garrott

Hello,

I am now attempting some home recording. Not very serious, just for fun. I am doing this by directly plugging my gear into the PC and using Audacity. What I miss is the effect of having a bass. So I have a few questions

1. If I decide to get a bass/amp combination, which should I get at the lowest budget? I am not planning to be a bass player, so I would like to spend as little as possible.

2. Is it reasonable to expect using my guitar skills to play the basic bass parts of easy songs? Or in other words, how big is the learning curve for an intermediate guitar player to play easy bass parts.

3. Any easy learning resources for bass?

4. Should I just avoid this altogether and play the low end with guitar bass strings

thanks in anticipation. I understand this is probably not the best forum to ask, but I am comfortable with the community here and you will have better perspective about playing bass from a guitarist's point of view.

Minotaur

I picked up guitar two years ago. I started learning bass this past Christmas, and even I can make up and play simple bass lines. If you stick with playing the root note of the chord as the bass line, you just can't go wrong. Lots of bass players do that and lots of music is actually written like that. If you want to get adventurous you can play any combination of R 3 5 (or b3 for a minor chord, of course). Rhythm is not a problem because you can just keep a steady beat, or even follow the main beat. Studybass.com is an excellent resource for bass learning, serious or casual. The bass strings of the guitar aren't going to give you a true low end.

__________________
Η ΤΑΝ Η ΕΠΙ ΤΑΣ - "Come back with your shield or on it". Ancient Spartan saying before going into battle.

Schmange

The problem with cheap bass guitars is they're hard as hell to play. I used to own a Yamaha worth about $900 but sold it. It was really easy to play and sounded great. Now I use a really cheap Giananni worth about $75 and can barely make it through a song 3 times before my fingers give out.

As far as amps go, you might be able to get away with just going direct. A lot of bass players skip using an amp in the studio. I usually go direct but add compression to beef it up and even out the volume differences between the strings.

__________________
Peace & Grooviness!
Schmange

Minotaur

Rondo Music Bass Guitars sells exclusively SX bass guitars and amps. Most of their full scale basses are around $119, and they are not garbage. Ask anyone at the TalkBass site. I have the BG2K and really like it. Axe and amp can be had for under $200. Not pushing them, but as a first bass, not knowing how I'd take to it, it was a good choice (like a fish to water ).

__________________
Η ΤΑΝ Η ΕΠΙ ΤΑΣ - "Come back with your shield or on it". Ancient Spartan saying before going into battle.