Looper

Howlin' Wolf; Little red rooster, Ain't superstitious, Killing floor. Muddy Waters; Mannish boy, Got my mojo working, Same thing. John Lee Hooker; Crawling king snake, Highway 13. Willie Dixon; Spoonful. B.B.King; Thrill is gone. The list of great blues tunes is endless but this would be where I'd start.

Why don't fender make more specials? Wouldn't be hard to offer jazz necks on P's, P necks on jazzes and P/J pick ups on either. All they'd have to do is swap bits in the factory and whack £50 on. Most of their specials are artist series which seem pricey and it's off putting if you're not a fan.

Bonham/Jones Baker/Bruce Miles/Cox

My vote goes on a jazz bass, fender or copy. Would think though that versatility is mostly down to the player.

Just put on the Ti's I got for xmas. Flats are way for me from now on, they've transformed my bass. Will see what they're like once they're broken in but they have the sound I've been looking for, lovely to play and nice low tension (had to back the truss rod off a bit). Can't see ever going back to rounds again.

Would agree with getting out of your comfort zone. Reggae maybe, or country, those being two genres I'm at a loss with.

Anyone got one of these? Seen one for sale secondhand and wondering how you'd rate them. All I'm looking for is clean and loud, nothing fancy! Thanks.

My other half got me "the bass handbook" by Adrian Ashton when I started. It goes through the history and technical side of the gear with some nice pictures, then into theory and exercises. Got very deep into theory quite quickly but its the kind of thing you can dip back into. Comes with a CD to play along with for the exercises too. Worth a look.

Just looked it up, the bassline in Groove is in the Heart is sampled from Herbie Hancocks "Bring down the Birds". Thought about putting Groove is in the Heart as one of my top four but I was ashamed, shouldn't have been.

Lemon song - Led Zeppelin Who Knows - Band of Gypsies Hang up your Hang-ups - Herbie Hancock Sunshine of Your Love - Cream Bit low-brow maybe, but they get me going.

There's something to be said for buying your first bass new, if you buy second hand you wont know if it has any issues or a good set up. If you do buy secondhand, especially from ebay you should budget for a trip to a luthier for a set up and once over. As to what to get it's mostly a question taste.

I found it helped to play along to Dylan's version first get the basic vibe and then move on to Hendrix. Came up with my own line for it in the end. Simple song, should be fun to mess around with.

John Paul Jones can be seen playing with his thumb over the top of the neck. Many would consider that poor technique!

Thanks for all the comments, will try the hotwires and if I find I get on with flats might save up for Ti's. Shame you can't rent strings to find out what you like!

Does your friend need to compete with a drummer? If they're going in to a band situation then the louder the better, if not there are plenty of smaller combos in that price range. I spent what for me was a nice bit buying a 30w combo as my first bass amp and then found myself playing in a band with a drummer within six months and had to get something bigger. If it's just for practice I'd say cheap and cheerful and keep some cash back to up grade when you need it, if not then a second hand combo with as much power as possible, some drummers only play at 11.

The Hot Wires are a really good price, looks like they might be the way to go. Thanks.

Not really thought of tapewounds before as I know even less about them, but black strings could be a good look! Strings seem to be like carbs on a bike, a dark and mysterious art to get right, but when they're right you know it. With my P I just stuck a set of roto's on it and it's grand, like setting up a carb on a single cylinder bike. Getting the jazz right is more like getting the vacuum gauges out to do a four cylinder. Thanks for the suggestions.

Can anyone recommend a good set of low(er) tension flats the wont break the bank (Ti's are a bit out of my price range)? I'm look at putting flats on my jazz to hopefully get a bit more thump, but I know nothing about flats. One issue seems to be the higher tension which I don't like the sound of, so any suggestions would be very welcome.

I'd say you're a bassist once you stop questioning if you are or not. When you know it's your instrument and that bass is your part in it the music. Nothing to do with how good you are, but a matter of what you are.

Never known anything that could withstand cellulose thinners. I've not used it on guitars but was using it in a specialist spray shop. Eats the paint off the guns, melts rubber and plastic, destroys your skin after its eaten your gloves. Could be worth a go, but be careful! You can also get sanding discs for small angle grinders, would shift the paint but it would be very easy to sand chunks out of the body.

Fat Albert Rotunda - Herbie Hancock.

It is (or was?) a Fender colour. If you look in the pick-up cavity, or maybe the inside of the neck pocket you might be able to see if it's been re-sprayed.

Maybe everyone's waiting for someone else to buy one?

If only good basses made for good players. We could all just spend over a grand and be great.

Working stuff out by ear is great, but for those of us not blessed with a "good ear" tab or sheet music can be helpful. If I can't pick up a bass line by ear then I'll see if I can find the tab. True it's often wrong but sometimes once I have a start on how it goes I can do the rest by ear. I really don't know why stuff is getting blocked, if I can't find it on the web I'm not going to decide to spend a small fortune on a book that might only have one or two tunes I want to learn and tab for other instruments as well. It's just bad mindedness on the part of the copyright holders.