starting on the bass

sound_wave

hey all!
ive been playing guitar now for the past 4 years and have gotten tired of it. so for a change im gonna take up the bass.

my bro has given me his ibanez sound gear 4 string bass and his amp. Nice bass but imust set it up when i go home to my preferences. it has a jazz pup at the bridge and a p-bass style pup at the neck. only thing is that the volume pots you can pull them up, although this doesnt seem to have any effect on the sound, im not really up on bass amps though. it has level, master, for EQ: bass treble, middle and presence , it also has a compressor built in.

so does anyone got any pointers where to start with amp settings or what the pull pots do? song recommendations etc?

thanks
Pat

Doctor J

Learn the songs you love.

As for sounds, there isn't a right setting or a wrong setting. Generally mosts bassists go for a mid-scoop sound - ie more bass and treble than mid-frequencies, but your ears will tell you what's right or wrong.

As for your push-pull pots, at a guess, it might be on/off ofr an active system. Does it take a battery?

ferdi

i've been using loads of middle recently, do you know and bands whos bassist do it?

i have to say i like it.

jasperok

the push pulls could be coil taps, i fitted these to my bass wen i rebuilt it a couple ofyeras ago- see it has two humbeckers which are a pretty full on heavy sounding to the extent that i feel i loose a bit of tone so what i did was put coil taps in which in an oversimplyfied manner of speaking cuts the pickup in half and gives a lovely smooth more jazz ick up type tone- if i want more punch i just make sure the bridge pickup is pushed down but more often than not i run both of the liftedfor a more refined less bulldog sound.

sound_wave

thanks for the replies lads!

just opened the back panel and it doesnt seem to take a battery, ill try and get a pic of it tonight and post it!

the songs i like, excellent! im getting very into jimi hendrix these past few days & have just learned purple haze! class stuff!

should i use a pick or will learning finger style be any advantage?

what does presence do?

thanks for the help lads

ferdi

i use both fingers and plecs

it dependson the sound your after.

sound_wave

say for the blues? fingers?

Eoin Madsen

I'd recommend you start with fingers. "Presence" is a rather loose term - it's generally an eq pot affecting a frequency range between 4,000 and 6,000 hz. So it's "high mid" really.

In my opinion middle (esp low mids) is where most of the characteristic comes from, the scooped sound is pretty non-descript.

sound_wave

high mid, i see. right all i need now is get home, buy some new strings, download some tab and we are away for slates!

thanks for all the help lads much appreciated

Doctor J

Learn with your fingers and a plec. As you're only starting off, invest some time trying to play with your 1st, 2nd and ring fingers on your right hand, it'll really help you in the long run. Get downstrokes with a plec mastered too. Learn whatever you can, the more you know and can do, the better. You'll be able to change to different styles easier.

A good excercise is to play chromatic scales, ie 1st fret, 2nd fret, 3rd fret, 4th fret, using your left 1st, 2nd, ring and little finger (1 finger per fret) and with the right hand go 1st, 2nd, ring, 1st, 2nd, ring... sounds poxy, is very hard but will realy really help you as you improve.