Help! Bass Guitar for Begginer

[Mr.Gregory]

Greetings!

With a 300€ budget, i would like to get some help concerning my idea to start playing bass.

My willing is to play essencialy at home doing reggae covers.

At the moment i saw already good reviews for the following two options:
- Squier Affinity Jazz pack (295€) wich includes: Affinity Jazz Bass®, Gig Bag, Rumble 15 Bass Amplifier, Tuner, Strap, Cable, Stereo

- Ibañez GSR 180 with a VOX pathfinder bass amp. 10W

Looking forward to hear from you

Bless

João A.

[abey]

http://www.roots-archives.com/forum/rea ... 793,page=1

recent topic about this.

bless

[Klaus5]

That thread is more about practicing bass inna reggae style rather than advice on buying a bass

Personally i would go for the squier jazz bass, as that is essentially just a cheaper version of the fender jazz bass, as far as i know. I really dont know what the difference is between the squier and the "official" fender jazz bass. But ghetto-quality instruments should be fine for ghetto music! I have a cheap Encore (non-bass) guitar, which is a cheap copy of a fender stratocaster, had it for many years, learnt to play on it, still love it. Its all about the playing, the instrument dosnt matter that much, just think that the better you are on a shit instrument, the better you will be on a quality instrument.

I read on here (or maybe interruptors dub forum) that you should invest in a good amp, take a look through the free-ads for a cheaper deal than buying new, rather than get a practice amp. If you are only playing at home, it might even be cheaper/better to get amp modelling software (eg Guitar Rig) and just plug your guitar into your computer. I will try to find the topic and post a link here if i do.

By the way, what does it mean by stereo? electric bass is a mono instrument

If you dont get that particular package and need a tuner, check out AP Tuner (free) here: http://www.aptuner.com/cgi-bin/aptuner/apmain.html (plug your bass straight into the computer, i use a 3.5mm-3.5mm jack lead and a 3.5 to 6.3mm adapter thing, you can go from amp to comp but will probably need some kind of ground loop isolator thingy or it will hummmmm madly)

[abey]

Yes, my mistake...

I dont know so much about those equipments, but I dont relate an ibanez bass to reggae sound.

[nickfa]

Not sure what bass to recomend, you need to try a few, im a lefty so its even harder to find the perfect bass i love my fender 75 jazz bass and sounds nice with roto sound tru bass strings.i do have small hands so i got myself a rare japanese made medium scale squire bass which is perfect. anyway i would recomend these books they helped me
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bass-Builders-R ... 958&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reggae-Grooves- ... 958&sr=1-3

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bass-Guitar-Dum ... 173&sr=1-2.
hope i have been some use.
nick

[babylon_outlaw]

Hi there, thought i'd jump in here and say that for reggae the choice of amp might be more important than the bass. I'm playing through a Roland 30 watt practice amp and for deep low end it just doesn't cut it (especially when jamming with other people)!

For this reason I'd advise going for something with a bit more power than a 10 watt amp if you can. In the long run it might save money if you want to upgrade in the future.

peace

[Mr.Gregory]

Thank you all for your kind replies and for your help!

They are beeing very useful!

Bless from Portugal

João A.

[slappy 2]

yeah a 10 watt amp for reggae wont do...you absolutely need some serious speakers to do it justice..i use an ampeg 6 by 12, roll the treble off and go through an electro harmonix bass booster..you can feel that shit in your loins!

[Mr.Gregory]

Jah help me deciding this!

I don´t have that much money to spend... but at same time i start wondering the bass sound flowing from a good amp and i get crazy.... but this amps are expensive... with 300-350€ i only can buy or a reasonable bass or a good amp...

Do you think you can´t get pleasure in the beggining, while you´r learning, playing a Fender Squier standard Jazz bass (240€) and a Vox pathfinder 10W that costs around 78€?

[nickfa]

Why not check out ebay you can get a lot of good bass,s for under 100 i sold 2 on their recently,you can normaly pick up a squier p/j bass for about £50 - 80 and the p/j bass is a pretty good bet as it has both pickups.
another bass worth looking at for reggae are the various hofner violin bass copies they are short scale but very bass and sound great with a decent set of flats on.
Nick