best bass for a beginner

[M. Cabrera]

Hello all,

Just a quick question... I am considering taking up bass playing and eventually start playing for our worship team at my church. Can anyone please tell me which kind of bass I should purchase to start out on and also one that I could keep for a number of years. I recently saw a Washburn XB120 at wwbw.com for $149.00 is that bass cheap or not ? also I forgot to ask... how about amps... I was always told that Ampeg was the bass amp to go with...

 

Thanks in advance for all the expert advice !

 

Have a Safe and Happy New Year everyone !

[PhilMan99]

As a beginner, you won't be able to take the best advice here and find something that "sounds good" to you (generally speaking), although you might be able to tell if it feels good.

 

$150 won't get you a decent bass (new). The safe bet would be Fender Precision or Jazz ($400-range if you go without battery-driven electronics), since to most people, that is "what bass should sound like". For worship, I'd suggest a Jazz since it has a smoother sound.

[jeremy c]

Welcome to the forum.

 

Your question gets asked at least once a month, so don't take it personally if you get mildly flamed.

 

There is no such thing as "the best bass" for a beginner or an advanced bass player for that matter.

 

There are many, many choices available. There are also many choices available for amps.

 

My advice to beginners is always to buy the first bass you see that you can afford. Start playing and stop obsessing over it. You can get a better bass later.

 

As far as amps, you see Ampeg amps on concert stages worldwide. That doesn't mean that it would be right for a church. All you need is a 100 watt combo amp. And there is another current thread in which someone is asking about (relatively) inexpensive amps.

 

Good luck!

[bass..player..dave]

i think u should get a yamaha rbx 170 or 270 they sound gd and wont break the bank

[bottle12am]

Yamahas and Ibanez have good reps, if you're going on the cheap.

 

I have a cousin with an OLP Stingray copy -- about $250 at Musician's Friend -- that plays a lot better than it's price tag.

 

(You can toss in a $200 Seymour Duncan pickup in it a bit later and have a monster bass for extremely cheap).

 

A MIM Fender might be okay ($400 or so) but try one out at a brick-and-mortar store, rather than ordering blindly thru mail-order, as the quality control on these instruments can vary wildly.

 

For amps, yes Ampeg is the Holy Grail, but the price tag is out of the budget for many -- $1300 for their SVT tube head, another $500 to $1000 for a cabinet.

 

If all you need is a decent practice amp (esp' if it can be mic'd at church), the Fender Rumble series has really impressed me. I recently played through one and the tone blew me away, considering the price.

 

For about $700, you can have the SWR Workingman's combo, which will give you loads of headroom and a sound many players prefer. While the tone is not my cup of tea, a lot of experienced players swear by them, and you won't have to worry about wanting more firepower in a few months.

 

Stay away from the GK Backline. Although GK is almost as legendary as Ampeg in the bass world, the Backline series is not indicative of the rest of their product line.

 

Hope this helps.

[Dave Brown]

I agree with Jeremy, buy the best bass you can afford. These days, your choices are much better than when I was young and lookin' for my first bass.

 

Make sure you get a bass with a nice adjustable action. The Washburn probably does, but you might need to find a bass literate friend to actually look at the bass.

 

I would spend proportionately more money on the bass than on the amp. You could learn, if you wanted, with a headphone amp, but I don't recommend that. Bass is a social instrument and you'll want to play with others.

 

For that, a small amp would serve well. I am a fan of the Fender Bassman 25, but they've discontinued it. I am also (in spite of what bottle12am says) a fan of the GK Backline. It is not a power packed performance amp, but it does a good job of living room playing, has a good tone and behaves well.

 

I would also recommend finding a good teacher. You'll chase fewer rabbits down holes that way.

[SteveC]

Originally posted by bottle12am:

For amps, yes Ampeg is the Holy Grail

Not to hijack the topic, but I played through an Ampeg SVT/8X10 and hated it.

 

I have 2 Yamaha basses and love them. Just as nice as any bass I've had for 3-4 times as much.

[g.]

Yamaha sux : }}}}}

[bottle12am]

Originally posted by SteveC:

Originally posted by bottle12am:

For amps, yes Ampeg is the Holy Grail

Not to hijack the topic, but I played through an Ampeg SVT/8X10 and hated it.

Steve--

 

Not to say Ampeg is everyone's cup of tea; just that , like Fender basses, everything usually goes through the standard-bearing filter:: "Does it sound better/worse than the Ampeg? Is it lighter/ heaver? Cost more/ less? Does it have more/fewer tubes? Does it sound modern or does it have that classic Ampeg sound? etc"

 

Just like every bass is "does it get the p (or j) tone?" "Is it better/ worse than?" etc.

[Fred TBP]

Originally posted by bottle12am:

For about $700, you can have the SWR Workingman's combo, which will give you loads of headroom and a sound many players prefer. While the tone is not my cup of tea, a lot of experienced players swear by them, and you won't have to worry about wanting more firepower in a few months.

More like a few years. I've used mine everywhere from practice rooms to a large stage in a National Guard Armory last summer (an enclosed arena the size of a football field where they usually park an assortment of militry vehicles) and have only taken it to the shop twice in 11 years to have the input jacks replaced. I paid $500 for the first one (used) and $400 for the backup (store demo) which I have used about 4 times. That's how good the Workingman's 15 is.

The WM10 is too small for serious work (although let me quantify that by noting I saw an URB slap player in a rockabilly trio use one and it sounded great!) and the WM12 may/may not work depending if you can run the output into a church PA system. Too much power onstage can interfere with the overall sound mix from the other instruments, unless the soundperson is experienced enough to deal with that.

 

All I know about the SWR LA series is that a friend bought an LA15 model for his son about a year ago and the boy has played quite a few gigs with it in his H.S. nu-age band. Dad is a bass player as well and is careful how he spends his money.

 

I could write a book on my experiences with amps in the past 35 years, but I just wanted to focus on the SWRs as I find them worth the recommendation another working bassist gave to me back then, which I gladly honor by passing it on here to you all.

 

I don't have anything to recommend on basses because a few of my colleagues here have given you the best advice already. Go with it and get happy!

[kenfxj]

Originally posted by bottle12am:

I have a cousin with an OLP Stingray copy -- about $250 at Musician's Friend -- that plays a lot better than it's price tag.

 

(You can toss in a $200 Seymour Duncan pickup in it a bit later and have a monster bass for extremely cheap).

 

Yep. Lookee here. I had one of these. A good sounding, well constructed, nice looking bass for under $250 new. That's a lot of bang for your buck.

[jeremy c]

As I expected, there are tons of suggestions here.

 

In my many years of teaching, I have seen hundreds of beginners come in with a variety of basses. Every single one of them was a playable bass which would do the job. Some of them were better than others.

 

I started on a very crummy bass which by today's standards would be considered unplayable and totally inadequate. One day I decided I would learn how to play bass and I walked into a music store and bought the only bass in the store I could afford. A year later I was playing in a band. Soon after that, I traded the bass in and got a better one. Five years later I got my first good bass.

 

The most important thing is to get a bass now while the enthusiasm is there. Don't get bogged down in research. Every one will have a good suggestion and that will only raise more questions.

 

Follow your dream.

[g.]

Yep. It's not like practically any bass other than maybe one from Target or Walmart won't play better than what used to be the norm. They are all made on CNC machines that work to higher accuracy than was possible before, and if you get lucky you'll get the wood that got left out of that expensive Fender that got the bad stuff ; }