Is there such a thing as a MP3 Bass Rockman?
 

I'm obviously not much for keeping up with new gizmos, and I'm not exactly even sure how to describe what I'm looking other than I need a personal practice device like the old bass Rockman, but that also gives you the ability to load MP3s and play along, transpose...stuff like that. Does something like this exist?

It's called an iPhone

Can I plug my bass into an iPhone?

Tascam makes an MP3 version of the Bass Trainer.

FWIW the new bass Rockmans are junk compared to the originals. The one that came here was unusable(noise, hiss). I had an original in a rack in the 80's. It worked and it was QUIET.

I use a cheap(Gigaware) mp3 player into a Behringer bass V-amp if I need phones practice. For pitch and time shifting, I use Goldwave(http://www.goldwave.com/ ) on my PC or laptop and then dump the "converted" song back onto my mp3 player.

I've avoided "I"-land because I have issues with closed and/or proprietary systems.

Yes
 

Tascam GT-R1 works well for that application.

dee

Tascam GB-10. http://tascam.com/product/gb-10/

Yes

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irig/

I had the Tascam. Way more than I needed. I currently use a Pocket Rockit. It has an aux input which I plug my mp3 player into. Mine is an older version.

http://www.pocketrockit.com/Page.php?id=0022

Use the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad with the Line6 "Mobile in" piece and then pay $5 for the GK amp app and you are there!

As others have noted, there are hardware interfaces and apps to use smart phones for this purpose, but if you don't already have the hardware interface, an even cheaper variation is to just buy one of the "Vox" AMPlug headphone practice pods, and run a mini stereo cable from your phone/MP3 player into the external audio jack of the AMPlug.