Hi, I've been playing bass for over 30 years and owned just three basses in that time. My current bass, a Dean Edge Q4-Bartolini I've been using for over 20 years and I love it, but a tuning peg broke recently (I fixed it) but it got me thinking I could do with a back up bass in case of emergency.

I'm not after anything fancy, and spotted an Ibanez I liked the look of but it's short scale.

So basically, is this just a smaller bass? I know this is a really stupid question, but I know nothing about music theory, scales, anything like that, I'm just self taught, probably have a ton of bad habits, but I can play well and it's fine for my band. Does a short scale bass play an octave higher because of the shorter strings, or is a bottom E basically the same pitch as a bottom E on a full scale bass?

Anyone had much experience switching between short and long scale? Any issues?

Thanks :)

How would you recommend I learn and practice those as a big beginner? I really enjoy math rock, but I sure as HELL am not ready to play it. Nope. Jokes on me, I can barely play songs like Grace by Jeff Buckley because my tempo management is a mess. I play with a metronome but I don't really know what I'm doing. I think it's a focus issue. Any tips appreciated:)

Hey I have a squire 2000 pbass special, it has independent volume knobs, I've always just left them both up, how do I actually use these competently?

The size and mass of the knobs makes them really easy to bump and move so I'm anxious about getting them to sit and stay still

Also if I turn up my tone knob at all i get nasty buzz, that means it's not grounded right? Which means I need to pull it apart and..?

Unable to reliably find a bridge that I could throw onto my bass that would accommodate a .145 thick B String. My Sweetwater rep wasn’t super sure either.

Thinking I’ll have to file my current bridge saddle down, but before I do that, wanted to see what you all experts knew.

Yesterday I played for the first time with other people without previously knowing any songs - I already played for my music school show but in this case we chose the songs before (Where's my mind? by Pixies, Lonely day by SOAD, Come together by Oasis).

So it was the first time I find myself impro and it was HARD. I played with a 20 years experienced drummer and guitarist, they were very kind and follow me through the process - the guitarist was saying the chords and I tried to follow him. Finally we managed to do our song in a Ramones style.

The problem is that I need to have everything written down in order to fully undestand what should I do. I have a sort of visual memory and I find extremely difficult to remember stuff I don't see. So I wrote the chords and all the repetitions.

It was fun but I wonder if I will ever be able to use more my ear and not my eyes :(

Any suggest to how to improve this aspect?

Thankkkkks

Was watching a video yesterday and a guy mentioned his low string tuning machine had a D-tuner on it where he flipped a wee lever and the string dropped down.

While having a wee gander at tuning machines for basses I came across the hipshot BT-7 D-tuner and now I'm extra curious.

How do these things actually work? Does it reliably drop a string two semitones down from E to D? Or does it just get the string in the rough ballpark then you need to fine tune it?

Do you have one? How do you find it?

Personally I don't imagine I'd ever get one of these, tuning down to D by ear is easy for me and with a tu-2 pedal going up and down is kinda trivial, I'm mostly just curious if these tuners actually do what they say on the tin with any real accuracy or if its just an expensive add on gimmick.

Ta in advance

Looking at buying a used bass to start out with. Will be either a squire or fender p-bass.

I don’t know how to play yet so plugging in and playing isn’t an option (for me).

What should I be looking for other than obvious damage etc. should I plug it into an amp if available, if so what should I look for in that?

What about rosewood vs maple fret boards? Pros/cons/just cosmetic?

Any other tips/advice would be greatly appreciated.

J-

compared to the amount of budget options guitars have, it seems like basses barely have any. could or have to do with the gap between mini travel amps and 25w ones? like, guitars have 10w amps but it looks like basses don’t. is it because 10w isn’t enough for a bass? because i know you can’t use a guitar amp on a bass for a similar reason.

(for a first setup btw)

I've never seen anybody mention something like this before. It feels like (just like my hands) my timing is worse when I first pick it up for the day and it starts to feel good later on in my session. It's weird.

If I hit the metronome / drum track right away I feel so off sometimes lol. Hopefully I'm not just tweaking

Recentemente ho acquistato un Valeton GP-100 e lo sto usando con il mio basso. Sto cercando di ottenere toni simili a quelli di Chris Wolstenholme dei Muse (in brani come "Hysteria," "City of Delusion," e "Panic Station"). In particolare, mi piacerebbe avere un suono simile a quello di un Big Muff. Non sono ancora riuscito a trovare impostazioni che mi soddisfino. Potresti aiutarmi?

Beginner here - I recently bought the Ibanez TMB30 and honestly, I love it. Learning how to play some of my favourite songs has been a dream come true. I've been looking into getting a spare set of strings for it, and kind of hit a brick wall.

I really have no idea what to get. Apparently the 30" scale is a weird one to string correctly, even with short scale strings. GHS seem to be the most recommended, but I'm in the UK and can't find the right ones here. I'm looking for roundwound. Amazon suggest Ernie Ball short scale 45-100s, but then say that there might be a mismatch in size so proceed with caution. D'Addario has also been suggested but there have been comments about it not tapering correctly at the tuner end. I'm new to all of this so just want something designed for this scale that fit correctly.

Strings aren't cheap! And obviously I want to make sure I'm getting the right ones, so any help greatly appreciated. Thanks!

For context here, I played exceptionally average guitar for many years until too many Steely Dan chords combined with the perils of aging combined to give me a whopping case of wrist and elbow tendinitis. I still love music and miss being able to play, so I was thinking of giving the bass a try (and yes, I do understand that role of a bass and the role of the guitar are vastly different and need to be approached that way).

I was trying out a few basses at a local music store (which only has a very limited selection), and I quickly realized that the medium scale on the Squier Affinity Jaguar was working a lot better for me ergonomically than the full-length P and J basses they had. However, although I loved the shorter scale length and the feel of the neck, I wasn't particularly digging the tone (but I could learn to live with that), and--most importantly--the neck dive that I've seen in almost every Affinity Jaguar review really was incredibly obnoxious.

So, here's the question. Are there other medium or short-scale basses that people would recommend for a beginner (I'm not looking to spend a large amount of money until I see if my arm will cooperate) that are good ergonomically and don't have a tremendous neck dive? I don't want to make a 60-mile one-way trip to GC to find "well, they all do that". For playing style, it would be simple "guy in the background smiling politely and serving the song"; I'm not interested in slap and I don't have an interest in playing down-tuned metal.

I'm not a traditional professional that needs to use sheet music at all, nor do I play classical or with wedding bands. I just play in a band, write, practice, and play shows.

I'm wondering the benefits of knowing it just to know it on bass? I've been playing for around 7 years and haven't read sheet music since woodwinds in high school

I loved my Acoustic B200 head. I liked to run it as the "clean" amp to compliment two other Peaveys running dirty mid/high end and dirty mid/low end. But I'd run the Acoustic with all knobs at 12:00 except: gain max, 350hz 3:00, 800hz 3:00, 5k off. It gave the bass a good chunk kinda like a Rickenbacker or a little like the Berry Oakley "Tractor Bass" sound. It was the glue that held together the dirty amps. However, that head just isn't built to be run that hard. Its gotta have enough power to push two Peavey 3620 cabs and retain the kind of sound I'm looking for. What should I replace it with?

Just to be clear, I'm not looking for "headroom" clean, I'm looking for "start the volume at 11 and back off until it stops sounding like I have a distortion pedal on" clean.

Just what the title says. With the addition of their new shortscale I just skimmed thought the jazz basses and they look gorgeus!

I will like to know the opinions of someone that has one/has tried one.

I recently got a brand new svt810e and gk legacy 800 and I’ve been using it with my sansamp vt bass di preamp. I decided to crank the amp once and I smelled a very faint burning smell that went away quickly. Whenever I play the amp at a relatively loud volume the amp gets hot, almost to the point where it becomes uncomfortable to touch. Even when I cranked it it doesn’t even seem that loud compared to my fender rumble 500. Something about it seems wrong. Am I missing something?

Come fare?

For background, I'm a relative beginner on Bass. Been playing less than a year. (I do play other instruments and have a developed musical ear, and experience playing)

I started playing on a Samick P type full scale (borrowed) Nice bass too, but not mine.

It felt difficult with the fret spacing to me, so I wanted to try a short scale.

I bought a used Gretsch Streamliner 30" scale, and have been practicing on that.

I quite liked the Gretsch, but to my ear the E string felt somewhat weak.

I had set my mind on buying a Fender Mustang II, so I sold the Gretsch to make space and budget for the Mustang.

I've since had a chat with a buddy who is a seasoned excellent bass player, and he suggested I look into the Jaguar Affinity. At 32", it's still not a full scale, but medium. He played one on a tour, and liked it so much it's his go-to electric. I've been practicing on an electric upright since I sold the Gretsch and am now a little less concerned about scale being 30 inches. The upright being more than 34".

My friend's comments on the Mustang is that he'd prefer separate volume controls to mix the two pickups (vs the toggle switch). He also just likes the Jaguar humbucker. Simple, and uncomplicated controls. He loves the sound, and he loves the scale.

Since I've not yet replaced the Gretsch, I am now considering his advice re: the Jaguar. Obviously the squire fits in a smaller budget, but I could manage the the Mustang $$ if I choose that route.

Please reply with comments re: the choice given these two basses. Thanks

Anyone start playing bass guitar and get the bug to learn upright? If so, how hard was the transition (aside from the significant cost of getting an upright)? Any advice?

..

Tengo un bajo económico sx vtg pero que tiene más de un decada. La madera no se dobló. Puedo mejorarlo de la manera normal ( micrófonos nuevos, electrónica, herrajes, etc)

Pero estaba pensando, que tan posible es mandarlo a un Luthier que le de los beneficios de un bajo de gama alta? Por el hacer que el mástil sea más fino y cómodo, redondear los costados, cambiar trastes de metal, etc.

Si ya se que estás maderas salieron bien y ya se secaron correctamente sin doblarse, podría conseguir los beneficios de un bajo Fender custom hecho a mano? Porque la diferencia de lo que me salió este bajo y un Fender de esos es 10 veces el valor. Y si la mayoría del sonido final no viene de la estructura de madera y si de los micrófonos, cuerdas, etc. El mueble de madera es principalmente para la comodidad. Puedo conseguir una comodidad similar con un Luthier?

I want an inexpensive 5 string around the same price range of 640 or less but I still want similar quality for metal. Any suggestions?