OPO: Bass Guitar

Get an amp with a compressor.

What kind of music do you play?

A disco version of fugazi. This is more by accident than by design and may not always be the case. A set up which is really flexible would be ideal I think.

Forgive my ignorance, but what does a compressor do? (Obv. it compresses but how does it affect the sound)

Not disco cover of fugazi I would like to add. Just a cross between the two (kind of)

If your after a punchy sound try looking out for some of the cheaper models made by G&L, especially the passive ones made in the mid-eighties, they have a great biting tone that really cuts through. Think Stranglers/Scratch Acid/Bob Weston.

If your after that Fugazi dubby sound get a Musicman Stingray and don't change the strings for years.

I don't think you can go wrong with a Fender Precision.

I once had a mid 70's precision and it was so foghorn it was virtually unusable. That said a lot of people replace the pickup and they feel very good to play.

Ok. Not too keen to sound like bob weston as it seems a bit obvious/ pointless and one of the guitar players bought a guitar like albini's (with the steel neck) in order to sound like him, realised that wasn't a good idea and has only just figured out how to make the damn thing sound like something else.

If you have rather short arms, DO bear this in mind before happily jumping in and giving someone dosh for the bass eh, as a mis-match in arm and neck length makes things a lot harder...

I can offer no other advice though.

I am 6 feet 3 inches and very skinny. Reach will not be a problem. But thank you for flagging up a potential pitfall I had not considered

I am just about 5"3, and own a heavy metal style bass complete with enormous neck - it is somewhat problematic at times, you see.

Flying V bass?

could you not stand on a box?

WOW!

Looks phenomenal. What kind in particular would you recommend?

Soundwise, I think the amp has a much greater effect on sound then the actual guitar does. I don't mean to totally discount the role of the guitar, and if you get a super cheap one it will sound pretty bad (like mine), but look for amps.

Also, I love the look of the Fender Jazz Bass. Love it.

My surrent fave is the Epiphone 1958 Flying V.

How do you decide which amp to buy?

how much $ do you have to spend?

I'm thinking about £300 on the guitar and the same on the amp? The amp will have to wait until next month unfortunately.

The 58 Flying V is, to coin an Americanism 'ere, TOTALLY AWESOME! I say go for that.

Unsure about bass amp issues but I've mailed a friend to see if he can pass on a few pointers...

I am TOTALLY PSYCHED! about that Flying V. Ta for mailing your friend

The Fender Jazz is pretty good (that's what I play) I like it as an alternative to the P-Bass just for having two pick-ups....also, Ampeg SVT tube heads and Ampeg cabs are the best bass amps evah.

Coolio. Will check them out.

If you are going to get a Precision, especially an older one, play it for a while at the store before purchasing. The 70s models are much heavier, have a very thick neck and wide nut, so for someone starting to play, that can be challenging. (I've got a 78 P-Bass.)

Ampeg SVT tube amps are great, but they weigh a ton, are very expensive and you have to worry about blowing a tube, which happens much more often with tube poweramp compared to solidstate. There are a bunch of good amps with a tube in the preamp section, which gets a similar tone or you could use a preamp/DI like a SansAmp from Tech 21. I've seen quite a few bassists that are going with a good preamp and PA style power amp to run their setup.

(Scratch the above if you are completely loaded and money is no object or you are in a band that is making some real money, as the SVTs are great, but they are very expensive. Eden also makes some killer gear, which if I was inclined to drop that kind of money, I would probably consider their stuff as it sounds great.)

My opinion is that the sonic difference between tube/solidstate are just not worth the additional cost, hassle of lugging it around and worry that it could blow up. The tone differential is much more evident in guitar amps than bass amps anyway.

I am happy with my Epiphone Thunderbird IV that I got a couple of months back. It is a much better instrument for the money compared to a MIM Fender P-bass or Jazz. It sounds good, not quite as much high midbite as my Jazz or P-bass, but it gets plenty of lowend and the humbuckers are very quiet.

I use a Sansamp Tech 21 preamp, Hartke 3500 and a 4x10 cabinet and can pretty much get any tone I want with plenty of power for playing the places where my band play. Add in my Thunderbird and all of this cost me less than an an Ampeg SVT tube amp head would cost (or SVT 4 or 5, which are solidstate w/tube preamp, but also quite popular).

I've actually have a smaller Ampeg B3 combo, which is a 150 watts and a 15" speaker. It is the most high end sounding bass amp I have ever heard. Doesn't sound too bad once you roll off the highs, but it didn't really have enough power.

My old rig was Peavey setup which was louder than god, kind of flat tone wise, weighed a ton, but was pretty much indestructable. I used it for seven years and sold off so I didn't have to move it to KY. The cabinet was like moving a refrigerator.

One bassists opinion...

Yeah, I've heard about ampeg tube heads being prone to blowing tubes, but I've had mine for about 4-5 years (which involved a fair amount of playing gigs, frequent practice, etc)...and have never had a problem.

I'm not a big purist, I'm sure earlnash is correct about the fact that solid state stuff is sounding pretty much as good as tube these days....However, I always have always pretty ignorant/uninterested in gear and stuff, so for me it's like if you buy ampeg tube stuff and a fender j or p-bass and just plug in...it will sound good - automatically, without really having to mess with alot of gear and whatnot...

off topic, but what's the difference (in sound/electronically) between p style and j style pickups?

J-Bass has two single coils.

P-Bass has one single coil, the two parts are offset so they don't phase cancel each other out.

Going from my P & J basses, the bridge pickup on the J-Bass brings in much more high mid bite into the tone. If you cut the bridge pickup on the J-Bass completely out, it isn't dissimilar to the P-Bass, but it doesn't sound quite as fat and punchy in the low end.

The Jazz has a honkier, semi-stand up bass sound. (that I favor) the P-bass has a lot of attack.
When you buy an electric intrument, the "acoustics" of it are suprisingly important. With the bass unplugged, play some notes on it; does it ring, is it loud and clear? Put your right hand on the upper bout,where your elbow would rest; can you feel the note resonate there? Compare it to other basses, the one that excels at this will always be the best sounding and no fancy electronics will beat that. The 70's Fender mentioned above is a classic example of how bad this can be. Fender used crap wood in the 70's and there are few Fenders from this era worth a shit, much less the vintage prices you will pay for them. I have a cheap Mexican P-bass that sings.
Most importantly, though, is never,never buy a bass that doesn't look cool.
On the Flying V, yes they look VERY cool, but are impossible to play while seated, ie. practicing. Good luck.

I play a Mexican P-bass that I'm tired of. But it was cheap and has been very very good to me for 4+ years. My amp I totally love, it's GK 800RB. I tend to play with different cabinets all the time but the amp always sounds great and it was affordable used. I would hightly recommend it.

Speaking of, my p-bass has been great, but now I want something with a similar neck and more sound options maybe. I don't want a jazz bass. I haven't checked out those G&L's - that may be for me. Plus, I don't want to buy a $1500 vintage bass. Any suggestions?

Fender Jazz Bass is the best bass I've ever played. haven't played that many different basses, but I am sort of a connossieur of bass and that's just about as good a sound (+ neck feel) you can get without going into synth sub-bass.

Just buy any old shit. If you're anything then you'll imprint yourself upon it.

A related question, as there seems to be a lot of bass enthusiasts here: Bass effects pedals. Anybody use them? What do you like? In a band, do you find it difficult sonically to have a fucked up sounding bassline as the foundation for a a guitar to go over? Because, y'know, usually its a crisp sounding bass and the guitar can be run through pedals. How about both the guitar and bass run through pedals? I have this pedal and can get some weird stuff from it, but haven't tried using it amongst a band. What say you?

It depends on the band, doesn't it? If your in a Punk band, R&B, or other"vintage" pure tone band, then keep it simple, but if the band stretches the sonic boundries, so to speak, then why sould't you. Seldom is the rap or dance record with an uneffected bass.

There are 18,000 different models of decent bass guitars being made right now, and many more that have been made over the last fifty years. The number of good amplifiers is slightly smaller, but also a large number. Bad bass-buying advice on the internet outweighs good advice by a factor of 392,345,987.978 to 1. This thread is, unfortunately, no exception, but there's worse and worse-intentioned advice out there. Be careful.

Here's my advice:

1. "Go buy a Hardman Teknobass" is invariably bad advice. Individual instruments vary wildly, and the cheaper or older they are, the less certain you can be of how good it will be until you've had it in your hands, hooked up to an amp. Some instruments that you think look dorky or have been told "suck" may feel and sound great to you. Unless you've got money to burn, you've got to go into the music shop with an open mind.

2. Don't go into the store alone. Take an experienced player with you, who'll have a much better idea of the condition a bass is in, or whether the bad-playing, bad-sounding instrument on the rack might actually be a real gem if only someone would change the strings and do a set-up on it. (And if this is the case, don't be afraid to ask them to put on a new set of strings and do a set-up on a bass you're generally interested in -- serious shops won't turn this request down if you're serious as well.)

3. There is no such thing as a genre bass. Some basses are more flexible than others, and some basses have certain timbres more than others, but there's no such thing as a New Metal bass or a punk bass or an rnb bass or...

4. When you're first starting out, spend more time and money on finding a good bass than on finding a good amp. The sort of subtle differences that really good amps make don't really come into play until later on, but if a bass feels wrong, it won't be pleasant to play, and that makes a huge difference instantly. Really awesome amps won't make a bad bass sound good, but most good basses can still make music through crap amps.

5. Avoid the bass magazines and people who talk like they read them too much. They can be fun as porn, but they're rarely actually useful.

I myself can't play the bass (stubby fingers, just like Homer & Lisa Simpson) but I've always loved that grungy, trebly Rickenbacker sound best of all. Any instrument that connects McCartney to Lemmy has gotta be worth having, right?

FRETLESS

2nd-hand Japanese Squiers are great value for money. I got my Jazz Bass for £160 and it sounds dreamy unplugged.

An explanation of compression

As for FX I've got a Boss OD-3 overdrive and a CE-2 chorus, never having found the need to buy bass-specific pedals. Just approach using FX like you would any other instrument and play what sounds good according to the song.

Re: Effects: I have an EH Bass Micro Synth and a Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Octave Fuzz. The micro synth I never use since it's very gimmicky. It has a ton of sounds and it's really fun to fool around with but just not practical. I keep thinking I will want it for recording at some point. The octave fuzz I use more, but still sparingly.