Do you write using your primary instrument?

Bass is my primary instrument, but I write more on guitar or on a Bass Station synth (the range can be altered - not just the low notes).

It just made me curious as to what other people do. I'd love a piano as I have some dormant skills, but I don't have the room for one.

I also tend to still record riff ideas on my iphone or with an old tape dictaphone rather than go through the hassle of firing up the computer every time.

I really must get a decent acoustic guitar at some point.

Bass is actually good for sussing out ideas, so mainly guitar /bass. I did some while back use a cheapo keyboard too.
^ if you haven't room for a piano just get a basic electronic keyboard, fine for just ideas, the one I got was a tenner at a boot fair :) 

My best songs were written on keys .. normally 88 midi into a piano plugin in protoos. 

Danny1969 said:

My best songs were written on keys .. normally 88 midi into a piano plugin in protoos. 

I think the piano lends its self more to the complete vision of a song as you can play the bass notes, chords and melody at the same time. 

Guitars are good as well 

That's why I'd like a piano. Would get me out of my E or A rut as well.

Yeah, i tend to write on piano if I'm using an instrument as my chord vocabulary is far greater on that and there are more voicings/inversions/suspensions i can come up with on piano than on guitar. Other times i tend to write "in my head" or by humming/singing and harmonising in my head. I don't really have the chops to write on guitar - i can't normally tell the difference between a worthwhile idea and a rubbish one as they sound the same to me, whereas on piano or in my head i can hear the bigger picture of the song i think, and can therefore evaluate it better. 

If a song turns out as a guitar led track, then it's because I've kind of treated it as a cover version of my original piano version (my composition challenges on here for example)

While I can play bass, I can't get inspired to write chord progressions using bass.  Simple ones like G C D Em etc, or single note riffs, yes.  But not complex chord progressions that involve sus, dominant, augmented chords .  I'm not talented enough to mentally hear the chord voicings just by hearing the bass note.  I find that stuff only comes out when I write on a standard 6 string guitar.   

No - I can barely play my primary instrument. I write notation or piano roll depending on what I'm going to play it on later. 

My primary instrument is the keyboard and has always been my only tool for writing music. The guitar comes in later on in the process for me most of the time. 

My originals band long lost in the mists of time but writing on guitar; really it was coming up with a guitar part and a vocal over the top. When my son was doing his music projects it was all in software (Logic?) and everything turns out like Frank Zappa goes disco. But worse than that sounds. Sometimes there is something to be said for limitations. 

If I write on guitar - my main instrument - I tend to get distracted and start jamming and practicing etc, because I can actually play it.

I find that due to my technical limitations on other instruments, I'm more productive when I write on piano or bass. 

Wherever the inspiration takes me. Sometimes it’s on guitar, sometimes piano, occasionally a bass line. Sometimes I can hear the melody with the lyrics and have to find it, sometimes it comes from experimentation (almost by accident). There are no rules.