Fun Stuff > BAND
Teaching myself bass guitar...
Albatron:
so I've started looking at buying a bass, anyone care to give a crash course in bass buying? What should I look for or avoid
Thrillho:
I think that the fretboard becomes more important with bass than it is with guitar. Sound wise, with bass you have far more leeway than guitar - but the fretboard I think is very important. So make sure to get the right one for you. I'm not too wise on models because I couldn't give you names anyway, but telling us what you plan to play might help.
Darkstrike:
How much are you looking to spend?
PS, anyone who says bass is boring just ain't doing it right!
The Albatross:
I had the advantage of playing both trumpet and tuba before picking up the bass, so got timing, notes, and most basic music theory out of the way. So, I just went straight it training my ear and learning tabs to all of my favorite songs.
www.ultimate-guitar.com
Pretty much the best site available for tabs.
As one guy said earlier, it's heavily advised to pick up guitar or some other instrument after bass/during bass. Because, not to insult, but you're probably not a prodigy like Les Claypool, Flea, or Victor Wooten.
Mars:
--- Quote from: Albatron on 14 Jul 2008, 08:30 ---so I've started looking at buying a bass, anyone care to give a crash course in bass buying? What should I look for or avoid
--- End quote ---
That depends. What do you want?
I'm going to go ahead and say don't spend a fortune on your first bass. If you're asking us what to look for then there's probably not any point in buying some really expensive uber-bass and then regretting it later because you prefer the really expensive uber-5 string.
I like my basses with 4 strings and my guitars with 6. All these crazy kids adding strings willy nilly just don't make no sense to me. Just sayin'.
As a general rule, you can get some lesser known brand instruments for much lower prices that are great quality and work really well for beginners. If you really look, you can even get some off-brand stuff that rivals the top names. There's no need to go for the Fender or Rickenbacker or whatever.
Umm, in terms of specific things to look for or avoid, there's really not too much. Go try a couple out and see what works best for you. Bass guitars are mostly solid body instruments and build quality isn't so make or break as it is for guitars, since nearly everything can be adjusted anyway. Just look at different pickup configurations, scale lengths, neck profiles, etc etc and see what works best for you. You should be able to find something that suits if your music store is larger than a broom closet.
And Albatross, not to insult but if you think you have to be Victor Wooten to enjoy playing bass than you should never have picked up the instrument in the first place.
Go back to your tuba, tuba boy.
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