Bass Facts

Here they are.

• I started on piano and went to bass because it was less to focus on, and it looks cooler.
  
• I play bass without a pick.
  
• I got a few bass lessons from Kirk Waters, which began my interest in funk and slap (even though I couldn't slap at the time).  This also began my fascination with five-stringed basses, and my first bass after that point was a five-stringed Ibanez Soundgear.
  
• Another thing Kirk taught me that I still keep in mind today:  If you can't sing it, you can't play it.  I've found that the opposite is true, of course--if I can sing a bass part, I can play it.
• The first album that really began to shape my bass style was "The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek" by Relient K.
• As I began to listen to things outside of the Christian market, I found my style and tastes for music expanding, but the things I admired most were inventive basslines, regardless of the style.
• My penchant for bass pedals comes from watching Chris Hall.  I guess that's pedal envy?
• John Moss interested me in the area of custom-built guitars, and that prompted the construction of Stella, my current bass.
• While I can slap with more ease on Stella, I can't slap that well yet, or consistently...instead, I just play with the pickups to get a different tone if a song or band requires that sort of style.
• I don't know much about "the great" bass players like Bootsy Collins, Victor Wooten, and Jaco Pastorius.  I also don't spend much time watching other bass players play.  I don't know if this is strange.   I do watch lead guitarists, but that is because I am addicted to the eighties.

There you have it.  Things you may not have known.