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Good Metal/Thrash Bass

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#4
For 400 bones, get the best used bass you can find. Stay out of pawn shops!!! Until you have mega dough laying around, don't bother with new. Get a good used bass from a reputible music store. Same as guitar, the set up can make a bass, so get the one you want, save up some cash and go to a good tech to get it set up to maximize it's greatness (do a little research and don't just toodle down to Guitar Center. Their tech's aren't always the best).

A tid-bit of insider scoop to help you with the transition... you can't play bass like a guitar. Brain dump your guitar technique (except for theory knowledge, that can come in handy) and start learning the bass from scatch. Start with holding the rythm and keeping good time with the drums. The flashy bass playing will come MUCH LATER in your journey. Don't try to rush it, you'll be out of place and throw everything off.

Lastly, welcome to the wonderful world of bottom end. Many great bass players got their start on the guitar. Also, many great bass players keep the bass as their main instrument once they switch :) There are many good guitarist out there, but a good bass player is like a good drummer; hard to find and worth their weight in gold!
 
#8
There isn't a best bass for metal, as you know there a 1,000,000 sub-genres of "metal". I'm in a death/thrash band and play a Peavey Grind. She could sound a bit better, but I EQ in a nice tone that I am happy with. Great playing bass and never goes out of tune. I want a Schecter Diamond J, Fender J, or a G&L SB-2............ not very metal if you ask most. Ibanez are a great value and a found littered about the metal community. Pick up and play everything within your budget and see which one wants to go home with you.
 
#9
thanks for the feed back.....except for bassinyourface lol doesnt help next time just shove it :D
yeah i figured it really didnt matter to much but thanks again ill check out all of those. I was looking at an ESP what are you opinions on those?
 
#11
ESP are great. Just remember that most bassist are pretty happy buying a bass that feels right but sounds not as good. We tend to upgrade bridges, pots, and pick ups much more than guitar players do. At least that is my findings. If you find a bass that just feels good and looks good, and is really cheap then pick it up. You can make it sound great for a few $100 more.
 
#12
Look at some of th Schecter products, they make some nice playing stuff for minimal bones. Otherwise, go look at the Squier CV or VM series Jazz or Precision basses. They play great for the $$, you can play ANY style on them, and everyone sells upgrades for J's and P's. Worth noting, the VM series has pretty hot pickups, nice loud "forward" sounding.
 
#13
Eh, I've never been much a fan of ESP basses.

Remember, when you're on a budget, always buy used. Schecter basses are pretty good for the money. So are Peaveys. Peaveys are really good mod platforms, too. Ibanez makes some okay basses.

Is the $400 for just the bass, or do you still need to get an amp, too?
 
#14
I played thrash for a while...

I used both an Ibanez SXR390 and an ATK300.

Both sounded good, man. The SRX had a faster neck, so that was the main player in that band.


One of my fave thrash bass tones, is the bassist of Municipal Waste. I believe he uses an EBMM Stingray... you may want to check out Sterling by MM. I know people say that ATK's sound like STingrays... but i've never been able to get that close with mine :/
 
#16
Schecters, although stereotyped as such, are decent metal and hard rock basses. That's the only thing that my old Stiletto Custom 4 sounded good for though... So I sold it! ;)

I always use a P bass for metal. Nothing sits in the mix just like it does. It's always there and always nasty. (The good kind.) You can't go wrong with one either. You can use a P for any style of music out there.

Oh, best bass for metal? My upright. I play Iron Maiden on it when no one is looking.
 
#17
I don't really think there's a "best bass" for anything out there, just get the best used bass you can find, get somebody to give it a GOOD setup, and get yourself a GOOD amp that pumps out a lot - you'd want something about 300-400 watts to start with.
 
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