Hey guys, I'm new here. I'll start off by saying that I'm a drummer first, been playing off and on most of my life. No gigging or anything serious, just a fun exercise/hobby, playing along with my favorite songs. Mainly metal and rock for me, a little blues here and there. This past year I've really started listening to more and more Primus and Chili Peppers, and it made me really want to start playing the bass. I figured it would be the perfect compliment to my drumming, record a groove with one instrument, and jam to it with the other.
Guitar - Jackson JS3V
No surprise, it took me forever to decide on which bass (brand, look, 4/5 string, etc) I wanted, which wouldn't break the budget either. I decided on a 5-string, with my thought process being so I would have the ability to play pretty much any song I wanted, especially since I will eventually be jamming to a bunch of rock/metal songs (which I have heard that the 5-string is used a lot for those). I figure it will be harder to learn bass on a 5-string, but I'm up for the challenge.
Amp - Fender Rumble 25
The amp was more simple to decide on, much fewer options to choose from. I was looking at Fender's "Rumble 15" until I saw the Rumble 25. $20ish more for a lot more amp was a no-brainer, and I'm glad I picked it. I haven't needed to turn it up more than 1/3 of its capacity.
Cable - D'Addario 20'
I wasn't sure about this, mainly because I don't have any experience dealing with instrument cables. The name honestly just sounded nice and fancy. I don't have anything to compare it to, but it doesn't make it sound bad, so that's good.
Strap - Unkown $2 Thing
I'm into leatherworking a little as well, so I want to make a nice strap. I just needed a strap to see how I should make it, so I got the cheapest one I could grab.
Pedal(s) - Zoom B1X Four
This hasn't come in yet, it will get delivered in a few days. I initially only wanted a tuner pedal, so I didn't have to go through Fender's tuning app (which is a pain for the 5-string, it only lets you do 4 strings at a time). Then I went down the pedals/effects rabbit hole... I don't "think" that I would use many effects for bass, but I'm interested in trying them out. I'm sure with this thing being a relatively inexpensive multi-effect pedal, that its effects won't be super great, but I'm excited to try it out... I'm still not 100% sure that it has tuning capabilities...which was the whole reason for me looking at pedals........fingers crossed.
Tabs - Ultimate Guitar
It was a toss-up between Songsterr and UG, or just doing free tabs. After a lot of thought and googling, I went with UG. They've had 99% of the songs that I've searched for so far, and the backing track feature is really helpful.
Picks - Random Pick from Periphery Show
Let me start this by saying that I initially didn't want to use a pick. Davie504 from Youtube has drilled into my head that picking is bad, I guess there's a whole thing there. With that being said, I thought my fingers were much faster than what they really ended up being...so I had to find that one pick that I acquired at the last show I went to (before the 'rona) that had been on my nightstand for about a year. I ALSO thought I would be able to pick much faster than I actually can. Why does everything have to have a learning curve?!
1st Complete Song: Stockholm Syndrome - Muse
So this is where I figured out that I sucked at fingering(??) and picking, both. After many attempts, I was finally able to complete the verses (using a pick) without sounding like a complete failure. For the chorus, I like to "slap-finger" it? I'm sure there's a very common term for it, but where I hit the string with my finger to get a good amount of "crunchiness". No idea what the terms are for these, but I like the way it sounds. And how it makes me feel like a BA when the song's done.
Setting up the Bass
I Youtube'd a few of videos while I was waiting for the bass and equipment to be delivered, mostly about how to set up the guitar before you play it. I remember Tuning, Action, and Intonation. I'm able to tune it fine, just the 5-string hurdles I mentioned earlier. I adjusted the Action as much as I felt comfortable doing. There was a fair amount of fret buzz (I think) coming from the upper 3 strings when I got it out of the box. I raised those up until I was able to play notes and didn't hear anything that I didn't like. For the lower 2 strings, I wanted some buzz and "crunch", so I adjusted those up a little bit. I kept it high enough so there wasn't any of the crunch if I was playing lightly, but low enough to crunch real good when I want it to. Apologies if I'm making everyone dumber for reading my noob terminology, its all I got so far. Intonation...now that I think about it, I totally didn't do that step...don't even remember what that is. I'll work on that tonight or tomorrow.
Strings
I'm just rocking the stock strings for now. I haven't gone too far down that rabbit hole yet...just enough to know that it's deep...so deep. If anyone has some suggestions on 5-string packs that pack some "crunch", I'm all ears.
Recording
I don't know why I'm writing about this, I'm new and will suck for a while, but I want to record to my computer like I was saying earlier so that I can jam along with my future drum recordings. For my drums, it's fairly simple, I use an electronic kit in my office/studio, which just takes a USB to transfer raw MIDI to my VST/DAW. Just gotta learn how to MIDI map for that. But for the bass, I was thinking about getting one of those I-Rig things, to record on my iPad or something (I have a Windows computer), but now I'm thinking about just putting my microphone next to the bass amp and record that way.
Well, that was much, much longer than I thought it would be. I'm not normally so talkative. I'll post some more once I figure out how all this works, and how well they work. If anyone has tips, tricks, comments, I'm all ears!
Enough of that, here's some pics.
Guitar - Jackson JS3V
No surprise, it took me forever to decide on which bass (brand, look, 4/5 string, etc) I wanted, which wouldn't break the budget either. I decided on a 5-string, with my thought process being so I would have the ability to play pretty much any song I wanted, especially since I will eventually be jamming to a bunch of rock/metal songs (which I have heard that the 5-string is used a lot for those). I figure it will be harder to learn bass on a 5-string, but I'm up for the challenge.
Amp - Fender Rumble 25
The amp was more simple to decide on, much fewer options to choose from. I was looking at Fender's "Rumble 15" until I saw the Rumble 25. $20ish more for a lot more amp was a no-brainer, and I'm glad I picked it. I haven't needed to turn it up more than 1/3 of its capacity.
Cable - D'Addario 20'
I wasn't sure about this, mainly because I don't have any experience dealing with instrument cables. The name honestly just sounded nice and fancy. I don't have anything to compare it to, but it doesn't make it sound bad, so that's good.
Strap - Unkown $2 Thing
I'm into leatherworking a little as well, so I want to make a nice strap. I just needed a strap to see how I should make it, so I got the cheapest one I could grab.
Pedal(s) - Zoom B1X Four
This hasn't come in yet, it will get delivered in a few days. I initially only wanted a tuner pedal, so I didn't have to go through Fender's tuning app (which is a pain for the 5-string, it only lets you do 4 strings at a time). Then I went down the pedals/effects rabbit hole... I don't "think" that I would use many effects for bass, but I'm interested in trying them out. I'm sure with this thing being a relatively inexpensive multi-effect pedal, that its effects won't be super great, but I'm excited to try it out... I'm still not 100% sure that it has tuning capabilities...which was the whole reason for me looking at pedals........fingers crossed.
Tabs - Ultimate Guitar
It was a toss-up between Songsterr and UG, or just doing free tabs. After a lot of thought and googling, I went with UG. They've had 99% of the songs that I've searched for so far, and the backing track feature is really helpful.
Picks - Random Pick from Periphery Show
Let me start this by saying that I initially didn't want to use a pick. Davie504 from Youtube has drilled into my head that picking is bad, I guess there's a whole thing there. With that being said, I thought my fingers were much faster than what they really ended up being...so I had to find that one pick that I acquired at the last show I went to (before the 'rona) that had been on my nightstand for about a year. I ALSO thought I would be able to pick much faster than I actually can. Why does everything have to have a learning curve?!
1st Complete Song: Stockholm Syndrome - Muse
So this is where I figured out that I sucked at fingering(??) and picking, both. After many attempts, I was finally able to complete the verses (using a pick) without sounding like a complete failure. For the chorus, I like to "slap-finger" it? I'm sure there's a very common term for it, but where I hit the string with my finger to get a good amount of "crunchiness". No idea what the terms are for these, but I like the way it sounds. And how it makes me feel like a BA when the song's done.
Setting up the Bass
I Youtube'd a few of videos while I was waiting for the bass and equipment to be delivered, mostly about how to set up the guitar before you play it. I remember Tuning, Action, and Intonation. I'm able to tune it fine, just the 5-string hurdles I mentioned earlier. I adjusted the Action as much as I felt comfortable doing. There was a fair amount of fret buzz (I think) coming from the upper 3 strings when I got it out of the box. I raised those up until I was able to play notes and didn't hear anything that I didn't like. For the lower 2 strings, I wanted some buzz and "crunch", so I adjusted those up a little bit. I kept it high enough so there wasn't any of the crunch if I was playing lightly, but low enough to crunch real good when I want it to. Apologies if I'm making everyone dumber for reading my noob terminology, its all I got so far. Intonation...now that I think about it, I totally didn't do that step...don't even remember what that is. I'll work on that tonight or tomorrow.
Strings
I'm just rocking the stock strings for now. I haven't gone too far down that rabbit hole yet...just enough to know that it's deep...so deep. If anyone has some suggestions on 5-string packs that pack some "crunch", I'm all ears.
Recording
I don't know why I'm writing about this, I'm new and will suck for a while, but I want to record to my computer like I was saying earlier so that I can jam along with my future drum recordings. For my drums, it's fairly simple, I use an electronic kit in my office/studio, which just takes a USB to transfer raw MIDI to my VST/DAW. Just gotta learn how to MIDI map for that. But for the bass, I was thinking about getting one of those I-Rig things, to record on my iPad or something (I have a Windows computer), but now I'm thinking about just putting my microphone next to the bass amp and record that way.
Well, that was much, much longer than I thought it would be. I'm not normally so talkative. I'll post some more once I figure out how all this works, and how well they work. If anyone has tips, tricks, comments, I'm all ears!
Enough of that, here's some pics.
