those are for basses with active electronics. Some basses have just volume and tone controls whereas active basses have a preamp built in which allows for tweaking of bass, treble and mids in the case of a three band pre.
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Questions from a beginner
- Thread starter BoogieMane
- Start date
those are for basses with active electronics. Some basses have just volume and tone controls whereas active basses have a preamp built in which allows for tweaking of bass, treble and mids in the case of a three band pre.
No offense, but that doesn't make any sense. How can you decide if a bass is right for you, or if it's at the right price, if you don't know your budget?
Replying in this manner will get you absolutely NO where on here.... just sayin'
My first (and so far, only) bass was/is an Ibanez SR 5 string. I got it because I wanted a 5 string for heavy metal stuff. I also wanted a decent quality bass. After playing for a while, I noticed I never use the low B string. One reason is because the majority of the songs I play don't make use of notes below E. Another reason is because the B string just sounds bad on my bass, but I attribute that to poor setup.
I'm glad I got a 5 string because if I hadn't, I wouldn't have known that I didn't need one. Maybe you'll feel the same way, or maybe you'll like it. Either way I recommend getting the 5.
I never have a budget when looking at things like a bass or a computer or other expensive item. I pick out what I want and then save up for it. I assume that's what he means.
I'm glad I got a 5 string because if I hadn't, I wouldn't have known that I didn't need one. Maybe you'll feel the same way, or maybe you'll like it. Either way I recommend getting the 5.
I never have a budget when looking at things like a bass or a computer or other expensive item. I pick out what I want and then save up for it. I assume that's what he means.
Thank you for understanding where I'm coming from with the budget situation. I don't understand why those who complained in this thread have a problem about what I said about my budget.
I suspect some of us simply use the word "budget" rather than the phrase "How much are you willing to spend?" Less typing, and all that.
And of course, the amount of $$ you are willing to spend affects the advice you are given. Please don't be offended; this question is relevant, and responders will often ask.
I would get the five, and get used to it from the start. It does require a bit larger hands than a four-string. You need to go to a music store and put your hands on a number of basses.
I have four 4's and one 5. I don't need that 5er much, but you should get what you want, if you've got the grip.
And of course, the amount of $$ you are willing to spend affects the advice you are given. Please don't be offended; this question is relevant, and responders will often ask.
I would get the five, and get used to it from the start. It does require a bit larger hands than a four-string. You need to go to a music store and put your hands on a number of basses.
I have four 4's and one 5. I don't need that 5er much, but you should get what you want, if you've got the grip.
If I knew what I know today, I would have gone for a 5-string. It was not that much higher priced than its matching 4-string bass (about 20% more). Now that I want a 5-er I can not sell my 4-string at an reasonable price, neither can I afford a 5-string without first selling my 4-string.
That's the proper use of the word budget. The thread starter got it wrong.
There are two ways to do this. Buy lots of bass guitars, gradually getting more and more expensive. Or buy two bass guitars: the one you start on, and then the one you play on for the rest of your life. Option #2 is the cheaper one.
Some of the responses seem to ask for the budget alloted for the item (point c below), while the OP seems to want to find the item of his desire, and then implement budgeting (see verb, definition 2).
If this is what we're talking about I'd say start on something reasonably priced. I got my peavey millennium and it felt amazing. I loved playing it. I still love playing it. But when I started gigging and playing for 3 or 4 hours I found the thin, small neck made my (reasonably large) hands cramp. Now I use P-necks and am more comfortable long-term. I think you will only identify these types of things through extended time with an instrument and development as a player.
If this is what we're talking about I'd say start on something reasonably priced. I got my peavey millennium and it felt amazing. I loved playing it. I still love playing it. But when I started gigging and playing for 3 or 4 hours I found the thin, small neck made my (reasonably large) hands cramp. Now I use P-necks and am more comfortable long-term. I think you will only identify these types of things through extended time with an instrument and development as a player.
I was thinking of going for a Ibanez GSR205EX as starter bass guitar. Does anyone else have any suggestions on a good starter bass?
The best thing is always to get your hands on one first (guitar store display, friend has one, etc.) and see if you like the feel of it. Pick one that feels good and then check around to see where you can get the best deal. Ibanez is generally a good brand. I haven't played a lot of different instruments other than pulling stuff off the guitar store racks. My own instrument is a Washburn Taurus T-25 and I've always been very happy with it. It's in the same ballpark as the 205 pricewise, maybe a bit more. If you want to just go cheap for a real starter and then upgrade later, you can always get an SX.
There's a difference between whether or not the bass did what you needed or you simply didn't use it the way you intended.
While I understand that many people feel the value of a 5 is to access notes below low E - many others (like me) find the ability to cover 2 full octaves in one position to be a huge value. So even if I never saw a low Eb in my life, the ability to essentially cover every note required in most songs from one convenient position is huge.
Now I will also admit that I LOVE shifting and sliding - so I am not saying when I play I stay in one spot on the neck - but if I wanted to, I could.
Also - even if the song doesn't dip below low E, the ability to finger a low E on the B provides a more ballsy E than the typical open E - as well as maintains the 'fretted vs. open' difference.
Finally - nothing sounds cooler than being able to do what equates to a whammy bar dive driving a low E into the basement for emphasis.
I'm pretty darn new to the bass. I didn't know if I should get a 4 or 5 for my first instrument, what brand I should be looking at, etc. So I was in the same exact situation you are in now a few months ago.
I went to the local music store and fiddled around with several basses. The 5 string necks just didn't feel right in my hands. Maybe it's because I had been borrowing a 4 string bass before. The biggest issue to me was the way the bass felt. If it was awkward to hold, had a too thick neck, did the neck dive trick as soon as I pulled my left hand away, etc., I probably wouldn't practice as often as I do. I want to put on the instrument, tune it up, play some scales, and start practicing. That makes learning enjoyable to me. I don't want to fight with an uncomfortable instrument. Maybe later, when I'm a good bassist (gonna take time!), I'll try a 5 string bass again. Until then, the 4 is fine with me. And really, ALL of the music I'm been learning is all easily played on a 4 string. There are a couple songs in drop D. It takes the whole of 5 seconds to accurately tune down the E string.
So my advice - from a newbie to a newbie - is to go spend an hour at your local music store. Hold lots of basses. Stumble through a scale or two if you don't know what to play. Just get the feel of the different makes and models. You'll know if a 4 or 5 string feels right for you straight away. Then ask a sales person or repair tech for their input about instrument construction, electronics quality, setup, etc. They should be able to point out the features and explain whether or not a beginner should be concerned with them. As others have said - electronics can be swapped out, strings can be replaced, action can be lowered/raised, etc., on any bass.
I walked out of the store with a Schecter Stiletto Custom 4, Comfort Strapp (this strap is awesome!), and EB 50-105 flatwound strings for under $600. I could have easily spent way less. I could have also easily spent that amount 4 times over. But when it came down to it, that setup was right for me. Go and find out what's right for you.
Don't forget about a practice amp, too. I already had a badass keyboard amp, so that wasn't a concern for me. I'll get a real bass amp soon.
Hope that helps!
I went to the local music store and fiddled around with several basses. The 5 string necks just didn't feel right in my hands. Maybe it's because I had been borrowing a 4 string bass before. The biggest issue to me was the way the bass felt. If it was awkward to hold, had a too thick neck, did the neck dive trick as soon as I pulled my left hand away, etc., I probably wouldn't practice as often as I do. I want to put on the instrument, tune it up, play some scales, and start practicing. That makes learning enjoyable to me. I don't want to fight with an uncomfortable instrument. Maybe later, when I'm a good bassist (gonna take time!), I'll try a 5 string bass again. Until then, the 4 is fine with me. And really, ALL of the music I'm been learning is all easily played on a 4 string. There are a couple songs in drop D. It takes the whole of 5 seconds to accurately tune down the E string.
So my advice - from a newbie to a newbie - is to go spend an hour at your local music store. Hold lots of basses. Stumble through a scale or two if you don't know what to play. Just get the feel of the different makes and models. You'll know if a 4 or 5 string feels right for you straight away. Then ask a sales person or repair tech for their input about instrument construction, electronics quality, setup, etc. They should be able to point out the features and explain whether or not a beginner should be concerned with them. As others have said - electronics can be swapped out, strings can be replaced, action can be lowered/raised, etc., on any bass.
I walked out of the store with a Schecter Stiletto Custom 4, Comfort Strapp (this strap is awesome!), and EB 50-105 flatwound strings for under $600. I could have easily spent way less. I could have also easily spent that amount 4 times over. But when it came down to it, that setup was right for me. Go and find out what's right for you.
Don't forget about a practice amp, too. I already had a badass keyboard amp, so that wasn't a concern for me. I'll get a real bass amp soon.
Hope that helps!
Good advice =
All the rest falls into well-intentioned, but otherwise not so good advice.
I'd add to the good advice - bring someone with you who knows a thing or two about bass before you make global decisions about basses based on flawed logic and inexperience.
The nature of the 5'er you tried didn't suit you. Neck dive is neck dive and not a 5'er only, nor 5'er frequently thing. Any bass can have neck dive - and I agree that is not a good thing and I'd never buy a bass that didn't balance properly.
That said, I have four 5'ers (2 I built myself, 2 store bought) - none of which have neck dive - all of which have great feeling necks, and easily meet the criteria for being comfortable and effective instruments for me. My student - who has a 4 banger that I helped him pick out, frequently play my 5'ers and loves them. Yes, he's awkward on them and gets confused, but it has nothing to do with the instrument being hard to play or not right for a beginner.
A person new to bass may initially think when comparing a 4 to a 5 that one 'feels better/worse' than the other in a one to one comparison, but being new, you haven't developed a sense for what 'really' feels good versus what simply feels unusual or unexpected. Most 5'er will automatically feel more 'bulky' - but as long as it's balanced properly (no neck dive), set up properly (not hard to play) and otherwise in good condition, new hands can easily learn to be very comfortable with a 5'er - just as easily as a 4.
ANYONE new to bass is going to have hands that do not naturally feel comfortable on a bass. Not knowing that the 5'er you were playing was not indicative of all 5'ers led you to draw a conclusion about 5'ers that was inaccurate. Having someone there with you to say, "Oh, yeah... that 5'er is in bad shape - here, try this one" then guide you to one that doesn't have neck-dive or other obvious flaws might have changed your mind then and there.
All the rest falls into well-intentioned, but otherwise not so good advice.
I'd add to the good advice - bring someone with you who knows a thing or two about bass before you make global decisions about basses based on flawed logic and inexperience.
The nature of the 5'er you tried didn't suit you. Neck dive is neck dive and not a 5'er only, nor 5'er frequently thing. Any bass can have neck dive - and I agree that is not a good thing and I'd never buy a bass that didn't balance properly.
That said, I have four 5'ers (2 I built myself, 2 store bought) - none of which have neck dive - all of which have great feeling necks, and easily meet the criteria for being comfortable and effective instruments for me. My student - who has a 4 banger that I helped him pick out, frequently play my 5'ers and loves them. Yes, he's awkward on them and gets confused, but it has nothing to do with the instrument being hard to play or not right for a beginner.
A person new to bass may initially think when comparing a 4 to a 5 that one 'feels better/worse' than the other in a one to one comparison, but being new, you haven't developed a sense for what 'really' feels good versus what simply feels unusual or unexpected. Most 5'er will automatically feel more 'bulky' - but as long as it's balanced properly (no neck dive), set up properly (not hard to play) and otherwise in good condition, new hands can easily learn to be very comfortable with a 5'er - just as easily as a 4.
ANYONE new to bass is going to have hands that do not naturally feel comfortable on a bass. Not knowing that the 5'er you were playing was not indicative of all 5'ers led you to draw a conclusion about 5'ers that was inaccurate. Having someone there with you to say, "Oh, yeah... that 5'er is in bad shape - here, try this one" then guide you to one that doesn't have neck-dive or other obvious flaws might have changed your mind then and there.
(Etc. about the neck dive comment I made...)
I see where you mistook what I was saying. It wasn't that 5 string basses neck dive and 4 string basses don't. It's that many of the basses I tried (4 and 5) were not well balanced, which disqualified them from my selection pool. To build on what we we're both saying, there were some 5 string basses that balanced much better than some of the 4 string basses.
As for feel... That's a tough one. What you said about our not knowing much about how the instrument should fit, technically, is definitely true. I suppose what I was saying was mostly about the instrument just being comfortable. It's hard to describe - much like it's hard to describe the differences in how different basses can sound. It's easier just to hear the difference rather than match the sound properties against a big list of technical specifics. For comfort, it's best just to pick the instrument up and see for yourself rather than measure, weigh, etc. Just pick it up and hold it.
I don't think that my comfort advice is bad at all. That carries over into many instruments. I've played and taught on drums for many years. The best way to select drumsticks is to try out a bunch of sizes. Go figure I use 7A sticks (which are pretty thin). I like a thinner bass neck, apparently. That's what works for me. Bad advice would be to ignore something that feels wrong simply because you're not supposed to know what it should feel like.
I definitely agree with your suggestion to take an experienced bassist along for the instrument selection process. I really don't have any bassist friends. The guy from which I had been borrowing a bass bought his instrument and never learned to play it. That's why he let me borrow it for so long! Fortunately, there are really helpful people that I've come to trust where I bought my bass. (I've dealt with them for pro audio, percussion, and synthesizer equipment purchases many times.) The salesperson I asked for was an experienced bassist. He spent a lot of time with me and answered tons of questions. Still, if I would have had a bassist friend available, I would have made them go with me.
Cheers!
To be 100% clear, I am not saying to ignore the comfort factor. I am saying that a beginner on any instrument will be uncomfortable - period. Unless you fall outta the womb with one in your hands, any instrument that you've either never player or had very limited exposure to without the benefit of proper technical training - will feel uncomfortable with regard to how you'd properly play it.
Now - you may set a bass on your knee - grab it with your fist and say, "Ahhh" or "ewww" - but that is not necessarily indicative of how that instrument would feel if you held it and handled it with proper technique. It may feel - odd - but then when you are shown how to hold it correctly, it may feel sweet. But if you don't know the difference, trying to evaluate comfort a less than ideal way to determine if it's really uncomfortable, or that you simply are not holding it right.
So in short - the comfort factor is fine for someone with a modicum of experience and proper technique. But for a beginner, it's not a very good measure at all. Which is why beginners should seek the advice of more experienced players for a lot of things - bass selection included.
This is definitely true. I suppose I'd been noodling around on a couple of basses before to see if there was anything truth behind my mysterious desire to learn the bass. And I had already done a lot of reading through bass theory and practice books. I'd already done a couple months of work on technique, understanding the fretboard, etc. So I guess I didn't really go to the shop as a 100% bass virgin. I already had 1% under my belt, plus over 20 years of general music theory and experience on various other instruments (none of them stringed, though).
I understand what you're saying now, and it definitely makes good sense. Sorry about the misunderstanding about the neck dive relation to 5 string basses, too. My wording must not have been so clear.
To the OP: Just out of curiosity, what styles of music do you intend to play? Do you have any experience with other instruments?
