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Bass for beginner


Ant1972

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12 minutes ago, Ant1972 said:

Btw, what are everyone's thoughts on short scale bass Vs regular for a beginner?

I got a short scale Gretsch Junior Jet 2 (4 string) a couple of years ago.

For the money, it's a lovely instrument & very easy to play, with LOUD output from the mini humbucker pickups.

Others on here have used flatwound strings on short scale basses, I left mine stock (roundwound). I find the 'bendiness' of the strings on mine a bit disconcerting, but thats in comparison with a full-scale bass.

I'd recommend trying one (or any short scale bass) before you buy - it may be the 'one' for you, or not.

@Skinnyman bought the same bass recently, he might be able to add his thoughts.

 

 

Edited by Teebs
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13 minutes ago, Teebs said:

@Skinnyman bought the same bass recently, he might be able to add his thoughts.

The bass itself is lovely and I'd highly recommend it if they fall within your budget. But would I recommend one for a beginner? Hmmm, I'm not sure.

Pros - shorter stretch to the frets especially at the low end. Lighter (generally) so easier to manage when you're practising for hours.

Cons - shorter stretch to the frets which means you don't start building up the reach in your own hand. As a simplistic analogy, it's a little bit like learning to play tennis with those oversized kiddy rackets and balls and then trying to play with a regular sized set.

It might have the advantage that it makes it easier to focus on learning to play the instrument and worry about the stretch later when you're proficient. Or it might restrict you to playing short scale only for a considerable time.

Personally, I'd go for a small, light full sized bass - the Yams you mention are great (i started on a Tanglewood and would recommend that too as a starter bass) and only consider short scale (at this stage) once you've got used to full scale.

Others may chip in with more compelling arguments the other way (they usually do around here!) but that's my two penn'orth. Whatever you get, enjoy playing it - and feel free to contact any of us for advice or tips....

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29 minutes ago, Ant1972 said:

Btw, what are everyone's thoughts on short scale bass Vs regular for a beginner?

The difference is not great. Variation in individual fret spacing boils down to very little between 32" and 34" scale length . Unless you have very small hands, I'd stick with regular. There is also a much wider choice of instruments in regular.

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11 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

The difference is not great. Variation in individual fret spacing boils down to very little between 32" and 34" scale length . Unless you have very small hands, I'd stick with regular. There is also a much wider choice of instruments in regular.

Is exactly what I was trying to say but much more succinctly put! 😁

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Three things to say:

  1. Buy used.  Why?  Because they are played in.  When you try them - that's exactly how it's going to feel from now on.  I have never ever in 40 years needed to play with the truss rod on any of my basses.  Plus of course, they have a bit (or lot) of mojo and mystery.  Plus you get better bang for buck.
  2. Photograph yourself as if you're holding a bass.  Then superimpose basses on your body to see what takes your fancy.
  3. Spend some time trying a Precision and a Jazz to see which neck you prefer the feel of.  This is the litmus test and should then help in reducing your list to a sensible number.

Peace

Davo

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On 13/05/2019 at 12:47, Ant1972 said:

Thank you all for your advice. 

If I can't get the second hand Music Man Stingray Sub 4 I was looking at, then I think I'm going for a new Yamaha TRBX174... Feels like a relatively safe/solid choice for a budget end bass (even though I'm not so keen on it's aesthetics).

Prob going to go through Thomann.de as their prices for the guitar and for the various accessories I need are good... Plus I hear they have good customer service.

Feel like I've dodged a bullet, as a nearly went for an Affinity bass a couple of weeks ago.

I don't think you'll go far wrong with this approach.

I wouldn't agonise too much about the practice amp - avoid anything super cheap but anything with a 10" or bigger speaker should be fine. Effects are nice but unnecessary at the stage and if you can find a second hand Roland bass cube or a fender rumble at a decent price, jump on it.

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So, after lots of procrastinating, I have pushed the button and ordered a Yamaha TRBX174BL from thomann.de

Thank you all for your advice - much appreciated.

Once it arrives and I have had a play around, I will post my impressions and may post some further follow ups... just in case it is useful feedback for fellow novices (or maybe even experienced folks here might find it interesting too 😂)

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2 minutes ago, Ant1972 said:

So, after lots of procrastinating, I have pushed the button and ordered a Yamaha TRBX174BL from thomann.de

Thank you all for your advice - much appreciated.

Once it arrives and I have had a play around, I will post my impressions and may post some further follow ups... just in case it is useful feedback for fellow novices (or maybe even experienced folks here might find it interesting too 😂)

Congrats, enjoy! 

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Best of luck with it @Ant1972 - remember practice and persistence are very important
Even if you just "noodle" with it for 20 mins every day - when you don't have lots of time to practice
A little here & there will help improve strength, stamina and accuracy in your fingers

Obviously, you need to spend some good longer sessions on it too - and definitely some warm-up exercises for your fingers
once again, I say, see if there are any friendly local BC'ers who will help :)

EDIT: I meant to add - enjoy your new toy as well, and welcome to the fold

Edited by Marc S
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Just now, Davo-London said:

Argh, you ignored all my advice.  How come you're so wise!  🙄

Well, I could live to regret that :laugh1: will post further with first impressions when I receive it and post further on how I'm getting on.... let's see 😄

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Hey @Ant1972, we have a thread here  about BCers prepared to help folk get their basses set up;

Now we know where you are, we can see there are 2 gents who're not far from you. I'm sure they would be happy to take a look at the bass when it arrives, if you wish. To make sure it's set up to play well.

@obbm Obbm Farnham, Surrey
@neilp Neilp - Crawley

There will be other BCers about too. Good luck with the bass.

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6 hours ago, StevieE said:

Genuine question, if the OP is a new player and can't actually play yet, what advise would you give to him when testing out different basses? 

It seems a little like asking a new driver to test drive cars before he's had a first lesson if you get me. 

That Stevie is a damm good point and one I haven`t though of!😊

 

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1 hour ago, Ant1972 said:

So, after lots of procrastinating, I have pushed the button and ordered a Yamaha TRBX174BL from thomann.de

Thank you all for your advice - much appreciated.

Once it arrives and I have had a play around, I will post my impressions and may post some further follow ups... just in case it is useful feedback for fellow novices (or maybe even experienced folks here might find it interesting too 😂)

Good choice! Cant go wrong with a Yamaha.

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As per my response to the other thread:

I wonder how many people have bought cheap and poor quality musical instruments over the years, struggled to be able to play them then abandoned them?

Most beginners, indeed even a lot of seasoned players don’t possess the knowledge or abilities to make the necessary adjustments to get an instrument playable. I always tell students to beg or borrow that little bit more and get something decent, that won’t either inhibit their creatively or put them off playing.

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4 hours ago, Davo-London said:

[...]

Buy used.  Why?  Because they are played in.  When you try them - that's exactly how it's going to feel from now on.  I have never ever in 40 years needed to play with the truss rod on any of my basses.  Plus of course, they have a bit (or lot) of mojo and mystery.  Plus you get better bang for buck.

[...]

Yeah, it can be great, but on the other hand, there are more risks for a newbie if the used bass happens to have been used and abused (worn frets, snapped or rounded off screws, knackered tuners, dodgy pots, iffy jack socket, warped neck, twisted neck, seized truss rod - followed by snapped truss rod adjuster) ...

I do agree with you personally, but then I have more than one bass, and a "project" bass is an interesting hobby for me, rather than a big disappointment / royal PITA. 👍

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16 hours ago, ambient said:

As per my response to the other thread:

I wonder how many people have bought cheap and poor quality musical instruments over the years, struggled to be able to play them then abandoned them?

Most beginners, indeed even a lot of seasoned players don’t possess the knowledge or abilities to make the necessary adjustments to get an instrument playable. I always tell students to beg or borrow that little bit more and get something decent, that won’t either inhibit their creatively or put them off playing.

I don't know how many players have bought cheapo instruments and been put off.....
But when I started my first foray into bass (many years back, in the early 80's) I had an utterly terrible Kay Rick copy. It was absolutely, utterly, utterly dreadful.
The neck was warped, it buzzed like hell - even though the action was so high I could almost get my little finger underneath the strings, and the electrics / pickups sounded dreadful.
A guitarist pal (who had been playing a while) tried to help me set it up, but to not much avail. It would have been great firewood, but for the toxic paint it was covered with ;)

Another bass playing pal had quite well off parents, and they bought him a nice Fender Jazz. I couldn't get over how nice that was to play - it was like a different world!
However, he's the one who gave up, while I persisted :)

EDIT: Earlier in the thread, someone posted as to how it's now nearly impossible to buy a bad bass. Maybe that's not quite 100% true (I'm sure there are still turkeys out there) But these days "budget" basses and guitars are almost immeasurably better than they used to be. I also owned an awful Jedson 6 string guitar too - anyone else remember them?

Edited by Marc S
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No, but I had a truly dreadful Rosetti bass to start with - the string separation was about 10 mm and the action was nasty.  However, as this was the 70's my next bass was a USA Precision.  This had its' issues (bridge in the wrong place etc) but the sound was chalk and cheese when compared to the starter bass.  I still have this bass!

Davo

 

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16 hours ago, ambient said:

As per my response to the other thread:

I wonder how many people have bought cheap and poor quality musical instruments over the years, struggled to be able to play them then abandoned them?

Most beginners, indeed even a lot of seasoned players don’t possess the knowledge or abilities to make the necessary adjustments to get an instrument playable. I always tell students to beg or borrow that little bit more and get something decent, that won’t either inhibit their creatively or put them off playing.

I gave a longwinded reply to this on another thread yesterday. I'm going to link to here cos it took me ages to type out 😅 

 

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Imagine my excitement when the UPS guy just turned up!

Unfortunately the shipment was missing the tuner (so I can't tune the guitar), the lead (so I can't plug it into the amp) or the power converter (so I can't plug the amp into the mains, coz it ships with EU plug on it)... Aaaargh.... I'm like a kid at Christmas who has been given a Nintendo but no games to play.

So much for all the good things I heard about thomann's service.

*Sigh* nevermind, I'm sure it'll get sorted eventually 🙂

Edited by Ant1972
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1 minute ago, Ant1972 said:

Imagine my excitement when the UPS guy just turned up!

Unfortunately the shipment was missing the tuner (so I can't tune the guitar), the lead (so I can't plug it into the amp) or the power converter (so I can't plug the amp into the mains, coz it ships with EU plug on it)... Aaaargh.... I'm like a kid at Christmas who has been given a Nintendo but no games to play.

So much for all the good things I heard about thomann's service.

*Sigh* nevermind, I'm sure it'll get sorted eventually 🙂

You can download a tuner app onto your phone (assuming you have a smartphone) and don't worry about plugging in, I play acoustically more often than not 👍🏻

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