Romulus Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 I'm looking for a decent starter bass and amp for my daughter, who is 14, and I to learn on A few calls to music shops seems to be met with the stock reply that a starter pack would be the way to go. I accept that I know little about bass guitars but I was looking to maybe get something better secondhand and then pick up a practice amp. I was looking at a budget of around £300 for the bass and after spending some time trawling the internet even a good new bass seems possible in this price bracket. I've played acoustic guitar for some years now and electric as well to a lesser degree but as I've said bass is new territory to me I've been looking at Ibanez, Yamaha and the Music Man Sterling What would you guys recommend for a bass and practice amp? Sorry if this topic has already been done to death R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afterimage Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 Hi I sure many on here will help you decide. My tip take a trip yourself to a good music. Shop. Not for you for your young lady to see what the guitars she may like. You could go new on the guitar. And. Buy used practise amp. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Szorn Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 (edited) Hi Romulus, I'm selling the very first bass guitar I owned on here if you're interested (it's the one I learnt on): [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/197509-ibanez-gsr-200-for-sale-l60-perfect-starterback-up-bass/page__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.u...__fromsearch__1[/url] As Amps go, Ampeg do decent practice amps. A 35w Ampeg BA110 (1x10" speaker) would do your daughter nicely and not be too loud to annoy you when she's practicing. It also has a headphone input for silent practicing. Can be had for about £150 new or less used. Ashdown also do similar practice amps like the 15w Tourbus 10 (1x10" speaker) and the 15w After Eight (1x8" speaker). An amp with a 10" speakers should give you enough bass response and be light enough to carry around. Wattage isn't really an accurate way to gauge how loud an amp will be but for practicing 15-30w should be fine. I'd avoid starter packs. Buy cheap, buy twice, as they say. They're good for a while but you want something that will encourage learning, I wouldn't put too much merit into the build of a starter bass (or any instrument) let alone the ability of the amp to give you a sound worth listening to for hours on end. You want a bass that stays in tune and plays well which will be a joy to play for years to come until your daughter decides to upgrade. Same goes for an amp. A good practice amp can be taken anywhere and will have uses no matter how big your rig becomes. Yamaha and Ibanez are both great makes and make solidly well built instruments. My Ibanez GSR200 has seen me through learning to gigging to recording. Music Man make very good basses, their StingRay range are awesome, basses built for bass players from my experience (with a price tag to match). I haven't played a Sterling but it looks like a cheaper alternative to a StringRay (still not that cheap mind). Noting your daughter is quite young and given girls generally have smaller hands, a Squire (by Fender) Mustang bass may be an option. They're a shorter scale length then regular bass guitars so she could find it easier to play. Hope this helps, there's a lot of choices out there. If you need a hand picking stuff or want to chat about different specifications of the gear you've been looking at just send me a message on here. Kind Regards, Shaun P.S: I agree with going to a music store and having your daughter try out a selection of different basses. That way she can judge weight, neck size and general comfort of playing. If it has flowers on it or it's bright pink, avoid it! Edited January 25, 2013 by Szorn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Coffee Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 (edited) I'd agree with the previous post for the second hand amp. What you may need to consider though is the neck width as a smaller hand will find the playing of a bass a little more work. If you are familiar with guitars you will know by the feel of the neck and stretch what I mean by this. My son had a basic ESP ltd 4 string bass and it had a narrow enough neck that he could play easily from about 10 yrs old; it did the job until he learnt a bit more then he upgraded to a Fender Precision. I think ESP do a starter pack which consists of a bass and an amp, strap, lead. Something like that would set you back around £200 I'm not endorsing ESP specifically, just suggesting the idea of the option of a starter pack where it all comes as one. Gear for music, or GAK maybe do these. But they are that price for a reason and you will likely need an upgrade if she progresses quickly and interest thrives. Its like everything in life, you get what you pay for; but its a buyers market for secondhand basses at the minute and you can get a serious lot of used bass for £300 these days. If you then get a reasonable quality amp secondhand which is around 50 watts or more it will provide some use as a small gig amp rather than just practice. Small scale bass is a good idea for a younger student too, maybe of the smaller Fender / Squire models. Try them out for weight etc. Maybe someone on the forum could offer one to you. Good luck. Edited January 25, 2013 by bassman344 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthevan Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 Yamaha RBX as the bass. Great quality, sensible price, and go on for ever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 Agree re the Ampeg BA amps, I have the 108, and for home use I don`t need it on any more than 2 on volume. The 108 is 25 watts into an 8 inch speaker, but for home use the lows are plenty good enough. Bass wise, I`d look at a Squier Classic Vibe, either the Precision or Jazz. You can get good deals on here, and the benefit of these basses is most music shops are likely to stock Squiers. So you can go and test them out, find your daughters preference, then pick one up off of here for a hundred or so off of the new price, in effect being able to afford both bass & amp for the price of a new Squier. Short-scale basses have been mentioned, but unless your daughter is really little, I personally wouldn`t go down this route, as to me it`s like passing your driving test in an automatic - it can be restricting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkHeart Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 if she doesnt have very big hands why not look at a Squier Jaguar with the shorter scale or one of the other shorter scale basses that way she could always learn on that till she would be comfortable with a longer scale neck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romulus Posted January 26, 2013 Author Share Posted January 26, 2013 Thanks for all the excellent advice I appreciate it. I'm going to try to get to a music shop today and take a look at what they offer. Still very tempted down the second hand route though Thanks again R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afterimage Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 Hi romulus let the forum know what you end up with. Take you time too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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