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New Bassist Looking for an Opinion

P

paintballer992

Jun 9, 2010
32
0
Sudbury, Ontario Canada
#1
Hey Everyone,

I am a guitarist looking into getting a bass. Cash is tight so I'm looking to do so as cheaply as possible without buying poor quality gear.

What I have found at this point is:

Washburn XB102
Silvertone 20W Amp
Patch Cord
Gig Bag
Spare Strings

All for $125 used.

Any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance
 
#7
paintballer992 said:
...Cash is tight so I'm looking to do so as cheaply as possible without buying poor quality gear...

Any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated...
Click to expand...

Suggestion: fill out your profile so those who want to help can be actually helpful.

Location is especially important. Are you in Ohio, California, Indonesia, France, Ukraine, Japan, Austria, Iran, etc.?
 
#8
Thanks for the replies so far!

At this point its for the fun of it at home.

I also have a group of guys who I'll likely jam with (Guitarist and drummer).

Down the road I suppose the possibility of gigging is present but its not like an immediate goal.

So right now if I do enjoy it enough off the bat then I would definitely look into another amp.
 
#9
Jim Carr said:
Suggestion: fill out your profile so those who want to help can be actually helpful.

Location is especially important. Are you in Ohio, California, Indonesia, France, Ukraine, Japan, Austria, Iran, etc.?
Click to expand...

Filled in now. Thanks. And up in Northern Ontario, Canada. Will be down in southern Ontario come fall for schooling (hence the needing this to be slightly lower cost for the time being)
 
#11
Consider the volume you're going to need. Depending on the volume of the guitarists gear (it's been said some amps go up to eleven), you can bet he/she is going to be wailing away with massive amounts of distortion. Likewise, the drummer will probably pound the he|| out of the kit.

You need enough volume to hear yourself. The guitarist & drummer also need to hear you. You're definitely not going to hear yourself with the little 20W practice amp. There are more knowledgeable TB'ers that can provide better advice on size, but since you are on a tight budget I think you can probably practice & play live gigs with 150W-200W. Also, for live gigs, your amp will be either miked or connected to a DI box.
 
#13
...Or move directly to the 6-string bass. Look up Rondo Music. Search for 2 brands called Brice & Douglas. They actually sell 6-string basses between $190USD - $500USD. I've read a number of discussions in this Forum of which owners state they are actually not too bad considering the amount paid.
 
#14
Bass amps take a few more watts than guitar amps to be able to get enough volume to be heard over drums/guitar.

I reccomend about a 75 watt combo or so, Peavey TKO115 is a classic and you can pick them up dirt cheap, they are also night indestructible.

The rest sounds fine. You can use a guitar amp for a bass, but only at low volumes for practice, if you turn it up you can damage the speaker as someone said above.
 
#15
1, Guitar: The Washburn is a good bass, but as a guitarist, you might look into a short scale bass. They have great sound and you would get into the groove a bit faster.
2. Amp: 20w is good for home use, but if your going to jam with friends and eventually (maybe) gig, look for a 100w amp.
3. Have fun!
 
#16
I appreciate all replies above.

For those interested, I settled on buying that bass with th plan to upgrade the amp as I needed. Then the seller found someone local and sold it to them before my pickup time. Gotta love Kijiji

So I am back in the market.

A couple of interesting ones:
Epiphone P Bass (know Epiphone is reasonable for guitars, not sure about basses)
B.C. Rich Warbeast Trace

If anyone knows them or has any specific ideas I would love to hear them.
 
#19
Craigslist has many bargains but has one big disadvantage. You don't get to look at or try a lot of gear at one time. It is usually buy now or loose it. You may want to try a pawn shop or used music gear store where you can look at and try a bunch of instruments at once. I would also advise bring a bass playing friend along. With the economy being so slow you can usually haggle and get a good price.

Peace,
S
 

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