Starting Bass

Not my first, but my second -- I wish I knew that I was supposed to unplug it if it used a battery. I also wish I knew it had a battery. What fun that was....

 

The best advice I can give is to learn to do your own setups.
Check out this thread for a good starting point:
ALL BASIC SETUP QUESTIONS ANSWERED HERE

And congratulations, you chose a great instrument to learn and a good bass to start on.

 

You could do worse, Ibbys a very well liked around here for the most part.

 

Less is more on bass.
Prioritize playing tightly with the drums.
Add fancy notes later.

 

Wish I had known more about Strings -
I started playing at age 11. Until about 14 I didn't know about the different string gauges, types, tension differences, proper winding length and how much this matters.
Felt like playing on Piano wires until someone helped me out with a more appropriate string gauge/type (and a proper set up).

 

Along with the set up and string advice:

Download the Ibanez maintainance / owner manual. It gives their recommended set-up specs, always a good starting point.

Use good tools. Having some cheap / wrong size allen key may work on the truss rod, but at some point it will butcher the nut.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet!!

 

Don't even believe everything you read on TB! (Though the "good info density" on here is substantially higher than the interwebs in general, there's still a lot of noise at times.)

 

Ibanez has a good track record. and by your own admission you couldn't tell the differance in sound. Ibanez might be a good choice for you skill level. If you like it, you'll play it more and then you can think of a higher end bass.

 

I wish I known to get a big enough amp when I started. Something that can comfortably keep up with the drummer.

 

save your $$ (for more basses ) and avoid evictions / visits by the cops via an amp and practice with headphones, your juicy bass tones will be right in your ear (keep the vol. down to protect your hearing) and your faults will be easier to ID / correct. by the time you need an amp you'll be nearing player status and should know what's best for your situations. start jamming with others asap.

 

The pickups on the E are supposed to be pretty killer. I started on a SR300M it's a solid place to begin. The enough amp to keep up with a drummer above is also priceless. I bought a tiny Acoustic B-15, hardly used it, needed a big amp almost immediately.

 

Earplugs, cheap disposable are fine.

 

Welcome to the forum. The bass you will get will probably have round wounds on it. Since you are a newbie, you will not have callouses on your fingers therefore I strongly recommend you immediately get it setup with flats. The rounds will tear your fingers up. I went through this and when I went to D'Addario Chromes, I never looked back. Hope you have an instructor lined up to get started on the right foot as there is no substitute for one on one instruction. Good luck.

 

I'm more of a newbie here, I don't even own one... yet.

 

I wish I'd started more simply. The stuff I tried to learn, right off the bat, was way out of my league. You can be a very good bass player if you know your chord notes. The chord notes, and chord changes, show you where the passing notes are. That allows you to stitch the bass drum to the melody, on the fly, rather than getting stuck on the same riffs. The fingers work for the brain...not the other way around.

 

You're getting all the attention you need on your thread. Plenty of room for more than one newb on here. It's nice to have fun here, but sometimes it's better just to read and learn. Tread lightly.
Peace N Chicken Grease

 

I still have my gsr300 (OG SR). I've beat the hell out of it for 16 years, and it still sounds and plays great. I've got a couple more now, but I still love my 300.

 

The Ibanez 300E Bass is a great bass to not only start on, but will serve you many years of enjoyment.. I’ve been playing bass since 1995, and just bought myself a 305E in December. I love it!