Starter Bass.

Hey guys!
After a little friendly advice. Starting to play my bass alot recently between d-man and rocksmith I'm manging to put in at least 2 hours a day and I'm loving it! Only problem is my Bass is falling apart. It's a sub £100 battered hand me down bass so thought I'd better look for a new one. In the middle of scotland though so it's gonna be an online purchase. My budgets around the £500 mark. After reading all the reviews I keep coming back to the Ibanez SR300. Any suggestion of a good starter bass before I give Ibanez my money?

regards

PATCH

I could recommend the Squier Vintage Modified Jazz bass. It's a teriffic sounding bass, lots of cut and bite, the E has extrodinary punch... It's terrific for funk, great for jazz and very good for rock. I've bought one about a year ago and I'm loving it!
Enough words though, here's a vid!



The thing about it is that it's a far, far better bass than you would expect for the price. It's the best Squier on the market. Only one problem I've had with it is that the action is very high from the get go, so I lowered it to my preference. (on a side note, I also took it to a guitar guy who gave it that special tune up that adds a couple hundred dollars to the price if done during production - when I got it back it was heaven!)

My main bass is an Ibanez (though a cheaper model) and I can say only good things about it, because I managed to get a very cool sound out of it. However, the SR300 uses two humbuckers and this does come with a certain price. They are so boomy that the bass will end up sounding muffled. The Ibanez I use has two single-coils (just like the Squire). I prefer this because it gives it a sharper sound and allows it to cut through all those guitars and drums.
In the end the question is wether you want a boomy bass, or a sharp up-front tone.

I have an SR305, and if the SR300 is much the same, I'd definitely recommend it. I haven't really noticed an issue with the bass being muffled. I originally bought it for delicious reggae, but have ended up using it in a punk band

Cheers stryfer
Appreciate the advice, One of the things that pulled me away from the guitar was the "boom" through the chest at low end so will probably go with the Ibanez, will take your advice and look at the pickup setup of the other models too though. Choices choices choices!



I'm no where near gig standard, I just like to sit and play along to my ipod through my korg effects box. Helps me forget the boss and assorted boss like people at work

Ummm... I thought I said the Ibanez has the bigger boom... i.e. Squier has less boom...

Let me clarify what I mean with the boomy muffled sound.

The Squier bass has two single coil pickups. A single coil gives a much sharper, edgy town that can cut through the noise of the guitars and be distinct.
The Ibanez SR300 has two humbuckers. A humbucker gives a boomy bass tone. It's deeper in general, thus it blends in with all the noise.

I've had the opportunity to share a gig with another bassist (in another band) who used the SR300. When I went on stage with the Squier, all of my bass lines could be heard in all of their melodious glory next to a loud distorted guitar.
When the guy with the SR300 came on, his bass wasn't as distinct. It had all that powerful bass tone and sat well with the entire band, but it usually followed the guitars and mixed in so much that you couldn't actually hear it, unless you knew what you were listening for.

Bass is usually something that you feel rather than hear and this is what the humbuckers offer. There is a way to make it heard with that clicky sound, but that's not a full tone. The full tone is in the bass frequency and this gives it more power, but less distinctiveness. In reggae this would sit well, because the bass is a nice little background instrument. In metal or rock it also sits well because the bass usually follows the guitars to give them that extra low-end in sound.

However, the two-single coil set-up of the Squier offers it an opportunity to be a lead instrument. Because the bulk of it's tone is in a slightly higher frequency range than the double humbucker setup. It's all still bass, but there's a big difference between 50-80Hz and 80-120Hz.

The above are standardised examples, of course. There are plenty of exceptions to everything I said.

Yes, I'll agree with all that. That, combined with a liberal helping of distortion, almost turns my bass into a second lead guitar in the punk band. Blends in nicely.

A lot of fiddling with the on-board EQ can help a little with making the bass more distinct, but you'll never quite get what you can get with the two single-coils.

Erm just re-read my post and better clarify so you don't think i'm a complete idiot. I meant I like the boomy sound on the bass so Looking like an Ibanez. Serves me right for sneaking onto forums on nightshift when i should be working! Still I appreciate the feed back.

Cheers Guys!

Patch

Hey patchy, have you decided yet for your new bass?

Gonna be the ibanez in the new year, the mrs had summit to say about buying a bass just before the silly season. Bah Humbug!

Nice, good choice!

Hope you're gonna have fun with this excellent instrument!