Bass Basics

[milracing]

After jamming with some friends and fooling around on bass the other day......
I'd like to get a bass and learn to play it :)
I'm trying to learn some basics about bass. So far I've gathered that the P bass is large than jazz bass and that round wounds 'thud'. What would you direct me to 'hear' the difference between p bass and jazz bass? Round vs flat? And, fret vs fretless? What else should I think about? Any mistakes you've made I can learn from?

[Mic Stand]

Originally Posted by milracing

I'm trying to learn some basics about bass. So far I've gathered that the P bass is large than jazz bass and that round wounds 'thud'. What would you direct me to 'hear' the difference between p bass and jazz bass? Round vs flat? And, fret vs fretless?

I used this to get an idea of the audio differences prior to buying:

Jazz Bass

Precision Bass

Other basses:
http://www.lakland.com/audio.htm

Personally, I don't think you can go wrong with either one.

Originally Posted by milracing

What else should I think about? Any mistakes you've made I can learn from?

Wasn't a mistake, but coming from guitar, I found the temptation to use a pick incredibly strong when I first started playing. I stuck with the finger style (excessive metronome exercises) until I eventually got half decent at it. I'd suggest doing the same.

I'd also suggest buying a book - Bass Guitar for Dummies and Teach Yourself Visually Bass Guitar are both pretty good at giving you the basics. They both have a buying guide chapter, so you could pick one of them up prior to buying the bass.

[Tim Armstrong]

There are a whole lot of threads below that directly address your questions!

Tim

[4mal]

mostly they will distill out to - go visit a store and see what feels good in your hands ...

Me, I'm a J Bass guy for the most part. It's the physicality of the thing that does it for me. The smaller neck on the J makes it easier for e to switch off to guitar & back again. Tonally I find J's & P's to be essentially interchangable. Fretted v Fretless ? well I guess you need to play one of each and determine that for yourself.

[Frontier9]

I'd say that flat-wounds "thud", not round-wounds.

[jrfrond]

I've never seen that Lakland site, but that IS pretty cool and spot on. It's fun just to hear all of the samples.

SOME flatwounds just "thud", like Fender flats, and that tone could be EXACTLY what you need in some cases, e.g. a Motown cover band. Other flats are brighter and tread in roundwound territory a bit, like Rotosound Flats. The main difference between rounds and flats are that flats have more punch while rounds have more pitch definition. I think more players (like myself) are rediscovering flats because they DO have a cool tone, IF you have the right ones on the right bass. C'mon guys (and girls), we had Larry Graham, James Jamerson, Bernard Edwards, Paul McCartney, Bob Babbitt, Carol Kaye and many others cut GREAT hits on flats. Couldn't be all bad!

[otaypanky]

I bought an inexpensive Yamaha bass many years ago so I could do some basic goof around recording. I hardly touched it for 10 or 12 years. Then one day 2 years ago I pulled it out and put the first set of replcement strings on it and realized it was fun. Soon I wanted a good bass, so I went out and got an American Jazz.
I've been playing guitar 47 years and usually can find something to say musically with it, but I soon realized a bass is a totally different instrument and has a different purpose, in spite of the obvious similarities. Knowing what to say, how to phrase it, and how to execute it is a challenge to say the least. Any guitarist can pick up a bass and pluck out some notes and they'll sound cool and it will be fun. Becoming a bassist will be starting at square 1 and I may need another lifetime ~~~

[marshman]

Oddly enough, the current issue of Premier Guitar is heavily into the topic of helping guitarists get through the early phases of bass-hood.

http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Default.aspx

Though I own and play both P and J basses, I prefer the wider neck of the P. I find the Jazz 2-pickups provide for some greater variation in tone, but the core P-bass tone is nigh-on perfect for so much American mainstream music...Motown, Classic Rock, pop, you can probably pull it off.

I also play roundwounds...I can fake a few seconds of faux-flatwound thud by backing off the tone and lightly muting the strings, then once the drummer kicks back in it's not all that important. Recording would be a different story, though.

My Numero Uno gigging bass since the early 90's (I don't gig all that heavily, but it's been the bass at every gig) is a Rickenbacker 4003, that I got already tweaked waaay out of Rick specs...It doesn't much sound like a Rick anymore, but I love the neck and shape, and the missus sez I look silly playing anything else.

[giantslayer]

The p bass has a wider neck than the jazz bass, but, from what I've seen, jazz basses weigh a lot more than p basses.

[trailboss]

If you're doing alot of playing, whether practice, lotsa gigs, lessons, whatever, you may want to consider tapewound strings. Besides looking and sounding hella cool, they're also much easier on the fingers. I picked up a set to put on my Kramer fretless in 2001 (to keep from gouging out the neck) and will never switch back. Oh-almost forgot-they last nearly forever, too.

Here's another Commander Lowbuck tip... pick up a cheap keyboard and/or toy drum machine to practice against. Most of these things have a bazillion different rhythm patterns built in, and you can start slow (to build proper technique) and increase the tempo as you get smoother. If you can lock in with some of those goofy rhythm patterns, a real drummer is a snap.

[Old Cane]

"but I soon realized a bass is a totally different instrument and has a different purpose, in spite of the obvious similarities"

That should be a sticky on this site. The nail just said "ouch" and grabbed it's head.