I recently moved from brass to strings, guitar strings now. Many years ago, I played some bass, but not nearly as much as most of you. For Christmas, I got a guitar...I don't play guitar, but while I have been having a blast playing "with" it, the thing is NOT a bass.
I am looking for a good inexpensive bass. At my age, and I am not going to say what age that is, only that most of my friends have white hair, I am not going to be playing in any bands. That being said, I will now introduce some more ignorance into my post. What in the heck is a P bass, and how does it differ from other bass?
What would be a good bass for me to purchase? Now, I did not say the most expensive, just the most fun or bang for the buck, and I do mean bang...hard rocker from the 70's would be my tone of joy.
Thanks

Hi, welcome to metaltabs..

Here are some answers to some of your questions

1. P-bass P short for Precision, looks like this http://www.clivemurray.com/img/gear_bass.jpg, they have big thick bodies, and small pickups, and are great beginner basses, because there usually cheap, and great to learn on, nothing special, but some people might think different. there are lots of different colours for them, there mainly made by Fender.

You might also come across the term J-bass which J is short for Jazz(Jazz bass) - http://www.btinternet.com/~third.bass/fivestring4.jpg, which are also made by fender and some other companys, but fender specialise in them.

Im sure you can see the difference in the two.

2. A good in-expensive bass.. hmm, well Yamaha and Ibanez have some pretty good cheap basses, but its mainly up to you to what bass/style you like playing, going to a music shop and trying out a few basses wouldnt hurt.

3. Hard rocker from the 70's? if you want that sort of style i would go for a rickenbacker - http://www.lucan.nl/gitaar/gitaarpl...acker-lucia.jpg haha but problem is, there quite expensive.

My best bet is get a nice cheap japanese made p-bass and fiddle around on it, and see where you go from there, or if you want a decent first bass that doesent have such a harsh price then go to a shop and try out some basses.

Good luck, and post back on how your getting on, or any other questions.

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I have been looking at a Epiphone EOB kit. One is used with a fender rumble 15 amp, looks real nice in the photos, the guy says it makes noise, he doesn't play, but he wants as much as I can get the kit for new, only with a 10 amp base, and more stuff. I am thinking from what I have heard, this may be a fairly good base with tuner, gig bag, cord, and the 10a amp for $269.95 or $249.95 for one with a blem...think for 20 bucks I can put my own blem on it, haha.
Thank you for all your advice. I looked at the Rickenbacker...think I will wait until Jimmi comes back to purchase that one.

That sounds like a good deal man, 10 watt amp is acceptable, thats cool.

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I like rumble's,i got the 60w.

Or...you could spend $160 for a Behringer 60 watt

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...ase_pid/480678/

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Behringer :/
they are cheap, but not so good I think. But If you only play at home a behringer should be good enough for it.

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Just get any amp when your starting it out, it doesent really matter.

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yes, It remembers me on my 10 watt Ibanez Amp !

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I just wanted to thank you all and tell you how I ended up.

Well, I took everything all you said, and I decided not to get the epiphone bass or amp.

I decided not to get the new one either.

What I bought was the Ibanez GSR200 with a Alesis 600 Bassfire amp.

I have it, but I think there is a problem with this amp. It has like 61 different effects built into the thing, and is complicated as hell to run (I can say hell here, right? Haha) so I am not sure if I am doing everything right or not, but I think I am.

What it is doing, is that it is about as loud as the teeny little transistor radio you would see the kids in the 60's walking around, up to their ear, rockin to some tune. It may not be quite that bad, but with all volumes wide open, I could sit and play and easily carry on a conversation while thumpin around. Some of the sound effects sound pretty staticy as well, and yes, I know it is suppose to be distorted, but this is beyond, way beyond distortion.

They are sending me out a new bassfire 60, which is cool cause I bought an open box one to start. I don't think I am suppose mention their name on here, (advertising) but their sales staff was great, their customer service department sucks, but the sales crew is great. Sending out the new amp, no charge and not an open box unit.

I hope this next amp works better. I plugged the bass into my guitar amp and had lots of volume, didn't want to turn it passed halfway it is only a 30 watt Gorilla amp. At least I think it is a 30 watt amp, don't remember right now, but in any case, it is a lot less then 600 watts.

It will take awhile to get used to all the sound effects. Guitar worked well with the amp, still quite and staticy but the effects sounded better on the guitar, or some of them did.

Now, here is the kicker on it. The bass I did not buy, I had paid for with a credit card. They found some other stuff wrong with it, so I told them unless they came down a whole lot on price, I no longer wanted it. Over the weekend, the salesman person I had been talking to on it got fired or layed off or something, so, they got messed up and shipped the other bass and amp anyway. I think I am just going to refuse it when it comes. They want me to send it on to another customer, but they have not given me a refund on it. I don't want them to say that I accepted it.

Anyway, thanks for the help!

I have the same bass. That was a good decision. A really good beginner bass.

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Does anyone know anything about the Alesis Bassfire 60 watt amp? It does everything but make coffee, but is it a good amp? Mine is very quiet and I am sending it back for replacement, but was this a good choice?

I haven't read anything bad about it. But I can't tell you because I never played with such an amp. But I think for a beginner it's a good amp.

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