I've played a lot of bass over the years but always with a pick and always from the mentality of a guitarist. Considering how much more prominent bass is in today's music and my long standing fascination with how the Geddy's and Claypool's and Entwhistle's of the world can hammer the ever loving poop out of their instruments while adding a buttload of musicality to a composition I've been finding myself with a bass in my hands far more often than a guitar. Now that I understand more about chord structure and how to walk around those structures in relation to the timing of a piece I've started abandoning the pick, ignoring all the years of guitar knowledge (the stuff that doesn't apply to bass anyway) and building my right hand strength/agility/technique. I'm getting pretty good at my two fingered walking, three fingered gallops, down stroking chords with the nails of my fingers and even throwing in some slaps here and there (but pops are still tripping me up). All stuff I thought took years of practice or some special talent.
 
It is extremely fun and I think will be very beneficial to my one man band creations. Honestly aside from losing a little bit of attack over the pick method it sounds better and for many things it's actually easier to play this way.
 
No real point. Just enjoying a new world of musical possibilities I never thought I'd have access to without having collaborators.

I love playing bass, and I always seem to come up with songs and grooves when I'm playing it. But I have no illusion that I may be any good other than to lay down a bass track for a demo. 
 
On the other hand, some of my favorite bass players were actually guitarists who picked up the bass out of necessity - McCartney and Geezer Butler come to mind. 

Love me some Butler. Very much the type of grooves that seem to flow out when I start fiddling around in the darker modes.
 
And I definitely think this is going to help my song writing. I've always been a riff oriented songwriter which is somewhat restrictive to the bass and even drums to an extent. It's almost like writing a song from the top down (or I guess the middle down). As I'm playing with bass grooves I can hear all these really free flowing guitar possibilities and drum beats clamoring around in my head. Very liberating.

I do however need to install a much better pickup on my P-Bass. This stock Squier thingie is not very conducive to fingered nuances. Doesn't help that it's half smashed either. lol
 

Beepster
I do however need to install a much better pickup on my P-Bass. This stock Squier thingie is not very conducive to fingered nuances. Doesn't help that it's half smashed either. lol
 

Tell me about it! For the time being, the one bass in the house is a little Squier Bronco with what looks like a guitar pick up on it. But it was primarily intended to be a learner instrument for my wife. And it's okay to record our demos, considering the style of music we're working on. 
 
In an ideal world, I'd probably opt for one of these:

 
And a Thunderbird - I've always wanted one.
 
I guess I could put a bass upgrade on the list. There are many affordable alternatives which I would appreciate. but these days, priorities are sound treatment and a new Mac.

Those short scales basses are great for a lot of people. Much easier to to play and the ones I play seem to almost sound better somehow because of the looser strings. I find they start breaking up a bit when really digging in though because the floppier strings mash into the fretboard/pickups easier and I like to punch the crap out of a bass. I also have kind of large, spidery hands so I don't mind the extra reaching and although the extra tension is murder on my tendonitis I've suffered through worse.
 
As much as I love the idea of having a big ole Ricki around like so many of my fave players use(d) I'd probably be better off with a PRS or a MusicMan. Those can be pretty pricey though so I should probably just get some nice pickups for the P. Maybe a stereo two output config with one active humbucker and one more traditional single coil. The pickup cavities might need to be routered to make that work though.
 
I think learning to force what I have to sound good despite it's shortcomings is probably good practice for the moment but it gets tiresome and it's a PITA to mix.

I should imagine there are thousands of guitarists out there, myself included, who have never owned a bass but who pick one up every now and then and have a ball.

Strummy convinced me I needed a bass a few years ago and I love mine. However, as was said I'm NOT a bass player either. Playing it has forced me to review some theory though and that always helps on what to play on it. There is a real bass player down the street from me that played with Gatemouth Brown/Delbert McClinton/etc. that I have talked to and those guys really work at it from a whole different angle than I (guitarister) do. They certainly get more work than pickers do!!!