mac1012

Thanks for all your reply's and wow what a response and choice ! I write this in a rush as mad week with daughter moving out into her own home , but to be truthful I don't know my a... from my elbow when it comes to bass I do like the thought of a shorter scale but concerned I may lose some feel and punch with a 30 inch scale ? I will have a look through posts when I have more time I have a couple of weeks before i need to hand back the the other one Thanks very much for all your help

as some of you are aware I had a bass given me on loan and as soon as I start getting serious with it the person wants it back ! it is a squire jass bass vm I think. I have budget of 2-300 pounds and I am loking to get something same or similar I came across some short scale basses for sale and was curious a I do find the stretch on a standard bass difficult , and at 53 not getting any younger are they worth considering ? Any advice would be great thanks

thanks for all you replies and help , I am writing this on my lunch break but suffice to say I have just received the bass method books 123 together from amazon after seeing some off you recommend it to me. only trouble is its audio download and not cds as not big fan of downloads prefer the cds so I might return it and get the CD version. many thanks mark

Hi there i joined this site a few months ago but due to work comittments and blah blah blah i never got going on the bass as i had intended to. Someone from my local church has long trem loaned me a squire jass bass and very nice it is , although i wouldnt be the colour of my choice being blue and white but i figured it would be ok to get me going. i have been playing around with it the past couple of weeks and been enjoying it very much , getting used to fretting a bass , building a few simple riffs and practicing the C scale and E Minor penatonic. So time to get serious and i am on the look out for a book , a member on here has kindly sent me a idiots guide for bass download which is good. i am wanting a book that is similar to when i learned flute a few years ago in such as a progressive book that builds note by note etc and eplains were the notes are on the staff in relation to the fret board etc and builds on good fretting technique etc. I have been looking at the alfred series that looks good and has been mentioned on here as being suitable for beginners. i have seen a couple of other basic books in my local music shop but one was teaching the C scale with open d note etc and the other was teaching using fretted notes higher up , so i couldn't decide on either lol What is the general consensus for a beginner is it the standard scale pattern i leant on the guitar for the C scale or is the fretted note pattern more advisable ? i know its prob both but wondered what would be best for a beginner. Or any other bokks that may be suitable for a beginner. Thanks Mark

thanks for info yes looks interesting the Benton package , id rather go for something like that which is a package for not much outlay , if its good enough for you to gig with then I am sure it would be fine for me, I do like the natural wood look , the mellow tones are fine I am more a jazz , funk type not into heavy metal kind of music , as I said one of my goals would be playing in the church band maybe getting good enough to pick out the root notes (hopefully ) to star with and im pretty sure heavy metal wont figure in the worship lol

No it wasn't the age that bothers me far from it I was just curious how it compared spec wise to a budget squire Or to put it another way what would I be gaining in quality over a new budget squire when i am paying a similar price.

Thanks for link shame the red one has gone can I live wih the purple lol are they good even though the are a few years old ? forgive my ignorance but better say than a budget squire for similar money Mark

ok thanks , I have just seen a shine bass guitar for 70 pound at my local cash generator going to have a look at it later , I have read on here they are ok ish for beginners it will give me something to have a play around with and I will look for a suitable amp , so with an amp my friend said hartke where a good amp so do I need more than just the bass treble tone controls ? I have seen a new hartke 15 watt amp for 80 pounds would that do ?? it dosent mention equaliser is that something of a must have ? Its not that I cant afford more just I know what I am like when it comes to instruments Thanks mark

ok thanks for replies I guess it was more along the lines of whether the Yamaha when it was a current product was a better spec than a new current squire really I get what your saying and I am not going to be that undecided but the used yam caught my eye and wondered whether it was a beginners budget spec when originally current if that makes sense. The availability of squire is a bit thin on ground a local shop has sx model and another has a make im not familiar with but will look into it they start a 199 But thanks again for advice really helpful

Hi there I have introduced myself on the intro section. I am lookin for a beginner's bass and see that squire come highly recommended , I saw a used Yamaha RBX170 that I realise is discontinued and not knowing squat about bass as curious how this compared to a new squire beginner's mode , the yam was 120 with a guarantee but if the quality is not much different it would make sense to buy the squire Any info would be a great help thanks mark

Hi there I live in chesterfield and I am thinking of taking up bass guitar , I have some musical background having dabbled in piano , keyboard , flute (grade 2-3 ) guitar , I am currently playing classical guitar but find it both rewarding and difficult like any instrument. I used to play percussion congas etc in my church worship band and would like to get back in the group but not the congas there is always a glut of singer / guitar players so I figured bass would be a good fit. I do like the sound and rhythm of a bass and feel due to my conga days I have a fairly good sense of rhythm. I can read music very well on the treble and fairly well on the bass cleff my rest stroke playing on the CG is coming along nicely. The more I look into the bass the more I realise muting is a big part of playing and looks quite difficult / technical. I have been looking for a used bass to dip my toe in and I tried a used shine bass in my local shop but the control knobs were crackling bit , I am tempted to get a new squire bass in the hope I stick with it and get into it. I do love a good bass line , what got me going as when I was in the car last week and pandoras box came on by omd and it made the hairs stick up on the back of my neck when the bass line kicked in. I have seen a peavey in another shop few miles away for 120 but not sure what age , model it is for 120 pounds Could any one recommend a good progressive book for beginner's ? anyway thought I would say hello and maybe soon I will take the plunge and buy one lol Mark