Upgrade?

[Kareir]

Hey All,
(My first post, woo )
Anyway, I've been playing bass for about 2 years..
I play mostly rock, alternative, that kinda thing, but i want to get better at slap, just cos it sounds/looks good mostly.
I'm still using the first set of gear i got, though. I've got a Cort Action bass and some really bad amp.. it has "volcano" on the front confused
So i think it's probably time to upgrade.. the amp definitely.

But the bass.. well, i've tried several basses over the 2 years, and more recently about 8 looking for a new one, but none of them seem as nice to play as my Cort.. is that strange? I even tried the Cort Artisan A4, one of the better Corts.. wasnt as nice. I mean, i want to upgrade, as i think the sound could be better, and i dont like the way the pickups are set up (no Master vol. etc, and the tuning knobs keep loosening loads), but i cant find one as nice to play.. is this just the fact i've used my bass more, or have i not found the right one?
My Budget is about 1000 euro for a new bass.. and possibly up to 400 for an amp.. so if you could throw out some suggestions, that'd be awesome..

Cheers,
_Kar.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

Keep the bass, upgrade the amp. A bad amp will always make a good bass sound bad; A good amp will at least let the bass sound like it is supposed to.

When you buy it, buy USED!

 

[cdawzrd]

Instead of spending e400 on an amp, maybe spend 600-700 (in the used market, even), so then you have a great amp and you won't need to upgrade for a while.

As for the bass, if you like what you have, you like what you have. You can probably upgrade the tuning machines and the pickups/preamp to better suit you, if you just can't find anything that feels better to play than your Cort.

 

[fourstringbliss]

Definitely the amp. I have a very nice USA made Peavey bass and a really nice Yorkville 400w 210 combo. The two sound good together but it's not my sound. I played through a Markbass 112 combo a week ago and WOW! What a difference! It sounded like I imagine bass sounding in my head. I'm going to sell my amp and buy one of those, pronto!

 

[Kareir]

Thing is, the bass is fairly beginnerish.
I mean, it's great to play, but the sound is.. meh.
I've played it through many amps, and the bass sounds.. well.. alright.. but not great, so i kinda want to upgrade..
Any suggestions? i was even considering buying a new body, pickups etc, and keeping the neck, but then i realised that
1)the next would be the same quality,
2)i'm not that handy
3)it's a lot of effort.

Are there any basses you could suggest?
Tried several.. tune wasnt great...
Fender P bass was alright
Cort Aristan was ok..

I'm kinda looking for something that feels as good to play.. there must be one.. i played a custom fretless one of my friends guitar teachers had, about a year ago, and it felt.. really good, so there must be one out there..

_KAr.

PS: Not looking for a fretless, too hard to play runs, for me anyway. I'm planning on getting one when my musical ear is good enough that i can recognise notes by pitch, etc.. which'll be a while.

 

[cdawzrd]

Go to the biggest guitar store you can easily get to, and play lots of stuff! (or go to several small mom'n'pop stores). Try several Ibanez basses, try a Lakland, try some Jazz Bass clones, etc...

 

[Kareir]

what about amps? any ideas?

_Kar.

 

[Tooned]

If you're set on a different bass, you don't need to spend that much. You should be able to get a very good used bass for a lot less than 1000 euros.
Spend more on your amplifier. As for suggestions on that, check the amps section here on TB. However I just got a Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 and I like it FYI.