As far as where you can find one, that depends greatly upon where you live. Try going to Bob Gollihur's website and looking at the links page - it contains about a million bass links, including one listing bass sellers and luthiers all over the country.
As to the question of whether it's a lot like the bass guitar, well, yes and no. It is a closer relative to the bass guitar than to, say, the Theramin, but other than that they're fairly different. If you've spent much time lurking on this side of the board, you'll know that every time somebody asks that question about "how do I play it?", about ten guys chime in with their own personal variation on the following theme: "Boah, getcho *ss to a teachuh fo' you dunn gone an huut yossefff". If you haven't spent much time down here reading, you might try watching other self-taught guys get slagged of by the regulars for trying to teach themselves (thereby experiencing the heat vicariously) before you get to experience it firsthand, which will happen if you just ask the question straight out yourself. As an example, search the archives of the DB Technique and Misc. forums. A good place to start if you can find it is the thread entitled "Hello" by Mike Chargorilla.
I myself have never experienced this phenomenon firsthand, since of course I've been with a teacher from the very beginning.
(ahem....)
Good luck.
