Samfordia

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1412896000' post='2573202'] I now have the B1Xon, and I think it's certainly a very good tool for headphone practice. Sometime soon I'll plug it into some speakers to see what it sounds like through them. But, there are a very wide range of sounds possible through this device. And, the drum patterns are useful. I haven't yet really tried the aux in or the looper, but will give those a go soon. [/quote] I have one of these. Do share any settings for sounds that you particularly like. Would be fun to see what else people get out of them.

I clearly need to wait until I have a decent amp before trying some of these ideas.

Ha! Let me clean this dirty hound first.

I've dated it and it's a 1983.

So, I purchased it.. ..needs a bit of work and a darn good clean, not to mention new strings, so I'm not fully sure how it will sound once everything is in place. Would it be something of a sin to stick flats on this thing?

[quote name='goblin' timestamp='1412550065' post='2569940'] As you're in Salford, if you've got any way of getting to Rochdale, feel free to give me a shout and I can take you through a couple of amp and cab combinations. I'll even pop the kettle on! [/quote] Well what a lovely chap. The warmness of this forum never ceases to amaze me. ..and thanks for giving me something to start from.

Recently, I have started to experiment with different sounds to try and get somewhere near to the sound I would like once I have finally bought all of the basic gear. I thought it could be interesting for me if I posted a link to the nearest thing I could find to the sound I am after. Hopefully I could then further learn about how one goes about manipulating what comes out of the amp and what gear or technique is needed. I am new to pedals so feel free to use layman's terms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD0c233hyYM

Sorry to bring up an obvious thread like this but I find myself a bit stuck. I am ready to buy my first amp but there are a few things I am unsure about and finding good examples of sounds etc seems a little more difficult than it would be if buying an actual bass. Forgive me a couple of very beginner level questions: - A combo is a head and cab in one? Is a head and cab more desirable because it has more functionality and control? - What is a preamp? Is it merely the knob controls on an amp? My budget would be 200-300 but it's possible to save if there is something I desire. I am looking for an aggressive sound, something more post-punk, punk, alternative and fairly direct. When I have tried to search for an amp with that sound I always seem to end up with tube amps but I don't have much knowledge of these. - Do tube amps need a part replacing after a time? Are tube amps now more old fashioned and being phased out at all? - What are the pros and cons of a tube or valve amp? Working out whether to buy an amp just for home or purchasing with a little more foresight has been on my mind. I wouldn't want to buy an amp that ended up being of little use to me this time next year but I also wouldn't want to end up with an amp that was overkill if I was only jamming in a garage, for example. Perhaps there is a level of amps that are good for practice and playing with others but also small room gigs? The bass I will be using is a Yamaha BB.

Anybody know much about these? I found a battered BB300 in a random shop that has nothing to do with musical instruments. Apparently it's an 80's made in Japan P-bass, although I didn't ask to take a look at any serial numbers. I became curious about it when I got home so thought I'd ask here. I'm not sure what would be a fair price for one of these. I'm guessing not much at all.

Yeah that's right, PMT. I'm no expert but the E string sounded like it was on a separate instrument.

In a place now and there's a Yamaha labelled as the following: Yamaha U90 BB424 Black PROTO TYPE - EX ARTIST Is this different from the usual 424 found?

Without going too much into it I have trouble with some direct communication such as phones and Skype, but I do take those points on board. I do require a certain way of teaching, thinking about it. A lot of the time it needs to be visual. Being told something quickly often won't work for me. So I think that finding the right tutor would be a godsend. I'm in Salford/Manchester, by the way. I shall be sitting down with the sites mentioned and having a good look whilst also reading back over the advice given here. Listening to Ambient's Soundcloud page whilst I do this makes for a rather chilled out time.

Could it be a bad idea buying a bass without a pickguard if the player predominantly uses a pick? I suppose it may be relative depending on how one plays but generally speaking could the guitar become badly marked?

Some marvellous replies, thank you. I have bookmarked the links provided and will work through the advice given when I get a chance later. I'm thinking you may be right about getting some lessons in, at least at first. I wouldn't want to mess myself up by wrongly learning something and never realising. From what I have seen one hour lessons range from £15 - £30. Usually with the first lesson free. Perhaps I should visit every single tutor just the once! But really, finding the right one would be great.

I've been playing for a couple of months now and I enjoy it so very much that it actually makes me happy. All I can do at the moment is successfully read tabs for songs that I already know and have fun playing them. I learnt one blues scale that I found somewhere and from that I came up with quite a few of my own basslines, I tend to be content for most of the time with making my own stuff up. I realise that I need to further my understanding of theory and how to go about reading music. One day I hope to play with others in a band setting but won't be able to do that until I properly get down to furthering myself and understanding what it is I am doing. In a perfect world I would find a teacher somewhere and have a lesson a week at the least but realistically this would be way too expensive. I have a lot of spare time and would ideally like to be taught in person as this would probably keep me on track and give me confidence knowing that I was doing things right. If any kind of tuition fee is out of my reach then what are the alternatives? Is there a site that can assist me or a place where I could learn all of these things? I am aware of Scott's Bass Lessons but for some reason I found him to be something of a turn off. I think it may have been his many over-familiar emails and overuse of smilies :$ I recently bought a book that seems to be pretty good. It starts of with reading music and technique but I haven't totally gotten into it yet as I've only had it for a short time. I'm not entirely sure what I expect in reply. Perhaps just a point in the right direction. Perhaps advice on exactly what it is I should be starting with.

Yeah they do seem to look a lot cooler. Although the red one may look better without. Is there any real need for a pickguard on a bass? Is there any real reason for having them?

What on earth is this? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=111433360043&ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:GB:1123"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=111433360043&ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:GB:1123[/url]

What are the differences with the Yamaha BB424X and the 424? Is it merely that the 424X has a scratch plate?

So much great advice on here. It is all such a huge help when I have nobody else to ask. I am taking everything in I thank you all. Jellyfish - Thanks for going to the effort of searching for basses for sale and supplying the links, I appreciate it.

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1405239802' post='2499902'] so instead of a small practice amp for home use you could use a multi-effects pedal where you'll have various amp/cab models, various bass effects and a simple drum machine all built in and you can listen on headphones and use the same pedal to plug into an amp for when you play at your class or for when you can afford an amp if you join a band... something like the Zoom B1on pedal would be a good place to start (it's also got an input jack so you can play along with your favourite music) [url="http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/b1on"]http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/b1on[/url] [/quote] Headphones could be plugged into this and no amp will be needed?

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1405259942' post='2500151'] Have you not bought your latex stuff, and informed next of kin..? Do you have personal injury insurance..? Perhaps I've said too much... [/quote] Okay so now I regret not joining talkbass.com instead

Thank you all for your replies. I have so much to go on. Everything that has been suggested I have either taken notes of or looked it up directly online. And, of course, I hope to take up the hugely generous offer of the p-bass copy from Horizontalste and have conversed with him via PM. This really does seem a lovely place

Thank you for the warm welcome Seeing as he comes from my area and was the bassist in my favourite band Peter Hook stands out for me. I am also writing this sat about 20 yards away from where the band first rehearsed. Mani would be another. I am not overly concerned about it all needing to be brand new. I suppose it would be nice if it was but I'm hardly sitting on much cash. There are lots of decent shops that I can travel to. PMT Manchester - [url="http://www.pmtonline.co.uk/manchester.html"]http://www.pmtonline.co.uk/manchester.html[/url] - is the closest. There is also Dawsons, Johnny Roadhouse and Forsyths that are all very well known and respected. Affording bass tuition may be a problem. Without knowing how much it would cost there is probably not much chance of me being able to afford it for any sustainable amount of time. Thanks for the two recommendations, I shall look into those.

Hello there, My first post, and from what I have seen this seems to be a good forum with great resource. For the last eight weeks I have taken part in a weekly two hour session at a community college where I have played the bass. The sessions mainly consist of several absolute noobs learning a basic song and trying to get to the stage where it can be played from start to end by the time the session ends. For example, this week it was Wild Thing, and in other weeks it has been Teenage Kicks and All Day and All of the Night. I have enjoyed it immensely and have been so frustrated that I have to wait for a whole week for a short two hour session. I have also become frustrated at the fact that I'm now not exactly learning much as all I am doing is quickly learning the tab for a song. I have always enjoyed the bass guitar when listening to music and naturally gravitated to it when I started at this community college. It is definitely the instrument for me. For the past couple of weeks I have been researching online as to which bass I should buy. In doing so I have learnt quite a lot about the instrument that I had no idea about previously. The more I learnt the more tricky it became for me to work out what I should go for. If I knew nothing then I'm sure I would have already bought any old bass that caught my eye. The bass will be used primarily for me to learn on when alone at home. A pick will be used for most of the time, with fingers also used from time to time. There won't be any slapping going on as I don't seem to appreciate that sound or the type of music that goes with it (at least for now). The music I will be concentrating on will be mainly post-punk/new wave, rock, indie etc. I don't see much funk, jazz or blues going on, other than in the learning process with regards scales etc. At the very most I have around £300 to spend on a bass, amp, lead and tuner. I could put more to it but I would then have to wait even longer in order to save more. I have not yet been into a shop to try any as I would imagine that to be a rather embarrassing situation, especially when before I started to do some research I didn't even know of the existence of a P or J-Bass, a short scale or long scale etc. So I have been trying to hone in on exactly what kind of bass it is that I want before going to a shop to listen to them and feel how they are. With the sound I want I am thinking that a P-Bass would be more suitable. I see lots of P/J basses but I assume that the 'P' won't be as much of a 'P' as in a P-Bass? (That may be the worst sentence ever written but I'm sure you know what it is I am trying to describe!) At first I was attracted to the look of what turned out to be short scale basses. But again, would this not give me the sound I want? Having said all of that, would going for a full scale P-Bass limit me in my learning? Would a short scale be easier for me to learn on? Would a P/J give me more options for learning? Some basses I find to be rather boring looks wise, at least to me personally, and I think that it would really help me out a lot if I was attracted to it other than the sound it gives. If it encouraged me to pick it up every day then that would be great. I was initially attracted to the [b]Epiphone EB-0 [/b]but that was before I understood that there was such a thing as short scale. So then I veered towards the [b]Epiphone EB-3. [/b]A few models I read about often are the [b]Yamaha RBX170, Ibanez Soundgear GSR200 [/b]and the [b]ESP LTD B-10[/b]. I am not all that attracted to those three basses all that much as they seem to look a little too metal for me. Also, I'm not too into the active side of things and being at the mercy of a battery, which the Ibanez is. The bass I am most attracted to physically is the [b]Squire Vintage Modified Jaguar Bass SS in black[/b]. The other two models (full scale) near that in price I like too but I notice that they're active. Others I have looked at are the [b]Squier Mike Dirnt Precision Bass [/b]and the [b]Squire Vintage Modified Cabronita Precision Bass[/b]. Those would probably be getting past my budget though. I discovered an English company called Lindo that caught my eye. They have a few cheap basses and one of them I found on Amazon with a good bunch of stuff as a starter pack - [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lindo-Series-Electric-EBG15-FP-Amplifier/dp/B00FWVMVUE/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&qid=1405209618&sr=8-21&keywords=lindo+bass"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lindo-Series-Electric-EBG15-FP-Amplifier/dp/B00FWVMVUE/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&qid=1405209618&sr=8-21&keywords=lindo+bass[/url] - which is odd as they supposedly charge £200 for the actual bass on its own. I do apologise if I have rambled my way through this but I have nobody else to talk to about it and I think that I just needed to get it all out there as it's been quite difficult learning so much new information at the same time as being unsure as to which way to go. I would greatly appreciate any guiding and please do feel free to speak in laymans terms. I'm happy to be here