Learning Guitar, but fancy learning the bass too...

nope, there's a bit of similarity between the two, and the knowledge of one instrument will help with the knowledge of the other.

I agree with Taso.
A four stringed bass has the same tuning as the 4 thick strings on a guitar.
This means that the theories of scales on guitars also applies to a bass.

The main differens is how the bass is used in a band live situation.
The bass shall control /drive the rythm/timing (together with the drummer)and chords(together with other rythm instruments) , but a lead guitar can follow.

Kalle

interesting.

I was advised not to learn the bass while learning guitar, but it really is something i want to do - more versatility for me, and ive been really fond of the bass noise itself, where i never used to be!

Another couple of plus points for learning bass;

The longer scale length and bigger frets will improve your stretch, and it'll also build your hand strength up. Although if I remember rightly, Mike, don't you have fairly short, stubby fingers? If that's the case, you might be advised to look for a short-scale bass. Good luck, anyway!

:D :D :D

Vic

Another couple of plus points for learning bass;

The longer scale length and bigger frets will improve your stretch, and it'll also build your hand strength up. Although if I remember rightly, Mike, don't you have fairly short, stubby fingers? If that's the case, you might be advised to look for a short-scale bass. Good luck, anyway!

:D :D :D

Vic

I thought short scale ones sounded a bit rubbish?

I thought short scale ones sounded a bit rubbish?
You've never played a good one then. Birdsong and Rob Allen make incredible shorties if you've got big money to spend, right on down through the very usable Fender Mustang (with the right strings) or even the low-budget SX short-scale jazz bass (with some mods.) There's Landing, too, and Waterstone is getting some good reviews. Short-scale hollow/semi-hollow designs like the two new Ibanez Artcore basses could be promising too. Then there's the pink Johnson ...

I thought short scale ones sounded a bit rubbish?
You've never played a good one then. Birdsong and Rob Allen make incredible shorties if you've got big money to spend, right on down through the very usable Fender Mustang (with the right strings) or even the low-budget SX short-scale jazz bass (with some mods.) There's Landing, too, and Waterstone is getting some good reviews. Short-scale hollow/semi-hollow designs like the two new Ibanez Artcore basses could be promising too. Then there's the pink Johnson ...

Ive never played one full stop lol

LOL; you gotta get out and try some! Actually many of them are indeed rubbish, but there's quality to be found. If you have smaller hands, the short-scale necks might be more to your liking.

Here's a vid clip of a gorgeous Rob Allen Mouse, which is about as close to an upright bass tone as you'll get in this type of instrument.
http://bassplayer.tv/index.html?req=1&station=bpgear&video=bptv/gear/bptv_d07_roballen

Mike,
The bass shall control /drive the rythm/timing (together with the drummer)and chords(together with other rythm instruments) , but a lead guitar can follow.

I think that was the most eye opening thing for me when I bought my bass. I found that I started to listen to songs in a different way, focusing more on the rhythm as opposed to the melody. Being more of a rhythm guitarist I think this has helped me in my guitar playing as well.

cheers

Paul

I would recommend that if play your guitar primarily with a pick you should play your bass primarily using 2 finger style playing on the bass, I think there is a lot of advantage to focusing on different techniques even if you are playing the exact same notes. Almost anything you learn on a bass or regular guitar transfers back and forth except a few of the playing techniques but even most of those transfer well. On guitar people tend to focus more on memorizing chord shapes, with bass you have to focus more on knowing the actual notes in a chord, someone playing strictly guitar probably wouldn't pay much attention to that until they were trying to figure out lead guitar where as bass players are going to focus on that very early on. There seems to be a severe shortage of bass players, if you want to play with a band that is one of the quickest ways... The shortest route is probably learn to drum or be a truly good singer... but generally it seems everyone is looking for a good drummer and a lot of times I see the local bands are sharing the same drummer, heck, drummers are in such shortage that you can almost replace drummers with drum kits.... no one is desperate enough for guitar players to make a guitar kit (and any instrument with sustain is going to have far too many variables to emulate decently, especially a stringed instrument).

I've been eyeballing short scale basses because I know someone looking to buy a bass soon but she's short and not getting any taller, so a nice shortscale is in order, I actually found a very nice sounding short scale for about $200 and possibly an added bonus is it's shaped like a butterfly (which she may consider a plus), but the important thing is it sounded pretty good, was short scale, and even fairly inexpensive, by no means is it anywhere near as pretty as the bass in the video above though. Short scales don't mean rubbish, but there doesn't seem to be many in the local shops here, so kind of like left handed guitars the selection is probably slim no matter where you go.

Just wanted to add to this..

A buddy of mine recently purchased a Dean EVO short scale. I was really skeptical at first due to the low price tag, but after thumping around on it a bit, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it at all. If you are looking for a highly playable short scale with good tone and a low price, You'd be hard pressed to find much better.

I will say that the setup was completely screwed out of the box (he purchased online, unseen), but that was easily remedied within a half hour, and he hasn't had an issue with it since.

I think he only paid $160.00 U.S. at musician's friend.

Anyway, good luck with your endeavor (I myself recently started learning guitar to broaden my bass horizons) - And rest easy. Everyone thus far seems to be on the same page... the two definitely benefit from each other, so you won't be hurting yourself a bit!

(that is, until you are fully infected by the bass bug, and decide to drop guitar altogether!) :twisted:

- weedhopper
http://www.weedhopper.org