[This has been done before here, Im sure, but I want assemble a list to help those newbies who come here looking to purchase their first bass and start taking lessons. These are tips that would have helped me. Feel free to add your own experiences even if they run counter to mine. I certainly dont claim any of this should be engraved in stone. If this thread becomes helpful enough, perhaps they'll think about making it a sticky so the info doesn't scroll off into eternity.]
1. Before you do anything else, do some homework. Coming to TB is a very good start.
2. Dont think you can learn bass by watching Expert Village clips on YouTube. The angry, nasty (and admittedly hilarious) posts left there by idiots trying to learn off the internet shows why its a very bad idea. Get a real instructor. Theres no other wayperiodI dont care what anyone tells you. Theres no other way.
3. Look around for a bassmusic stores, pawnshops, classifieds. Try not to buy off the internet but look anyway, you may find something that catches your attention. Preferably, it will be a place close enough to you that you can make a trip there.
4. A decent bass will cost. You cant get a good one for $600the internet is full of those. Youre talking nothing less than $1,800 for an entry-level bass but most likely you will shell out between $2,000 and $3,000 if youre buying retail and may find a decent cheaper one by buying directly from someone in classifieds but dont buy anything right awayjust look. Right now, you just want to see whats available.
5. Do not buy a 4/4 or 7/8 bass. You dont need one. Go with a 3/4 or even smaller if youre a short person.
6. Make sure there is a good instructor near you. You cant learn this by yourself. He will likely be happy to get another paying student and will give you what information he can. Just dont go to him and expect him to do everything for youhes a busy guy and has other students and gigs to tend to. So show some initiative and have prospects you want him to look at. He will probably be more willing to help you if you show youre motivated. He may even have one for sale or knows someone who does. Tell him that you have a few prospects but that you would like his input before you buy.
7. Before making a purchase, make sure you have access to a luthier. If you buy a cheaper bass, the set-up is almost always bad. That doesnt mean the bass is bad but to get any real use out of that bass, youll need a luthier to set it up properly. Believe me, it makes all the difference. The best scenario is to be referred to a luthier through your instructorsomeone you can trust. When I needed my bass set-up changed, my instructor called his luthier who came over and fixed the bridge so that the adjuster wheels werent so tight and he also moved the soundpost. The bass went from mediocre to pretty damned good in the amount of time it took him to make the adjustments. The great thing was that it was done in less than half an hour. He didnt even ask for money but I paid him generously because without him, I would have had to take the bass somewhere and leave it there. Then theyd either have to pay a luthier to come over and fix the bass or theyd have to send it out. That would take at least a month and who knows what the quality of the work would have been and what it would have cost me? A lot more than I paid this guy, Ill tell you that much. Its really impractical to get your bass worked on that way so find a luthier who can do the work quickly. If he does do it quickly then make it worth his while. He can also re-string your bows which is a lot nicer than having to send them out to someone.
8. If you are in contact with a luthier before you even start looking for a bass, he can make one for you. Will it cost? Hell, yes, it will. This is not a cheap hobby. You have to be serious about this instrument from the git-go because it is expensive. The nice thing is, the set-up will be perfect and it will have a good set of strings on it with a Yamahiko pickup already installed and all that but that does get pricey. If youre not serious, save yourself a boatload of trouble and find another hobby.
9. If you insist on getting something cheaper (and if youre a newcomer to the bass, you probably should), again, do not buy anything until your instructor or luthier takes a look at it or you have at least been shown what to look for. Certain things can tip you off. For instance, the type of finish. Once at an ensemble recital, one of the participants brought a bass with a sunburst finish. As soon as I saw it, I figured it had to sound like crap. Who puts a sunburst finish on a bass?? Of course, you can put any finish you want on a bass and it wont much affect the quality but WHO PUTS A SUNBURST FINISH ON A BASS?? About halfway through, my instructor (who put the ensemble together) told the guy to put the bass away and use one of the spares he had. I cant stand the sound of that thing, he told him. And I agreed. But then I never would have bought it no matter how affordable it might have been. Nobody puts a sunburst finish on a bass. Things like that should tip your off.
10. In my case, I lucked out. I didnt do any of the things I wrote above because I had no idea what I was doing. I bought a fairly cheap bass with a crappy set-up. The place I bought it from had an instructor who taught bass so I signed up. He turned out not to be so good but, after three lessons, he left the place and they fixed me up with a superb teacher. After a while, I started taking private lessons from him at his house because it was a lot more conducive to learning. He has two beautiful custom-made basses and got me in touch with his luthier who came by and fixed my set-up as I stated earlier. It turned out to be a decent bass once the set-up was fixed. I got REALLY lucky with that one. Another of my teachers students bought a $1500 bass that the luthier looked at and wouldnt even work on. He told the guy to sell it and get a new one. My bass was over $2500 and was simply a better bassit just needed to be set up. I did not know that when I bought it. I could have bought a piece of junk like this guy did so I lucked out. I want to keep new prospective students from making the same mistakes I did because you cant count on lucking out. Ive already read posts here of people who got ripped off and now are out a couple of grand and cant afford to buy another bass and have been forced to put their bass-playing aspirations on the back burner.
11. Another reason to avoid excessively cheap basses is resale value. If you decide to upgrade and sell your current bass, you want to get something for it. A $600 bass has no resale value unless you can stifle the prickings of conscience and palm it off to some unsuspecting rube on Craigslist. Or you might want to keep your current as a backup. If you have to put your main bass in the shop for whatever reason, what do you play in the meantime? So buying a decent bass now means you will always have a decent bass when you need one. Imagine your $6000 bass in the shop and youre forced to use your $600 piece of crap until you get your other one back. Actually, you dont want to imagine that.
12. So what if you dont have $2000+ to spend on a bass? Well, as I said, you could get lucky and find someone trying to unload a good one for cheap but, frankly, if you dont have the money to afford a decent bass, you should try another instrument. Im not trying to be snobby, Im trying to save you unnecessary heartaches. You cant cut corners and expect to beat everyone else to the punch. You have to get a bass the old fashioned way: You earn it. This is aside from paying for accessories as a bow, a pickup, an amp, lessons. Not to mention having proper transportation capabilities. Its an expensive undertaking. If you are not prepared to shoulder the costs, you are not prepared to study the bass. There are no shortcuts.
13. If you cant find an instructor, what should you do? I would put it off until I find an instructor. Unless you are extraordinarily talentedDragonetti IIthere is no way that you are going to go anywhere trying to teach yourself. A lot of people have but they are very limited at what they can do. The exception was Scott LaFaro and even he was a highly trained clarinetist before he took up the bass. I would say it is more important to find an instructor before finding a luthier although a luthier should be able to recommend an instructor for you just as an instructor should be able to recommend a luthier. I cant believe a highly skilled bass teacher doesnt have a luthier to work on his basses. There really is no other way to get work done on a bass. You see how hard it is to even find a store that sells them so just forget about finding one with an on-site bass luthier. You dont want the stores guitar tech doing the set-up for you.
1. Before you do anything else, do some homework. Coming to TB is a very good start.
2. Dont think you can learn bass by watching Expert Village clips on YouTube. The angry, nasty (and admittedly hilarious) posts left there by idiots trying to learn off the internet shows why its a very bad idea. Get a real instructor. Theres no other wayperiodI dont care what anyone tells you. Theres no other way.
3. Look around for a bassmusic stores, pawnshops, classifieds. Try not to buy off the internet but look anyway, you may find something that catches your attention. Preferably, it will be a place close enough to you that you can make a trip there.
4. A decent bass will cost. You cant get a good one for $600the internet is full of those. Youre talking nothing less than $1,800 for an entry-level bass but most likely you will shell out between $2,000 and $3,000 if youre buying retail and may find a decent cheaper one by buying directly from someone in classifieds but dont buy anything right awayjust look. Right now, you just want to see whats available.
5. Do not buy a 4/4 or 7/8 bass. You dont need one. Go with a 3/4 or even smaller if youre a short person.
6. Make sure there is a good instructor near you. You cant learn this by yourself. He will likely be happy to get another paying student and will give you what information he can. Just dont go to him and expect him to do everything for youhes a busy guy and has other students and gigs to tend to. So show some initiative and have prospects you want him to look at. He will probably be more willing to help you if you show youre motivated. He may even have one for sale or knows someone who does. Tell him that you have a few prospects but that you would like his input before you buy.
7. Before making a purchase, make sure you have access to a luthier. If you buy a cheaper bass, the set-up is almost always bad. That doesnt mean the bass is bad but to get any real use out of that bass, youll need a luthier to set it up properly. Believe me, it makes all the difference. The best scenario is to be referred to a luthier through your instructorsomeone you can trust. When I needed my bass set-up changed, my instructor called his luthier who came over and fixed the bridge so that the adjuster wheels werent so tight and he also moved the soundpost. The bass went from mediocre to pretty damned good in the amount of time it took him to make the adjustments. The great thing was that it was done in less than half an hour. He didnt even ask for money but I paid him generously because without him, I would have had to take the bass somewhere and leave it there. Then theyd either have to pay a luthier to come over and fix the bass or theyd have to send it out. That would take at least a month and who knows what the quality of the work would have been and what it would have cost me? A lot more than I paid this guy, Ill tell you that much. Its really impractical to get your bass worked on that way so find a luthier who can do the work quickly. If he does do it quickly then make it worth his while. He can also re-string your bows which is a lot nicer than having to send them out to someone.
8. If you are in contact with a luthier before you even start looking for a bass, he can make one for you. Will it cost? Hell, yes, it will. This is not a cheap hobby. You have to be serious about this instrument from the git-go because it is expensive. The nice thing is, the set-up will be perfect and it will have a good set of strings on it with a Yamahiko pickup already installed and all that but that does get pricey. If youre not serious, save yourself a boatload of trouble and find another hobby.
9. If you insist on getting something cheaper (and if youre a newcomer to the bass, you probably should), again, do not buy anything until your instructor or luthier takes a look at it or you have at least been shown what to look for. Certain things can tip you off. For instance, the type of finish. Once at an ensemble recital, one of the participants brought a bass with a sunburst finish. As soon as I saw it, I figured it had to sound like crap. Who puts a sunburst finish on a bass?? Of course, you can put any finish you want on a bass and it wont much affect the quality but WHO PUTS A SUNBURST FINISH ON A BASS?? About halfway through, my instructor (who put the ensemble together) told the guy to put the bass away and use one of the spares he had. I cant stand the sound of that thing, he told him. And I agreed. But then I never would have bought it no matter how affordable it might have been. Nobody puts a sunburst finish on a bass. Things like that should tip your off.
10. In my case, I lucked out. I didnt do any of the things I wrote above because I had no idea what I was doing. I bought a fairly cheap bass with a crappy set-up. The place I bought it from had an instructor who taught bass so I signed up. He turned out not to be so good but, after three lessons, he left the place and they fixed me up with a superb teacher. After a while, I started taking private lessons from him at his house because it was a lot more conducive to learning. He has two beautiful custom-made basses and got me in touch with his luthier who came by and fixed my set-up as I stated earlier. It turned out to be a decent bass once the set-up was fixed. I got REALLY lucky with that one. Another of my teachers students bought a $1500 bass that the luthier looked at and wouldnt even work on. He told the guy to sell it and get a new one. My bass was over $2500 and was simply a better bassit just needed to be set up. I did not know that when I bought it. I could have bought a piece of junk like this guy did so I lucked out. I want to keep new prospective students from making the same mistakes I did because you cant count on lucking out. Ive already read posts here of people who got ripped off and now are out a couple of grand and cant afford to buy another bass and have been forced to put their bass-playing aspirations on the back burner.
11. Another reason to avoid excessively cheap basses is resale value. If you decide to upgrade and sell your current bass, you want to get something for it. A $600 bass has no resale value unless you can stifle the prickings of conscience and palm it off to some unsuspecting rube on Craigslist. Or you might want to keep your current as a backup. If you have to put your main bass in the shop for whatever reason, what do you play in the meantime? So buying a decent bass now means you will always have a decent bass when you need one. Imagine your $6000 bass in the shop and youre forced to use your $600 piece of crap until you get your other one back. Actually, you dont want to imagine that.
12. So what if you dont have $2000+ to spend on a bass? Well, as I said, you could get lucky and find someone trying to unload a good one for cheap but, frankly, if you dont have the money to afford a decent bass, you should try another instrument. Im not trying to be snobby, Im trying to save you unnecessary heartaches. You cant cut corners and expect to beat everyone else to the punch. You have to get a bass the old fashioned way: You earn it. This is aside from paying for accessories as a bow, a pickup, an amp, lessons. Not to mention having proper transportation capabilities. Its an expensive undertaking. If you are not prepared to shoulder the costs, you are not prepared to study the bass. There are no shortcuts.
13. If you cant find an instructor, what should you do? I would put it off until I find an instructor. Unless you are extraordinarily talentedDragonetti IIthere is no way that you are going to go anywhere trying to teach yourself. A lot of people have but they are very limited at what they can do. The exception was Scott LaFaro and even he was a highly trained clarinetist before he took up the bass. I would say it is more important to find an instructor before finding a luthier although a luthier should be able to recommend an instructor for you just as an instructor should be able to recommend a luthier. I cant believe a highly skilled bass teacher doesnt have a luthier to work on his basses. There really is no other way to get work done on a bass. You see how hard it is to even find a store that sells them so just forget about finding one with an on-site bass luthier. You dont want the stores guitar tech doing the set-up for you.
