Final choice on bass

[Zo]

Hi guyz finally narrowed the potential suspect i'm gonna consider as first bass :

Yamaha trbx 174 

Hofner beat bass ignition

Fender SQ CV Jaguar Bass 3-SB (probably this one )

But i figured out that buying those implies a lot of small but annoying other stuff to buy , i need you guyz to chose good value :

• Case (https://www.thomann.de/fr/fender_fbt_610_e_bass_gig_bag_tweed.htm)
• Stand (floor) (https://www.thomann.de/fr/support_pour_guitares_et_basses.html)
• Pick (https://www.thomann.de/fr/fender_premium_cell_mix_pick_set_24.htm OR https://www.thomann.de/fr/dunlop_electric_pick_variety_pack.htm)
• Straps (https://www.thomann.de/fr/bandoulieres_guitares.html)
• Tuner (https://www.thomann.de/fr/accordeurs.html)
• The thing you put like a strap to minimise vibrations (like a velcro around the neck) 
• Cable (https://www.thomann.de/fr/fender_del._cable_angle_plug_3m_tn.htm)

did i forgot some ?

 

Any input appreciated , no amp for now but i have the fender studio 40 or the ampeg 110 in mind

[RBH]

Yamaha's lower priced offerings often are very good. I bought one ( RB200 )  or something similar back in the late 90's that still is one of my best recording basses to this day. I have 4 basses  that cover some different ground than a standard 4 string. - But I'll reach for it as a first stringer.

 

Depending on your intended use(s)

Gig bags are usually just fine if you're just toting it around locally. Simple head stock style tuners a re usually accurate enough for 4 string basses especially.  Picks can easily be stolen from any friend who stops by to jam a bit. Same with cables if you have really good friends who are kind of dense. Straps - I recommend a soft style nylon type. Stiff straps kind of help eject themselves off the strap locks sometimes. ( I almost dropped a buddy's 73 LES Paul last week because of a thick stiff leather strap.

 

[craigb]

2 hours ago, Zo said:

did i forgot some ?

Always! ?

[Zo]

is there any specific picks for bass , i see diferent size (medium , small ect) , is it just for convenience of the player or does it have an impact on sound (and playing style choice) ?

 

@RBH yep the yamaha was my finding as the most all arounder .... and usually trouble free (i skipped those Harley benton as quality is hit and miss) , the hofner is where my heart lkeads me , and the jaguar is were my ears lead me , adn it's damn versatyle also ...

Edited November 19, 2021 by Zo

[craigb]

6 hours ago, Zo said:

is there any specific picks for bass , i see diferent size (medium , small ect) , is it just for convenience of the player or does it have an impact on sound (and playing style choice) ?

Oh yeah!  Be sure to try a few to see what floats your boat.  I've got one pick that's big, thick and fuzzy; and another that's made of metal.  I also like the heavy Herco's (the grey ones).  That said, I prefer to use my fingers without a pick when possible.  My goal is to not play the bass like a guitar - lol! ?

 

Mine are similar to these:

 

  

Edited November 19, 2021 by craigb

[TheMaartian]

For a gig bag, I recommend Gator. I have three (a hard case came with my Gibson SG bass). This one costs 10 € more than the Fender one, but it is much better for only a little more money.

Gator Bass Guitar Gigbag

For guitar stands, I prefer ones that hang the bass from the neck. The Fender one is less expensive (16 €), but uses a pivoting support for the bottom. The Gravity one (29 €) is similar to the ones I use.

Fender Guitar Stand

Gravity Guitar Stand

For picks, if you really, really have to use them (like for metal and heavy rock), I suggest getting the cheap (2 €) Harley Benton mixed set. There are several different thicknesses (I like 0,71mm) for you to try and see what works for you.

Harley Benton Mixed Pick Set

For a guitar strap, try to find one that's about 75mm wide. The 50 mm straps are not as comfortable, and help less with minimizing neck dive (if your base has some neck dive).

Example of a 75 mm wide strap (D'Addario)

For a clip tuner, I like TC Electronic tuners, but they are more expensive. For a less expensive tuner, the Snark clip tuner (18 €) is very good.

Snark Clip-on Tuner

For a cable, I really like my Fender tweed cables (17 €). I prefer the angle cable for most situations.

Fender Deluxe Cable with angle plug (3 m)

The only comment I'll make about your bass selection is that the Fender looks like it is medium scale (32" inches). You will have much less choice when buying strings. The Yamaha is a long scale bass (34"). Tons of string choices for that. I play short scale basses (30 inches). Plenty of string choices for that scale, too. The Hofner bass you listed is short scale, so you listed one long scale, one medium scale and one short scale. Coming from guitars, the short scale is the easiest to adapt to.

When you decide to get an amp, go straight to the Fender Rumble. The Studio 40 is outstanding.  I had to sell my Rumble 40 and Rumble 200 when I left the U.S. because they were 120V only. My basses that I shipped along with my other goods last March 1st just arrived yesterday! Woo hoo! I'm going to wait to buy my 240V Rumbles until my house in Gujan-Mestras is built. I'm currently renting the lower level of a house in Arcachon owned by a lovely 80-year old lady. I can hear her TV, so I assume she can hear mine. She would definitely hear an amp, so I'll just play through my 1810c with headphones and use Gig Performer to host AmpliTube and Ampeg's new SVT Suite bass guitar sims. Once you buy an amp (the Rumble!), head over to the Fender Rumble Club sub-forum on TalkBass.com. There's a ton of useful info there. It's very active.

TalkBass Fender Rumble Club sub-forum

Thank you for giving me the chance to spend your money instead of mine. ?

Edited November 19, 2021 by John Maar

[Zo]

7 hours ago, John Maar said:

For a gig bag, I recommend Gator. I have three (a hard case came with my Gibson SG bass). This one costs 10 € more than the Fender one, but it is much better for only a little more money.

Gator Bass Guitar Gigbag

For guitar stands, I prefer ones that hang the bass from the neck. The Fender one is less expensive (16 €), but uses a pivoting support for the bottom. The Gravity one (29 €) is similar to the ones I use.

Fender Guitar Stand

Gravity Guitar Stand

For picks, if you really, really have to use them (like for metal and heavy rock), I suggest getting the cheap (2 €) Harley Benton mixed set. There are several different thicknesses (I like 0,71mm) for you to try and see what works for you.

Harley Benton Mixed Pick Set

For a guitar strap, try to find one that's about 75mm wide. The 50 mm straps are not as comfortable, and help less with minimizing neck dive (if your base has some neck dive).

Example of a 75 mm wide strap (D'Addario)

For a clip tuner, I like TC Electronic tuners, but they are more expensive. For a less expensive tuner, the Snark clip tuner (18 €) is very good.

Snark Clip-on Tuner

For a cable, I really like my Fender tweed cables (17 €). I prefer the angle cable for most situations.

Fender Deluxe Cable with angle plug (3 m)

The only comment I'll make about your bass selection is that the Fender looks like it is medium scale (32" inches). You will have much less choice when buying strings. The Yamaha is a long scale bass (34"). Tons of string choices for that. I play short scale basses (30 inches). Plenty of string choices for that scale, too. The Hofner bass you listed is short scale, so you listed one long scale, one medium scale and one short scale. Coming from guitars, the short scale is the easiest to adapt to.

When you decide to get an amp, go straight to the Fender Rumble. The Studio 40 is outstanding.  I had to sell my Rumble 40 and Rumble 200 when I left the U.S. because they were 120V only. My basses that I shipped along with my other goods last March 1st just arrived yesterday! Woo hoo! I'm going to wait to buy my 240V Rumbles until my house in Gujan-Mestras is built. I'm currently renting the lower level of a house in Arcachon owned by a lovely 80-year old lady. I can hear her TV, so I assume she can hear mine. She would definitely hear an amp, so I'll just play through my 1810c with headphones and use Gig Performer to host AmpliTube and Ampeg's new SVT Suite bass guitar sims. Once you buy an amp (the Rumble!), head over to the Fender Rumble Club sub-forum on TalkBass.com. There's a ton of useful info there. It's very active.

TalkBass Fender Rumble Club sub-forum

Thank you for giving me the chance to spend your money instead of mine. ?

Thks John For the details ....

Yep i know about the scales , the thing is that like you said shorter scales are easier to learn on .... 

The jaguar choice was made because of the versatily of tones thks to a tone per pick up and PJ configuration .... and the shorter scale but to much to let me switch to another regular bass easier (correct me if needed)

Yep the plan is to start with software first (i wanna be sure to keep playing , if i give up ,another story lol i'm producing since 88 so i smell frustration bewteen what i usually do itb and what i will be able to accomplish with the instruments)

For the stand , why don't you like those with lower support ? 

Cable : this one i had in my card ...

For the strap , there's also some clips or so to buy nope ?

Tuner : phone or itb not enougth ? 

For the picks : can't try , no shop around lol all will be ordered online ... i can't even try the basses  witch i know would be the best .... but all shops are usually floaded with ibanez ect ....

[TheMaartian]

1 hour ago, Zo said:

Thks John For the details ....

...

For the stand , why don't you like those with lower support ? 

Cable : this one i had in my card ...

For the strap , there's also some clips or so to buy nope ?

Tuner : phone or itb not enougth ? 

For the picks : can't try , no shop around lol all will be ordered online ... i can't even try the basses  witch i know would be the best .... but all shops are usually floaded with ibanez ect ....

The one problem with the lower support is that the foam they use can damage nitrocellulose lacquer finishes, like on the Gibson SG bass. That finish is not used on lower end guitars, but I stay away from them anyway. For the basses you are considering, you can get by with them.

I don't have strap locks on any of my basses. I only play at home, I don't gig them, and I certainly don't try to spin my basses over my head. ? I don't think they're necessary for home studio use, as long as you avoid stiff leather straps like @RBH mentioned above.

An itb tuner is fine. I have issues using the one on my phone due to the audio input being optimized for voice. It should work OK for at-home use. If you ever gig with a bass, a clip tuner can be nice to have (much cheaper than a tuner pedal).

The picks set I mentioned is available from Thomann online and can be ordered with any other gear you purchase. That 2 € pack has several different thicknesses. That's what I meant by trying different ones. Just buy the 2 € pack.

After I wrote my post, I noticed that we agreed on the cable!

Enjoy your new bass, whichever one you decide on.

There's a pretty good online bass instruction video course from BassBuzz called Beginner to Badass that I found very helpful after resuming bass playing after I retired. I played in a band in the late 1960s, then the Army and University and work travel got in the way. After so many years, I was a complete noob again. I thought the US$197 price was a fair price for the quality of the course. I don't know if they will have a sale for Black Friday. Worth keeping an eye on it.

BassBuzz Beginner to Badass

BassBuzz YouTube channel (lots of free lesson videos and a good video testing 5 beginner amps (the Fender Rumble 40 was the surprise winner))

 

Edited November 19, 2021 by John Maar

[Shane_B.]

I stuff my bass back in the cardboard box it was shipped in when I'm not using it.

I use my thumb or a giant triangular thick pick. Bapu turned me on to felt picks a long time ago but I never got around to trying one.

I run my bass through the two ART units in my signature usually without any controls in action. Running it through the two tube analog units just does something I like without even having the compression kick in. 

The biggest thing I do is I always use Sonic Anomaly's Bassprofessor MarkII VST. It's free and really let's you tweak your bass track. Here's a link to it.

[Zo]

1 hour ago, John Maar said:

The one problem with the lower support is that the foam they use can damage nitrocellulose lacquer finishes, like on the Gibson SG bass. That finish is not used on lower end guitars, but I stay away from them anyway. For the basses you are considering, you can get by with them.

I don't have strap locks on any of my basses. I only play at home, I don't gig them, and I certainly don't try to spin my basses over my head. ? I don't think they're necessary for home studio use, as long as you avoid stiff leather straps like @RBH mentioned above.

An itb tuner is fine. I have issues using the one on my phone due to the audio input being optimized for voice. It should work OK for at-home use. If you ever gig with a bass, a clip tuner can be nice to have (much cheaper than a tuner pedal).

The picks set I mentioned is available from Thomann online and can be ordered with any other gear you purchase. That 2 € pack has several different thicknesses. That's what I meant by trying different ones. Just buy the 2 € pack.

After I wrote my post, I noticed that we agreed on the cable!

Enjoy your new bass, whichever one you decide on.

There's a pretty good online bass instruction video course from BassBuzz called Beginner to Badass that I found very helpful after resuming bass playing after I retired. I played in a band in the late 1960s, then the Army and University and work travel got in the way. After so many years, I was a complete noob again. I thought the US$197 price was a fair price for the quality of the course. I don't know if they will have a sale for Black Friday. Worth keeping an eye on it.

BassBuzz Beginner to Badass

BassBuzz YouTube channel (lots of free lesson videos and a good video testing 5 beginner amps (the Fender Rumble 40 was the surprise winner))

 

Thks a lot for taking the time John , so you're no more in US ? where are you located now ?

yep the strap aren't necessary for now , as for the stand i feel you , there's some with (the material on wine bottle , can't say it in english ...https://www.thomann.de/fr/km_17540_cork.htm)

For the Picks ,are you sure Harley benton a good quality enougth ?

48 minutes ago, Shane_B. said:

I stuff my bass back in the cardboard box it was shipped in when I'm not using it.

I use my thumb or a giant triangular thick pick. Bapu turned me on to felt picks a long time ago but I never got around to trying one.

I run my bass through the two ART units in my signature usually without any controls in action. Running it through the two tube analog units just does something I like without even having the compression kick in. 

The biggest thing I do is I always use Sonic Anomaly's Bassprofessor MarkII VST. It's free and really let's you tweak your bass track. Here's a link to it.

My friends always told me to keep guitars in ambient air , to not put it back in case , it is not ideal .....but to each its way ...if i see myself not playing a lot i might do it lol !!!

For itb i have Overloud Mark bass , Nueral dsp Darkglass, softube Eden , Amplitube and PA Ampeg 

Talking about ampeg , i sent an email telling them that their suite is great but the cpu hit is too much and turning off on section or all doesn't affect the cpu (a bug actually) and they were like : nobody complaint , all is good ....

That was enougth for me to not be confident in futur maintenance .....

[craigb]

Need a slightly larger amp? ?

[InstrEd]

20 minutes ago, craigb said:

Need a slightly larger amp? ?

Is that what happens when you keeping feeding the Amp Am chords

[Zo]

Is it Bapu's amp ?

[Zo]

What about those , anybody using this type of thingy ?

 

[TheMaartian]

7 hours ago, Zo said:

Thks a lot for taking the time John , so you're no more in US ? where are you located now ?

yep the strap aren't necessary for now , as for the stand i feel you , there's some with (the material on wine bottle , can't say it in english ...https://www.thomann.de/fr/km_17540_cork.htm)

For the Picks ,are you sure Harley benton a good quality enougth ?

...

I'm now living on the southwest coast of France (renting in Arcachon while my house in Gujan-Mestras is being built; LOVE it here), about 90 minutes north of Spain and 45 minutes southwest of Bordeaux.

When I was stationed in Germany in 1971, I was in Augsburg and Berlin (Sicherheitsdienst der Armee). When I was working in Germany from 2000-2003, I was based In Frankfurt and Bonn, but worked all over the country, plus Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Sweden.

The wine bottle stopper material (cork) is in the product name. That could be a good alternative to the foam as long as it is made without a binder (glue) that also might cause damage (I don't know).

For 2 €, the Harley Benton picks won't be the best; it is just to test the different thicknesses. Once you find the thickness you prefer, buy better picks just in that thickness. I use the yellow Dunlop Tortex 0,73 mm (not 0, 71 mm I mentioned above; oops).

Dunlop Tortex Guitar Picks

They offer a variety pack for bass (the 0,73 mm pick is the thinnest) for 6,60 € at Thomann You can try those instead of the cheap Harley Benton picks.

Dunlop Bass Pick Variety Pack

Strap locks are not necessary, but it was always recommended to me to use a strap, even while sitting.

Edited November 20, 2021 by John Maar

[Zo]

I 'm very often near the spain border ( Near Perpignan ,) it is where i go to be in "peace mod" with no humain around and only zenitude and creation  so we're not to far  

So you're a special agent giving you're background lol 

what i had in my card was this : https://www.thomann.de/fr/dunlop_electric_pick_variety_pack.htm

Any good ? the ones you linked are labelled shred , that's why i'm asking

Edited November 20, 2021 by Zo

[Sheens]

I have same Yamaha strap as the bassplayer below, love it.

 

Edited November 20, 2021 by Sheens

[jackson white]

20 hours ago, Zo said:

always told me to keep guitars in ambient air , to not put it back in case

???  if you always plan to use it in a consistent controlled environment, should be fine. Just saying (most) guitars/basses are made of wood which expands/contracts as a function of temperature/humidity. New instruments are unlikely to have had a chance to "cure". Keeping it in the case will reduce the amount of contraction/expansion and help maintain the setup / keep the neck straight. 

[jackson white]

16 hours ago, Zo said:

What about those , anybody using this type of thingy ?

for -bass-, something like the Radial ProDI or perhaps a Demeter might be more useful for "traditional/familar/well known" sounds, more so than any fx box (or plugin). 

If you're after something different, anything goes. 

[Zo]

1 hour ago, jackson white said:

for -bass-, something like the Radial ProDI or perhaps a Demeter might be more useful for "traditional/familar/well known" sounds, more so than any fx box (or plugin). 

If you're after something different, anything goes. 

I'm after quality source  i really love eden stuff for that purpose .....