Ok, i've been playing for about 4 months now, and i practice about an hour everyday. I have a few questions here, and my first one is do any of you crack your knuckles? I do it all the time, to a horrible extent too, and when i'm fretting either hard or fast my fingers really start to hurt. However, if i stop cracking my knuckles (for like a week) my right hand gets alot slower, and generally i can't keep up with myself the prior week. Any suggestions on what to do there?

My second question is about gear. Right now all i got is a Digitech BP200 procesor, basically a pre-amp for later use and a practice amp (with headphones) as of now. Later this summer im looking to get an actually amp, but my friend (guitarist for 3 years) pointed out that i can get something like a 400 watt speaker cab thing (300 watt 15'' speaker, 100 watt high end horn or something close to that) and said i can use my procesor plus the speaker to create a very good low/mid-level system. Would that actually work, or would i be better off with something else?

Also, any advice on playing material? Right now i'm doing alot of old-school Metallica (mater of puppets, orion, blackened) and a little newer stuff like SOAD, and a bunch of various songs from various artists.

I don't think that cracking your knuckles will have much of an adverse effect on your playing. If your hands seem slow (as mine do from time to time), I just pull out my book of dexterity exercises. Better than that, you could just practice your scales with a metromone.

If you have a preamp that you like, then all you need is a power amp and a speaker cab. It doesn't necessarially need to be a bass-amp; just a PA power amp will work just fine. Keep the processor if you like it, if not, scrap it when you can afford to and buy a better one. I play through a ART Nightbass into a GK800RB into a SWR 4X10. This is pretty similar to what you want to do, and it sounds excellent.

Remember not to confine yourself to old school metallica and such. I cut my bass teeth on that but couldn't get really good until I looked beyond metallica. I still love to pull out Fade to Black or Bells onstage though...

Just remember, you are an athelete. Instead of using big leg and arm muscles, you are using little tiny muscles and great long tendons and etc.

Everything an athlete does before a sporting event, you must do. That means
---stretching (gently hold fingers and arm muscles in a slight stretching motion at least 30 seconds before you play--no bouncing up and down)

---warmup (little scale and arpeggiated exercises at a slow tempo, gradually speeding up

---practice (don't overdo any one specific motion)

---cool down and stretching.

Treat your body like that and you'll play pain free for many years.

Also: AVOID the bent wrist. Number one problem in using fingers is bending wrist. Keep them straight.

You seem to be suggesting plugging a preamp directly into a speaker cab - this won't work (you need a power amp in between the two).

As I understand it, cracking knuckles releases pockets of air that have built up between your joints - apparently it is good to get rid of them.