how long to should i wait before switching from bass to guitar?

Question

i have been playing bass for almost 8 months now, and at some point i'd like to learn guitar. so how long should i play bass before learning guitar as well? also bass is my first instrument, and i do have a little trouble with fret buzz, plus i seem to prefer to play with distortion a lot of the times.

Answer 1

Good starting point, especially if you wanna play lead guitar.

I moved from drums to bass, with a little guitar training.
In learning bass and sight-reading music, I was able to pick up new styles on the guitar.
The only awkward thing was getting used to going from fat strings to thin.

Fret buzz: go to a guitar tech shop and have them adjust the neck...unless you wanna try that yourself.

Bass fuzz (distortion) is cool.
Try a flange or chorus effect, too!

Answer 2

Why wait? If you want to play the guitar, go get one and play the guitar. I don't see a reason why you would have to wait certain amount of time.

If you've been playing bass for 8 months, your fingers are pretty strong; stronger than a guitar player who's played for 8 months, so you have advantage there.

Wait no more. Go get yourself an electric, and rock out, dude.

Answer 3

The fret buzz is because you are not fingering the fret right on the top of the fret. That just comes from experience, though.
If you fell comfortable playing bass and want to switch to a standard guitar, it's actually going to be alot easier to play for you.
You will have to learn a few more strings, but the strings on a guitar (as an electric, for example) usually run .010, .017,, .026,and up to .045".
The bass strings are actually the first four lower strings of a guitar. (E,G,B,A). So you Will learn the extra strings and how to form chords, licks, etc.
But you are already ahead of the game because you have some basic instructions on the bass.
Enjoy.

Answer 4

I play guitar and bass and say that bass is easier. If your comfortable with the way you play bass move on to guitar, but if you feel your still a bit rusty than wait. I've tried learning two instuments at the sme time and it's not all too easy.

Answer 5

who cares, play both. i learned that way. your fret buzz on your bass is from a poor setup. you need to have your bass calibrated.. any guitar shop can do it for 30 bucks plus the price of strings. low end guitars and basses will loose calibration pretty quick the first few years. then it kinda stops happening. most guitar shops offer a free setup once you buy the guitar and another one 30 days later. they are made of wood and wood bend and shifts naturally. it's quit common. and don't use distortion on your bass. that sounds like crap. trust me.

Answer 6

New strings need to stretch a little before tuning, or they'll stretch while you're playing and go out of tune. Here's what I do. I tune my new strings a little tight and leave them there for a little while. For example, my E string is probably tuned to a G, so the string is tighter than usual. After a while (I did it a couple hours with my daughter's guitar), I loosen them up and re-tune the guitar, and everything is fine.

Answer 7

Can't you do both? Monday, Wednesday, Friday, practice guitar, and the other days continue with your Bass.

Answer 8

its easier to start with guitar then go to bass...

but since its too late for that, 8 months is long enough now you have to learn chords on the guitar, you already have the tab part out of the way

it shouldent be too hard just get this book
http://www.skepticalguitarist.com/scratch.htm

Answer 9

you should'nt switch. bass is awesome and EVERYONE always needs a bass player. bass requires a lot of dedication, though, so if its not your passion, go ahead and move on.

Answer 10

Play it now. There is no reason to not. The more you learn about the other instruments in a band, the more you will understand where you fit into the music, and the better you will become at being a bassist/guitarist/etc.