Hello all,
As you can tell, I am brand spankin' new here. I just bought myself an Ibanez SR305DX electric bass 4 days ago from my brother's store, The Guitar Center.
I used to play string bass in orchestra all throughout jr high and highschool, which means I haven't touched a bass in over 13 years now.
Just literally the other day (5 days ago), I was sitting at work bored out of my skull, so I went on the internet. For whatever reason just out of the clear blue, I went to eBay and starting looking at upright basses. Obviously, uprights are fairly large instruments and I drive a Mazda Miata, so those two wouldn't mix. I then started a new search on electric bass guitars, noticed how inexpensive good one can be, and then thought... "hmm, my bro works at TGC, so I bet I could get a real good deal on a bass there with his employee discount".
So the very next day, I went up to my brother's store to check out some basses, looking to spend no more than $200 total (since I'm just starting out). Well, I never realised it, but my bro is very well liked by everyone in that store. Practically everyone who works there came over to meet me, and the store manager was even informed that I was coming up there to look at buying something.
As I said, I was looking at basses below my $200 mark, such as the Ibanez GSR100, GSR150, Squire Affinity P Bass and Yamaha RBX170. All of these are $179, 4-stringers, and I was leaning towards the Yamaha because it's the only one with dual pickups (which I really didn't have a full idea why that would be better or not). Well, the OLP TB4 also has dual pickups, but I never heard of that brand before, so I never even considered that one.
Anyway, I get there, my bro (Jim) comes out front to meet me (he works in the warehouse) and Joe the manager comes out as well as one of the other guys (Red) that works there who I had met several years back. So we all stand there for a while just BS'ing around for a while, then we get down to the business about basses.
I told Joe and Red that I know absolutely nothing about electric basses and really didn't have any good idea of what kind of bass to go for, I asked them to choose for me. I told them I would like to eventually get into blues/jazz playing, maybe even some good ole' fashion rock n' roll. Joe asked me what my budget was and I told him what I was kinda looking at in basses.
He said that since I'm Jim's little bro and we all got along real well, he'd cut me a really great deal. And since he said he wouldn't feel comfortable selling me one of those lower end basses, he pulled the SR305DX off the wall and asked me what I thought about that one. I said, "yeah, that's a nice bass, but way out of my budget" ($339). He said "how does $180 sound to you?"... My answer was quite obvious.
I had to feel dumb and ask what the advantage was of the dual pickups and the extra 5th string. After he told me, I was definately sold, not to mention that I was getting a much better bass for the same price as the first ones I was originally looking at!
So there you have it. I have officially been playing bass again for the last 5 days now, well 4 actually. I had a nasty headache last night and fell asleep right after dinner.
I have been putting in just about 6 hours of constant playing every night after work. I just put in a mixed selection of CDs (ranging from Metallica to Norah Jones to Pink Floyd to AC/DC to Phil Collins to Diana Krall, etc, etc, etc...) in my changer and let er' rip!
After the very first night, I had a big nasty blister on my thumb and index finger and a couple of fingers on my fret hand were rather sore. But by now, they are fine.
And yes, I know, I have to relearn how to read music again, and I also have to learn the proper playing techniques, so off to the scales I go!
BTW, here's a quick pic...
Link Removed
As you can tell, I am brand spankin' new here. I just bought myself an Ibanez SR305DX electric bass 4 days ago from my brother's store, The Guitar Center.
I used to play string bass in orchestra all throughout jr high and highschool, which means I haven't touched a bass in over 13 years now.
Just literally the other day (5 days ago), I was sitting at work bored out of my skull, so I went on the internet. For whatever reason just out of the clear blue, I went to eBay and starting looking at upright basses. Obviously, uprights are fairly large instruments and I drive a Mazda Miata, so those two wouldn't mix. I then started a new search on electric bass guitars, noticed how inexpensive good one can be, and then thought... "hmm, my bro works at TGC, so I bet I could get a real good deal on a bass there with his employee discount".
So the very next day, I went up to my brother's store to check out some basses, looking to spend no more than $200 total (since I'm just starting out). Well, I never realised it, but my bro is very well liked by everyone in that store. Practically everyone who works there came over to meet me, and the store manager was even informed that I was coming up there to look at buying something.
As I said, I was looking at basses below my $200 mark, such as the Ibanez GSR100, GSR150, Squire Affinity P Bass and Yamaha RBX170. All of these are $179, 4-stringers, and I was leaning towards the Yamaha because it's the only one with dual pickups (which I really didn't have a full idea why that would be better or not). Well, the OLP TB4 also has dual pickups, but I never heard of that brand before, so I never even considered that one.
Anyway, I get there, my bro (Jim) comes out front to meet me (he works in the warehouse) and Joe the manager comes out as well as one of the other guys (Red) that works there who I had met several years back. So we all stand there for a while just BS'ing around for a while, then we get down to the business about basses.
I told Joe and Red that I know absolutely nothing about electric basses and really didn't have any good idea of what kind of bass to go for, I asked them to choose for me. I told them I would like to eventually get into blues/jazz playing, maybe even some good ole' fashion rock n' roll. Joe asked me what my budget was and I told him what I was kinda looking at in basses.
He said that since I'm Jim's little bro and we all got along real well, he'd cut me a really great deal. And since he said he wouldn't feel comfortable selling me one of those lower end basses, he pulled the SR305DX off the wall and asked me what I thought about that one. I said, "yeah, that's a nice bass, but way out of my budget" ($339). He said "how does $180 sound to you?"... My answer was quite obvious.
I had to feel dumb and ask what the advantage was of the dual pickups and the extra 5th string. After he told me, I was definately sold, not to mention that I was getting a much better bass for the same price as the first ones I was originally looking at!
So there you have it. I have officially been playing bass again for the last 5 days now, well 4 actually. I had a nasty headache last night and fell asleep right after dinner.
I have been putting in just about 6 hours of constant playing every night after work. I just put in a mixed selection of CDs (ranging from Metallica to Norah Jones to Pink Floyd to AC/DC to Phil Collins to Diana Krall, etc, etc, etc...) in my changer and let er' rip!
After the very first night, I had a big nasty blister on my thumb and index finger and a couple of fingers on my fret hand were rather sore. But by now, they are fine.
And yes, I know, I have to relearn how to read music again, and I also have to learn the proper playing techniques, so off to the scales I go!
BTW, here's a quick pic...
Link Removed
