Help picking a first Bass (options)

[benherron.rrr]

I have always used VI's for bass, but now I want to get my self a real bass to help bring the music to life a bit more.

I have been looking at basses for about a month now and have narrowed it down to this:

Squier Vintage Modified FSR 70's Jazz Bass | DV247

and this:

Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Bass Special, 3-Colour Sunburst | DV247


I really love the look of this jag bass but it is about £50 more, could you tell me about the differences (apart from aesthetic) between this and the jag bass above.

Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Bass, Rosewood, Black | DV247

I tried out these (among others) yesterday at a shop in my neck of the woods. I really loved the the feel of the jazz bass. I have never really touched a bass before, but it made me want to keep going all day, but I found the tone a bit . . . lacking. I loved the tone of the jag bass, I loved that the PJ set up gave me so many tonal options and I was feeling the sound alot more, but the playability left me kinda uninterested. It's really going to be a studio instrument primarily. but could really use some help deciding

 

[buzzard bass]

Do an Ebay search for a used Rockbass Corvette standard. They're the Asian line by Warwick. I got my Vette STD for 260 US dollars, in perfect condition. It will bury ANY non-US made Fender. Twin J's, like the Jazz you tried, MEC active electronics, real easy to play. I got a MIM Fender P about a year ago, and the RB Vette eats it for brekkie.

 

[stevieb]

I see the basses you are considering are all priced in pounds sterling, so my suggestion might not be available to you- but I have a MIM Fender Precision and a Peavey Millenium, and I like 'em both. The Peavey Millenium is beautiful, having a real figured wood top (not photo), is easy to play and well balanced, sounds almost the same as the Fender, and is MUCH lighter. I bought it to convert to fretless, which I still intend to do. They are cheap enough that if you don't like it (and I think you will) that you can sell it easy and get most or all your money back.

 

[grimtraveller]

Any bass will do. It's how you get it sitting in your mixes that matters. And you, sir, will get the bass to sit !
That's an order.

 

[mjbphotos]

Buy used. Don't know about UK pricing, but those all seem expensive for Squiers.

 

[benherron.rrr]

Buy used. Don't know about UK pricing, but those all seem expensive for Squiers.

Yeah, prices for music gear of any kind are ridiculous over here, most gear is the same price in pounds as it is in dollars meaning we have to pay nearly double than you guys. I will be buying from a different place than the links I gave which is a little cheaper, and I know one of the guys who works there and he usually gives me a healthy discount too, aswell as being a good bassist himself so I trust his recomendations.

Any bass will do. It's how you get it sitting in your mixes that matters. And you, sir, will get the bass to sit !
That's an order.

YES SIR!!! It's my first bass, like I said it will really only be used as a studio instrument, but I alway like learning how to play new things . Im really trying to find a bass that I enjoy playing and that is quite versitile in the tones I can achive. When I was playing these instruments the other day I was thinking about how it would sit in the mix, the Jag seemed to have a really lovely warm tone that would really compliment the mix, while I think the Jazz would work really well, if I was writing/could play rather melodic bass parts opposed to more rhythmic complimentary parts.

 

[grimtraveller]

When I was playing these instruments the other day I was thinking about how it would sit in the mix, the Jag seemed to have a really lovely warm tone that would really compliment the mix, while I think the Jazz would work really well, if I was writing/could play rather melodic bass parts opposed to more rhythmic complimentary parts.

Depending on how you set your settings, it should be possible to get a variety of bass tones to compliment both melodic and gritty rhythmic parts. Whichever way you go, I think you'll have fun on the bass. It's a rather underrated instrument, Methinks.

 

[Aaron Cheney]

IMO, if you can only have one bass, it should say Fender on the headstock. Most recording engineers will tell you the same thing.

Get a P or a J and you will have all the bass you need for any genre of music. In the USA used Mexi Fenders can be had for $300 every day....perfect for recording.

 

[benherron.rrr]

Went out and handed over some money for the Squier Vintage Modified 70's Jazz Bass,

Haven't had too much time to play with it yet, but It looks Beautiful, Plays great and sounds great! I thought I would have trouble with it shifting out of tune frequently but It hasn't budged yet. It's hard trying not to play it like a guitar, playing a bass requires different technique, and when I'm so used to playing a fretted instrument like a guitar its hard to play a bass like a bass. But I will keep going.

I know what you mean, bass does seem to be a very underrated instrument, They're Great!!!

 

[GuitarDR]

Congrats on the Jazz bass! I like my Marlin Bass, remember Marlin, made in Wales! It's a Jazz bass copy I'd say. It's nice to have the two pickups and the blend dial to change the tonality. I wouldn't buy a single pickup bass. Anyway I didn't spend any money really on this guitar as I swapped it for a horrible Westfield strat copy on SWAPZ! Have a look at swapz.co.uk you might be able to get a bass in exchange for an old gameboy or hoover! Cheers, Mark

 

[grimtraveller]

Went out and handed over some money for the Squier Vintage Modified 70's Jazz Bass,

Good man !

It's hard trying not to play it like a guitar, playing a bass requires different technique, and when I'm so used to playing a fretted instrument like a guitar its hard to play a bass like a bass. But I will keep going.

I made the opposite journey, I had been playing bass about 8 years when I started learning to play guitar. And consequently, I've always brought a bass playing thingy to guitar. Like I used to love doing things like playing, say, three notes in sequence like G~Ab~A. A classically trained keyboard playing friend of mine used to hate it, he thought things like this were so unsophisticated and said 'you just don't do this !'. But I did. And I applied weird bass thoughts to the guitar. I found, for example, that whereas on a bass, I could play B instead of G or F# instead of D or E instead of C or whatever, on the guitar I'd play a Bm instead of G or F#m instead of D and it sounded great to me. It gave a weird lilt to the music, took it out of what I felt was a predictable air. People just looked at me strange. But I had to make up for my guitar playing deficiency with something else.
And it's worth pointing out that many of the first bass guitarists that came through the 60s were not first and foremost bass players. They were guitarists, pianists, organists, double bassists, trumpeters etc. And they brought a different sensibility to bass playing. It wasn't really until the 70s that in great numbers you got bassists that began on the bass. So those 'other' instrumentalists really helped shape bass playing

 

[rayc]

bass then guitar for nme too - but, if you listen to my recordings, bass is the only area I have any skerrick of talent.
Now, you've bought a BRAND name, well a subsiduary of a BN anyway. Just don't expect it to do the work for you.
Recording bass is painful until you get to know the bass, the amp, the mic, the DI & the foibles of working inside your own mixes.
That said, bass is an amazing thing to play - & follow your own direction - try not to play it like a guitar - one thing that often stands out in solo HR is the bass played by guitar player - but not for good reasons.

 

[moresound]

bass then guitar for nme too - but, if you listen to my recordings, bass is the only area I have any skerrick of talent.
Now, you've bought a BRAND name, well a subsiduary of a BN anyway. Just don't expect it to do the work for you.
Recording bass is painful until you get to know the bass, the amp, the mic, the DI & the foibles of working inside your own mixes.
That said, bass is an amazing thing to play - & follow your own direction - try not to play it like a guitar - one thing that often stands out in solo HR is the bass played by guitar player - but not for good reasons.

How right you are ray .....

 

[benherron.rrr]

Good man !I made the opposite journey, I had been playing bass about 8 years when I started learning to play guitar. And consequently, I've always brought a bass playing thingy to guitar. Like I used to love doing things like playing, say, three notes in sequence like G~Ab~A. A classically trained keyboard playing friend of mine used to hate it, he thought things like this were so unsophisticated and said 'you just don't do this !'. But I did. And I applied weird bass thoughts to the guitar. I found, for example, that whereas on a bass, I could play B instead of G or F# instead of D or E instead of C or whatever, on the guitar I'd play a Bm instead of G or F#m instead of D and it sounded great to me. It gave a weird lilt to the music, took it out of what I felt was a predictable air. People just looked at me strange. But I had to make up for my guitar playing deficiency with something else.
And it's worth pointing out that many of the first bass guitarists that came through the 60s were not first and foremost bass players. They were guitarists, pianists, organists, double bassists, trumpeters etc. And they brought a different sensibility to bass playing. It wasn't really until the 70s that in great numbers you got bassists that began on the bass. So those 'other' instrumentalists really helped shape bass playing

Thanks, I think applying different techniques from one instrument to another is a great thing, it creates a cirtain originality.

bass then guitar for nme too - but, if you listen to my recordings, bass is the only area I have any skerrick of talent.
Now, you've bought a BRAND name, well a subsiduary of a BN anyway. Just don't expect it to do the work for you.
Recording bass is painful until you get to know the bass, the amp, the mic, the DI & the foibles of working inside your own mixes.
That said, bass is an amazing thing to play - & follow your own direction - try not to play it like a guitar - one thing that often stands out in solo HR is the bass played by guitar player - but not for good reasons.

For the time being I will be playing/recording DI into GR4, I havn't dared record any bass yet, but just messing around with pieces Im currently working on is making me realise that this is a harder task then I first thorght it would be. But to me anyway, thats a good thing. Im trying to get away from the guitar/bass thing from the start, I know I could play it better by picking, but Im trying to develop a finger playing technique.

One of the things that is exiting me most about having a bass, is the new musical directions it will take me in. My usual writing process is finding a chord progression on the guitar/piano and building everything around that, it will be great for me to begin to create more complex/interesting pieces from writing on a new instrument, I also find that the tones and feel of a bass can really inspire a good tune.

 

[grimtraveller]

One of the things that is exiting me most about having a bass, is the new musical directions it will take me in. My usual writing process is finding a chord progression on the guitar/piano and building everything around that, it will be great for me to begin to create more complex/interesting pieces from writing on a new instrument, I also find that the tones and feel of a bass can really inspire a good tune.

Paul McCartney once famously said that you can't compose songs on the bass.
Paul McCartney doesn't know everything ! Or to put it more succintly, I know something Paulie doesn't know..........

 

[benherron.rrr]

Paul McCartney once famously said that you can't compose songs on the bass.
Paul McCartney doesn't know everything ! Or to put it more succintly, I know something Paulie doesn't know..........

haha,

It depends on the type of music, its like laying down a drum beat first and playing over that. there is something about drums and bass which really get the juices flowing.