United States

I would also put in the same effort on either instrument.....

I play both instruments and have played them both in various bands. I will admit though - I must be a bass man at heart because I never really feel that the band is safe if I'm not on bass.

Talbot

I am going to start bass shopping. Any suggestions on basses? I am looking for the most bang for my buck.

I got a MIM (hecho en Mexico) Fender fretless off of craiglist a couple of years ago. They're $700 new, got it for $275. Everyone who plays it loves it. I prefer the jazz bass volume pots for the separate pick-ups. I like the way you can inject a lot of bass with the neck pick-up, but I've noticed that the more experienced guys on here go for the P-Bass. They definitely have much higher quality amplification than I do. I have a Squire P-Bass from the '80s (made in Taiwan!)it's cool but like I said, I prefer the Jazz. Just check out any axe you're looking at. Look at the neck for bending, check for dead frets, scratchy pots, tuners that feel loose.

You can get an American P-Bass for around 1200.00. I think the Tex-Mex versions are slightly more than half that. The trouble with the latter is uneven quality control but if you get a good one you really have something.

The Fender Squire line of basses aren't bad either.

I've played Gibsons and Guilds, Ampeg and even Hofner but I always come home to Fender.

Talbot

Thanks for the info. I'll probably stop by guitar center and play a few basses this weekend. Right now I have a 30 something year old Kent bass that's a sort of jazz bass copy, but shorter scale. Not very useable for a band situation.

I am going to start bass shopping. Any suggestions on basses? I am looking for the most bang for my buck.

lots of good choices out there these days. and plenty of decent axes can be had w/o breaking the bank.

a few questions:

what's your budget?

what kind of music will you mostly be playing? ...since you prolly WOULDN'T want a BC RICH Mockingbird or an Explorer shaped bass if you're gonna be playing country, traditional blues, or jazz!

4, 5, or 6 strings?

I am looking to play classic rock type stuff. Maybe some older metal, some hair metal.
I stopped by Guitar Center yesterday to check out basses and I played a couple Ibanez that seemed pretty nice for around $200. The neck was really comfortable, nice action, and sounded really good. There are a lot of decent inexpensive guitars and basses these days.

Since you're in Boston (a lot of stores nearby), you could use Guitar Center's used equipment program to your advantage. Just check out their used section of their website. They ship anything on there from store to store for free. I bought a ride cymbal a year ago, they shipped up from Tucson. I got a high quality cymbal for a few bucks more than the zbt line. So you could find some instruments online that look good, go in and find a person who seems trustworthy (no laughing in the peanut gallery!), have them help you pick one. Just ask about any guarantee they have that the guitar will be playable, with good electronics. You could get a $700-$1000 axe for 50% or less. Just a suggestion.

Interesting, I didn't know they did that. I really didn't spend as much time as I would have liked to yesterday because the place was packed, and I was trying to talk my son out of buying a 7 string guitar! Good to know though, I will look into that, thanks.

I haven't been to that site in a while (I have a 3 year old boy, therefore no $$ to spend on music gear), it should say it on the used section, like I said. It's a pretty cool feature, because these instruments have been purchased by a brick and mortar business that has rent and utilities etc to pay, so they were planning on selling them anyway. Now they're just taking up space and they want them out of there. That's better than skimming craigslist, in my opinion.

I've heard those Ibanez Bass guitars aren't bad. A friend has one but I don't care for it - which should not in any way influence you or anyone else.

My preference is always wide, maple necks on my instruments. The Ibanez is very thin which might be be good for some folks. Price surely sounds good.

I speak as a man who first played Kingston! (which wasn't half bad actually)

cheers
Talbot

i actually found the neck and action pretty comfortable. hard to beat the price too. i thought i was going to want a precision, but to me the ibanez was a bit more comfortable.

My backup bass is a Hohner Bass V. Picked it up around nine years ago - active pickups, 5 strings, so it is interesting to play. Took me longer than I expected to get right with the fifth string. But I have, and when I want that, it's nice to have it.

It's a good looking instrument with a nice neck. I hadn't realized Hohner did anything but electric pianos and harmonicas.

One of the tuners broke the night before I was supposed to play at church. I had to run the strings up the hill backwards but jury rigged it in time.

Talbot