Any bass guitarists here?

danlightbulb

danlightbulb

danlightbulb

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I'm thinking of trying to learn bass guitar.

It's been on my mind my for a couple of years now, since I bought a normal guitar and didn't really get on with it. I didn't get 'the sound' I was thinking it would create, which I think is as much to do with the amp as it is the guitar. Anyway I sold it.

Bass is appealing because I like the funkyness of it.

To avoid early disappointment, how do I get 'the sound' I'm looking for which is basically the youtuber davie504 slap style?

Thanks.
 
Bass is different to guitar. You play single note lines, but usually not the melody.

Get a cheapy 4 string. Play without an amp to start with.

For left (fretting) hand, aim for decent hand positioning, thumb centred on back of neck as much as possible. This will help a lot in the long-term.

Fingers are better than pick for most stuff, and you need to use fingers for slap, anyway.

Practice with a metronome, as bass is a rhythm instrument.

You'll be sliding about the neck a lot, so practice accuracy on that. Half tone slides are fundamental to groove.

Thumb (slap) technique requires practice, so get used to the bounce off the string when you strike it with your thumb. You want to control this energy and use it. Do NOT hammer with your thumb as hard as you can- minimum effort is best.

Slap and pop is what you probably want to be doing. In its simplest form, you thumb strike (e.g. 5th fret E string), and on the return pull out (e.g. 7th fret D string) with finger (I'd generally use right ring finger). Start with that octave exercise at the fifth fret, then go from there.

Left hand muting is very important, practice this. Thumb slap combined with left hand mute sounds fast and impressive.

Double thumbing is fairly advanced, so leave this until your basic technique is sound.

Two-handed tapping is a waste of your time, so just don't.

Standing In The Shadows Of Motown is the best bass book you can get. It goes from simple to very complex and will help you understand what a bass is for and you'll learn more from that book about solid groove than anywhere else. I think it only has standard notation, and no tab- so check that.

A few bass players (I rate) to check out:
James Jamerson- Motown house bassist in the 60s and early 70s, pretty much God
Victor Wooten- outstanding technical guy and slapper, with solid groove
Trevor Dunn- Mr Bungle bassist. Very good technical guy and slapper, solid groove
Geezer Butler- Black Sabbath. Excellent groove player.
Rocco Prestia- Tower of Power bassist. Maybe the best groove bass player, in my opinion. Very unusual fretting hand technique.
Coiln Moulding- XTC bassist. A proper, musical, imaginative bassist.

Good luck!
 
danlightbulb said:
Bass is appealing because I like the funkyness of it.
To avoid early disappointment, how do I get 'the sound' I'm looking for which is basically the youtuber davie504 slap style?
Click to expand...

Get a straight 4 string. You may find you want to try between round strings and flat strings for sound. The amp and cab will make quite a difference too, as will the pickups but those can be sorted later - it may be better to go with a (PC) modelling amp and headphones initially.

However.. as @potatolord said - every instrument is really the result of the player's understanding of music theory and practice to train the muscle memory.

You have to add Larry Graham to that funk list.

Funk is not knowing when to play, it's knowing when NOT to play.. I love my funk (but I play metal guitar and metal/funky drums).
 
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danlightbulb said:
I had a modelling amp with the normal guitar, and I wasn't impressed with it, so I need something different to this that gives me the right sound.
Click to expand...

and what is your budget?
Most bass players around here who include slap bass in their set, including mine, have spent quite a bit of money to achieve all the sounds they need.
The local bass player with the most accurate slap bass sound uses an Ampeg with a 8x10" cab.
He also puts tape on his thumb but he is superb.
 
I bought a Yamaha TRBX174 about 5 years ago...that was after buying a Gear4Music 'own brand' LA Special or something which was horrible. Those are pretty much the only 2 bass guitar's I've played but the Yamaha feels really nice to play...
Can't remember all the reasons now but I def did plenty research after buying the ****** Gear4Music bass and ended up buying the Yamaha

Googled 'Yamaha TRBS174 slap' and got this...some of it is just the bass straight in the PC with no amp/cab/effects etc!...maybe a bit dry/harsh compared to Davie504's typical sound but the point is the gear's just a little part of it

having said all that I prob never researched how good the Yamaha was for slap tbh!

 
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builder22 said:
I bought a Yamaha TRBX174 about 5 years ago...that was after buying a Gear4Music 'own brand' LA Special or something which was horrible. Those are pretty much the only 2 bass guitar's I've played but the Yamaha feels really nice to play...
Can't remember all the reasons now but I def did plenty research after buying the ****** Gear4Music bass and ended up buying the Yamaha

Googled 'Yamaha TRBS174 slap' and got this...some of it is just the bass straight in the PC with no amp/cab/effects etc!...maybe a bit dry/harsh compared to Davie504's typical sound but the point is the gear's just a little part of it

having said all that I prob never researched how good the Yamaha was for slap tbh!

Click to expand...

Hmm thanks, I don't know how direct input works, but it could save me a fair bit of money if I only have to buy the guitar itself and can just plug it into my pc and use the small but decent studio monitors I already have?

I also have a digital piano that has a line input. Could I connect the bass to that, but would it sound more twangy (that's what happened with the 6 string when I tried it)?
 
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I know I said 'the bass straight in to the pc' before but 'direct input' in that video isn't STRAIGHT to the PC, but via an interface that boosts the signal, but no effects or tweaking EQ etc

plugging a guitar straight in to your piano line in will sound really dry but not a million miles away from the 'direct input' sound on that video...he's playing good/fast enough so you can't really hear how 'bad' the tone is compared to a processed sound



 
I realised I missed out "ghost notes" from my post above. You mute the string with your left hand while it is picked, which gives a sort of clunk noise. If you're finger picking, palm muting is a bit more difficult, so you need to left hand mute.

Ghost notes are important, as they help with rhythm without getting in the way of the guitar.

And when I talked about left hand muting in my earlier post, that can also mean to slap/flap the left hand onto the neck, creating a percussive sound. Guitarists don't really do this, so here's an example:
 
Thanks for the replies. I'm not very knowledgeable on guitar sounds. The disappointment I had with the 6 string was primarily that it didn't sound like an electric guitar to me. I don't know how to properly describe what was missing. The amp I had allowed distortion but it just sounded rubbish.

If I buy an electric bass I want it to sound like I hear on the bass videos online. I know that a good part of it is skill of course but the fundamental sound needs to be there.

The options I have right now without an amp are:

1. Line in on my kawai digital piano which has fairly powerful amplification, I think 50W with 2x13cm (5") speakers and 2x tweeters.

2. Line in or mic in on my computer, which is then connected to Presonus Eris E3.5 active monitors.

3. Direct in to the above studio monitors, they have line in on the back, aux in on the front, and also 'balanced trs' on the back - I don't know what this is.


So will any of these options be able to generate the proper bass sound as seen for example in this short review of a Harley Benton model?

youtu.be

THIS HARLEY BENTON FINALLY BROKE ME !!

Harley Benton MV 4JB Gotoh BM* ---► https://bit.ly/3fBCHNUbass in Daphne Blue* ---► https://bit.ly/3DyymDbin Shell Pink* ---► https://bit.ly/3h7hYSuin Black*...
youtu.be youtu.be
 
all 3 of those are gonna be pretty bad, at the least to connect to the PC you need an interface that has an instrument level input...line in on the piano is stereo, guitar lead is mono so sound will only come out the left speaker, same for your speakers probably...all those methods are just
I'm not even sure what sound you mean btw :p I'm guessing yu mean some effects etc, all 3 above will just sound like how it sounds unplugged pretty much, probably worse!

prob best to go to a music shop and get one of the staff to play a bass for you through different amps etc...
 
Hey just reinvigorating this.

Still confused. I've tried to research audio interfaces, not too expensive can get an entry level one for £30-40.

But I'm confused still on its purpose. Are they amps? Or some kind of sound/signal converter?

I already have some decent amplification available, either via my digital piano, or via a Denon home stereo unit (which has analog in and digital inputs), or the studio monitors attached to my pc. So I don't really want to buy a separate bass amp/speaker combo. Do I have to, or can I get a good bass sound to come out of one of those existing options?
 
danlightbulb said:
Still confused. I've tried to research audio interfaces, not too expensive can get an entry level one for £30-40.

But I'm confused still on its purpose. Are they amps? Or some kind of sound/signal converter?
Click to expand...

Tomorrow my bass player will be coming up to go over some new songs and through my Soundblaster we will put his bass and my guitar & keyboards through a pair of 5" speakers connected to my PC.
The guitar & keyboard won't sound too bad but the bass will be good enough to rehearse with.
So my 'interface' is just a soundcard but you get can get other interfaces that contain amps/speakers/effects similar to this (i did have one of these) - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394624728198?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338749374&toolid=20006&customid=GB_619_v1|394624728198|0.148098415163~1869300081786-g_Cj0KCQjwho-lBhC_ARIsAMpgMoeSZpIKo1Q5Y54RzBgolKfnfyvhVr8q3vPS4-pnhpEqMZcEnFi8khMaAtB0EALw_wcB&gclid=Cj0KCQjwho-lBhC_ARIsAMpgMoeSZpIKo1Q5Y54RzBgolKfnfyvhVr8q3vPS4-pnhpEqMZcEnFi8khMaAtB0EALw_wcB

Plug it into the PC, install the software and you'll be able to plug your bass into it and choose different sounds.

if you can get your bass to play through your soundcard/device you could buy an effects pedal to alter the bass sound, this is what my bass player will do tomorrow.

danlightbulb said:
Do I have to, or can I get a good bass sound to come out of one of those existing options?
Click to expand...

Depends what you want, I've been doing this for 53 years and bass players will swear by big amps and big speakers but in recent years some are now going on stage with much smaller amps and speakers eg Mark Bass or similar but they will be way out of your price bracket.
My bass player uses a Peavey amp and 12" speaker but it's fed through a 3000 watt PA system.
 
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The reason I'm confused though is that I don't need to generate big volume. I'm only playing at home. I thought an amp and big speaker cabinet was to generate big volume eg for a stage.

If I play a YouTube video of someone playing bass out of my TV, it sounds good. That doesn't have a 12" speaker or massive tube amps powering it.

I don't want to have to plug it into my computer and modify the sounds, that is effects and I just want to learn to play the bass without all that extra stuff for now. Plus my pc is upstairs and I want to practice downstairs in my living room. That is where my digital piano and home stereo are, both have in built amps and line in capability.
 
danlightbulb said:
The reason I'm confused though is that I don't need to generate big volume. I'm only playing at home. I thought an amp and big speaker cabinet was to generate big volume eg for a stage.

If I play a YouTube video of someone playing bass out of my TV, it sounds good. That doesn't have a 12" speaker or massive tube amps powering it.

I don't want to have to plug it into my computer and modify the sounds, that is effects and I just want to learn to play the bass without all that extra stuff for now. Plus my pc is upstairs and I want to practice downstairs in my living room. That is where my digital piano and home stereo are, both have in built amps and line in capability.
Click to expand...

Well yes you are correct, I know plenty of bass players who record using something like a Line 6 HX Stomp so as I said above you could buy some type of cheap multi effects pedal and plug it into any source with an amp & speakers.
Funnily enough one of the keyboards I use on stage, a Roland Juno Gi, comes with an effects processor built in that I can plug guitars and vocals into.
All you can do is try a direct in with your keyboard first and if that's rubbish go into your stereo system.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
All you can do is try a direct in with your keyboard first and if that's rubbish go into your stereo system.
Click to expand...

I'd prefer to buy what I need upfront really. Or, if I need too much expensive stuff to make it sound right, then I might not even start.

When I had a guitar I did plug it into the piano, and it worked, but it didn't sound right. I don't know why and I can't explain it very well, but it didn't sound like an electric guitar should sound. I could play the notes of course, but it sounded more like an acoustic guitar, more twangy.

youtu.be

Funk Bass Thumb & Fingerstyle Grooves - Trill Seekers

Having a good time on my '75 jazz, playing my song "Trill Seekers" with lotsa groovy trills, slides & staccato thumb/finger plucking to juice things up, it's...
youtu.be youtu.be

This is what I want it to sound like. Obviously I won't be able to play like this for years if ever, but if this guy came to my house and I was providing the equipment for him, what would I have to provide to get it to sound like this?
 
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