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Returning to the bass after 30 + years

#41
Gilmourisgod said:
Welcome back, your timing is impeccable. Remember how crappy a $2-300 bass used to be? Not anymore! It's amazing what you can get for short money now. IMHO, the best bang for your buck in virtually every price range is Ibanez. They run in ascending series, SR200, 300, 400, etc. The 200 line is an entry level bass, starting at 300 and 400 series are all any amateur bedroom bassist (like me) will ever need. The SR 500 series is pro-level, anything beyond that just gets prettier cosmetically, incremental improvement in hardware and electronics as you walk up the line. The top of the line Prestige series are boutique-level instruments for around $2000 and up. They are all light, ergonomically superior, and have a very thin, fast neck, so not great for the ham-fisted, but very comfortable for small to normal sized hands. The higher end models have Nordstrum pups, the mid-range have Barts, great sounding either way. Excellent electronics setup, with Master Volume, Pup blend, and three-band EQ, passive or active. If I was in your shoes, I'd get an Ibanez, no question.

Another bass line to check out is the Squier CV and VM series, excellent basses for the price if you prefer a Fender look and feel. I think they are equal to most MIM Fenders, opinions vary hugely on this, of course. Speaking of Mick Karn, the Squier VM Jazz Fretless is a great bass, it's a lined fretless "ebanol" (phenolic) fretboard, no pickguard like a Jaco Jazz, instant "mwah" for cheap.

The Sire line by Marcus Miller also gets a lot of love around here, though I haven't tried one personally.

For amps, you are also in luck. Most amps these days have an aux in and headphone out for playing along with MP3's or CD's. The Fender Rumble 15 is very well reviewed, my son has Rumble 30, and it's more than loud enough for church and coffee-house sized gigs, the 15 would be plenty for bedroom use. There are also plenty of high quality headphone amps, some with effects built in, ability to mix with other music sources for playalong, software to slow down and pitch correct music for learning, etc, all of it relatively cheap!
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+1 more for Ibanez, I also made a recent comeback to bass after 16 years and after checking the market, got myself a BTB 675 NTF 5 string bass which is really nice for that price range. Definitely look for Ibanez and see what series and model suit your needs and welcome back to bass family!
 
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#43
superiorpine said:
Welcome back. As you already know, lots of great info here.

To reinforce a broken record, go into a music store or two without a preconception and just try a bunch.

Also, don't sell short the experience of playing with other musicians. There is a TON of us old dinosaurs out there doing the same thing. (I am one. Came back after 25 years.) A jam or two with a similarly interested and/or talented person in your basic demographic group can be very uplifting. Worry not, go forth and have fun!!
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Not sure on that see what happens! God imagine it!
 
#44
csc2048b said:
(like everyone says) welcome back! you got pretty good responses so i'll leave it at that but allow me to commend your good taste. i'm very fond of mick karn and simon gallup too (and stanley ofcourse). worth learning it all but good luck with karn - won't be easy but it'll be fun :D
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Thank you! A few years ago MK used to have a forum like this one to chat with fans, and i was fortunate to have had a short exchange with him. As for playing it, the youtube players are often very wrong, and i remember my bass teacher bailing out when i gave him a track to learn for me. He was not that happy! Mick was very modest, to a fault, and did not get enough work for a decent living in later years.
 
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#45
By the way, do any of you feel the same way as me watching the youtube bass reviews? Some guy will sit there, not say anything of much interest, and then play the most technical piece of bass arrangement he can, to show off his wondrous prowess? It gives you little or no idea how good the bass is, or any chance to appreciate its sound. So annoying! At least those shootouts are short repeating passages that are, i think, a bit more relevant.
 
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#48
Welcome back....You sound like a similar tale as me.....I took off from 1992 until 2013......If you are lucky enough to be a better financial situation the second time around as I.......I suggest you buy high end used. A good shopper will never lose a dime and you get to play world class instruments.
 
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#50
Peter Fezza said:
Hi everybody, first post! Been enjoying your discussions. Well now im not bothered by work, im going to give it a try again. Back as a teenager i was miserable at playing guitar, and my teacher told me so. But i really loved bass as it was what i listened to. Stanley Clarke, the Cure, Japan (especially) was me. I tried bass for a while, but i was pretty dispirited.

I have no illusions. I just want to be confident to play my favourites in the shed. Be an imaginary Mick Karn eventually. No joining bands or performing will be on my radar. This is for pure fun, not critical acclaim!

So id like some help in buying a bass. One thing i learnt back then that cheap "beginner instruments" were junk sounding and hard to play! Surely they should have been easy!! High action, heavy, fat necks. So what will be decent? I watched a European bass "shootout" on youtube the other day, and i thought the fender starcaster and gretcsh had the best sound. Do they have have nice thin necks and low actions? Any other semi acoustics i should look at? Prefer long scale 4 string, to keep it simple! I want to do this right so i keep at it!
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“The force is strong with this one.”
 
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#51
Don't dismiss making your own, from a kit. The knowledge acquired, now and down the line, will pay off when selecting and purchasing one. Remember, it's the musician speaking through the instrument, not vice versa...

"Matters not, what you play.". Yoda, circa 2525.
 
#55
Peter Fezza said:
Thanks so much for the list! Ill explore
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If you really want an even smaller neck and light weight but still maintain a fat sound, then, I suggest trying an Ibanez Mikro bass. I'm not kidding. Those little cheap basses sound great. They have a tendency to have high string action, well, at least mine does. But, the string tension is so low that it's not a chore to play it even if the action is high. And, since it's a bolt on neck, that can be corrected easily with a tiny neck shim. Videos on youtube will explain that better than I can.

Just try it for the sake of having that reference in your mind.

I bought mine when I went to GC to try an Epiphone EB-0, thinking that the short scale and the big neck humbucker would give me the huge fat sound I wanted. I tried every bass in the store that cost less than $400 and it kicked all their asses. To be fair, the Epiphne EB-0 neck pickup is a fraud. It's nothing like the old EB pickup.

I have since discovered that big fat 5 string 34" scale 1.75" nut width necks fit my hands the best (old Ibanez ATK bases are what I have and use, 5 of them). But, I still keep my mikro around as a reminder and reference. I'm not wasting money on anything that can't beat my $180 Ibanez Mikro bass. $180 to save my self hundreds or thousands of wasted GAS dollars in the future is a good investment.
 
#56
For skinny neck search, well, a short scale Jag, obviously.... That Fender Slim C (for me anyway) is a comfortable radius and just, well, nice. Mine's a full size 34", but the short scale's in that ballpark. Ibanez is good too, but you can get too tiny with that. If you are ever interested in the string count of a 5, but the neck size of a 4, it's a good way to go. I had one of the Ibanez 5s for a few years while I was trying to convince myself I was a fretless player may be worth a look. Just my 2 cents...
 
#59
Hi again, i went into a shop today, mostly to hope to have a feel of the squires. But unfortunately they only had affinity j and p. I like the necks on each, but they felt a bit heavy. The shop guy said i should go for the vm's (even though he had none). Can i ask, do the vm models weigh less than affinity, and is there much difference between a p neck and the j neck on the vm models? As i said i was happy with the neck on both the affinity ones. Squire does not show weights on their website that ive seen. Thanks again!
 
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#60
I got back to playing after taking off over 20 years. When I got back I went out and tried several bass and bought one for around $500.00. I then bought an amp for about the same. So there is was woodshedding to the hits with a new shiny 1k rig :thumbsup: Then one day it hit me.:bored: I spent 1k to sit in my rec room just to thump around on?

When I got back to playing I sorta wanted to play in a band, but still felt guilty, to own what I spent for my abilities.
Don't do what I did! Get a good used bass and amp, maybe $500.00 bucks total. Look for older Peaveys or a good Squier VM or CV. I went on to get hooked on bass, got better and spent 1000's on a ton of gear and have been playing in bands since. So what did I know? :rolleyes:
 

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