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Originally Posted by A-Rod's Cousin
Hello all, not sure if this is the right thread or not.
I'm wanting to get a cheap bass to learn on. Any tips? I looked at Guitar Center online and it seems their cheapest used bass is $200. Would something like Craigslist be better?
I've been playing electric guitar for about 10 years (suck at it) and I have an amp for that. Will that amp work for my bass or does the bass require a specialized amp?
Never understood the bass or appreciated it until recently. No idea why or when but I got bit with the bass bug. I think it's when I was surfing YT for isolated tracks and found some great isolated bass tracks. I now listen to songs and try to pick out the bass line and follow it.
It sounds lame but I took my electric guitar and tuned down the E string a full step or so and I have been enjoying "playing bass" along that sole string as I play along to songs on iTunes or whatever. A random set of songs will play and I'll just try to add a bassline over it, it's actually pretty fun but I'd like to go ahead and get an actual bass and start using 4 actual strings.
For some background: I'm not in a band or anything but I own electric drums, a keyboard, an acoustic, and electric guitar and I enjoy messing around and occassionally record a song or cover a song. Was able to lay down bass tracks on the keyboard when I needed to.
I've made some bass / guitar purchases from Craigslist over the past few years and haven't had any problems whatsoever, plus the deals I've found have been great. As for some cheap recommendations some pretty standard beginner basses include Squire, Epiphone, and Ibanez. My first one was a Fender Precision model that I found at a local music shop for around $250 at the time (approx. 10 years ago).
As for amps, it is possible to use a guitar amp but generally not recommended as they're not designed to handle the deeper bass tones. Take a look around for a Yorkville 50 bass amp - I still have mine and they shouldn't be going for any more than $100-$150. They're fantastic practice amps for the right price.
Hope this helps!