All About That Bass

I’m a huge fan of the bass guitar. I think it’s the most underrated instrument in modern music. If you took the bass out of 90% of the rock songs between 1972 – 2000, those songs would be completely different.

Bass was my second instrument and started playing at 15 years old. My first bass was a red Hondo. Haven’t seen one since then. I think I either sold it or gave it to my friend Pete Scales and then “upgraded” to a Peavey Patriot 🤣!

This is my one and only bass now.

It’s an Ibanez SDGR and I found it at a pawn shop here in West Dundee, IL a few years back. It has an active pickup that sounds great direct into my DAW. Someday soon I’ll pick up a Fender P-Bass or Jazz.

My love for the bass started with the band Rush in 1981. As I dug deep into their music, I realized Geddy Lee played both bass and keys – and piano is my first instrument. So naturally, I started emulating what he did and learned a bunch of Rush songs on bass and keys. The pinnacle of bass/keys combo is of course the song “Tom Sawyer.”

In 2018, Geddy Lee published “Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass” that has garnered many accolades by musicians around the world.

Today, as I write songs, I try and bring in bass parts as soon as possible since the song really starts to make sense to me with the low-end definition. Sometimes, I’ll even start with a bass line, then add drums and go from there. Those songs tend to be more interesting (IMO). My song Nowhere Fast is an example of that.