A Bass Conversion At Church

This morning I was able to return to Heidi’s church to play bass at service for the first time in a couple months. It was somewhat eye-opening (in a musical sense if not spiritual). I’ve been playing my string bass prodigiously with the band, but I hadn’t touched any of my electrics in about two months... since the last time I played for a church service. And I found that I haven’t really missed it all that much. Don’t get me wrong, I still like electric bass (or “plank bass,” as the upright purists derisively call it on bass forums), but it didn’t hold a candle to playing the doghouse. The strings are so tiny, and it felt like I had to be terribly delicate with them to avoid over-plucking and clipping the pickup signal. I’m so used to playing the upright that I found myself hitting the strings too hard on my electric and popping the pickups. After all this upright playing, electric just doesn’t seem like as much fun as it used to. I guess I’ve been converted to the double bass side finally.

Not that I have any intention of selling my electrics, or at least not all of them. And I do see why some bass doublers gravitate to Fender Precisions with high action... they have a nice, beefy feel and gutsy low-end. And they can take more aggressive picking, which you get quickly used to on DB.

So I’m highly considering bringing my upright to church sometime in the future, and Geoff, the guitarist, is all for that. Everyone digs them, really. Could this spell the nominal end of my regular electric bass playing? Could be... and if so, it’s not all that bad.