mynameisjoe Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Never touched a bass before but my daughter has been learning at school and after only a few weeks has taken to it really quickly. A friend gave her an old Spector, there are no other serial numbers or model numbers on it and it needs a bit of work to get it looking and sounding better so we decided to get her an Ibanez GSR200 and a smaĺl Stagg practice amp for Christmas. She was stoked with getting it and is practising constantly. I have decided that once I get the Spector cleaned up I am going to give it a shot too, I've not had much luck with musical instruments in the past and always seem to give up after a few months, the exception to this is the didgeridu which I have been playing for over ten years. It doesn't require notes but you need to be able to circular breath and hold a rhythm which will help with bass I guess. Looking forward to poking about and learning as much as I can. Cheers Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baldwinbass Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Hi Joe, welcome to BC - brilliant, two new bassists. There's loads of information and encouragement to be found on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grangur Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Hey! Welcome Joe. There are loads of online learning resources these days for bass, so you shouldn't be short of info. Youtube and studybass.com are great starting places. All I have to say after that is "Good luck" and be prepared to be put to shame by your daughter; they have so much more time than we parents and they soak it up like a sponge.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mynameisjoe Posted January 3, 2017 Author Share Posted January 3, 2017 (edited) thanks for the welcome guys. She's already streets ahead of me Grangur!!!! Fortunately she's smart enough to be able to teach me a thing or two and just taught me the intro from 7 nation army. I have also just learned about intonation from the website you mentioned so that was pretty handy. I have spent the day taking all the bits and bobs off and splitting the bass down into it's individual parts. Put it all back together and it sounds much better. There was quite a large bend in the kneck and the strings were miles away from the frets, you could almost put your pinky under them. I am an engineer and like to know and understand how things work and what to do when things go wrong so it was quite a constructive day for me (I didn't touch the daughters new one!) I also took off the pots and cleaned them as they were scratchy and noisy, I served my apprenticeship in an electronics factory so electronics and a soldering iron aren't a problem for me. Neither is replacing the missing knob from the volume as I have a wee lathe and milling machine in the shed so a matching pair of aluminium or stainless steel knobs will be made shortly :-) I have also found out that the Spector is an NS2000B model, only made for one year and in quite low numbers, but it was one of their entry level models. Still, it gets some decent reviews and once I get some new strings it should be all I need to learn on and jam along with the daughter. The strings have a bit of rust on them and I know from the previous owner that he hadn't used it for ten years or so, probably the reason it took me so long to get it tuned. So off to the local music shop tomorrow for some new (and lighter) ones, my finger tips have gone numb!!! Edited January 3, 2017 by mynameisjoe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grangur Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 I know you're in a rush to get strings, but strings direct.Co.uk are much cheaper than most shops. They will also offer a better selection. Your numb fingers could be you getting calouses through the use of rough strings. The rust won't help. Choice of strings is very subjective. If you're after round wound strings some that are good are 'Legacy' strings. They are the budget range by Rotosound. They last well IMHO. Fender strings are also good value. I also use Elixirs as they last forever. Well, it seems like ages anyway. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Hey Joe..(I'm sure there's a song in there somewhere) Welcome to the forum. I've recently acquired a Spector too - BillyApple, one of the Mods, has always spoken highly of them but it wasn't till I tried a defretted one donated to the Herts Bass Bash raffle that I became a believer. Don't think that giving up on other instruments as some sort of crime - just think of it as taking your time finding the right instrument. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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