Advice on getting a "first bass" guitar?

[randomas]

With rocksmith hitting Europe at the end of the month, I'm jumping on the occasion and using it as an excuse to buy a bass guitar, since I've wanted one for years.

I've never played bass (doodled with friends at band rehearsals a few times), so I know very little about the technicalities.

I'm not getting and amp, I've got 3 guitar ones lying around, so that can wait.
I've understood that I want a bass with 2 pickups (precision at the neck and jazz at the bridge), and I've given myself a 200 Euro budget.

I've trimmed it down to the yamaha rbx170ew, the ibanez GSR200 and the washburn t14 (slightly more expensive).

They're all made in indonesia (probably the same factory), and seem to be fairly sturdy. Any opinions advice?

[Mega-Tallica]

First off, plugging a bass in a guitar amp is a no-no. People do it all the time, but it'll sound like crap #1, and #2, you can easily blow out the speaker on the amp if you go just a little too high with the volume. So, you're going to have to play at very low volumes. The frequency of the bass pickups are too high for a low frequency guitar amp to handle. Not a good combination. Wouldn't recommend it at all. You can get a cheap little combo Behringer or Peavey or something for about $150 US and those are also good amps to learn with so you might as well invest in one now rather than ruining your guitar amps and having to get a bass amp anyway.

As for your choices, I'd take out Yamaha right off the bat, their acoustic guitars are okay, but their electrics and basses are not that good at all. With that said, I'd definitely go with the Ibanez who are known for their quality per price and they are also known to make pretty solid basses and good to learn on as well. I'd go with the Ibanez easily over the Washburn and Yamaha.

[Dadasaurus Rex]

I read it wrong too. Thought it said "What guitar do I need to get to first base". Easy, one that works.

[killer_roach]

I'd recommend the Ibanez myself, and second Mega-Tallica's point on the bass amp. I picked up a Behringer practice amp for about $100 a while back, and has worked well for my needs.

[randomas]

Yamaha I know tend to be "cheap", but I thought the washburn would be better, I picked up both an ibanez and a washburn (more expensive model) and the washburn felt way better (the ibanez was probably badly setup with a bad case of first string frying pan).

As for the amps, I'm going to stick with a virtual amp and headphones for the moment. I have to get rid of at least 1 of the 2 practice amps (laney linebacker l30r and fender frontman 25), they're both bad el-cheapos, but I've had them for 20 odd years and separation is painful. When those leave I'll be allowed a bass amp in the house ...

Ps. surely you mean the frequency on the bass pickups are too LOW for a HIGH frequency guitar amp cone, or is there something counter-intuitive I need to know?

[Mega-Tallica]

Ps. surely you mean the frequency on the bass pickups are too LOW for a HIGH frequency guitar amp cone, or is there something counter-intuitive I need to know?

Yeah, that's what you'd think, but it's actually the opposite. Bass pickups are meant to pick up the boom of the strings so they must operate on high frequency pickups compared to a guitar so it can pick up those very low notes without sounding muddy. Like on a 7-string or 8-string guitar with those really thick strings, sounds really muddy with standard frequency guitar pickups, so a lot of guys that play those get special higher frequency pickups so those thick strings sound crisp and clear on a guitar like a bass does.

[randomas]

Yeah, that's what you'd think, but it's actually the opposite. Bass pickups are meant to pick up the boom of the strings so they must operate on high frequency pickups compared to a guitar so it can pick up those very low notes without sounding muddy. Like on a 7-string or 8-string guitar with those really thick strings, sounds really muddy with standard frequency guitar pickups, so a lot of guys that play those get special higher frequency pickups so those thick strings sound crisp and clear on a guitar like a bass does.

Ohhh ok so you have a wider response range, that would make sense considering that a thump or boom (basically any form of sound spike) is a sum over "all" frequencies ... I just didn't consider the "all" to be higher than the higher guitar stuff ... I guess you get bigger higher harmonics ...


Back on to the instrument subject, I also looked at the epiphone eb3, since it's in a similar price range, any opinions on that?

I just discovered that the gsr200 newer models are now active, is that a good or bad thing?

So far what I've learned is:
yamaha and washburn = passive
ibanez = active.

Active nice because it gives the bass extra punch, but if preamp is bad the result is actually worse.

Price wise yamaha is cheaper 180 €, while the others are in the 200~230 € range.

I'm curious about the epiphone because it's a completely different animal.

The only thing I can say about squiers is that their quality is so variable you need to go out and test the one you buy (this is true for all instruments, just with fenders, squiers in particular more so).

I didn't even consider fenders because it would have had to be a squier and I already have 2 in the house which is way more than I can stand.

[bleached]

Ohhh ok so you have a wider response range, that would make sense considering that a thump or boom (basically any form of sound spike) is a sum over "all" frequencies ... I just didn't consider the "all" to be higher than the higher guitar stuff ... I guess you get bigger higher harmonics ...


Back on to the instrument subject, I also looked at the epiphone eb3, since it's in a similar price range, any opinions on that?

I just discovered that the gsr200 newer models are now active, is that a good or bad thing?

So far what I've learned is:
yamaha and washburn = passive
ibanez = active.

Active nice because it gives the bass extra punch, but if preamp is bad the result is actually worse.

Price wise yamaha is cheaper 180 €, while the others are in the 200~230 € range.

I'm curious about the epiphone because it's a completely different animal.

The only thing I can say about squiers is that their quality is so variable you need to go out and test the one you buy (this is true for all instruments, just with fenders, squiers in particular more so).

I didn't even consider fenders because it would have had to be a squier and I already have 2 in the house which is way more than I can stand.

my first bass was an ibanez gsr200. i hated it. the pickups did not pick up all the strings well. if in standard tuning, the A string was more quiet than the E. although i had bass several years before they made the pickups active, they're still the same pickups. i recommend the ibanez sr300. comes in you're choice of p/j pickups or humbuckers. and it's also active.

i also recommend active pickups. sure you'll a nine volt battery in your bass, but you'll have a wider range of sound. downside is the electronics would be harder to fix if the pickups go out. go passive if you want a bass that you just want to play, or if you want something that has potential of changing the pickups out for a different sound.

now that eb3 is rather unique. sg body with a sidewinder humbucker and a mini-humbucker. rather interesting.

if Dean guitars are available, then i would suggest taking a look at Dean edge 10 pj. i don't know the price of it over there, but in US it's around the same price as the ibanez gsr200. it also has active electronics. i've never owned one, but from what i've heard about low line Deans is that some do have a chance of developing electronic problems.

my last bit of advice is to play the bass that you're thinking about getting through an amp that you that you might get in the future. sure playing it through a 500 watt amp does sound nice, but if the amp that you'll most likely get is going to be a 30 watt or something, then you'll want to pay more attention to how it sounds through that.

[Ehfahq]

I totally disagree with Mega-Tallica that Yamaha makes crappy bass guitars. My Yamaha sounds amazing. I prefer it over my Ibanez any day of the week.

[Mega-Tallica]

I totally disagree with Mega-Tallica that Yamaha makes crappy bass guitars. My Yamaha sounds amazing. I prefer it over my Ibanez any day of the week.

To each his own, I just never had any good experiences with low-end Yamahas. The higher end Yamahas, specifically their basses, are actually pretty good, but their low-ends... not to fond of them.