Help with connecting to PC for practice

[ucs8779]

Hello.

Yet another newbie here. I play guitar in our worship team and in order to be more flexible have decided to give the bass guitar a try. After much thought and due to my budget I've ordered the Ibanez TMB100.

I already have several pieces of equipment I use with my acoustic and electric guitars to practice with music on the PC. Before I buy anything else, I'm trying to figure out how I can utilize what I have to do the same with the bass.

For electric, I have an older Digitech RP250 that still works well. It has USB to connect to the PC and a headphone jack that allows me to hear the music from the PC and my guitar at the same time. I'm thinking this should work for the bass as well but I'm not sure.

I also have a Tascam US-100 that has a USB output, headphone jack, microphone input, and 1/4" guitar cable input.

And I have an old Crate 15W guitar amp with aux in that also still works well. From what I've read it can be used but the recommendation is to keep the volume low.

In addition, for Christmas I received some wireless headphones and am wondering how I might be able to fit those into the picture.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

 

[Jack]

Welcome! Nice bass too.

The Digitech is probably going to be your best bet. You'll probably already know that it's all very guitar centric but I'm sure if you find a nice clean or mild overdrive preset it will sound just fine.

Tascam will be great but boring and clean.

You're spot on about the amp, although even at low volumes you'll probably find it somewhat anemic. Not only is that a guitar speaker but it's a cheap guitar speaker!

 

[Tosh]

The Digitech RP250 and the Tascam US-100 should be "okay" - good enough to get started with.

Not trying to be unkind, but IMHO the Crate is NOT up to the task of amping bass guitar at any volume, and wireless headphones often add too much latency to be useful for practicing (some designs are better than others).

I strongly urge the use of wired headphones. Don't worry about an amp until you are sure you need one.

 

[ucs8779]

Thank you for the replies. I received the bass yesterday and the Tascam unit works just fine for practicing with the PC. The guitar should be great for learning the bass.