shortage of them. But learning slap is pretty hard at first, I'll tell ya that.

I totally agree with Azrael here.

Some people get tied up with trying to play crazy stuff on the bass. There's nothing wrong with that, and you should do all that, if you can. But before you can go nuts playing crazy fast stuff, you need to learn how to lay down a basic groove.

I've always held the opinion that if you have a solid rhythm section (bass & drums) that plays really tight, the rest of the band will just fall into place. Think of bands like SRV & Double Trouble, Rush, The Police, etc. Like Azrael said, if the bass and the drums are not in the same groove, then the guitarist can be doing anything, shredding or the most soulful blues, but it won't come through.

Originally posted by iamthe_eggman
I totally agree with Azrael here.

Some people get tied up with trying to play crazy stuff on the bass. There's nothing wrong with that, and you should do all that, if you can. But before you can go nuts playing crazy fast stuff, you need to learn how to lay down a basic groove...

This apply for Drummers & Guitarists as well. I don't know why are beginners always thinking of playing as fast as they can rather than concentrating on learning the musical basics & playing dynamics before trying the shred stuff. Also they never seem to believe what experts say about speed , which is developed naturaly by time.

[Edited by SLY on 10-23-2002 at 01:55 PM]

I've been playing rhythm/lead guitar for 34 years now, and I just bought a used Yamaha RBX350 four-string bass.

This should be interesting! :D

Cool ! I have just got slapping down, it was a nightmare at first but sounds lovely once you get it sorted. Very different from the guitar ! It is really strange picking up a 6 string after playing a bass all day !!!!