New to bass.. major questions

[bell3156]

I've been playing guitar for about 5 yrs or so,just bought a bass... with guitar tabs ( the songs I already have tabbed out)are there any rules of thumb for turning them into bass tabs? Right now for any a chord I'm playing an a note.. it sounds ok.. I'm asumming you can use the firts third, fiifth note in each cord also? Any help would be great, the bass tabs out there just don't go with the tabs I have for guitar..

[DudeistMonk]

The general "rule" is play the root of the chord on the first beat, place emphasis on chord tones (root, 3rd,5th,7th) and use scale tones/chromaticism to add tension or spice up the line.

Of course as with all musical "rules" these will be broken...I also assume you don't want to play the lines as recorded, cause for that your gonna have to use your ears or sort out the tabs.

[bell3156]

I started playing acoustic, just doing my own thing with the songs...recently bought an electric guitar and been playing leads, also bought a bass... would just like to know how to apply base tabs to the tabs I already have. sounds like i guessed right... what about in chord progressions, any general rule just any rules of thumb at all would be great..... I don't think my ears work well enough to pick bass tabs out for myself, I would have to rely on a website... would love a site with matching guitar and base tabs