Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

No, it ain't Georgia.

1. Gibson is out of their mind (again) and they're releasing a new $5k guitar Dark Fire LP, which is very similar to their Robot LP aka Didn't-Sell. And they claim it's the most advanced... big LOL.

Link: CLICK

2. Bass guitars...
So, I've always loved that deep thump of the bass as well as the funky bass lines. I've been looking around for an affordable rig for a while.
What do you think of the Epiphone Thunderbird basses? What bout the Dean Edge9?
The range is $100-$500. Is there something else you'd recommend for a bass noob?

Gibson LP Goddess. Yea baby, come to daddy.

I played an Peavey T40. Huge ash wood body and maple neck. was a good sounding axe for the day / price.

Andrew what is more important is the fit. Many basses have really high actions, and lowering them in tune and intonation can be a be-atch.

Find one that feels good as a starter bass. A lot of people will boo hiss a Fender yet many of their older guitars are on the used market and are solid instruments.

If you want to play BASS get a Fender, if you want to play BASS GUITAR get something else.

Whoa, there Bob. Would you care to expound on that opinion?

Yea, I had Spectors and Fenders in mind, but the price tags erased those thoughts
I don't get the bass and bass guitar comparison either.

Any experiences with the guitars mentioned above?

EDIT: Spelling Mistake

George & Andy,
Methinks the word "Fender" as applied to blues bass-men like Bob is like "Harley" to a serious biker.
Howlin'

Yea I already know that, but what's the difference between bass and bass guitar?

That's easy Andy,
It's like the Fisherman said.
A Bass is a fat four stringed Fender, and a bass guitar is a fat four stringed everything else!

P.S. Pertaining to cost,
I once bought a vintage Fender Mustang guitar for $15!
I once bought vintage Fender precision bass for $40
I once bought a vintage Fender Music Master Guitar for $20
I bought my balalaika for $50
I bought my clarinet for $20
so ya never know what ya might end up with if you keep your eyes and ears open!

The P=bass is an American standard. Wish I had one. Had a Jazz for awhile, but I like a full 2-octave neck, myself, so I sold it to get my Aria.

Affordable? Try the Yamahas - they sound a lot like a P-bass, & play well. Really nice necks on these.

Schecters are good, at least the ones I've played.

I use an Aria Pro II which is both affordable & quite playable. I also have a Sound Design 5-string (by Ibenez) which works just fine.

Personally, I never liked the Gibson basses, & the Peavy T-40 was a huge albatross around my neck, with horrible action, the weight of your average anvil, & a really terrible overall sound unless you just wanna play country thump thump or polka. (The Peavy was my 1st bass, & it nearly put me off the instrument I hated it so much! I got that one for free from a friend who hated it, too.)

The co. Dean has changed hands so many times over the years that you never know what's what with them, but their basses, as far as the ones I've played, have nearly always been very good. That isn't necessarily true with their 6-string guitars, electric or acoustic. I think I got pretty lucky with my acoustic Dean, after playing some of the others out there that some ppl were so very proud of.

Hey HJ! I'll give ya $50 for that P-bass, cash, right now!

I haven't checked out the Yamahas yet. Thanks.
And I meant Spectors not Schecters (the latter make excellent electrics btw). Spector as in the Spector Legend series.

I'm probably not gonna be poppin some Claypool or Wooten, but mainly stuff for rock, metal and grunge.

Aria Pro II. Don't think I've heard of it before.
Thanks for the input, guys. More, more.

The P=bass is an American standard. Wish I had one. Had a Jazz for awhile, but I like a full 2-octave neck, myself, so I sold it to get my Aria.

Personally, I never liked the Gibson basses

Hey HJ! I'll give ya $50 for that P-bass, cash, right now!

Good mornin' and happy Thanksgiving Phil,

Deja-vu on your generous offer of the ol' P-bass.
When I bought my Mustang guitar for $15 at the local Salvation Army thrift store, the first thing I did was to call my old pal Caesar Diaz , (who was a master guitar and amp tec, and now sadly departed from this world) to get an appraisal.
I can still hear his response echoing in my head - " John,I will give you three hundred dollars with out looking at it"
I declined the offer, and hope to produce a you-tube video of me playin' the old Mustang soon. (Cin and I just bought a new camera for our 130th anniversary!)

I'm with ya concerning Gibson basses (at least the ones I've had experiences with).In the late 60's my bass player had a Gibson e.b.o. bass. It sounded like a tuned down guitar. He eventually replaced it with a Fender precision and enjoyed a long musical career.

As far as my old P- bass goes, It was actually a composite of two instruments. An old bass playin' pal foolishly decided to carve up the body of his P-bass to a point that it wouldn't hang in balance from the strap! He purchased an old p-bass with a slight crack in the head and swapped necks. I bought the inferier instrument from him for $40. My wife,Cin, eventually started playing it and became a solid bass player! When we started playing out , she required a better instrument, and bought a new two octave Ibanez Musician bass. She retired from playing and bestowed the old P-bass on our son. He still has it but now playes a beefed up Fender fretless Jazz Bass, and a vintage Kay upright.

Thanks for the offer, none the less. I could have used $50 to stock up on my holliday supply of Guinness x-tra!

Andy,
Are you aware of the fact that most people find it much harder to sing and play bass then to sing and play guitar? As an aspiring vocalist, my advice would be for you to consider the study of guitar first. Try them all out and buy the one that feels right. All singers should have a handle on playin, so start looking for a good affordable ax!

Do Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving?

Howlin'

I've been playing guitar for a bit now. I'm not a guitarist, however. I still like experimenting as much as possible (don't ask). I know the essential basics, but I don't feel as good as when I play the bass. I've only played it 3 times, but they were extremely enjoyable.
I can't say that I will play bass and sing at the same time. For now, it's for my enjoyment and musical experiments.

I'm not one of those retarded singers that has no idea what goes on beyond the mic. And I do know that the bass is very different from the electric guitar. Aside from the tone, amount of strings and multiple playing styles, the function of the bass is very different in a guitar-based rock band.

And we already had our Thanksgiving last month

Phil, I just checked out the Aria Pro II series. Holy crap, man. They stopped making those 15 years ago or something. I'll continue my research and ask around some more.

get a p-bass like you should or suffer with just about any other bass type instrument.

I'm all for the Precision, man, but I'd have to live in a cardboard box. Maybe not, but still I'll think bout it some more.

Cardboard works pretty good if you can afford to wax it!