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So I Bought a Bass

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 Noff
(@noff)
Estimable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 101
Topic starter  

It seemed like all the cool kids were doing it. :) A black MIM Fender Jazz I got from a regular on TalkBass. The plan was to also shop around for a used amp, but I ended up breaking down and buying a little fender 15w from a local store. The store has good prices and staff though, so it's ok.

A friend of mine wants to see the new git-fiddle so I haul the bass and amp over to his place. He never liked my guitars when I showed them to him, but he took a liking to the bass, to say the least. I brought over a couple tabs of some songs that I knew, and before I left he had gone from having zero musical experience, literally never having played any instrument for any amount of time ever; to getting pretty good at Rancid's Journey to the End of the East Bay. The bass is staying the night at his place, and he also informed me that tomorrow afternoon I'm to bring a list of some easy songs and my electric over so we can play. :lol:


   
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 Nuno
(@nuno)
Famed Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 3995
 

Congrats!

And send us pictures! 8)

Enjoy it!


   
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(@xylembassguitar)
Trusted Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 66
 

Noff, you're the first guy other than my dad that also uses the term "git-fiddle." Way to go...

Xylem Handmade Basses and Guitars


   
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 Noff
(@noff)
Estimable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 101
Topic starter  

Noff, you're the first guy other than my dad that also uses the term "git-fiddle." Way to go...

Appreciating arcane nouns such as "git-fiddle" is nothing to be ashamed of.

These are the pics from the seller. It has four brand shiny new strings now and sounds and plays pretty good. It's actually a lot lighter than my electric guitar, log-of-mahogany hagstrom swede. It's also my first single coil guitar, and at first I had a pretty terrible hum problem at times. Most of the time it was fine, but then once in awhile it would just suddenly become unbearably noisy. As it turns out, my housemate has a pair of those fluorescent energy saving bulbs in a socket controlled by a dimmer switch, and if those don't get full power from the dimmer switch they make an audible buzzing sound, the same sound my bass picks up and spits out of the amp...

Thoughts on playing so far: I can throw together decent sounding chord progressions or little scale based riffs on a guitar, but I really have no idea yet how to come up with a decent bass line from a chord progression. Finger plucking with any speed will need some work. Finally, I didn't realize how much string muting I would need to do, but I guess that makes sense because the strings have so much mass, they're going to take more muting to get them stopped after you play a note on them.

Very fun though and different enough from guitar to be interesting on its own.


   
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(@mercury187)
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Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 38
 

Do a lot of people obtain a bass after playing guitar? I'm just starting regular electric but I'm also interested in bass guitar too, wondering how many people go for both and how easy it is to go to bass..


   
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(@jwmartin)
Noble Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 1435
 

Do a lot of people obtain a bass after playing guitar? I'm just starting regular electric but I'm also interested in bass guitar too, wondering how many people go for both and how easy it is to go to bass..

mercury,

I played guitar 3-4 years and recently picked up bass. I wouldn't say it is easy, but it is easier compared to learning from scratch. The easier comes from already knowing the notes on the fretboard, not struggling so much w/ fretting (although it is a little different) and already having a sense of timing and musical structure. But, you still have to learn to think as a bass player, not a guitarist.

I had learned a lot about timing and music theory learning the guitar, but I've learned a lot more just in the few months I've been playing bass. With guitar, I rarely counted the beats; I played more by feel and just knowing the strum or riff. With bass, I've really been paying attention to the beats and counting.

Bass player for Undercover


   
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(@guitar_guy)
Eminent Member
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 32
 

That's a good point, that you have to approach it as a bass player, not a guitarist. It's not easy to do. I don't play bass often but when I do, I'm definitely "playing guitar" with a bass, if you know what I mean... especially since I need my pick... :lol:

http://www.jammingbudz.com/jamming-space/GuitarGuy


   
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(@jwmartin)
Noble Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 1435
 

That's a good point, that you have to approach it as a bass player, not a guitarist. It's not easy to do. I don't play bass often but when I do, I'm definitely "playing guitar" with a bass, if you know what I mean... especially since I need my pick... :lol:

I know exactly what you mean. I decided going in that I wasn't going to use a pick, at least until I found something that needed to be played with a pick. It was tough, especially since I never play fingerstyle guitar. Right now, I only use my index and middle finger, with a very rare appearance from my ring finger. I try to make myself alternate fingers on every pluck, even if it could easily be played with one finger.

Bass player for Undercover


   
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(@minotaur)
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Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 1089
 

Do a lot of people obtain a bass after playing guitar? I'm just starting regular electric but I'm also interested in bass guitar too, wondering how many people go for both and how easy it is to go to bass..

mercury,

I played guitar 3-4 years and recently picked up bass. I wouldn't say it is easy, but it is easier compared to learning from scratch. The easier comes from already knowing the notes on the fretboard, not struggling so much w/ fretting (although it is a little different) and already having a sense of timing and musical structure. But, you still have to learn to think as a bass player, not a guitarist.

I had learned a lot about timing and music theory learning the guitar, but I've learned a lot more just in the few months I've been playing bass. With guitar, I rarely counted the beats; I played more by feel and just knowing the strum or riff. With bass, I've really been paying attention to the beats and counting.

Once I become fairly proficient and comfortable playing guitar, I'd like to pick up bass. I would love to have an electric and an acoustic bass. I read somewhere that bass is easy to learn but hard to master.

It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.


   
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(@k5koy)
Trusted Member
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 45
 

Do a lot of people obtain a bass after playing guitar? I'm just starting regular electric but I'm also interested in bass guitar too, wondering how many people go for both and how easy it is to go to bass..

I went just the opposite. A friend of mine plays guitar very well for a self taught guy, and has played for many years. He talked me into getting a bass so we could jam. So I been thumping around on bass a while now. But as others have mentioned, its way different than playing guitar. My friend plays my bass like a guitar, and cant sem to break that. Im glad I actually started on bass, I am currently learning guitar. I think it may be much easier for a bass player to learn guitar than the other way around.

Koy Carson
West Texas

**60th Anniversary American Strat
**Carvin AC175 Thinline Acoustic
**Ibanez EW20ZW Electric/Acoustic
**Arbor AJ145CR Jazz
**Fender Marcus Miller 5 String Bass
**Fender Geddy Lee Signature Bass
**Warwick Corvette 4 string Bass (Currently getting neck transplant)
**Tradition Fretless Bass
**Takamine Hollow body Bass

http://www.myspace.com/k5koy


The "PickPocket" The ORIGINAL Guitar Accessory
http://www.waxpatterns.com/customguitarpick.htm


   
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(@lazysinger)
Eminent Member
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 18
 

I started on guitar, and then moved onto bass because it was 2 less strings to deal with :lol: OK no really, we needed a bass player for the band. But I am happy I moved, I was never that good of a guitar player to being with.


   
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(@mahal)
Estimable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 107
 

I played guitar and was asked to fill the low end at church. I found that playing bass freed me from thinking chord shapes and moved me towards thinking about individual notes thus was the thing that taught me the fretboard.


   
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