# What are the most important things to know when buying a bass?



## Alexxx-Returns (Jan 8, 2015)

I am in the market for a bass guitar!

I feel that my progress with standard electric is going extremely well, and I want to learn to play bass guitar as well. However, the thing is that when it comes to buying, I have NO idea what to look out for.

I use my dad's guitar right now, it's a Squier strat that he got for about Â£65 second-hand in perfect condition, apparently the previous owner really needed to sell stuff and the guitar had to go. While I appreciate they aren't the best guitars, and probably are best for entry-level such as myself, I have no issues or concerns with its quality. But then again, I have no idea what makes a quality musical instrument (aside from price, but I know that's not the ultimate tell-tale of quality).

That's just some background on my current situation. Is there any advice that can be given to someone who's never bought a musical instrument for themself so far? I'm drowning in a sea of guitars that, right now, I can't distinguish from one another in a meaningful enough way to buy one over the other. Is eBay a good place to go for something like this, or should I strictly stick to local music stores and asking around with friends?

Any and all help on this matter is greatly appreciated ^.^


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## DanteTheWolx (Jan 9, 2015)

I've been playing the bass for a while now but I've used the same bass for the past 3 years so I can try to give you some pointers but I would take what I say with a grain of salt. Anyway what I did was test the bass out in store first, get a nice amp see how it sound and all that. Then go play it on a crap amp in case thats what you have haha. Anyway as for the bass itself check to see if the neck is bowed in anyway. My first bass I bought was bowed badly and I had bought it at a guitar center so always look for that, I know I didnt but I was lucky enough to be able to return it. Now I dont know what kind of music you play so I couldnt really recommend you a bass but I use a 5 string Ibanez Gio (it was maybe 500USD I think) and I've played tons of shows with it and I can play anything from Jazz to Hardcore Death Metal with this thing. I also have a rather nice amp so that might be the cause but the key thing to focus on IMO is does it fit your play style, do YOU like the way it feels and does it have the tone you want. Hope this helped


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## DanteTheWolx (Jan 9, 2015)

I'm sorry I forgot to mention, I wouldn't recommend buying a guitar online, I would always say go to a store and make sure you like it first. If you have a friend or family member who could go with you who knows a good amount about this kind of stuff that would probably be the smart way to go


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## Alexxx-Returns (Jan 9, 2015)

Thank you for the advice! I'm going to our local store today to have a look (last time that happened my dad came out with the guitar and amp =P).

I honestly don't know how good our amp is. I guess it's OK for piddling about at home but I don't imagine taking it to a gig to play on. I think it was particularly inexpensive, I think it took the total cost including the aforementioned guitar to Â£100-120, but this was years ago so I can't remember.

I would be perfectly happy with a 4-string, I'm still a beginner at regular guitar and have never touched bass before, so I wouldn't want to start out complex. I play mostly stuff under a "rock" umbrella, I lean towards punk as a preference but will never stick to this exclusively (I like too much variety of things for that).

I'm looking forward to learning all the new techniques that bass requires though ^.^


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## Half-Note (Jan 9, 2015)

You shouldn't use a bass guitar for a guitar amp, because while it will work, the sound will be awful when compared to using a bass amp. As for things you need to know. The materials used, like strings, neckwood and main body setup are really important to consider, since that's what decides how decent the instrument will be. You should be able to fetch a nice bass for beginners around a decent middle-class price (If you assume 1£=10NOK, I'd say around 400£ for the bass alone, and maybe around 200£ for the amp. Of course this may vary from Norway to the UK depending on your economy).


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## DanteTheWolx (Jan 9, 2015)

Going to what Dog-likeDenis said, I would not use a guitar amp for a bass, it will sound like absolute crap ._. but yeah I love 4 string bass guitars and I owned a few, I just enjoy the 5th string for either jazz or some heavier stuff. Also something to consider, if you like a rougher tone, maybe look into active pickups, mine have em and I love the tone. Just keep in mind you gotta change the battery for the pick ups ever so often.


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## Flux3r (Jan 18, 2015)

when i started playing (almost a decade ago, man that makes me sound old!) i bought a p-bass at a pawn shop for around 100US, if you just starting off i wouldn't spend too much in the event you cant wrap your head around the purpose of the bass (like i cant wrap my head around 6 strings). i stand behind buying a good amp though, even just a practice amp. use a bass with a guitar amp and you get bad sound, and eventually premature burnout. your tone can be manipulated to an extent with your EQ controls (personally i use a mid heavy setup, adding some treble will make it punchier.) just make sure you set up your action the way you want it so it doesn't rattle every other note, any guitar shop should be able to set it up correctly, even if secondhand.


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## Alexxx-Returns (Jan 18, 2015)

Flux3r said:


> when i started playing (almost a decade ago, man that makes me sound old!) i bought a p-bass at a pawn shop for around 100US, if you just starting off i wouldn't spend too much in the event you cant wrap your head around the purpose of the bass (like i cant wrap my head around 6 strings). i stand behind buying a good amp though, even just a practice amp. use a bass with a guitar amp and you get bad sound, and eventually premature burnout. your tone can be manipulated to an extent with your EQ controls (personally i use a mid heavy setup, adding some treble will make it punchier.) just make sure you set up your action the way you want it so it doesn't rattle every other note, any guitar shop should be able to set it up correctly, even if secondhand.



Thanks so much!

Yeah, my friend was telling me not to spend less than, say Â£300, but if I do get along with it, there's room to sell a cheaper one on again and upgrade to something better. Definitely going to get an appropriate amp, I had a feeling that in store they would suggest this and suggest a good entry-level amp like last time.

I did go out the other week for one, but the music store is long gone =( so I need to find somewhere else that sells second-hand around here.


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