OK, I joined about a week after this board went up, and was on the old board for a few months before it crashed, so it's a bit late to be doing this, but I'll do it anyway.
Currently I live in a suburb of San Francisco, but next year I'll be going to college in Minnesota, about an hour drive from Minneapolis.
I've been playing bass since June '06. Before that I played clarinet and alto sax. But I wanted to play a rock instrument. My parents would not let me get a drum kit, so it was between guitar and bass. I chose bass because EVERYONE plays guitar, but good bassists are hard to come by, so it's much easier to find bands. In December '09 I got an electric upright bass, which I've been trying to teach myself (without a lot of success...). I've also want to try to learn mandolin, but I haven't gotten around to doing anything about it.
My main influences are Les Claypool, Cliff Burton, James Jamerson, Lemmy, and Billy Sheehan, but there's a bit of John Entwistle, Steve Harris, Justin Chancellor, Geddy Lee, and Geezer Butler in there
A lot of bass players are accused by traditionalists of playing their bass like a lead guitar, but I take it to a new level. Seriously, I'm more of a guitarist than most guitarists I know (and I don't even play guitar). I don't "do" the whole stand in the back with a p bass with flats and play nothing but root notes while everyone else has fun. I play very driving, prominent bass lines, use lots of fills, prefer growlier, more midrangy basses, and use lots of pedals. I LOVE pedals, and GAS over them constantly. I've considered building my own, but just like my idea of making my own pickups, this probably won't happen for a loooooooooong time. I think that's why I love trems so much.
My first band was one I started with some friends in late 2006. It never had a name. Our rational for this was something along the lines of "You know how in the Middle Ages people didn't name their kids until they were like 5 years old so the parents wouldn't get attached to the kid in the very likely event that he died?" We broke up in mid 2007
After that, I tried to start bands with a number of people, but nothing really worked out.
In summer 2008 I saw an ad at the place where I take music lessons for a guitarist wanting to start a metal band. We hit it off right away, and, depending on how you want to think of it, we've been either 6 bands together, or 1 side project, 1 ad-hoc one show only thing, and 4 very different incarnations of our main band, Volume.
My main bass is an '07 Spector NS-2J-EX with a Kahler 2400 trem, Hipshot D-tuner (a combination frowned upon my most people here
), and Schaller strap locks. I sometimes refer to it as Woodstock (after Woodstock NY where it was made) or the Sextor (after it's sexy maple burl top). I also play a '82 Kramer DMZ6000, Hohner B2ADB, and Azola Bugbass
In addition to bass, my hobbies include filmmaking and SCUBA diving
