Whats a good bass for my wife??

[Linus27]

I have just started teaching my wife bass guitar. She seems to be really enjoying it but its early days. She is about 5'6" and fairly petit and has so far been playing my chunky Jazz bass. I would like to surprise her for Xmas maybe by buying her a bass. I am thinking that something pretty slim, light, thin neck and ideal for a female player. Working from memory, these are the few that spring to mind that might be suitable,

1. Fender Precision Lyte

2. Bass Collection

3. Warwick Rockbass Streamer

4. Warwick Rockbass Corvette

Most of those are around £200 with some having to maybe be secondhand. My concern with the Bass Collection and Warwicks though is they don't have fret markers on them. Not sure if this would make learning much harder.

Any thoughts on these bass's for a female starting out and any other thoughts or recomendations??

Thanks for the help.

[The Burpster]

This is not being patronising, but have you checked out the Diasy Rock basses?

They are excellently made, and just enough smaller for lesser statured peeps to play.

They produce a serious and usuable tone.....

[Linus27]

[quote]Not too good on this being a bloke, but one lady bass player I vaguely knew had a bass collection[/quote]

Yes, I knew some female friends who also played Bass Collections which is what gave me the idea.

[quote]This is not being patronising, but have you checked out the Diasy Rock basses?[/quote]

I will check them out thanks.

[Bassassin]

[quote name='The Burpster' post='92467' date='Nov 21 2007, 11:53 PM']This is not being patronising, but have you checked out the Diasy Rock basses?

They are excellently made, and just enough smaller for lesser statured peeps to play.

They produce a serious and usuable tone.....[/quote]

And they look like this:



I want one....

Jon.

[Hit&Run]

What about an ibanez? They're pretty light and ergonomic. Some of Cort's offerings will almost certainly be the same as ibanez I'd have thought.

If you're going short scale, I'd suggest the Squier 'Badtz-Maru' bronco bass, purely on aesthetics. It has probably the best pickguard ever:
[url="http://www.squierguitars.com/products/search.php?partno=0335106506"]Badtz-Maru[/url]

Edited November 22, 2007 by Hit&Run

[HarryPotter]

Cort Curbow, very light, fret markers on the edge of the fretboard (where you need them if standing up) and the easiest playing neck I have found so far.

Oh, and they look cool.

Edited November 22, 2007 by HarryPotter

[GreeneKing]

I have two Bass Collection SB320's and they are great. I don't need two and one is for sale so if you're at all interested pm me for details.

They are light/compact, sound good and are very playable.

Delightful basses.

Peter

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='92480' date='Nov 22 2007, 12:27 AM']And they look like this:



I want one....

Jon.[/quote]
That's the one my daughter is getting for xmas. Its 32" scale. Its a lovely bass.

I don't think the lack of dot markers on the others ones mentioned would be much of a disadvantage - The edge markers should still be present.

[clauster]

+1 to the Daisy Rock bass.

My wife's got one of their guitars (the purple heart) and it's GREAT!

[MB1]

MB1.
"Whats a good bass for my Wife?"...........
Can you Post some pictures of her!....would be willing to trade....but need to know what she looks like....i do have a bass i was considering parting with!

Edited November 22, 2007 by MB1

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

[quote name='clauster' post='92571' date='Nov 22 2007, 10:13 AM']+1 to the Daisy Rock bass.

My wife's got one of their guitars (the purple heart) and it's GREAT![/quote]
My daughter has a purple Daisyrock heartbreaker bass as well. Apart from being difficult to play sitting down. Its a very nice bass. the Duncan designed P bass pickup sounds great on a 30" short scale.

[Mrs Tinman]

I could say what about one of these?



But any fool can see that's not a bass

This, however, (from the Fender Squier 'Hello Kitty' range) is:



and of course for one of those, you need one of these:



*runs and hides*

PS: I think that Daisyrock one is [i]very[/i] pretty

[stingrayfan]

[quote name='MB1' post='92581' date='Nov 22 2007, 10:25 AM']MB1.
"Whats a good bass for my Wife?"...........
Can you Post some pictures of her!....would be willing to trade....but need to know what she looks like....i do have a bass i was considering parting with! [/quote]
Haha... Actually isn't teaching your wife to play bass mixing business with pleasure?

[andy67]

hi

definately a jazz bass, more particularly the squier vintage modified 75 natural that I have for sale at £200.....the neck profile on a jazz is very suitable!

andy

[BigRedX]

As someone who is fairly small (just under 5'6") and still almost elegantly wasted, but definitely bloke-shaped, I'd stay away from the standard Fender Ps and Js. I find the large body makes these basses unweildly and it's a definite stretch to the G tuner... Scale length has little to do with it, I have no problem with either 35 or 36" basses (I own one of each) so don't assume you have to go for a shorter scale lenght instrument unless it sounds as good as a standard 34", but it's more the relationship of the neck to the body that causes me problems both playing seated and on the strap. I ended up selling my Squier VMJ despite the fact that it was a good sounding bass at a great price simply because it was too uncomfortable for me the play.

[elom]

+1 for Bass Collection. Small, really light and a damn fine bass too.

[d-basser]

Peaveys are nice and compact, small body and thin neck. also not to heavy.
I am 5'8'' but only 7 and a half stone and i have really really small hands and i get on fine with my peavey six string (35" scale)

[Hamster]

How about an original early 60's precision? - if she doesn't like it, keep it for yourself

Hamster

[Brave Sir Robin]

Yamaha BB414 / 614. Great bass for the money.

[url="http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/yamaha-bb414/9194"]http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/yamaha-bb414/9194[/url]

But... Fender sized body. :/

[grosa]

Aside from being almost wide as i am long im pretty much a short arse and apart from having a few probs anyway with big bodied basses for other reasons i i've found warwicky type bodies really nice to deal with,i find p's and j's clunky and clumsy comfortwise.rockbasses are pretty good for someone male or female to get to gripes with i think and are a little more elegant than a lot of things out there.
especially if sitting down for long periods of time,which is fairly likeley if sitting down learning and noodlin aboot.
but then again im sure someone will disagree.

[16Again]

How about one of these;


A nice small body and thin neck, just like my wife
I'm selling this one if your interested, looking for £150.
Hohner jack bass custom,through neck, EMG select pick-ups and light wieght.

[Rich]

+2 for the Bass Collection basses. Nice basses, good sound, and best of all, light.

[OldGit]

I've got a P Lyte for sale .. White pearl and gold (well orginally, heavy play has worn it through on the bridge ), some mojo marks ..
But very light weight and with a good range of active bass sounds...
Thin jazz style neck .. as played by Carole Kaye, or so she claims (I don't mean this one, just in general)

Lots of fans of them on TB and Harmony Central and regulars on eBay too if you fancy a different colour ...

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

To go back to Linus27's original question of "What's a good bass for my wife"

I would think that any of the ones posted would be great from a practical point of view, however the best bass will be the one that has something about it that makes you want to pick it up when you enter the room. This is why my daughter loves her daisyrock heartbreaker and '71 musicmaster and has been after a violetburst pearloid-top daisy rock elite (as shown in pics earlier in the thread) since she first saw it. As its such a personal thing I'd take her shopping for basses & show her pics of the basses and different colours available to see what floats her boat on aesthetics. If the bass was meant to be a surprise, losing that element of surprise should hopefully be outweighed by getting an instrument that she can't resist picking up & playing several times a day as opposed to one that is just a good an instrument but sits on its stand unplayed.

[OldGit]

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='93319' date='Nov 23 2007, 01:51 PM']To go back to Linus27's original question of "What's a good bass for my wife"

I would think that any of the ones posted would be great from a practical point of view, however the best bass will be the one that has something about it that makes you want to pick it up when you enter the room. This is why my daughter loves her daisyrock heartbreaker and '71 musicmaster and has been after a violetburst pearloid-top daisy rock elite (as shown in pics earlier in the thread) since she first saw it. As its such a personal thing I'd take her shopping for basses & show her pics of the basses and different colours available to see what floats her boat on aesthetics. If the bass was meant to be a surprise, losing that element of surprise should hopefully be outweighed by getting an instrument that she can't resist picking up & playing several times a day as opposed to one that is just a good an instrument but sits on its stand unplayed.[/quote]


+1 yeah I'd not let my wife choose my bass .. Pay for it? well that's different

Why not give her a nice card at Christmas with "I O U One Bass" in it then go shopping together in teh New Year .. probably get a bargain then ...