Welcome sir...
TBH you can get much more bass for not many more pennies just by reading a few of the threads here.
If you're committed to playing bass you will outgrow the Encore within 6 months and will have to sell it and find a replacement. You will find many good basses in the £200 range - a similar amount will get you a half decent Ashdown or Trace Elliot combo which will do fine till you are gigging regularly.
Lots of online resources available - you can learn lots from the free part of Scott Devine's site:
https://scottsbasslessons.com/
Or Mark Smith's TalkingBass site:
https://www.talkingbass.net/
Just wish these resources were available when I started playing.